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MAS Holdings felicitates 'Empowered Women' of the year

20 Nov '08

4 min read

MAS Holdings felicitated their Empowered Women of the year for the 5th consecutive year on 12th November 2008 at the MAS Institute of Management Technology (MIMT), Thulhiriya. 23 Empowered Women of MAS's various business units were recognized for their personal and professional achievements.

The annual “Empowered Women of the Year” awards are a focus of the “MAS Women Go Beyond” programme, through which employees excelling in all walks of life are recognized. The programme aims to empower employees and impact communities by championing the cause of women's empowerment in society. The programme also focuses on ensuring employee's career advancement and strengthening their work-life balance.

This year was the 5th consecutive year that Victoria's Secret came forward to sponsor the awards ceremony, whilst it was NIKE's 3rd year. Rick Paul, President, MAST Industries was the chief guest while Atul Ujagar, Director India LO, NIKE, Hannah Jones, VP Corporate Responsibility, NIKE, and Harsh Saini, Director of Compliance –South Asia, NIKE were among the guests of honor.

The 5th year anniversary of the event sought to focus on celebrating Sri Lankan women of excellence, including all of the past empowered women as well as well known personalities such as Rosy Senanayake, Susanthika Jayasinghe, Nanda Malini, Gowrie Ponniah and Chandini Rajaratnam who were also guests of honours at the event.

Sri Lanka's dream sensation, Susanthika Jayasinghe in her inspiring address stated: “I am no better or worse than you are, I led a life exactly like you are, I started my career from exactly were you are, I had a dream and was empowered to reach it exactly like you are, and now that I have reached my goal, my dream I am confident to say that you will reach that goal exactly the way you want…. Do not feel disheartened by the complexities of a Juki woman stigma in Sri Lanka. The uniform I wear to represent my country is manufactured by your two hands”

Guest of honor, Ms. Nanda Malini addressed the gathering ending with her beautiful voice singing a song in both Sinhala and Tamil giving us a sense of pride and glory in being Sri Lankans. She continued to state; “MAS is like your mother at work. It will care for you and nourish you to become stronger and achieve goals that you only know its possible”

Chief Guest and President of MAST Industries, Mr. Rick Paul stated; “MAS is frequently mentioned when social responsibility or CSR is discussed. In many ways both companies we work for, MAS and LTD Brands, share these identical values. I credit the founders of these incredibly successful companies, Mahesh, Sharad and Ajay of MAS and Les Wexner of Limited Brands for instilling these values throughout the organization.

Both companies have been leaders in demonstrating social responsibility long before there was ever the term "corporate social responsibility" or "CSR". They have always been concerned about thewelfare of their associates and communities because they believed it's the right thing to do.”

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