CEO's PERSPECTIVE
Anita Gajadhar
Executive Director - Marketing, Logistics and Shipping, and a member of the Executive Leadership Team of
PROMAN
My introduction to the world of work began as a Graduate Trainee at Petrotrin some twenty-one years ago. In 2005, I started at Methanol Holdings Trinidad Limited (MHTL)—a subsidiary of Proman Limited—as a Business Analyst. I remember clearly that the interview panel for that role comprised four men and no women. However, I would like to believe that my selection for the role meant that the company was already ahead of the curve and practicing equity, without perhaps even being purposefully aware of this.
Over the years, my career progressed within an industry that was largely male-centric and this sometimes created a certain degree of solitude, as I hardly encountered other females within the industry. Nevertheless, I quickly developed a resilient mindset and established clear professional as well as personal boundaries to always make the best and sometimes difficult decisions for the business.
While Trinidad and Tobago has always managed elements of the company’s shipping business, in 2018 the decision was taken to establish a new shipping company, Proman Shipping, in Switzerland. Again, I benefitted from Proman’s equitable system as our Chief Executive David Cassidy identified me as the most qualified person to start up and operate this new business.
I moved to Switzerland and almost immediately had to navigate many simultaneous business and personal challenges, navigating in a new country whose culture and language were a total mystery to me. In early 2020, I was given another promotion and asked to join the Executive Leadership team of the company, and within weeks of that offer, the COVID-19 pandemic occurred. Here I was, without my husband, friends and family due to the closure of our borders, and I discovered that I was pregnant with my first child.
At that moment, Proman’s Chief Executive again illustrated the organisation’s strength of equity. Just as I started to doubt my capabilities, he steered me on a path of reassurance, providing the support required to help me adjust to both my new professional and personal life.
Today, I am Executive Director - Marketing, Logistics and Shipping and a member of Proman’s Executive Leadership Team. The latter role requires me to assist in steering the organisation’s strategic direction, including being at the fore of the company’s sustainability agenda to advance lower carbon and renewable methanol as a clean fuel source for the global shipping, transport and heavy industries.
Recently, Proman’s joint venture partnership with Stena Bulk Limited achieved the first barge to ship bunkering at the Port of Houston, one of the United States’ busiest ports. And, more recently, we launched Proman’s first fully owned, methanol-powered vessel, Stena Promise, at the Port of Rotterdam, which is the largest methanol hub in north-western Europe. I am therefore exceptionally proud of my role and that of my team in partnering with stakeholders to accelerate the shift to decarbonisation of the global maritime sector and in so doing, continue to illustrate the ease of methanol bunkering and the viability of the methanol sector.
Venturing further within the industry, I am also the first female Chairperson of the Methanol Institute, the established trade association for the global methanol sector. I have received recognition as a subject matter expert and have been interviewed by the T&T and the international media, including the Wall Street Journal, on critical aspects of the methanol business and the role of methanol as a pathway to decarbonisation. I also speak publicly on behalf of Proman at various industry-related conferences and of course, I was very honoured to do this at the 2023 Energy Conference of Trinidad and Tobago and the recently concluded AMCHAM Trinidad and Tobago Women In Leadership Conference.
When I look around today, the world of work has certainly changed from when I first joined the industry. The female proportion attaining tertiary-level education is significantly higher than a decade ago, and greater numbers of women are seeking to enter the corporate world. At the Women in Leadership conference, I noted the large number of eager, young females who expressed aspirations of becoming c-suite leaders and who directly engaged with me to understand more about my journey.
I have never perceived my gender as a barrier to my success, but I also recognise that I gravitated towards and benefitted tremendously from vocal, competent women who mentored me (sometimes without them even being aware of such) throughout my life and played a tangible role in shaping the leader that I have become. One such female manager really shaped my ideation of who I should aspire to become. I greatly admired her professionalism, leadership attributes and her no-nonsense attitude. I know that I have patterned myself after her.
I would therefore urge young females who aspire to become c-suite leaders to surround themselves with like-minded females. Young females should immerse themselves in also learning about other strong female leaders to understand the challenges these women faced and the tools that they used to help them navigate the corporate world, in which they were a minority. I was heavily inspired by Indra Nooyi’s “My Life in Full”, in which the author traced her humble origins and rise to success while also acknowledging the tremendous parental and spousal support she received, thus enabling her to become a globally recognised corporate force. I highly recommend this story to any aspiring female leader.
There are also many local and global organisations with well-developed female networks and mentorship programmes that provide much-needed support. In Trinidad and Tobago, these include AMCHAM T&T and AFETT. Young females should seek to become active members of these groups and in so doing, directly learn from other females within the industry.
I encourage all young women to continue to strive for and build their expertise, be brave, believe in yourself and your skills. There will always be failure but as the author, Brené Brown wrote, “there is absolutely no innovation without failure.”
In hindsight, I recognise that a lot of my drive to succeed comes from being educated at an all-girls’ high school, within an environment in which we were taught to strive for excellence. Much credit must therefore be extended to my alma mater – St. Augustine Girls’ Secondary School. The School’s motto, “Per Ardua Astra,” means “through adversity to the stars,” and I realise that these words have shaped and influenced the way that I have always lived my life and have led me on the pathway to becoming a c-suite leader at Proman.