October 2007

Dear IWF Members:

I write to thank you for the privilege of serving as your IWF President (2007-2009) and for the trust you have placed in me to work with you and our affiliated forums in 21 nations around the world. With sights set on building our organizational capacity, prowess and effectiveness in a new century of opportunity, I look forward to the prospects that await IWF to advance leadership across careers, cultures and continents!

On the occasion of IWF's 25th anniversary that recently was celebrated so successfully in Chicago, I was reminded again that IWF's story is a collection of the many personal stories that shape women's' lives and make up an incomparable tapestry of hope, triumph, struggle and victory. Successful organizations like IWF must exercise considerable resilience and tenacity to achieve what we do, just as the women leaders who give IWF her greatness must be masterful in their ability to adapt to change and initiate transformation in their careers, community and world.

In Chicago -- where IWF Illinois, led by Conference Co-Chairs Lynne Nellemann, Roula Alakiotou and Grace Barry, with the vital participation of the neighboring U.S. Midwestern Forums of Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin, brought to life a most magnificent World Conference & Gala --we had with us many of the stellar participants of IWF's Leadership Foundation Fellows Program from across the years who spoke eloquently on our global stage of their vision for the world they are inheriting. They shared their commitment to lifting prospects for women to follow and their sense of responsibility and duty in doing so, given the doors opened for them by each of you. They are adding their own brand of achievement and style of engagement to the task at hand in ways we were proud to understand. My own sense of duty to IWF and its supporting organization, the IWF Leadership Foundation -- where our colleague Carol Cox Wait now serves as president – was heightened even further in recognizing how far we've come; how devoted we are; how deeply our Fellows are committed to the cause; and how much rests upon us to widen the impact IWF and its Leadership Foundation are making in cultivating and promoting a new generation of talent.

IWF's exciting program line-up of World Leadership Conferences and exchanges; Global Cornerstone conferences conducted around the world in the most extraordinary centers of leadership with the women who lead there; IWF's much talked-about Executive Development Roundtable series that offers our members opportunities to be featured before a new generation of talented corporate women; and our IWF Leadership Foundation Fellows program with its multiple opportunities for member involvement, leadership, mentorship, training and development, are all part of IWF's impact and imprint on the world of women in leadership that I invite each of you to become involved in strengthening.

Now reaching into 21 nations around the world, IWF is on the cusp of adding four more countries as “IWF Fever” catches on across the Arab World, and in Asia, Africa and possibly Germany . With the 2008 Cornerstone Conference scheduled to take place for the first time in South America next May 6-8 -- when IWF Argentina will host us in Buenos Aires -- and with IWF Hong Kong lined up to receive us the following May 20-22, 2009 after IWF celebrates its World Leadership Conference & Gala in Pittsburgh on October 15-17, 2008, opportunities abound for members to participate in global exchanges unlike any other in the world.

Our IWF Leadership Foundation flagship program -- the Fellows Program -- has been expanded to two classes (with current participants operating in 8 nations around the world) and is now backed by a growing body of endowed funds that includes a newly named scholarship in honor of Carolyn Golding – long-time Foundation Fellows Program Facilitator. If you hear from the IWF Leadership Foundation or from a member-friend about the “ C-GALS fund”, do know it supports the future of this valuable program that is making a difference internationally for a highly global contingent of upcoming top women leaders in academe, government, the non-profit sector and corporate life.

As your new president, I am committed to IWF's growth around the world and to strengthening the involvement of our current membership base in our organizational life. Working with you and on behalf of you, we will grow IWF into a future realm of exchange, networks and leadership development to cultivate new talent and to support our members' interests in a manner that creates a lasting impact. There is only one IWF, and every opportunity counts to make the difference that I know each of us is committed to making. I look forward to seeing you at future events of IWF and wish you well in the days ahead as we work together to lift women's prospects around the globe.

Warm regards,

Esther Silver-Parker

IWF President