Lucy Quist honored at Ghana Legacy Honours 2017

Airtel Ghana’s Managing Director Lucy Quist was honoured at the maiden Ghana Legacy Awards, alongside 6 other distinguished Ghanaians, for her extraordinary leadership and impact in Corporate Ghana and for her exceptional ability to transform businesses for growth and positive reputation even in the most challenging situations.

Lucy Quist, since taking over the helm of affairs at Airtel Ghana in 2014 has successfully repositioned the company into one that plays a significant role in connecting people to improve their lives. The company has grown under her stewardship with data customers leapfrogging to a strong number 3 position in Ghana’s hyper competitive telecom industry. Currently Airtel has more than 61% of its customers using data – an unprecedented feat in the industry and a glowing tribute to the company’s effort to ensure more Ghanaians are digitally included.

Under her leadership, Airtel Ghana has consistently led the telecom industry in data and digital innovation – providing the best experience and superior offerings to meet the current and future needs of customers.

The company’s innovation agenda has received popular acclaim and customers have responded positively by making Airtel the network of choice for data, enterprise solutions, mobile financial services and tailor made telecom and lifestyle solutions for high value customers.

Through the company’s life transforming Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, thousands of Ghanaians have been sustainably supported through several interventions in health, environment, youth empowerment and education.

Airtel Ghana has also won more than 20 local, regional and international awards over the last two and half years including Best CSR Initiative at the Global Carriers Award in 2016.

The Ghana Legacy Awards, an initiative of Babu Global, seeks to honour Ghanaians who are blazing the trail in their various fields of endeavour. The inaugural honorees, comprises both local and diaspora Ghanaians who have broken glass ceilings in their respective fields and are contributing towards positively projecting Ghana on the global stage.

Mrs Quist picked the Corporate Leadership Award for her exceptional leadership, drive, strategic insight and her commitment to shaping the minds of the next generation of African and global leaders through her mentorship initiatives and the Evolve with STEM project.

Other renowned awards

Lucy has been recognised by several reputable organizations for her transformational and inspirational leadership, her exceptional strategic marketing insights, selfless dedication to growing people and for championing causes that are shaping the lives of young people. Notable among these are – CIMG Marketing Woman of the year (2014), Telecom CEO of the Year (Ghana ICT and Telecoms Award 2016), CSR CEO of the year (Ghana CSR Excellence Awards 2016) and Corporate Personality Award (Ghana Women of the Year Award 2016)

Stem advocate shaping the minds of the next generation of African leaders

Mrs. Quist is a passionate advocate for greater participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). She believes that great leadership will create and demonstrate the right visions while STEM will accelerate development. She also believes that together these should create room for every African to realise their potential and live more fulfilling lives.

To drive a meaningful impact in this space, she passionately leads Airtel Ghana’s Evolve with STEM initiative to transform mindsets, empower and encourage young people to embrace and participate in STEM. This initiative has now impacted more than 3,000 pupils in several schools across the country and contributed to Airtel Ghana’s award for Best CSR initiative at the Africa and Global Carriers Award.

Proudly leading the charge to empower women in Corporate Ghana

She is a founding member of the Executive Women Network, a non-profit organization of women in senior management and executive positions committed to inspiring, empowering and supporting women executives to succeed and become influential both locally and internationally. She is also an ambassador for the W initiative by Access Bank to inspire and promote financial inclusion for women.

Accomplished international speaker on leadership, business and technology

Lucy is an accomplished speaker on many subjects including leadership, business and technology and has been on platforms such as Mobile World Conference, TEDxEUSTON, Wharton Africa Business Forum, the Sanford C. Bernstein Center for Leadership and Ethics Conference at Columbia Business School and the African Development Investment Convention. She was recently featured on BBC’s Power Women series as one of the top business women driving transformational change in Africa.

Award citation

The citation for the award read by Rosa Whitaker, CEO and President of the Whitaker Group, a Washington based consultancy states “There are two general views of how talent is best nurtured and developed. One view is that burgeoning talent should be honed and specialized in a specific art, sharpened and chiseled into an arrowhead aimed at a single task or goal. The other view is that talent should be tested and shaped through varying experiences in a wide range of environments.

While both methodologies have their supporters and merits, the brilliant and eclectic education and career of Lucy Quist provides profound evidence for the validity and likely superiority of the latter method. Her life, education, and career has crisscrossed several countries, fields, and industries, and yet she has found success at whatever she has set her mind to”.

“Lucy Quist, thank you for being an extraordinary example to women of color around the world. On behalf of the Ghana Legacy Honors, I am pleased to present to you the 2017 Award for Impact in Corporate Leadership”.

Grateful for the award

Receiving her award, Mrs Quist said “I am truly honoured to be a recipient of this prestigious award and to be in the company of such accomplished honorees. I want to congratulate all the award winners tonight. It is always inspiring to meet fellow Ghanaians who are willing to dedicate and commit themselves to demonstrate the best of Ghana. And every time a Ghanaian demonstrates the best of Ghana, they blaze the trail for your children, my children and for all the future generations to come. I thank God, I thank you all, the organisers, my family, my team at Airtel”.

She continued “What really motivates and drives me is my firm belief that through business, we can transform our continent. Not only do we want to set examples for our people to be entrepreneurial but we want them to be enterprising on a large scale. We need to mentor our small business owners to grow their enterprises into large businesses – to transform Africa, and of course my beloved Ghana, into the amazing place that I believe and I know is possible. Let us redefine what is normal in Africa.”

Other distinguished honorees

Lucy Quist was honoured alongside reputable business magnate Sir Sam Jonah, renowned U.K. based fashion designer Ozwald Boateng, head of the anti-corruption unit at the African Development Bank Anna Bossman, world-renowned architect Sir David Adjaye, tech innovator Herman Chinery-Hesse and young Scholar Shadrack Frimpong.