WCIC appoints Anoji De Silva as Chairperson

The Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce (WCIC) conducted its 36th Annual General Meeting (AGM) virtually on September 25, 2021, where Anoji De Silva took over the reins of the WCIC.

Sixty-six participants attended the virtual AGM. De Silva was a Board Member of the WCIC from 2019-2021 and was also the Capacity Building Leader of the WCIC. She is a Chartered Accountant by profession, with over 30 years of experience and is a Partner at EY Sri Lanka and a Council Member of CA Sri Lanka.

Addressing the audience of founder members, past chair and members, in her maiden speech De Silva stated, “The WCIC will continue to reinforce our vision to be the ‘think tank’ ‘voice’ and ‘platform’ empowering women to be powerful nation builders, by participating in transforming the economic growth of the nation. She stated that we will focus on following areas through our strategic pillars during 2021/22: active participation of the WCIC in policy advocacy to ensure the voice of women entrepreneurs and business women is considered in policy development, assist women to aspire to take on leadership roles, including contribution to the country target of 30 percent women on boards, increase the WCIC participation in assisting women entrepreneurs and skill development of women in business and assist to create dignity of labour for women engaged in low-skilled employment such as domestic aids and care givers.”

De Silva further stated that the WCIC would also focus on monitoring its contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Sub Goals, which would contribute to the economic development of women in business. She also announced that the WCIC would hold its two flagship events, the Women Entrepreneur Awards and Women Leadership Forum during the year 2021/22 and also unveiled some of the activities planned under each strategic pillar.

De Silva concluded her inaugural speech by asking the members to live by the WCIC tagline, Empower, Engage, Enrich by “empowering yourself, empowering and engaging other women and empowering, engaging and enriching the economy”.

Presenting her review of the year 2020/2021, outgoing Chairperson Indrani Fernando shared the many activities conducted by the chamber despite the restrictions that prevailed due to the pandemic and thanked the outgoing board for their contribution.

The WCIC also appointed 14 women business leaders with a diverse range of experience as board members to drive the strategy for 2020/21. The board consists of Ramani Ponnambalam, Director – Mclarens Holdings and GAC Shipping Ltd, Managing Director – Macbertan (Pvt.) Ltd, a subsidiary of Mclarens Holdings Ltd, Independent Nonexecutive Director and Audit Committee Member – Kingsbury PLC and Hayleys Leisure PLC, Director – Mclarens Holdings and GAC Shipping Ltd, Director – Macbertan Holdings Ltd and Pidilite Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd (a BOI manufacturing company).