The In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Fo­rum of Trinidad and To­ba­go (IWFTT) held its An­nu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing on Fri­day 5th Sep­tem­ber at the Hilton Ho­tel, where mem­bers wel­comed two new Di­rec­tors and marked a tran­si­tion in lead­er­ship.

Georgina Ter­ry-Cow­an was ap­point­ed Vice Pres­i­dent, and Melis­sa Sen­house joined as an Of­fi­cer to the Board. Lisa Agard as­sumed the role of Pres­i­dent, tak­ing over from Im­me­di­ate Past Pres­i­dent Dr In­di­ra Couch, who re­mains on the Board. Dr Couch wel­comed the new mem­bers, who join Tri­cia Coos­al (Sec­re­tary) and Shel­ley Sylvester (Trea­sur­er).

Found­ed in 2014, IWFTT is part of a fifty-year-old glob­al net­work of over 8,000 women lead­ers across thir­ty-five coun­tries.

Agard, a sea­soned Caribbean tele­com ex­ec­u­tive and at­tor­ney-at-law, pre­vi­ous­ly served as CEO of Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TSTT). She al­so chairs CAN­TO C9, rep­re­sent­ing re­gion­al op­er­a­tors in ad­vo­cat­ing for eq­ui­table con­tri­bu­tions from ma­jor dig­i­tal con­tent providers. Agard holds law de­grees from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies and the Lon­don School of Eco­nom­ics, and has com­plet­ed ex­ec­u­tive train­ing at IN­SEAD, the Whar­ton School of Busi­ness, and Co­lum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty.

She thanked out­go­ing Board Mem­bers Joanne Salazar and Dr Mon­i­ca Davis Iton for their con­tri­bu­tions.

“At IWFTT our pur­pose is to cel­e­brate, unite and up­lift ac­com­plished women in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Agard said. “To­geth­er, we will con­tin­ue to cel­e­brate those who lead with vi­sion, up­lift those whose work trans­forms lives, and open doors for the next gen­er­a­tion of women lead­ers.”

The IWFTT will host its In­spi­ra­tional Women Awards Gala on Tues­day 30th Sep­tem­ber at the Hy­att Re­gency, Port of Spain, cel­e­brat­ing three ho­n­ourees:

Dr Cather­ine Minto-Bain, IWFTT In­spi­ra­tional Cham­pi­on of Women Award, for her work as a fer­til­i­ty spe­cial­ist lead­ing the Trinidad and To­ba­go IVF and Fer­til­i­ty Cen­tre since 2008.

Suzan Lakhan-Bap­tiste, IWFTT In­spi­ra­tional Ad­vo­cate Award, for over 30 years of con­ser­va­tion work through Na­ture Seek­ers, trans­form­ing Matu­ra Beach in­to a lead­ing leatherback tur­tle rook­ery.

Maya Kir­ti Nanan, IWFTT In­spi­ra­tional Emerg­ing Leader Award, for found­ing the Autism Sib­lings and Friends Net­work and cham­pi­oning in­clu­siv­i­ty from the age of 12.

Fur­ther in­for­ma­tion on IWFTT and the In­spi­ra­tional Women Awards is avail­able at iwftt.org.