Amcham achieves gender parity

The American Chamber of Commerce of Trinidad and Tobago (Amcham) appointed two women to its board of directors, achieving gender parity.

A release on Wednesday said the new board members are Andrea Davis, Country Manager of DHL Express and Angélique Parisot-Potter, Executive Vice President of Business Integrity & Group General Counsel at Massy Group of Companies.

The board now comprises eight men and eight women.

The release said Amcham is an advocate for gender parity and promoting women’s leadership in business. The organisation hosts an annual Women’s Leadership Conference and the Women in Leadership Mentorship Programme, which provides career advice and mentorship to female professionals across various industries in the private sector.

In addition, Amcham will soon launch a series of gender-based violence sensitisation workshops in collaboration with the UWI Institute for Gender and Development Studies.

President of Amcham Patricia Ghany said, “It was only one year ago at our Women’s Leadership Conference when I asked our members to commit to adding at least one woman to their Boards every year so that parity could be their goal. Now that Amcham has reached parity on our board, I would like to restate that call-to-action to our members so that they make gender parity a part of their business objectives while they lead their companies through this pandemic.”

Amcham CEO Nirad Tewarie lauded the organisation’s gender parity achievement, saying, “Achieving gender parity on a board level is a tremendous success for Amcham and signals the real commitment and steadfast leadership on this issue by our President, Patricia Ghany and the members of the current board.”

He said the achievement gave Amcham more incentive to continue their advocacy on promoting the rights and protection of both women and men in the workplace and the wider society.