Thursday 14th April 2016 – Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands: In support of the initiatives which encourage women to take an active role in global economic development, Digicel hosted a ‘Women in Leadership’ Forum at The Palms Resort in order to encourage young women to aspire to be leaders and to encourage those already involved to continue to be game changers in their respective areas.
The forum was held under the theme ‘Developing and Empowering our female talent in the Caribbean’ and saw over 100 young women having the opportunity to listen to a distinguished panel of speakers share their stories of the challenges they faced on their way to being successful in life and how they overcame those challenges. The speakers included, the Honourable Akierra Missick, Deputy Premier, Minister of Education, the Honourable Josephine Connolly, Deputy Speaker, House of Assembly, Rhondalee Braithwaite-Knowles, Attorney General; Jennifer Carnegie, Digicel Group Chief People Officer, Sonia Bien-Aime, President, TCIFA; and Mona Beeson, General Manager, The Sands Hotel.
The “Women in Leadership Learning” power series (WILL) is a leadership development programme that was launched in December 2015 to support and empower women as leaders in Digicel. This initiative focuses on developing women leaders through intense leadership development workshops, executive coaching and a mentoring programme that matches them with other more senior leaders within the business.
Packed into four dynamic days of lectures, simulations, techniques and tactics, the WILL Power Series is designed to build and strengthen leadership and confidence skills, helping with career navigation planning as well as exposing participants to role models for success. The programme also includes executive coaching and a mentoring that see participants being matched with leaders within the business.
Also in attendance was a large group young women from various high schools, who were excited to listen to the speakers, pose questions to the panel and hear from female Digicel staff members who shared their professional journey into leadership. The students came from Champions for Christ, Clement Howell High School and Maranatha Academy.
Digicel Turks and Caicos CEO, Sinead O’Marcaigh, said; “It is truly a pleasure and indeed a deep honour to be able to bring such a timely forum to the Turks and Caicos Islands. I know many of the challenges that women in leadership roles face, and through this this forum, we hope to help prepare the young women to be able to overcome these challenges – both in their personal and professional journey. The women who spoke at our forum are all dynamic and outstanding leaders within their own right, and the wisdom they imparted was invaluable. Digicel is making a concerted global effort to increase the number of women in leadership roles through our ‘Women in Leadership Learning’ power series.”