BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
2008 IWF Cornerstone Conference
May 6 - 8, 2008

 

As South America ushers in the Era of La Presidenta, women could soon lead a majority of the continent's population. The movement started at South America's southern tip, where Chile elected Michele Bachelet president in 2006 and Argentina followed in 2007 with the first elected female president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Now, with upcoming elections slated in Paraguay in April 2008 and former education minister Blanca Ovelar endorsed by outgoing President Nicanor Duarte, and with Dilma Rousseff lined up in Brazil as President Luiz Inázio Lula da Silva's favored successor, women in Latin America are rising to top positions at a time when voters across the region are searching for fresh faces to chart new economic and political models.

 

With a growing thunder emanating from the campaign of possibly the first woman to be nominated to head her party's ticket for President of the United States, and electoral history being made in France where the first woman recently ran for President, and the first woman President now in sight in South Africa with the signaled interest of the Foreign Minister to head the ruling African National Congress, the rising tide is gaining momentum around the world. It is strengthened by an expanding universe of recently elected female heads of state in Liberia and Germany ; and women leaders heading up the parliaments and legislatures from Bahrain to Norway to Georgia!

 

In Argentina on May 6-8, 2008, IWF will present women leaders rising across the South American continent and around the world and look inside the trends boosting the public's appetite for a new brand of leadership, a new hope, and a more comprehensive approach to solving the challenges that confront the world. With high expectations for the changes that are expected of a new generation of women leaders, and with the suffering of the bottom billion living at the base of the economic scale, democracy's fragility is heightened as elected women leaders take up the mantle of responsibility and authority to provide a new approach. For some nations struggling to establish stable democracies after years of financial crisis and dictatorship, hopes are high that women leaders will bring new answers to vexing challenges that confront the world.

 

Join IWF in uncovering what kind of world do we want; what's at stake; where this new wave will take us, and the implications for women as we shape economic growth, social well-being and future prosperity.

 

Maria Eugenia Estenssoro	Luisa Cerar	Esther Silver-Parker
President, IWF Argentina	Conference Chair	IWF President

 

 

 

 

Videos from the 2007 IWF World Leadership Conference

in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

 

 

 

IWF retrospective video presented at the 2007 Conference Closing Luncheon celebrating 25 years of IWF.

More conference videos are available:

 

Watch highlights from Plenary Session I

Changing the World - Leading the Future

 

Featuring: Catherine Bertini (Moderator), former Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program and Professor of Public Administration, Syracuse University; The Most Honourable Portia Simpson Miller, Former Prime Minister of Jamaica & Opposition Leader; and The Honourable Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland & Director, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative. With an introduction by Past IWF President Gay Cook.

 

Watch highlights from Plenary Session II

Women Executives - The Face of a New Generation - Driving Change

 

Featuring: Gloria Scoby (Moderator), Senior Vice President and Group Publisher, Crain Communications; Linda Dillman, EVP, Risk Management, Benefits & Sustainability, Wal-Mart; Padmasree Warrior, EVP & Chief Technology Officer, Motorola; and Beth Brooke, Global Vice Chair, Ernst & Young.

 

Watch highlights from the Thursday Luncheon Program

Women of Thought - Shaping the Future

 

Featuring: Donna Carroll (Moderator), President of Dominican University; Rivka Carmi, President, Ben-Gurion University, Israel; Silvia Sioli de Torres Carbonell, Director, IAE Business School, Universidad Austral, Argentina; and Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Makerere University, Uganda.

 

Watch highlights from Plenary Session III

Shaping Prospects for Improved Health & Longevity - Into the Future

 

Featuring: Andrea Dunaif, MD (Moderator), Chief, Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Molecular Medicine, Northwestern University; Elizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor, Psychology & Social Behavior, University of California , Irvine; Ellen Heber-Katz, Professor of Molecular & Cellular Oncogenesis Program, the Wistar Institute; Carolyn Porco, Leader of the Cassini Imaging Team; Irene Pepperberg, Harvard University Psychologist; Mina Teicher, Professor of Mathematics, Bar-Ilan University; Chief Scientist, Israeli Ministry of Sciences & Technology; and Chairman, Council for Advancement.

 

Watch Highlights from Plenary Session IV

Taking it to the Future - A New Generation Speaks Out

 

Featuring: Esther Bush (Moderator), President and CEO, Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh; Alicia Enciso, Principal Consultant, Zyman Group, Mexico; Molly Tschang, Director, International Programs, Internet Business Solutions Group, Cisco; Vivian Lau, CEO, Junior Achievement, Hong Kong; Erika Alexander, RVP Select & Extended Stay Lodging, Marriott International, Inc. USA; Lise Taylor, Technical Director, Black & Veatch , United Kingdom; Totsie Memela-Khambula, Managing Director, Postbank, South Africa; Malka Nir, F18 Engineering Department Manager, Intel Electronics, Israel; and Joan McGlockton, Founder & President, JRM Consulting, USA. With an introduction by Ludmila Shvetsova, First Deputy Mayor of Moscow.

 

Watch highlights from the Closing Luncheon

25 Years at IWF - Women Who Changed the World - Shaping the Future

 

Featuring: Gay Cook (Moderator), Past Fellows, Current Fellows, IWF Forum presidents and IWF and the Leadership Foundation current and past presidents.

 

Watch highlights from the 2007 IWF Gala & Hall of Fame Awards

 

Featuring: the inductions of Billie Jean King, sports legend and social pioneer, USA and Graca Machel, Mozambique 's champion of women, children and families in areas of high conflict and former First Lady of Mozambique and South Africa with Carmen de Lavallade, Choreographer, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, 2007 Mistress of Ceremonies. With special appearances by IWF 2007 Women Who Make a Difference Awardees; Marilyn Johnson, Vice President, Market Development, IBM; Roberta Bondar, First Canadian Woman Astronaut and 2003 IWF Hall of Fame Awardee; and Muriel Siebert, First Female Member, New York Stock Exchange and 1994 IWF Hall of Fame Awardee. With an introduction by IWF President Esther Silver-Parker.

 

At this vital juncture in world history, women are exercising influence and exerting power in a shifting paradigm that's reshaping our future. With women elected for the top job in Germany, Finland, Chile and Liberia and two women having launched historic campaigns for president in the United States and France, with major universities across the world now led by women, both Fortune and Forbes magazines also are flush with choices to pick for their coveted Most Powerful Women in the World lists. Whether it be the London Stock Exchange, France 's rail system; India 's leading retail bank; China 's largest PC maker; or blue chip companies among America 's esteemed Fortune 500, female leaders have carried prospects for women and girls beyond the barriers that once limited their progress worldwide.

 

On the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the International Women's Forum, IWF will present, in Chicago on October 10-12, 2007, an international array of diverse headliners and legends who are engaged in challenging complacency and driving change. From current and former female heads of state and government; Nobel Laureates, women CEO's, leading scientists and visionaries named by New Scientist magazine as among the world's 70 Most Brilliant Scientists ; and female architects shaping our urban environments, IWF invites you to a one-of-a-kind global conversation with women changing the face of leadership across the world at this watershed moment in history.

 

In a city at the crossroads of American culture, commerce and change that was destined to become a world renowned architectural showcase, meet these leaders and their global counterparts next October in Chicago and rub shoulders with those who know something you should know. We will walk away, together, with a greater appreciation for the global mindset that will be necessary for success in a world recast by the women who are re-shaping its future.

Lynne O'Shea Nellemann		Roula Alakiotou		Grace Barry	Gay Cook
President		Co-Chair		Co-Chair	President
IWF Illinois		World Leadership Conference		World Leadership Conference	International Women's Forum

 

Chicago Conference Photo Wrap-Up
A Message from Carolyn Porco, 2007 IWF Conference Speaker (Plenary III)
Chicago Conference Program
Chicago Speaker Highlights