By Akola Thompson

IN GUYANA, very few women ever ascend to senior positions at large companies, and remain there. Serving her eighth year as Managing Director of ANSA McAL, the formidable Beverly Harper is one of those few women who have managed to break barriers and successfully work in what is seemingly ‘a man’s world’.

Born in a small town in Germany called Rinteln, to a Guyanese father and an English mother, Beverly, from a young age, developed a ‘thick skin’ and learned to read people well.

Being of mixed ethnicity in a predominantly Caucasian environment, Beverly was often subjected to both covert and overt racism, as were her other siblings. She being the darkest of the set, however, had more taunts directed at her.

Her father, who was in the army, was of the belief that small villages were better than towns, as towns tend to be more racial. He would often say, she said, that “once people got to know you, they no longer look at the colour of your skin.”

However, those things, she mused, only happen with adults, and not children. Also, her father did not consider that sufficient time was needed to form relationships with others. Almost every two years, the family would move to different areas or countries in which her father was stationed, so it was very hard to form lasting relationships with people. Despite where they went, however, Beverly and her siblings were taunted for their colour.

She amusingly recounted a story of when she was at the age of 13 or 14 and had borrowed her sister’s brassiere to go to the corner shop. Feeling very confident in herself now that she had breasts, Beverly, upon passing a group of boys who asked her if her name was Rachel, answered and said, “No, my name’s Beverly.” Immediately, they all began laughing and shouting racial prejudices, she said.

“I was devastated. I had gone out feeling good about myself, only to realise that they don’t even look at you other than for the colour of your skin,” she said.

Unfortunately, strangers were not the only ones whom Beverly knew practised racism; her grandparents had refused to attend her mother’s wedding. “Grandma would have attended,” she said, “but in those days a woman did what her man told her to do, and my grandfather was not approving of the marriage…It was not until the birth of my older brother that they rekindled their relationship with mom,” she disclosed.

In her teenage years, Beverly, for the first time, came to Guyana; and had a culture shock, but claimed that, within two weeks, she did not want to go back to England.

WOW

On the first day of her now 15th high school, which would be her last – Bishops’, Beverly was greatly comforted that she would be normal here, as the first thought entering her mind was: “Wow, I don’t look different.”

After completing her A levels, Beverly, upon the recommendation of a friend, travelled to Germany and became an au pair to a Jewish family. The couple, whose families had moved them to Brazil before the war started, she said, were extremely kind and often would tell her stories of the things their families had gone through in Hitler’s reign.

“Remembering those stories now,” she said, “makes me worry about all the silliness that’s going on here in Guyana, and worry about Trump becoming President.

“I think its fear,” she added, “fear that you’re not superior to someone, especially if you were brought up to think you are”.

Following her short stint as an au pair, Beverly, gaining her Marketing and Business Management degree, returned to the place she considered home, Guyana.

Newly qualified and entering the job market, Beverly claimed she made a mistake all young adults seem to make, and turned down jobs, as they were not what she was exactly looking for.

Eventually, she became a marketing assistant at the Timber Export Marketing Board. She then moved to GPC, which was at the time headed by ‘Gussy’. “Gussy took everybody coming back with degrees,” she laughed. “It was almost as if he was standing at the airport saying, ‘come, come, we have space for you’.”

With every job she changed, Beverly climbed higher and higher up the ladder, reaching what she considers to be one of her greatest achievements when she became managing Director at ANSA McAL.

Before securing her current job, she had been a Marketing Manager at Bryden and Fernandes. “I was called up by my head hunters who said they had a job opportunity, so I just wanted to see what I was worth,” she said jokingly.

Halfway through the interview, she was asked what would be her thoughts if she were offered the position of Managing Director.

“I picked up my chin from the floor and then proceeded on another footing, because this was interesting,” she said, adding: “You have to remember (that) there are very few women in such positions. Right now, there are only two that I know of in the country: Colleen Patterson from Grace Kennedy, and Patricia Bacchus.”

One of the few women currently holding a senior position in an international company, Beverly commented on the need for the business community to catch up with the age.

TREMENDOUS DISADVANTAGE

Women, she believes, face tremendous disadvantages in the business environment, even if they are more qualified than their male counterparts. This, she gathered, is a result of those in charge coming with their preconceived and often wrong notions regarding women.

While she values those who have an abundance of experience under their belts, she is of the opinion that there are too many senior men involved in the running of businesses, and not enough attention is being given to either age or gender, whereas the best boards pay attention to these.

“That’s why so many young women are not placed into high positions; their first instinct is to see whether she is of child-bearing age, and wonder if they’ll lose her for six months; and they don’t want to invest in her,” Beverly opined.

Despite her formidable and headstrong character, Beverly revealed that she knows of the issues facing many women, as she herself has been a victim of some.

During her pregnancy with her daughter, she said, her employers at the time, a locally based company, did not believe she could perform her duties anymore.

Due to childbearing difficulties, she had been ordered on bed rest, at which time the employers tried to terminate her employment. Having her lawyer write a letter, Beverly sent it to them, who then decided to settle the matter rather than taking it to court. She resigned immediately after.

Trying to climb the proverbial professional ladder with a daughter, she believes, affected the amount of nurturing she would have liked to provide to her daughter.

CHALLENGING TIME

“It was difficult, as I was a single mother. As I was going up the ladder, there were lots of times I had to travel a lot, but I had the most wonderful helper, ‘Sita’, and my family also,” she said.

Her daughter, she said, has grown into an extraordinary young woman of whom they are all proud.

Despite all the challenges she has faced in her personal and professional life, Beverly is proud of her accomplishments, and believes those challenges made her into a better and stronger woman for her daughter and herself in general.

“What I wanted to do is show Chelsea how to do it, and I know she’ll be able to do it when her time comes,” she said.

Aside from her daughter, Beverly considers one of her greatest accomplishments to be the “the new way”, she has brought “to managing a company”. She stressed the idea that business environments should always try to create families, as ANSA McAL does. Aside from the policy of always having an open door, Beverly revealed, on everyone’s birthday a lunch is done, other staff members are invited, and they “talk about all kinds of things”.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re the guy lifting the cases or a manager of a division, we all get together and celebrate,” she said.

But while Beverly became one of few women to enter and succeed in ‘a man’s world,’ she believes that the only way for many more barriers to be broken down for women is for them to be mentored. “Let’s start mentoring them,” she said, adding: “Tell them they can, tell them to find their passion, and work towards it.”