VICKY BIDS FAREWELL

THE management of Unilever Ghana has held a farewell cocktail for Mrs Vicky Wereko-Andoh, a former Corporate Relations Manager of the company, after 19 years of dedicated service.
In attendance were management members and staff of Unilever, trade and business partners of the company, as well as some media practitioners.
Addressing the gathering, the Chief Executive Officer of Unilever Ghana, Mr Charles Cofie, paid glowing tribute to Mrs Wereko-Andoh, saying she had helped deepen the company’s engagement with all the different media in the country.
Moreover, she had fostered a warm motherly relationship and built that over the years with all the company’s partners.
Mr Cofie said in finding a replacement for her, Unilever had endeavoured to find one who would step into what he termed the “gigantic shoes” of Mrs Wereko-Andoh and build on the good work she had left behind.
That person is Ms Bernice Natue, who he said was “a person new to the role but not new to most partners” of the organisation.
He said Ms Natue had been with Unilever for 11 years and had served in customer, development and marketing functions in the organisation and expressed his confidence in her ability to take on the role.
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Unilever Foundation for Education and Development (UFED), Mr Andrew Quayson, who had worked with Mrs Wereko-Andoh in the early 1990s, said she was “one of the best organised managers” he had ever come across.
He added that her rapport and ability to communicate with all partners, particularly the media, had helped to enhance the image of Unilever, while her commitment and innovation had helped in the achievement of targets by the organisation.
A former President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Ms Ajoa Yeboah-Afari, said Mrs Wereko-Andoh had always been and would always be a part of the media in Ghana.
The Chief Executive Officer of Ad Media, Mr Emmanuel Addo, wished Mrs Wereko-Andoh God’s blessings as she embarked on a new phase in her life, while challenging Ms Natue to sustain the relationships and associations built over the years by her predecessor.
Ms Natue, in her remarks, said she felt honoured to be stepping into the shoes of Mrs Wereko-Andoh, which, though “big”, were “beautiful”.
She said having been a protégé of Mrs Wereko-Andoh’s, she was hopeful of making Unilever’s relationships more beautiful with the continuing help of her mentor.
She said Mrs Wereko-Andoh’s diplomacy and her commitment to corporate relations functions were the two key characteristics she was going to emulate as she took over.
Mrs Wereko-Andoh, for her part, was grateful to all media practitioners in the country who had, during her tenure, made the effort most of the time to clarify issues with Unilever before going to press.
Describing her retirement as a “readjustment”, she said she was going back to the media “where I will stay”.
She later told the Daily Graphic that she would use her experience gained from her years of work to transform public relations and communication in the country.
She said although those were specialised management tools, they were practised haphazardly in the country and so she would endeavour to restore the kind of respectful face into the public relations function in the country.
Mr Cofie presented Mrs Wereko-Andoh with two sets of jewellery, while Mr Quayson and Prof Kwame Gyekye, a former Board Chairman of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, presented her with an art work depicting dancers carved in stone.
DAILY GRAPHIC, MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2008, PG 39