MONIQUE French, chief credit officer at CIBC FirstCaribbean, is the winner of the 2021 WeQual Award.

She aced 24 female executives of some of the biggest companies in the Americas identified as having the leadership traits for top-level executive management positions. She was one of three finalists in the finance category in this year’s award, a first for the Caribbean.

The WeQual Awards recognise outstanding women in senior roles.With a mission to tackle the slow progress in appointing women to executive positions, the organisation aims to make businesses more inclusive by identifying exceptional women executives and address the gender imbalance across the world’s executive committees.

Katie Litchfield, founder and CEO of WeQual Awards, devised the new platform which calls for senior female executives to build their case as to why they deserve to be appointed to the executive committee.

Nigel Holness, managing director of CIBC FirstCaribbean congratulated French “on her achievements in advancing the contribution and recognition of women in finance as well as women in Jamaica and across the Caribbean”.

French has extensive experience in the financial services industry, including leadership positions in credit & investments, risk management, treasury, sales & trading, reporting & analytics. An executive with a depth of expertise in treasury, retail, small business, corporate, sovereign and private banking segments, she is presently the group-wide chief credit officer for the CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank across all the territories in which the FirstCaribbean Group operates.

French has served on various for profit, community, non-profit, industry and economic committees and boards and currently serves as a director and the Governance Committee Chair of CFA Society Jamaica (industry association). French earned the CFA Charter in 2000, in addition to holding a BSc in Accounting degree with first-class honours from The University of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica) and an MBA from The University of Western Ontario, completing the Canadian securities course (CSC) and financial risk manager (FRM) designation.