PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Dear colleagues and friends,

I often reflect on the wisdom imparted to me during my adolescent years and recently decided that there were two really important maxims that my dad certainly lived by and find that I now live by:

"Never, never give up”

"ALWAYS do your best”

Along the way I developed my own list of things that I found to be important and valuable, both to me and to others.  It is often difficult as a woman to develop the competence and confidence to get things done through others, to tell our story, and to become fearless.  I shared them with my daughter as she took over as the president of my company recently, and I’d like to share them with you.

• Be connected, and connect others
• Be confident, never worried that failure might happen.  It will.
• Be courageous
• Be cordial; everyone likes to feel better by having spoken with you
• Be compassionate; caring about others returns 100-fold
• Be clear.  As the late Dr. Stephen Covey said, "seek first to understand, then to be understood”
• Be creative; it always conquers the impossible
• Be convicted; let people know what you stand for and never give in to what you don’t
• Be consistent.  Nothing is as fair as consistency or as predictable as its results.
• Be constant.  There’s no off-duty for servant leaders.

Remember that ‘doing’ is always easy; it is ‘being’ that takes great care and steady development.

Building leadership capacity is a large part of what we help you do in TIAW.  As a founding partner of the Forte Foundation’s Global Board-Ready Women initiative, we are pleased to offer our members the opportunity to join the GBRW LinkedIn group.  New this year we’ll bring you webinars to help you with business planning and personal development; watch for them on our calendar of events.  

Every successful woman inspires other women.  Thank you for inspiring me.  
 

Lisa Kaiser Hickey

President

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TIAW Partners With Cherie Blair Foundation

As we all know, The International Alliance for Women was founded with one clear aim in mind – to make a difference for women around the world, focusing primarily on economic empowerment. And, as an alliance of organizations, we are focused on making connections not only to benefit our member organizations, but to provide information and support to their individual members as well.

This year, TIAW’s Entrepreneurship program announces a new partnership with the Cherie Blair Foundation’s (CBF) Mentoring Women in Business initiative. Since 2010, this program has matched nearly 1,000 mentors and protégées from 55 countries to provide guidance and encouragement to nascent and new women business owners. As any of you who have ever been mentored, you know that the support you received went well beyond specific business skills and knowledge. And for you who have been mentors during your career, you know that you get as much out of the relationship as did your protégée. 

We’d like to invite any of you who are interested in either being a mentor or being mentored to learn more about this exciting program. Visit the CBF Mentoring web page to learn about the benefits and level of commitment. Formal mentoring partnerships will last for a 12-month period, and are conducted primarily electronically. There’ll be training and support along the way and, believe us, you’ll find the experience both invaluable and enjoyable.

And, as a partner with the CBF on this program, we’d like to open the doors of opportunity for you to be a mentor, or to be mentored. There will be three cohorts of mentoring partnerships forming in 2013. The first wave is open now. Join in by completing an online application form here: http://www.cbfwmentoring.org/apply-now before the end of February. 

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PIAC Promotes Launch of Global Board Ready Women (GBRW)

The President's International Advisory Council (PIAC)'s 2013 program goals will be to engage the Association Members' Presidents, TIAW Global Ambassadors, and TIAW Past Presidents in providing thought leadership and supporting TIAW's mission as well as helping to enhance the Member Associations' complementary goals. Areas of focus in the coming year will include:

• women on corporate boards
• membership
• marketing

The PIAC recently promoted the launch of the Global Board Ready Women (GBRW) initiative and establishment of a global searchable database to help identify women who are suitable to be considered for corporate board positions.  More information about the GBRW initiative and TIAW's partnership can be found in this link to the press release.

Member Association Presidents should have received details about this member benefit opportunity in a communication that was distributed in December 2012.  To be part of the action, be sure to sign up for TIAW's LinkedIn Group and the GBRW LinkedIn Group.

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TIAW Attends Stellar Meeting of European Leaders Honouring World of Difference Award Winner

On December 13^th, 2012, as office tower lights twinkled in the early evening darkness across the Dutch city of Utrecht, a group of the Netherlands’ most influential business leaders gathered at the elegant top floor corporate offices of Rabobank to celebrate the achievements of businesswoman, politician and advocate, Sybilla Dekker on the occasion of her receiving a 2012 TIAW World of Difference 100 award.

Sponsored by Rabobank, the dinner was being held by the Rosenblatt Committee, an influential group of women that was founded in 2003 to counter the notion that there are not enough qualified women for business leadership and board positions.

Among those attending were longtime TIAW member and Awards Honorary Chair, Ineke Bussemaker; past TIAW World of Difference Award recipients Monika Milz and Corinne Heijn; TIAW Past Presidents Diane Morris and Stephanie MacKendrick; and current TIAW Board member Cristina Vicini.

The 2012 TIAW World of Difference Award was presented to Ms. Dekker at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC as part of the annual TIAW Global Forum in October, 2012. The awards honor women and men who have made a "world of difference” to the economic empowerment of women. In 2012 nominations were received from more than 75 countries on six continents.

Ms. Dekker has long been a powerful influencer and role model in the Netherlands, serving as Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment after a distinguished career in social work, the civil service and as a director of the Dutch Association of Construction Industry Employers and as general director of the Dutch Employers Association. In addition to being a trailblazer in non-tradition leadership roles, throughout her career Sybilla has been a champion of women’s advancement and equal opportunity.

"Sybilla Dekker has led by example and encouraged others by taking on many difficult assignments that were not traditional roles for women and she has been a staunch advocate for the inclusion of more women on corporate boards,” said TIAW Awards Committee Chair, Stephanie MacKendrick. "We commend the Rosenblatt Committee the outstanding work they do and for taking a leadership role in nominating Sybilla. The more we can shine a light on the women throughout the world who are making a difference to women’s economic empowerment and the more we encourage women, men and organizations to follow their lead, the stronger the world’s businesses and societies will be in the future,” she said.

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Corporate Women Leaders Program (CWL) Aims to Further Develop Tools and Programs in 2013

The objective of the Corporate Women Leaders (CWL) Program is to connect corporate women members, inform about challenges faced by women in their professional environment, build connections on a global level and provide help to women seeking executive positions with achieving their professional goals. 

In 2013, we aim at further developing tools and programs that will assist women in getting prepared for successful senior executive or board service. In particular, we will enhance the TIAW’s Women on Boards Toolkit currently offered to individual members, to ensure that it provides all necessary elements for women to perform an assess of their credentials, as well as getting a deeper understanding of requirements to access such position. 

As a global organization, we also intend to assist associations in determining specific governance issues in their region, industry or country.

 Additionally, educating populations about the state of women on board remains one of the main focus of the CWL program. As such, we will identify possible events and media channels that could be leveraged to promote the importance of getting more women in the Boardroom. 

We would like to invite any of you having an interest in getting actively involved in developing this program to join our committee. Please visit the CWL program webpage to get more information.

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Meet New CWL Program Director: Isabelle Bordas

Please welcome, Isabelle Bordas, TIAW’s newly elected Director of the Corporate Women Leaders (CWL) Program. The CWL Program connects corporate women members, designed to build connections on a global level through topical conversations and relevant information.

The program encourages member associations to meet with business leaders, government officials, search firms and women’s organizations to ensure there is a strong support for enhancing women in corporate leadership positions.

Ms. Bordas was elected in December of 2012. She has previously been fulfilling the role of Charter Member Representative Director of the TIAW Board of Directors.

Ms. Bordas is an accomplished Senior Manager with Deloitte and Touche, LLP with over 12 years of extensive experience in accounting and financial reporting. She started her career in the audit practice in Paris where she served major clients of the firm for more than 8 years. In 2008, she joined the advisory practice in the New York office and has since then assisted clients facing challenges related to technical accounting and financial reporting. She is fluent in French (native language) and English.

Isabelle is honored to be elected as the Director of the CWL program and is looking forward working with a fantastic group of women over the coming months.