WCIC commemorates International Women’s Day with WCIC – Women Leadership Forum

WCIC Chairperson Anoji De Silva

Tusitha Kumarakulasingam

Marini De Livera

The Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce on 15 March conducted one of its annual flagship properties – The Women Leadership Forum, a full day program which kept the audience enthralled and inspired. In line with the IWD theme of the year “Embrace Equity” the Forum was aptly themed “Empowered Women, Empower Sri Lanka.”

“We have tried to create a program capturing very relevant topics in an interesting and meaningful manner. It is our mission to create this forum annually sharing relevant knowledge effectively. The WCIC is very committed to ensure that women are engaged, empowered and enriched, enabling them to make a greater contribution to the society, and every action we take will endorse the same,” said WCIC Chairperson Anoji De Silva.

Elaborating on the concept and the format, Project Co-Chairpersons Tusitha Kumarakulasingam and Nilani Seneviratne said: “We have structured this event connecting the IWD theme, yet choosing a topic that resonates well with all of us specially at a time like this. We as women should collectively harness all our strengths to deliver a greater impact to the economy. The program was thus structured into two segments – session 1 included the keynote speech followed by a panel discussion. The session 2 was to showcase real life success stories of women entrepreneurs.

The keynote speech was delivered by Marini De Livera – an eminent lawyer and the Founder of “Sisters-at-Law”, she is also an awarded activist propagating the rights of the women, committed to provide support to women when all hopes are lost. She emphasised in her spell binding session, on the many challenges women have to face when venturing into setting up any enterprise, sharing her personal struggles and experiences as well. “We have to be strong and focused until we get to our goal post, it is easy to get discouraged with all the obstacles you may face, but sheer perseverance will help you to win. Also as women organisations and facilitators we have taken it upon us to support other women, which is not a common phenomenon among women. Men on the other hand have stronger networks and support systems that make their journey much smoother. Creating a powerful network is mandatory for all the women” She added.

The panel discussion was moderated by Project Board Member/Co-Chair Nilani Senevirathne. The panel discussed from several angles, the limitations faced by women and what could be done to support them. An eminent panel which once again kept the audience fully engaged consisted of Attorney-at-Law Chathuri Ranasinghe - legal perspective, Rotary International District 3220, SL & Maldives District Governor 22/23 Pubudu De Zoysa - leadership development perspective, 99X Founder/CEO, Angel Fund SL Founder Mano Sekaram - entrepreneur development perspective, AIA Insurance SL CEO Chathuri Munaweera - insurance and finance perspective, Mckinsey & Company Partner Vidhya Ganeshan - corporate perspective. The two hour discussion was commented as an eye opener and extremely insightful with every panellist sharing interesting perspectives in line with the topic. Nilani was able to keep the discussion well focused and well managed ensuring the audience got great value from the program.

The second session consisted of stories of success from several entrepreneurs. It commenced with the WCIC Member who was recently listed on Forbes – 50 over 50, Sandra Wanduragala of Selyn, who was recognised at the event by WCIC on her achievement.

Following her, nine other award winners of the WCIC - Prathibhabhisheka 2022 shared their compelling and diverse stories to a captive audience.

The audience appreciated the perfect execution of the event, content and the delivery with the majority committing to be engaged with the WCIC continuously.

The event was powered by Mckinsey & Company as the collaborative partner, AIA Insurance Sri Lanka and EVA – ICL brands as strategic partners, along with Robbialac as other partners and Daily FT as the print media partner.”