Lucy Quist: Breaking barriers as Airtel CEO, gender was my biggest challenge

Lucy Quist, the author of “The Bold New Normal,” has highlighted that gender remains a hurdle for women taking up leadership roles in the telecommunications sector. 

Reflecting on her experience as the first Ghanaian woman to head a multinational telecom company, Quist shared her insights during an interview on the Asaase Breakfast Show (ABS) on Thursday (24 October).

Quist, who became CEO of Airtel Ghana Limited—now AirtelTigo—at the age of 40, initially believed her age was going to be the biggest challenge she would faced in the role. 

However, she soon discovered that it was her gender that drew the most attention.

“When I became the CEO of Airtel at the time, my personal biggest concern was my age,” Quist said. “I thought, ‘oh, people will say, she’s not that old.’ That was the only thing I was thinking about.”

Quist recalled that, in her entire tenure as CEO, only one person expressed concern about her age. “Everyone else, including the media; it was my gender. It was the gender that was the news; it wasn’t the age.”

Despite the challenges, Quist shared how she approaches these situations. “When I step into an environment, I don’t think about myself first as a woman; I am a woman, but it’s one of the things I am,” she said.

“I know physically that’s the thing that people see immediately but you have to think of yourself in all the other guises of yourself; they’re all part of who you are.”

As the first Ghanaian woman to lead a major telecom company, Quist’s journey is a testament to breaking through barriers. 

She served as CEO of Airtel Ghana Limited from 2014 to 2017, during which time she navigated the biases she encountered with resilience.

Addressing the subject of gender bias, Quist emphasised that the issue often lies in the minds of others. 

“I always tell myself that if you have a bias against women or against someone like me, it’s a product of your socialisation; it’s not because of anything I have said or done,” she said. 

“It’s your mind that has been created that way because of what you’ve been taught. So I always remind myself that, Lucy, someone else’s bias is not your problem.”

She continued, “The fact that you have a bias doesn’t mean I should carry it. I need to step forward and be the best of myself and then maybe it will influence your bias or become a data point, contributing to your understanding that you shouldn’t feel that way about women.”

Quist’s advice to women facing similar biases is simple yet powerful: “If you walk around embracing other people’s biases, you will never get anything done in this world.”

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