The largest global membership organisation of women corporate board members, the Women Corporate Directors (WCD) Foundation, Nigeria chapter, held its last session for the year themed “Decision Making in the Visionary Boardroom” hosted by GTBank in Lagos.
The session kicked off with an opening address from Bisi Lamikanra, co-chair, WCD Nigeria chapter and Partner & Head, Advisory Services, KPMG Nigeria, on behalf of Mosun Belo-Olusoga (co-chair, WCD Nigeria/chairman, Access Bank).
In her statement, she said, “WCD remains committed to promoting good governance by ensuring board members are equipped with the necessary knowledge in fast-paced changing operating environment.”
Hence, the theme for the last session of the year centred around forward-looking decision making in the boardroom with a focus on techniques to broaden the perspectives of board members, properly hone information, confront barriers and improve the process of strategic high-quality decision making. She continued.
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Segun Agbaje, managing director, GTBank, gave a welcome address that was followed by presentation from the keynote speaker, Herta Von Stiegel, founder/executive chair, Ariya Capital, Nairobi. She started with a quote from Science fiction author, William Gibson- “The Future is here, it’s just not very evenly distributed” as she spoke on “the fundamentals visionary boards need to remain educated” as well as “the need for visionary boards to find the future and be conscious of decision-making styles and its impact on board decisions.”
Herta also highlighted the importance for women directors to exercise leadership, emotional intelligence and cultural sensitivity as a means to continually rid the boardroom of gender biases and bring the broadest possible range of information and perspectives into the boardroom conversation before conclusions are reached.
The session, which involved discussion groups facilitated by women partners from KPMG, the lead global sponsor for the WCD Foundation, also featured presentations from the various discussion groups, which had women from the largest corporates across all key industries in the country. The groups shared experiences, learnings and best practices, which can be applied to enhance the effectiveness of the board.
