The Women in Maritime Association Caribbean Guyana Chapter will host its 2nd Annual Gala and Awards Ceremony on 18 May 2026 at 19:00 at the Four Points by Sheraton Georgetown, themed "From Policy to Participation: Women Driving Maritime Excellence." Tickets are GYD $30,000.
What is the WiMAC Guyana 2026 Gala and who is speaking?
Her Excellency Mrs. Arya Ali, First Lady of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, will deliver special remarks, with the keynote address by Mrs. Mervel Kotzebue-Fleur, Chief Executive Officer of DP World Suriname.
Kotzebue-Fleur brings more than two decades of commercial leadership across consumer goods, transport, and logistics. She joined DP World Paramaribo in August 2017 after serving as General Manager of CMA CGM Group's shipping agency operations in Suriname, and currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Suriname Business Association. Her presence as keynote speaker places a working female CEO at the centre of a conversation that too often features women in maritime only as subjects of statistics rather than voices of authority.
Tickets are available at wimacgy.com/gala-tickets, from the Maritime Administration at Battery Road and Fort Street Georgetown, or by calling +592 757 8258.
What did the 2025 inaugural Gala achieve?
The first Gala, held at the Guyana Marriott Hotel on 20 June 2025 under the theme "An Ocean of Opportunities for Women: Anchoring Excellence," honoured 14 women across categories including Maritime Leadership, Port Management Excellence, Outstanding Female Ship Captain, Blue Economy Advocate, and Shipping and Logistics Innovator, with sponsors including the Guyana Maritime Administration Department, SBM Offshore Guyana, John Fernandes Ltd., Tropical Shipping, and El Dorado Offshore. NationMaster
The 2026 Gala is the second. That progression, from inaugural event to annual institution, with the First Lady in attendance and a regional CEO at the podium, reflects how quickly the chapter has moved from formation to credibility. It arrives at a moment when Guyana's economy is generating demand for qualified professionals across every sector simultaneously. Nations University recently responded to that same pressure with its largest tuition reduction in its history, a signal that workforce development is becoming a national priority rather than an institutional afterthought.
| Event detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Date | 18 May 2026 |
| Time | 19:00 |
| Venue | Four Points by Sheraton, Georgetown |
| Theme | From Policy to Participation: Women Driving Maritime Excellence |
| Ticket price | GYD $30,000 |
| Online tickets | wimacgy.com/gala-tickets |
| Phone | +592 757 8258 |
| Collection point | Maritime Administration, Battery Road and Fort Street, Georgetown |
What is WiMAC and how does it connect to global efforts?
WiMAC was launched in April 2015 in Montego Bay, Jamaica, as the seventh regional network established by the International Maritime Organization. More than 14 Caribbean countries are currently members, including Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Panama, Suriname, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. Education
Under the IMO's auspices, eight Women in Maritime Associations now operate across Africa, Arab States, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Pacific, covering some 152 countries and 490 participants. WiMAC's 6th Annual General Meeting and Regional Conference, held in Jamaica in October 2023, focused on mobilising stronger networks for Caribbean women toward a sustainable maritime industry, exchanging best practices and building gender-sensitive standards across the region. WikipediaWorldbank
Why is the gender gap in maritime still a pressing issue?
The 2024 IMO and WISTA Women in Maritime Survey found that women now make up just 19 % of the total global maritime workforce, down from 26 % in 2021, and only 1 % of the active global seafaring workforce. The numbers are moving in the wrong direction. Qik Pros
The survey, drawing on data from 88 IMO member states and 608 private sector organisations across 37 sub-sectors, identified gender stereotyping, workplace safety concerns, the absence of family-friendly policies, and the gender pay gap as the primary barriers limiting women's participation. Female representation in C-suite roles across surveyed organisations fell from 761 in 2021 to 571 in 2024, even as board-level representation edged up to 34 %. Women are gaining seats in boardrooms and losing ground everywhere else. GuyanabusinessjournalGuyanacurrentaffairs
Guyana's maritime sector is expanding faster than at any point in its history, driven by the same oil economy now reshaping power infrastructure and energy policy across the country. The workforce taking shape now will determine who holds positions of influence in that sector for decades. Across industries, the pattern is the same: private organisations are not waiting for systemic change. Guyana Electric's recent training programme and initiatives like this Gala represent the same instinct applied in different sectors: build the people the economy needs, now, and the rest follows.
The "From Policy to Participation" theme is not rhetorical. The IMO's Global Strategy for Women in Maritime Associations 2024 to 2029 was approved in June 2025. What follows strategy is the harder work: changing the daily conditions that make maritime careers genuinely accessible to women at every level. That is what events like this Gala are actually for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: When and where is the WiMAC Guyana 2026 Gala and Awards Ceremony? A: The 2nd Annual Gala takes place on 18 May 2026 at 19:00 at the Four Points by Sheraton Georgetown. Tickets are GYD $30,000, available at wimacgy.com/gala-tickets or by calling +592 757 8258.
Q: Who is the keynote speaker at the WiMAC Guyana 2026 Gala? A: Mrs. Mervel Kotzebue-Fleur, CEO of DP World Suriname, will deliver the keynote address. Her Excellency Mrs. Arya Ali, First Lady of Guyana, will also attend and deliver special remarks.
Q: How do I buy tickets for the WiMAC Guyana Gala on 18 May 2026? A: Tickets are available online at wimacgy.com/gala-tickets, from the Maritime Administration at Battery Road and Fort Street Georgetown, or by calling +592 757 8258.
Q: What is WiMAC and which Caribbean countries are members? A: WiMAC is the Women in Maritime Association Caribbean, launched in Jamaica in 2015 under the IMO. More than 14 Caribbean countries are members including Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, and Suriname.
Q: What percentage of the world's seafarers are women? A: According to the 2024 IMO and WISTA Women in Maritime Survey, women make up 19 % of the total global maritime workforce and only 1 % of the active seafaring workforce.