Business
Tags:
Print Edition
Nanda Fernando Managing Director, Sampath Bank PLC together with Aroshi Nanayakkara Senior Vice Chairperson, The Sri Lanka Institute of Directors, exchange the agreement. Tharaka Ranwala Senior Deputy General Manager and Group Marketing, Deposit Mobilization and Digitalization, Sampath Bank PLC and Radika Obeysekera Chief Executive Officer, The Sri Lanka Institute of Directors.
Sampath Bank has been named one of the Annual Corporate Partners sponsoring the ‘Women on Boards’ Training Programme launched by the Women Directors Forum (WDF) of the Sri Lanka Institute of Directors (SLID). The initiative, announced to coincide with this year’s International Women’s Day, will include the compilation of an e-Directory of Board and Board-Ready Women.
It is a key element of the WDF’s ambitious goal of creating a female leadership pipeline.
The ‘Women on Boards’ Training Programme is in the process of identifying and assembling a deep talent pool of Sri Lankan working women with professional backgrounds, management experience, people skills and leadership potential. These are prime candidates for board membership, managers who are ready for bigger things.
The plan is to groom these talented individuals and fast-track them for placement on the boards of public and private corporate entities. Formed in 2019, Women’s Diversity Forum spearheaded SLID’s agenda to foster diversity on boards. Among other accomplishments, this resulted in progressive gender quotas being included in the budget presented by the Minister of Finance in March 2019. It mandated a minimum of 20% female membership on boards by the end 2024, and encouraged a voluntary target of 30 percent. The WDF also partnered with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on its first Women on Boards and Leadership Training Programme.
“Women are somewhat an under represented gender on corporate boards, so we at Sampath Bank are glad to be part of this movement to radically change the status quo,” said Nanda Fernando-Managing Director, Sampath Bank PLC. “Case studies done at Harvard Business School and other prestigious management training institutions have proved over and over again that women leaders bring diverse and different thinking to the board table. Women are seen to be more collaborative and are great team players. Women tend to be non-confrontational and are thus very effective at conflict-resolution and problem-solving.”
“The WDF’s plan to redress the imbalance at the board table is both timely and noteworthy. There’s a vast pool of underutilized talent that’s going to waste–qualified, motivated women who are no strangers to hard work. Tapping into this rich resource is long overdue, and should have significant benefits for corporate bottom lines, he added.
Tuesday, August 23, 2022 – 01:00
