Fay­ola KJ Fras­er

When Lisa Agard as­sumed the role of pres­i­dent of the In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Fo­rum of Trinidad and To­ba­go (IWFTT) on Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 5, 2025, she brought with her a ca­reer de­fined by trail­blaz­ing lead­er­ship, re­silience, and vi­sion. With over 27 years of ex­pe­ri­ence across telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions, me­dia, and law, Agard em­bod­ies the very spir­it of the or­gan­i­sa­tion she now leads–one com­mit­ted to ad­vanc­ing ex­em­plary lead­er­ship and cham­pi­oning equal­i­ty for women in T&T and be­yond.

Agard shared her vi­sion for IWFTT, em­pha­sis­ing how she plans to build on the strong foun­da­tion laid by her pre­de­ces­sors and how her ex­pe­ri­ences and strengths will sup­port the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s con­tin­ued growth.

“I feel so proud to lead this or­gan­i­sa­tion as we live through the pur­pose set out in the by-laws of IWF Glob­al,” she said, high­light­ing her com­mit­ment to cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for women to thrive at every lev­el of lead­er­ship.

The In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Fo­rum of Trinidad and To­ba­go is part of a glob­al net­work of for­mi­da­ble women lead­ers ded­i­cat­ed to el­e­vat­ing the next gen­er­a­tion. Es­tab­lished in 2014, IWFTT is an af­fil­i­ate of the in­ter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Fo­rum (IWF Glob­al), which has chap­ters across the Caribbean, in­clud­ing Bar­ba­dos, Bermu­da, Ja­maica, and The Ba­hamas. Since its found­ing, IWFTT has served as a vi­brant com­mu­ni­ty where ac­com­plished women unite, in­spire, and cel­e­brate one an­oth­er, work­ing col­lec­tive­ly to cre­ate mean­ing­ful change in so­ci­ety.

Guid­ed by the frame­work of IWF Glob­al, IWFTT op­er­ates around three cen­tral pil­lars: Con­nect, Catal­yse, and Cel­e­brate. These pil­lars shape every ini­tia­tive, event, and pro­gramme the or­gan­i­sa­tion un­der­takes. To­geth­er, they pro­vide the foun­da­tion for build­ing a stronger net­work of ac­com­plished women lead­ers in T&T while align­ing with the glob­al move­ment to break bar­ri­ers and ex­pand op­por­tu­ni­ties for women every­where.

Ac­cord­ing to Agard, the first pil­lar, Con­nect, is about cre­at­ing space for mean­ing­ful di­a­logue among mem­bers. IWFTT hosts four fo­rum meet­ings an­nu­al­ly, each de­signed to spark thought­ful con­ver­sa­tion around is­sues that af­fect women and so­ci­ety.

This year, top­ics ranged from “One Gi­ga­bit Caribbean So­ci­ety”, a vi­sion to­wards ad­vanc­ing tech­nol­o­gy ex­ports, dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion, and eco­nom­ic growth in the Caribbean re­gion, to genome se­quenc­ing re­search led by a Bermu­da-based fel­low, and to a ground­break­ing dis­cus­sion on menopause. By giv­ing voice to sub­jects of­ten over­looked, such as women’s health in the work­place, IWFTT en­sures mem­bers are in­formed, en­gaged, and em­pow­ered.

The sec­ond pil­lar, Catal­yse, fo­cus­es on lead­er­ship de­vel­op­ment. Through IWF’s Fel­lows Pro­gramme, women from across the globe, in­clud­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go, re­ceive ex­ec­u­tive train­ing at in­sti­tu­tions such as IN­SEAD and Cam­bridge, while be­ing men­tored by some of the most ac­com­plished lead­ers in the world. Lo­cal­ly, IWFTT is de­vel­op­ing its Next Gen Pro­gramme, which aims to part­ner with cor­po­rate en­ti­ties to en­gage mid-lev­el fe­male man­agers in mean­ing­ful con­ver­sa­tions with sea­soned lead­ers. This ini­tia­tive is de­signed to pass on wis­dom, in­spire con­fi­dence, and help women reach the C-suite.

The third pil­lar, Cel­e­brate, high­lights women who ex­em­pli­fy courage, lead­er­ship, and im­pact. IWFTT’s sig­na­ture event, the In­spi­ra­tional Women Awards, has be­come a high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed mo­ment on the na­tion­al cal­en­dar. Now in its fourth year, the awards have evolved with IWFTT de­vel­op­ing rig­or­ous cri­te­ria and a trans­par­ent rubric and method­ol­o­gy.

In 2025, 24 nom­i­na­tions were re­ceived across three cat­e­gories, re­flect­ing the depth and breadth of tal­ent and achieve­ment among women in T&T. Agard be­lieves that this cel­e­bra­tion is not just about recog­ni­tion but about in­spir­ing the next gen­er­a­tion to con­tin­ue to achieve. For her, this mis­sion res­onates deeply.

From her ear­ly days at Ca­ble & Wire­less, where she was one of on­ly a hand­ful of fe­male ex­ec­u­tives in the re­gion, to her tenure as CEO of TSTT and Chair of CAN­TO C9, Agard has lived the very chal­lenges IWFTT seeks to dis­man­tle. Her aca­d­e­m­ic cre­den­tials in­clude an LLB from UWI, an LLM from the Lon­don School of Eco­nom­ics, and ex­ec­u­tive train­ing from Whar­ton Busi­ness School, IN­SEAD, and Co­lum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty. Com­bined with her pi­o­neer­ing ca­reer and ex­pe­ri­ences in lead­er­ship, these cre­den­tials make her ex­cep­tion­al­ly well-po­si­tioned to lead IWFTT in­to its next chap­ter.

Un­der her stew­ard­ship, IWFTT re­mains con­nect­ed to the glob­al di­men­sion of IWF Glob­al. The in­ter­na­tion­al body hosts two ma­jor con­fer­ences an­nu­al­ly, one in the Unit­ed States and an­oth­er else­where in the world. Agard’s own ex­pe­ri­ence at a glob­al con­fer­ence, held in Hong Kong, left her in­spired by women lead­ing ex­tra­or­di­nary work: from sci­en­tists who de­vel­oped the first di­ag­nos­tic test for Alzheimer’s to en­tre­pre­neurs trans­form­ing in­dus­tries. For Agard, these ex­pe­ri­ences re­in­force the im­por­tance of glob­al ex­change while re­mind­ing her that T&T, though small, be­longs at the ta­ble where trans­for­ma­tive de­ci­sions are made.

Look­ing ahead, IWFTT in­tends to ex­pand its in­flu­ence by tack­ling emerg­ing is­sues that will shape the fu­ture of women and so­ci­ety. Agard is par­tic­u­lar­ly pas­sion­ate about dis­cus­sions on ar­ti­fi­cial gen­er­a­tive in­tel­li­gence and dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion. With her tele­coms back­ground, she be­lieves Trinidad and To­ba­go must ur­gent­ly con­sid­er the im­pli­ca­tions of tech­no­log­i­cal ad­vance­ments on jobs, com­mu­ni­ties, and dai­ly life. By po­si­tion­ing IWFTT fo­rums as plat­forms to ex­plore these glob­al is­sues through a lo­cal lens, she hopes to pre­pare mem­bers, and by ex­ten­sion so­ci­ety, for the op­por­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges of to­mor­row.

Agard be­lieves that this work is per­son­al. In­spired by the late US Supreme Court Jus­tice Ruth Bad­er Gins­burg’s words, “Women be­long in all places where de­ci­sions are be­ing made,” she is de­ter­mined to pay it for­ward and, un­der the um­brel­la of IWFTT, en­sure that women are af­ford­ed their right­ful seats at the ta­ble.

The progress women have made in pol­i­tics, busi­ness, and pub­lic life is un­de­ni­able, but gaps re­main. Through IWFTT, she is com­mit­ted to clos­ing those gaps, en­sur­ing that women lead­ers are not ex­cep­tions but the norm.

Ul­ti­mate­ly, IWFTT is more than an or­gan­i­sa­tion; it is a move­ment. It is a col­lec­tive of women unit­ed by pur­pose, root­ed in ex­cel­lence, and de­ter­mined to shape a fu­ture where gen­der equal­i­ty is not as­pi­ra­tional but a lived re­al­i­ty. As IWFTT ap­proach­es its sec­ond decade, its work con­tin­ues to rip­ple out­ward: in­spir­ing lead­ers, spark­ing di­a­logue, catalysing change, and cel­e­brat­ing the women, like Lisa Agard, who are re­defin­ing what lead­er­ship looks like in Trinidad and To­ba­go and be­yond.