Tootli Rahman elected new WEA president

Event planning pioneer Tootli Rahman has recently been elected as the president of Women Entrepreneur Association of Bangladesh for the 2020-22 tenure.

The non-profit organisation also elected Mahjabeen Hashim as general secretary, the association said in a statement yesterday.

The organisation organised a virtual election on July 4 where it chose Rubina Hussain as first vice-president, Noorjahan Shahab as second vice-president, Sanjida B Haque as joint secretary, Nilufar Siddiqui as treasurer and Khurshida Rahman as joint treasurer.

The association also elected its new directors -- Nilufer Karim, Badrun Nahar, Aklima Sultana Soni, Afroza Naznin Shumi, Nasreen Khan Anni and Shireen Dutt.

The board will run the organisation for the next two years, according to the statement.

"We are learning fast the different ways of going online and how to do meetings on Zoom.

 We plan to organise advocacy, training programmes, webinars and also interesting online shows, to bring positivity during the pandemic," said the new WEA president Tootli Rahman.

Rahman is a renowned entrepreneur, fashion designer and event planner in Bangladesh.

WEA was formed to promote the interests of women in business.

The organisation has promoted women in different sectors like garment, ornaments, handicrafts, handloom, leather products, pharmaceuticals, customer service and ICT.

The association was established in 1993 with 15 members. Today, the WEA has 150 members.

"Now the members of WEA are all well-grounded and doing very well," the association said in the statement.