In June last year, An­na Hen­der­son was named pres­i­dent of the Amer­i­can Cham­ber of Com­merce of T&T (Am­cham T&T).

She re­placed Stu­art Fran­co, who served as the pres­i­dent of the or­gan­i­sa­tion from 2023.

Ahead of Am­cham T&T’s host­ing of the 12th An­nu­al Women’s Lead­er­ship Con­fer­ence at the Hy­att Re­gency next Fri­day, Hen­der­son took some time to re­flect on her stint so far.

“The jour­ney is both en­er­gis­ing and deeply mean­ing­ful. Am­cham T&T rep­re­sents a pow­er­ful net­work of com­pa­nies that are com­mit­ted to strength­en­ing the busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment and con­tribut­ing to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

“Over the past nine months, I’ve had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to en­gage with lead­ers across in­dus­tries, Gov­ern­ment stake­hold­ers and en­tre­pre­neurs who all share a com­mon goal: build­ing a stronger and more com­pet­i­tive Trinidad and To­ba­go,” she told the Busi­ness Guardian in a writ­ten re­sponse.

“What has stood out most to me is the in­cred­i­ble po­ten­tial that ex­ists in our coun­try. My fo­cus has been on en­sur­ing that Am­cham T&T con­tin­ues to be a plat­form for col­lab­o­ra­tion, a pow­er­ful voice for ad­vo­ca­cy and a bold cham­pi­on of for­ward-think­ing ideas that shape our na­tion’s fu­ture.”

Hen­der­son, who is the CEO of Ama­ranth Busi­ness So­lu­tions, and in­te­grat­ed dig­i­tal ser­vices com­pa­ny, said the ex­pe­ri­ence was re­ward­ing as she took on the op­por­tu­ni­ty to rep­re­sent women in lead­er­ship in such a vis­i­ble role.

“Every time a woman steps in­to spaces of in­flu­ence, it sends a sig­nal to the next gen­er­a­tion that lead­er­ship is not de­fined by gen­der, but by vi­sion, com­pe­tence, and com­mit­ment to progress,”

Hen­der­son is the third fe­male pres­i­dent elect­ed by Am­cham T&T in the past decade. Hen­der­son is con­fi­dent that it is a sign of progress.

“The fact that Am­cham T&T has elect­ed three fe­male pres­i­dents with­in a decade sug­gests that the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty in­creas­ing­ly recog­nis­es the val­ue of di­verse lead­er­ship and strong suc­ces­sion plan­ning. How­ev­er, I would say that this is not just about ac­cep­tance; it is about recog­nis­ing ca­pa­bil­i­ty.

Women in T&T have long demon­strat­ed ex­cep­tion­al lead­er­ship across sec­tors — in fi­nance, en­er­gy, en­tre­pre­neur­ship and pub­lic ser­vice,” Hen­der­son said.

The busi­ness or­gan­i­sa­tion pres­i­dent how­ev­er, felt that hold­ing the po­si­tion was on­ly one step on the jour­ney.

She said, “Rep­re­sen­ta­tion at the top still has far to go. There are still many women whose po­ten­tial is not yet recog­nised. When women are present in lead­er­ship po­si­tions, they bring per­spec­tives that in­flu­ence or­gan­i­sa­tion­al cul­ture, de­ci­sion-mak­ing and long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty. Ul­ti­mate­ly, when women lead, busi­ness­es be­come stronger, and when busi­ness­es be­come stronger, the coun­try ben­e­fits.”

In her role as Am­cham T&T pres­i­dent, Hen­der­son said her pri­or­i­ties cen­tred around strength­en­ing the busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment and en­sur­ing that T&T is able to re­main com­pet­i­tive in an in­creas­ing­ly glob­al econ­o­my.

“This in­cludes ad­vo­cat­ing for poli­cies that sup­port in­vest­ment, in­no­va­tion and eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion. We must con­tin­ue to work close­ly with both the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tors to re­move bar­ri­ers to do­ing busi­ness and cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for growth,” Hen­der­son said, adding, “An­oth­er im­por­tant fo­cus is lead­er­ship de­vel­op­ment and in­clu­sion. I want Am­cham T&T to con­tin­ue fos­ter­ing spaces where emerg­ing lead­ers—in­clud­ing women and young pro­fes­sion­als—can de­vel­op the skills, net­works and con­fi­dence need­ed to lead the fu­ture of busi­ness in T&T. “

De­spite the in­creas­ing num­ber of women in lead­er­ship roles in busi­ness, Hen­der­son has seen there is still room for im­prove­ment with re­gard to strug­gles faced by her gen­der.

She said, “While women have made tremen­dous strides, there are still struc­tur­al and cul­tur­al chal­lenges that must be ad­dressed and, in some cas­es, dis­man­tled.

“Many women con­tin­ue to face bar­ri­ers re­lat­ed to ac­cess to cap­i­tal, men­tor­ship op­por­tu­ni­ties, and rep­re­sen­ta­tion in se­nior lead­er­ship roles. There are al­so so­ci­etal ex­pec­ta­tions that place dis­pro­por­tion­ate re­spon­si­bil­i­ties on women in bal­anc­ing pro­fes­sion­al, fam­i­ly and per­son­al com­mit­ments.”

How­ev­er, she ex­plained, “Ad­dress­ing these chal­lenges is not just a gen­der is­sue; it is an eco­nom­ic one. We must con­tin­ue to have fo­rums where women can dis­cuss their is­sues and seek so­lu­tions and an­swers. When women are em­pow­ered to par­tic­i­pate ful­ly in the econ­o­my and in our busi­ness­es, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty in­creas­es, in­no­va­tion ex­pands, and com­mu­ni­ties be­come stronger.”

Hen­der­son said men­tor­ship was def­i­nite­ly one area she hoped to im­prove for women en­ter­ing the cor­po­rate sec­tor.

“One area I am par­tic­u­lar­ly pas­sion­ate about is men­tor­ship and lead­er­ship for women. Many tal­ent­ed women have the skills and the am­bi­tion to lead but may not al­ways have ac­cess to the net­works or guid­ance that ac­cel­er­ate ca­reer pro­gres­sion.

“I would love to see ex­pand­ed ini­tia­tives that con­nect ex­pe­ri­enced busi­ness lead­ers with emerg­ing fe­male pro­fes­sion­als and en­tre­pre­neurs,” she said, “Men­tor­ship is trans­for­ma­tion­al —it pro­vides con­fi­dence, in­sight, and op­por­tu­ni­ties. Not just for the mentee but for the men­tor as well.”

She con­tin­ued, “An­oth­er im­por­tant area is sup­port­ing women en­tre­pre­neurs. Small and medi­um-sized busi­ness­es are a key dri­ver of eco­nom­ic growth, and many of these en­ter­pris­es are led by women. Strength­en­ing ac­cess to fi­nanc­ing, train­ing and mar­ket op­por­tu­ni­ties can un­lock enor­mous po­ten­tial with­in our econ­o­my and our women. “

Hen­der­son feels that suc­cess in busi­ness for women is built more on the abil­i­ty to push past chal­lenges than sys­tem­at­ic sup­port.

“In many cas­es, women have had to push for­ward through de­ter­mi­na­tion and re­silience rather than through struc­tured sup­port sys­tems. While there has been progress, there is still so much more room for or­gan­i­sa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions to do more.

“Com­pa­nies and peo­ple must be in­ten­tion­al to cre­ate en­vi­ron­ments where women are en­cour­aged to lead, in­no­vate, and take on strate­gic roles. “

The Am­cham T&T pres­i­dent con­tin­ued, “This in­cludes lead­er­ship de­vel­op­ment pro­grammes, flex­i­ble work­place poli­cies, and a cul­ture that recog­nis­es per­for­mance and po­ten­tial equal­ly.

This dy­nam­ic has con­tin­ued, de­spite sta­tis­tics show­ing that women are earn­ing more aca­d­e­m­ic qual­i­fi­ca­tions and of­ten out­per­form­ing men at sev­er­al ed­u­ca­tion lev­els in the coun­try. Hen­der­son said this has be­gun to in­flu­ence the cor­po­rate world of T&T.

She said, “The rise of women in aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment has had a sig­nif­i­cant im­pact on the pro­fes­sion­al land­scape of T&T. To­day, we see high­ly qual­i­fied women en­ter­ing fields such as en­gi­neer­ing, fi­nance, tech­nol­o­gy, and law in in­creas­ing num­bers. This has broad­ened the tal­ent pool avail­able to busi­ness­es and has brought new per­spec­tives in­to de­ci­sion-mak­ing en­vi­ron­ments. “

She said, “Cor­po­rate T&T is be­com­ing more dy­nam­ic as a re­sult. Di­verse teams tend to be more in­no­v­a­tive and bet­ter at prob­lem-solv­ing, which is crit­i­cal in an in­creas­ing­ly com­plex glob­al econ­o­my.

The next step is en­sur­ing that this aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess trans­lates in­to equal rep­re­sen­ta­tion at se­nior lev­els of lead­er­ship and not just in the sup­port­ing roles.”

Hen­der­son said go­ing for­ward, there were three key ar­eas she would like to see strength­ened with re­gard to op­por­tu­ni­ties for women in busi­ness.

“First, greater in­vest­ment in lead­er­ship de­vel­op­ment for women across in­dus­tries. Cre­at­ing clear, sup­port­ive path­ways for ad­vance­ment en­sures that tal­ent does not go un­tapped,” she said.

“Sec­ond, stronger sup­port sys­tems for women en­tre­pre­neurs. Ac­cess to fi­nanc­ing with guid­ance, men­tor­ship, and net­works can sig­nif­i­cant­ly ac­cel­er­ate the growth of women-led en­ter­pris­es.

“Third, con­tin­ued cul­tur­al shifts with­in or­gan­i­sa­tions that pro­mote in­clu­siv­i­ty and recog­nise the val­ue of di­verse per­spec­tives and make de­lib­er­ate space for those dif­fer­ent­ing view­points. “

As for the coun­try’s busi­ness land­scape, Hen­der­son ad­mit­ted she is op­ti­mistic as T&T is in a pe­ri­od of trans­for­ma­tion due to glob­al eco­nom­ic shifts, tech­no­log­i­cal dis­rup­tion and the need for di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion.

“How­ev­er, I re­main op­ti­mistic. Our coun­try has amaz­ing hu­man cap­i­tal, en­tre­pre­neur­ial en­er­gy, and un­tapped ad­van­tages. If we fo­cus on in­no­va­tion, col­lab­o­ra­tion and in­clu­sion—par­tic­u­lar­ly by en­sur­ing that women and young pro­fes­sion­als are em­pow­ered to lead—we can build a more dy­nam­ic and sus­tain­able econ­o­my,” she said.

“The fu­ture of T&T de­pends on ful­ly har­ness­ing the tal­ents of all its peo­ple. Un­der­stand­ing that ad­ver­si­ty builds strength, and from that strength we gain the clar­i­ty, re­solve and courage to em­brace change and pur­sue progress.”