President and members welcome new constituent during ExCo meeting

Miami (November 11, 2013) – The General Secretary of the Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association (TCIFA), Sonia Bien-Aime, was appointed a member of the CONCACAF Executive Committee on November 9. During the most recent ExCo meeting held in Montego Bay, Jamaica, members congratulated Bien-Aime for her valuable contribution to football as she accepted her new leadership role within the Confederation.

“It is a great source of pride for CONCACAF that Sonia Bien-Aime is joining its Executive Committee,” said CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb.  “Her experience and unique perspective will be invaluable as both CONCACAF and FIFA continues to evolve. I applaud Sonia’s accomplishments thus far and know that her impact moving forward will be substantial.”

Bien-Aime is also one of three women on FIFA’s Executive Committee — joining Lydia Nsekera, who was a co-opted member before being voted to the full 25-person committee at the same Congress, and Australia’s Moya Dodd. This landmark inclusion of the three women at the helm of the governing body has been widely acclaimed as an important step in FIFA’s reform process.

“I would like to thank President Webb and the members of CONCACAF’s Executive Committee for their warm welcome and appreciation of my work in football,” said Bien-Aime. “I will fully embrace this responsibility and commit to providing my best guidance in order to make a genuine contribution to the region, especially in women’s football.”

In addition to her new post, Bien-Aime’s also serves as Deputy Chair of the Women’s Technical Committee and is a member of the Women’s Championship Committee at CONCACAF. Furthermore, she serves on four key standing committees at FIFA: Organizing Committee for the FIFA World Cup, FIFA Women’s Committee and FIFA Women’s World Cup, Organizing Committee for the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup and is the Deputy Chairwoman of the Organizing Committee of the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup.

During the meeting, the Executive Committee also discussed goals for the year ahead and long term strategies to continue enhancing the process of reform within CONCACAF. Present at the meeting were CONCACAF Vice-Presidents for the three regions, Alfredo Hawit (Central America), Justino Compean (North America) and Captain Horace Burrell (Caribbean) as well as members Luis Hernandez, Eduardo Li and Victor Montagliani, CONCACAF Representative to the FIFA Executive Committee Sunil Gulati, and CONCACAF General Secretary, Enrique Sanz.

A former athlete, Bien-Aime represented her country internationally in track and field events, softball and as the captain of the Turks & Caicos Islands women’s national football team. After moving away from the playing field, a passion for football still burned and she dedicated herself to a career in administration. In 2006, she was appointed to the position of General Secretary of the TCIFA and, six years later, became the first woman elected to an executive post in the Caribbean Football Union.