Lifetime Achievement Award

Each year, TIAW bestows the  Lifetime Achievement Award whereby we  recognize one woman who has truly made a difference in the lives many, many women of over years – and likely decades.

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Erica Berkenpas is an optimist. Not because her career has taught her that things always work out, but because she has spent more than two decades seeing what people can build in circumstances where very little does.

For more than two decades, Erica has worked in places shaped by war, violent extremism, political transition, and institutional fragility. Much of that career has been spent leading USAID-funded projects, work she has understood not simply as a profession, but as service to her country, to the communities those projects existed to support, and to a larger public good.

Women and girls have been an intentional focus throughout her career. In many of the places where Erica has worked, their exclusion is not only common, but accepted. During war and crisis, investing in women and girls is treated as something to address later, after the life-and-death problems have been solved. Erica has never accepted that premise. She has directed resources to women-led organizations and businesses, brought women into decisions about how resources are used, and backed their ideas with funding, opportunity and authority.

Most recently, Erica led one of Ukraine’s largest wartime rapid response and recovery portfolio, valued at more than $180 million and reaching more than 1,200 frontline communities. As war transformed families and the workforce, women were central to how communities survived and adapted. Her work invested millions of dollars in women-led businesses, helped women prepare for new professional roles, supported underground schools where children could learn safely, expanded psychosocial care for women and girls affected by wartime violence, and provided childcare and community support so women could work and learn.

Working with women as partners, leaders and problem-solvers in communities around the world has been one of the great privileges of Erica’s career; but the part of her career she is most proud of is the workplaces she created for women.

Erica came of age professionally in environments where she saw older women keep younger women down, women do the work while men received the credit, and talented women become so valuable in a role that their competence could work against their advancement. When Erica began leading teams and units of her own, she knew what she would not reproduce and what she wanted to build instead.

We are delighted to celebrate Erica’s lifetime commitment to the empowerment of women.

Mandy Goetze Award

TIAW bestows the Mandy Goetze Award to a TIAW member who has made an outstanding contribution to the organisation, whether it is a long-standing effort or an exceptional achievement in a specific time frame.

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Christina is an award-winning International Motivational Speaker, Transformation Consultant and Author with an international footprint.  With a 29-year pedigree in business, as the CEO of Aquitude Worldwide, she has worked with hundreds of women from across the globe in managing their careers and transitions. Christina is also the founder of Top of Her Game, a platform enabling women to be on their Peak Performance and breaking stereotypes of women in the Gulf Cooperation Countries.

A natural disruptor, she has been recognized by the UK Government as a ‘Leader in Women in Business’ and has received The International Alliance for Women’s 100 World of Difference Award in Washington DC.

Her first book, ‘Your Loss: How to Win Back your Female Talent’, provided a framework for building internal engagement within corporations to increase employee retention and redress the leaking pipeline of female talent. Her second book ‘Reboot, Rebuild, Reconquer – Thriving in Uncertainty’, provides corporate leaders and their employees with a toolkit for transformation in the era of AI.

Christina has been a vocal spokesperson on Gender-Savvy Leadership and Corporate Culture, Inclusive Marketing Communications; as such, she was selected to be the Chairwoman of the ’Marketing to Women’ Conferences by Gulf Marketing Review Magazine (Dubai) in 2015 and 2016. She was also selected as the spokesperson for the UK’s Chartered Management Institute’s Gender Salary Reports in both 2011 and 2012.  

Christina has been invited to comment by the press worldwide, including on Emirates News – Dubai One TV, DubaiOne Radio, Bloomberg TV, Sky News, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Evening Standard, The Guardian, Marie Claire, to name but a few.  

TIAW is grateful for Christina’s ongoing and incredible dedication to our work – and to recognise her with this signature award.