(Tuesday, August 6, 2024)
Sharing, learning and strengthening the global network of reliability professionals are the objectives of the WIRAM Lunch held today at the MaximoWorld Conference 2024, co-located with Tririga World, a ReliabilityWeb® event taking place in Phoenix, Arizona.
WIRAM, Women in Reliability and Asset Management, is an organization affiliated with the Association of Asset Management Professionals and aims to raise the profile of women in asset management, highlighting their contributions and promoting equity, inclusion and diversity in a traditionally male-dominated industry.
WIRAM participates in multiple conferences throughout the year to foster the exchange of knowledge and experiences among its members, and to encourage other women in the reliability industry to join in this work. The organization is divided into chapters spread throughout the world, from where they carry out a series of activities, such as forums and webinars, aimed at strengthening the female presence in the asset management industry, creating new approaches and knowledge, and enriching with their experiences and professionalism both the dynamics they carry out as a group and the profession itself. All this is an important incentive for the next generations, hoping to build a more inclusive, ethical and promising future for all.
Resilience and a view on asset management: the themes of the WIRAM Lunch
Gretchen Gallagher, Executive Vice President, Business Development/Marketing at Interloc Solutions; and Natascha Heyman, EMEA Marketing Manager at Cohesive, were the guest speakers at the event, which was hosted by Maura Abad, Women in Reliability and Asset Management Global Director.
"We are very pleased to be here today, gathered at this WIRAM Lunch, to share the common vision and goals of Women in Reliability and Asset Management. We strive to create professional development opportunities for women in Reliability, for young women starting their careers, to foster the links that make us grow and work better, and to create spaces for reflection and joint action” - said Maura Abad at the beginning of the event.
In her Resilience presentation, Gallagher addressed the challenges faced by leaders in the business world, which are diverse in nature. In industry, not only are skills, intelligence and experience required, but also capabilities related to emotional intelligence, which allow solutions to complex problems to be offered. One of these capabilities is resilience, which “is not about avoiding stress, but about bouncing back stronger. Resilience is not about avoiding challenges, but facing them with strength and adaptability” - explained Gretchen, who has 32 years in business and 16 years as an executive leader.
Natascha Heyman is EMEA Marketing Manager at Cohesive, an organization specializing in digital engineering solutions, enterprise asset management, asset delivery and service performance optimization. She is a global high-performance digital marketing leader with more than 16 years of experience, and her work is firmly tied to the culture of reliability.
Heyman is also WIRAM South Africa Chapter Director, and her presentation “Crossing Continents: Embracing WIRAM's Vision from an African Perspective” expressed the impact enterprise asset management has had in her region. As the brilliant communicator that she is, she explained to the audience the role WIRAM has played in fostering diversity and innovation on the continent. WIRAM is growing thanks to the committed work of thousands of women and men around the world, Africa has recently joined the organization and WIRAM's values have begun to drive beneficial changes for the asset management industry.
MaximoWorld Conference is the place where the leaders, ideas, initiatives, innovation, new perspectives, of an increasingly large and robust asset management industry converge. WIRAM Lunch is one of those initiatives that allow us to understand the scope of our industry and the transformative power of the Reliability culture to achieve the inclusive and secure future we all want to achieve.
