Women In Management Awards in Maldives

The second edition of the Women In Management Awards staged at the Jen-Shangri La Hotel with the Chief Guest being Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Maldives Major General (Retd) B.R.W.M.R.A.B. Thoradeniya saw the Universal Group associated with Maldives Tourism and the Bank of Maldives carrying the pivotal awards for 2018. 

The keynote speaker Dr. Rohantha Athukorala commended Women In Management(WIM), for successfully launching the service brand into the second global market – Maldives, post the initial launch into Canada. Now the challenge is how the winners in Maldives nurture the next generation of women leaders so that future WIM awards can be staged successfully in Maldives, he said. 

The event was graced by Indian High Commissioner in Maldives Shri Akhilesh Mishra, Minister of Youth and Sports in Maldives Iruthisham Adam, Minister of Defence Adam Shareef, Minister of Health Abdulla Nazim Ibrahim and Minister of Gender and Family Aminath Zenysha Shaheedh Zaki amidst a distinguished gathering of corporate Maldives. Sri Lankan corporate personality and top professional Kasturi Chellarajah addressed the audience on the judging process. 

Dr. Athukorala being the former chairman of Sri Lanka Tourist Board and Sri Lanka Tourism whilst also having the experience of handling Maldives for the United Nations (UNOPS) and Diersey Lever went on to capture how the skilled professionals of Maldives in the public and private sector has built one of the most powerful tourism brands in the world where Maldives has become a top of the mind brand for personalities like Sir Richard Branson, Novak Djokovic, Donald Trump, Ed Sheeran, and Amithab Bachman just to name a few. “This is because your country has practiced the basic fundamentals of brand building – Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning which is today a case study to the world,” he commented. 

“The beauty about your country is the continuity of the tourism strategy even though successive governments have come to being,” voiced Dr. Athukorala stating how 4 master plans have been launched in the Maldives for the last 40 years which means that a plan is given a 10 year window to become a reality which tells the world your country’s commitment to put country before self,” said Athukorala. 

The Sri Lankan Ambassador and the key ministers of the Maldivian government witnessed the top 10 trail blazing women in the Maldives being awarded accolades which underline the objective of greeting more women to be part of the workforce of Maldives and for greater gender balance at the corporate board room. 

Women in Management headquarters Chairperson Dr. Sulochana Segera stated, “We have now successfully exported the product to Canada and Maldives and now we want to penetrate the UK and Australian markets. However, with networking the trade between the countries must increase. If not all these efforts do not bring in any quantifying results.”