While not scheduled to open the Women in Public Life conference originally, last night's keynote speaker Cheryl Packwood seemed to embody everything the event celebrates - the drive, beauty, intelligence, strength, versatility, perseverance and power of women.

Ms Packwood, a Bermudian who has been living in Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), for the past 13 years, stepped in at the last moment for scheduled speaker US Congresswoman Diane Watson in "true Bermudian spirit", noted conference chair Tourism and Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb.

Trained as a lawyer, Ms Packwood arrived in the Ivory Coast on the "Love Boat" - the euphemism used in the country for foreign spouses.

Since that time, her high profile role at the top of a telecommunications firm has earned her the nickname "Iron Lady" among the government of the troubled African nation.

"Four weeks ago today, I was lying on the floor of my son's bedroom ... with my three children ... while machine gun fire and explosive grenades sounded for almost six hours," Ms Packwood said last night.

"We later found out that these events were just the beginning of a major crisis which would throw our lives and those of people around us into upheaval and turmoil."

Ivory Coast was experiencing a coup d'etat in full throttle.

While not the first in Ms Packwood's time in the country, it was the most bloody and would wrack the reputation of the nation once considered the most stable in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the past four weeks, hundreds have died and tens of thousands have fled for their lives as civil war has swept the nation.

Ms Packwood has removed her three sons from the danger but noted that her husband remains in Abidjan "trying to carry on at the African Development Bank".

Ms Packwood assumed her role at the head of Cora, a Western Wireless-owned cellular phone company in 2000, shortly after Ivory Coast's first, bloodless coup d'etat in December, 1999.

"Because of the coup, the company could not obtain on the international financial markets, financing to build out and develop the network," she said.

"Because it was a bloodless coup, the new owners initially put up the capital for the initial investments. However, as the year progressed, the political situation deteriorated.

"A civilian government did manage to come to power. But it was a government without popular mandate, won upon exclusion of all the major candidates. There were successive coup attempts."

Worse yet for the company, an individual close to the new government tried to claim its ownership.

"Using an ineffective and corrupt judicial system, he obtained a judgment which he used to claim he was owner of the company," Ms Packwood said.

She was facing an unsavoury and dangerous man - an arms dealer who has been placed on the UN Security Council sanction list for his activities.

In May 2001, he appeared on her doorstep with 50 heavily-armed soldiers and tossed her and the company's 160 employees out of the building. But Ms Packwood did not surrender so easily.

Within 12 hours, following extensive meetings with the Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, another set of armed guards removed the invader.

But he would repeatedly threaten the company for the next year. "Each time, I was required to call upon the Ivorian government for armed protection," Ms Packwood said.

In the end, the company paid the man off but its problems continued to mount. The new government decided to place a $55 million dollar retroactive licence fee on cellular phone operations and slapped it with a $10 million tax bill.

"Needless to say, for almost a year I was in the Press on a regular basis," Ms Packwood said.

She continued: "Our company seemed to be a microcosm for all the problems associated with doing business in Africa: judicial corruption and lack of transparency, chronic tax harassment from a government looking for desperately needed money, issues relating to security of property and human life."

Ms Packwood restructured the company and continued to navigate the pitfalls.

"When I though I could just see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, there was yet another coup attempt on September 19, 2002," she said. "This time it was not over in three or four days. Instead, what was toted as a small mutiny within the military turned into a full scale rebellion and 40 percent of the country fell into control of the rebels.

"We re-opened our officer the Monday after the attempted coup with limited hours due to a curfew.

"However, that night, loyalists forced went to our network operations centre and proceeded to fire on our premises with automatic weapons and cut cables with the intent of taking our network.

"They failed but the damage to morale was apparent and I realised that it was time to leave, or at least, get my children out of the country.

"The US Embassy decided to evacuate US personnel and citizens at the same time as well. I do not know today how it will all turn out."

Despite the immense setbacks, Ms Packwood noted Africa has given her a privileged life and fulfilling career opportunities.

"I have not suffered the problems of sex and race discrimination as defined by the Western World, except from my fellow Westerners," she said. "I would say that in Africa, I have been able to develop professionally to much of my full potential without the difficulties known to the Western World. "I have not felt the glass ceiling."

Ms Packwood said access to childcare has been easier in Ivory Coast than it might have been elsewhere and family connections remain paramount in African life. Despite the recent turmoil, she holds hope that President Laurent Gbagbo can lead Ivory Coast progressively and peacefully.

"He is a very bright man but without much needed assistance of not only a financial but also a technical nature, the country and its government are in for very difficult time," Ms Packwood said.

Offering a glimmer of hope, President Gbagbo said yesterday he was prepared to accept a West African peace plan that starts with a ceasefire already agreed by rebels, according to news reports.