SLID partners with IFC to present Women in the Boardroom: “Are men ready for it?”
The Sri Lanka Institute of Directors (SLID) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC),on 26 January 2017 as part of the SLID Power Evening series had a lively and interactive discussion onwhy there were less women in the corporate sector in Sri Lanka when women achieved leadership roles in professions, academia and the judiciary.
SLID Chairperson, Ms. ShiromalCooray welcomed those present while IFC Country Officer, Mr. Victor Navaranjan Antonypillai, delivered the opening remarks. Mr. Amit Tandon, Managing Director of Institutional Investor Advisory Services, India, the key note presenter for the evening, shared data and information on women on boards from a global perspective. He posed the question as to whether we were misreading the data. Are we guilty of stereotyping women? He concluded by sharing actions that can be taken to improve the participation of women in the boardroom such as mandatory provisions and mentoring programmes that have been successful in India.
The panel discussion whichfollowed wasmoderated by Mr. FaizalSaleih (Independent Non-Executive Director of Cargills Bank, and HNB General Insurance and Council Member of SLID). He switched from the panelists to the participants and vice versa making the session interesting andinteractive.
The panelists were Dr. SulochanaSegera(Chairperson Women in Management), W K H Wegapitiya (Chairperson LAUGFS Holdings), and Amit Tandon.
The participants posed questions and shared their ideas and views. The three key recommendations that came out of the program are as follows:
- Companies should provide paternity leave,
- In accordance with best practice, each company should have a minimum of one female director and
- Corporates should support SLIDs mentorship programme to encourage more women to take up board positions, broaden their career opportunities and provide a pipeline to companiesof Board-ready women.
The closing remarks were delivered by SLID CEO Ms. Chamindā de Silva who thanked SLIDs annual corporate partners Dialog Enterprise, DIMO Technology, Ms. Linea Aqua, Janashakthi Insurance and BoardPac, annual print media partner Wijeya Newspapers, annual magazine partner Echelon and the participants for attending the event. The evening concluded with refreshment being served and the opportunity to network.
