Women's Haven® Guyana Takes the Stage at WeLead 2026

WOMEN IN BUSINESS  •  GUYANA  •  27 JUNE 2026

By LCN Newsroom  |  La Caribeña News

GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Guyana celebrated its 60th year of independence on 26 May 2026 with one of the fastest-growing economies in the hemisphere and, on 27 June, with a room full of women who intend to shape what comes next. The WeLead Association brought more than 300 entrepreneurs, professionals, and policymakers together at the Pegasus Suites and Corporate Centre in Georgetown under the theme Guyana to the World: Women Building Global Bridges. Among those in attendance was Women’s Haven® Guyana, the organic feminine care brand brought to the local market by serial entrepreneur Lexann McPhoy.

It was, by any measure, a fitting room for the brand to be in.

A decade of intention behind one conference

The WeLead Association was founded in 2017 by Abbigale Loncke-Watson, who had returned from the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative and found that the kind of structured mentorship and professional development she had experienced abroad simply did not exist for women in Guyana. The organisation has since trained over 300 women in partnership with ExxonMobil, the Nico Consulting Group, and the United States Embassy in Georgetown, and has expanded its reach deliberately to rural and hinterland communities where access to business resources can be scarce.

Loncke-Watson, who was recognised in a speech by former United States President Barack Obama in 2016 for the impact of her home care agency on single mothers and young women, has used that same philosophy to build WeLead into a regional network. “I don’t want any woman in Guyana to feel like she has missed the boat,” she has said. “There are opportunities coming from every direction, and women need access to the knowledge, networks and support systems that help them move forward.”

That urgency is not rhetorical. Guyana’s GDP has nearly quintupled to approximately US$25 billion since 2019. Oil production exceeds 900,000 barrels per day. The growth is real, visible, and uneven — and WeLead 2026 was an explicit argument that women must sit inside it, not beside it.

A Guyanese voice from the global stage

The decision to invite Melanie Fiona as keynote speaker carried deliberate weight. Born Melanie Fiona Hallim on 4 July 1983 in Toronto to Guyanese immigrant parents of Afro-Guyanese, Indo-Guyanese, and Portuguese descent, she won two Grammy Awards in 2012 for Best Traditional R&B Performance and Best R&B Song, both shared with Cee Lo Green for their recording of Fool for You. Her 2025 EP Say Yes won the JUNO Award for Traditional R&B/Soul Recording of the Year earlier this year, completing a comeback after more than a decade away from recording.

The conference was Fiona’s first visit to Guyana. She described it as a passing of the baton — returning to the country where her mother was born and finding a generation of women not waiting for permission to lead. “It feels very full circle,” she said before travelling. “I’m saying yes to taking this trip down to Guyana and to connecting and building a bridge from North America to the Caribbean, to Guyana, to my roots. Hopefully that allows other women to feel like they can walk across it.”

“I’m saying yes to building a bridge from North America to the Caribbean, to Guyana, to my roots.” — Melanie Fiona

The day’s conversations

WeLead 2026 was chaired by Feliz Robertson. The programme moved from an opening plenary that included Minister Charles S. Ramson through a full day of panel conversations, each anchored on a dimension of women’s leadership in Guyana’s current moment.

 Two of the afternoon speakers, Kathy Smith and Josephine Tapp-Rutherford, carry institutional weight beyond the conference floor. La Caribeña News reported in May 2026 that women now hold two of the five top seats on the Private Sector Commission’s Executive Management Committee — Smith as Vice Chairwoman and Tapp as Honorary Secretary, a shift that positions women’s business interests at the centre of national economic decision-making for the first time. Their presence at WeLead the same month was not coincidence; it was continuity.

Lexann McPhoy and the Women’s Haven® brand

Lexann McPhoy does not operate from a single lane. She is a Silver Level Global Nail Technician Educator with more than 20 years of experience, the Managing Director of Lexann’s Nail Creations at 64 Hadfield Street in Georgetown, the Managing Director of NSI Caricom, the regional distributor of NSI Nails across the Caribbean, and the Chief Executive Officer of Women’s Haven® Guyana. In 2024 she was named a recipient of the 25 Influential Women Leaders Award for her impact on women’s empowerment and health in Guyana and the Caribbean. She is also the first Caribbean woman to reach National Marketing Director with Total Life Changes.

The nail salon came first. Lexann’s Nail Creations built its reputation on eco-conscious practice — exclusive use of NSI products formulated without harmful ingredients and manufactured to United States, United Kingdom, and European safety standards — at a time when that standard was uncommon in Georgetown. The salon also offers coffee and wine service, physiotherapy, and massage, and regularly provides free services to cancer survivors. That community orientation is not marketing; it runs through every business decision McPhoy has made.

Women’s Haven® arrived in 2023. McPhoy became the exclusive distributor for the Cayman Islands-founded organic feminine care brand after experiencing firsthand the limitations of conventional menstrual products. The range she brought to Guyana includes 100 per cent organic sanitary pads infused with graphene, yoni steam kits, detox pearls, yoni oil and wash, womb wellness tea, and menstrual cups — products designed around the principle that Women’s Haven® itself states plainly: when you educate a woman, you empower a nation.

The brand’s founders, Melesia Adderley and Meredith Johnson, chose McPhoy for the same reason her customers do: she is personally invested. “The Caribbean often lags behind in technological advancements and access to high-quality products,” the founders noted when the Guyana launch was announced. “We wanted to help to make a difference and to improve the feminine health and well-being of all Caribbean women and girls.” McPhoy has since expanded distribution, represented the brand at public events across Guyana, and used her NSI educator platform to carry the wellness message to nail technicians across the region.

When you educate a woman, you empower a nation. — Women’s Haven®

Part of a larger shift

McPhoy’s participation in WeLead 2026 sits inside a broader pattern that La Caribeña News has been tracking across several months of coverage. In May 2026 the OAS Inter-American Commission of Women convened a regional forum on women’s economic rights, finding Guyana already ahead of the agenda on multiple fronts: chamber presidencies, ISO certification in the agro-processing sector, maritime inclusion, and executive-support entrepreneurship. The forum’s four pillars — decent work, entrepreneurship and financing, the care economy, and digital inclusion — are each a live business challenge for women operating in Georgetown today.

Bhabita Albert’s unopposed re-election as president of the Region Three Chamber of Commerce and Industry in April 2026, and the PSC’s historic composition with two women in its top five seats, are institutional markers of a shift that WeLead 2026 expressed in human terms: women in Guyana are not assembling a case for inclusion. They are already inside the room, already leading, already building.

McPhoy’s business model reflects exactly this moment. She identified a gap in the Guyanese market for safer, organic feminine care, built the distribution channel to fill it, and brought it into a public forum where 300 women could see what one entrepreneur with multiple ventures looks like in practice. That is the WeLead argument made tangible.

What the conference signals

WeLead 2026 drew its energy from specificity. The conversations were not about women’s potential in the abstract; they were about Guyana’s particular moment — a country whose economic transformation is visible in its new bridge, its gas-to-energy plant, its oil production figures — and about whether women will shape that moment or simply benefit from it at a distance.

The presence of Women’s Haven® Guyana at the conference answered that question in one direction. Lexann McPhoy runs a wellness brand, a nail salon, a regional product distribution network, an educator programme, and a community outreach operation, all from 64 Hadfield Street. She did not wait for a seat at the table. She built the table, and then she showed up at WeLead’s.

 Frequently Asked Questions

What is Women’s Haven® Guyana and who leads it?

Women’s Haven® Guyana is the exclusive Guyanese distributor of the Women’s Haven® organic feminine care range, operating from 64 Hadfield Street, Georgetown. It is led by Lexann McPhoy, serial entrepreneur and Chief Executive Officer, who brought the brand to Guyana in 2023. The product range includes 100 per cent organic sanitary pads infused with graphene, yoni steam kits, detox pearls, yoni oil and wash, womb wellness tea, and menstrual cups.

Who is Lexann McPhoy and what businesses does she operate?

Lexann McPhoy is a 2024 recipient of the 25 Influential Women Leaders Award and the first Caribbean woman to reach National Marketing Director with Total Life Changes. She is Managing Director of Lexann’s Nail Creations, Managing Director of NSI Caricom (the regional distributor of NSI Nails across the Caribbean), and Chief Executive Officer of Women’s Haven® Guyana. She is also a Silver Level Global Nail Technician Educator with more than 20 years of professional experience.

What is the WeLead Association and when was WeLead 2026 held?

The WeLead Association is a Guyana-based non-profit founded in 2017 by Abbigale Loncke-Watson to support women entrepreneurs and professionals through mentorship, training, and networking. WeLead 2026 was held on 27 June 2026 at the Pegasus Suites and Corporate Centre in Georgetown under the theme Guyana to the World: Women Building Global Bridges. The conference drew over 300 women leaders from across Guyana and the Caribbean.

Who was the keynote speaker at WeLead 2026?

Melanie Fiona served as keynote speaker at WeLead 2026. Born Melanie Fiona Hallim in Toronto to Guyanese immigrant parents, she is a two-time Grammy Award winner and 2026 JUNO Award recipient for her EP Say Yes. WeLead 2026 marked her first visit to Guyana, the country where both her parents were born.

Why does Women’s Haven® Guyana matter in the context of Guyana’s economic growth?

Women’s Haven® Guyana represents the kind of MSME growth Guyana’s economic transformation depends on: a woman entrepreneur identifying a market gap, building a distribution channel, and expanding a health and wellness category that had no formal presence in the country. As Guyana’s GDP has grown from approximately US$5 billion in 2019 to roughly US$25 billion by 2026, the question of who participates in that growth and how has become central to national policy. Women-led businesses operating in sectors such as organic wellness, beauty, and feminine care are part of the answer.

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