Nicola Whittaker comes across as being one of that ‘clique’ of fast-emerging Guyanese women who these days, are taking to the local world of entrepreneurship like ducks to water, exuding all of the confidence which, not many moons ago, was considered the exclusive purview of a ‘species’ that used to be termed ‘hard-nosed businessmen’. If it may well be by accident that their blooming appears to have coincided with a quantum shift in the business climate in Guyana resulting from the country’s oil and gas pursuits, the evidence that they are determined to ‘fight their corner’ is unmistakable.
Setting aside her seemingly limitless self-belief, she brings to the table, evidence of being schooled in disciplines that are synonymous with business. She studied accounting with the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants, is the holder of a Master’s Certificate in Accounting and Finance from the Chartered Institute of Professional Financial Managers and, accounting aside, she possesses experience in related disciplines including Compliance, Business Services and Logistics Management.
These days she is focussed on managing the newly created “majority women-owned, 100% Guyanese company – Global Logistics, Supplies and Business Services Inc (GLSB), which she says, offers an array of services that are critical to starting up and running businesses of various types. Her accounting skills have also allowed her to oversee accounting and auditing assignments. Beyond these she has also led consultancies working on assignments that include both the reorganisation to the complete restructuring of businesses. Her business profile is dotted with the names of various local companies that have secured her services. Not least among her assignments are those associated with leading staff training assignments in disciplines that include Business Best Practices, Entity Policies, and Customer Service.
All of these disciplines have now been ‘packaged’ with a range of services now offered by GLSB. She lists Statutory Business Services, Accounting, Payroll and other Financial Services, Advertising and Marketing, Procurement and Supply, Logistics and Custom Brokerage, and Travel Accommodation, as being among the services provided by the new company.
If she does not ‘come across’ as a rampaging feminist, she displays an eye-catching understanding of the challenges that women entrepreneurs face, “fighting to be taken seriously,” lacking in adequate institutional support and “facing difficulty accessing finance” in a business environment that has, for years, been “dominated by men.” For all this, she is, she says, not unmindful of the fact that “most recently, we’ve seen countless women entrepreneurs rise above expectations and defy norms.
From Nicola’s perspective “the contributions we [women] make and the ambitions, goals and challenges we wrestle with, remain by and large, absent from media coverage, even coverage of business and entrepreneurship and although we make up half the population, our presence is lacking in board rooms, government, and many other high-level professions.”
She is, it seems, coming to the table with a clear-eyed perspective on what she believes it will take to do business in Guyana.
Nicole Whittaker is the Chief Executive Officer of Global Logistics, Supplies & Business Services (GLSB) Inc located at Track JW Mandela Avenue, Botanical Gardens, Georgetown, Guyana. She can be reached at (592) 677-7475.
