January 2008

Dear Friends:

I send warm greetings to our IWF family around the world for a very Happy New Year filled with joy, peace and well-being for each of you. 2008 promises to be a pivotal year in many ways, with milestones unfolding in IWF's path that I am proud to share with you.

For the first time in IWF history, a World Cornerstone Conference will be held in Buenos Aires on May 6 – 8, 2008. Details of the pre and post tours and hotel accommodations were posted on IWF's web site last month to assist members in making their travel arrangements. Today, I am pleased to officially release the 2008 IWF World Cornerstone Conference program – Women Leaders Rising – on IWF's website along with online conference registration details. Hardcopy will be mailed in a few weeks' time to IWF's membership worldwide.

With a growing tide of women leaders rising to assume the top spot at major corporations, universities and enterprises, and with electoral history being made in countries around the world where women are running and winning national elections, IWF's Cornerstone Conference will present some of the leaders who are changing the course of history. In a close look at the trends that are boosting the public's appetite for change and for a new brand of leadership to tackle the challenges confronting us, speakers from four continents will be presented to our global audience gathered in Buenos Aires to explore the possibilities during the three day conference. I hope to see many of you there, and encourage you to book your hotel early, as we are certain to sell out of the main conference hotel – the beautiful and historic Alvear Palace (see details on IWF's website).

The not-so-distant thunder we hear of women's progress being made also is bringing with it new opportunities for IWF's development work around the world. With possibilities for new forums in Nigeria, Bahrain, Germany, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates, to name a few, women leaders from each of these nations and more will join IWF in Buenos Aires as speakers, participants and guests to get a close-up look at the only organization of its kind in the world today bringing top women leaders across diverse fields together in a safe haven of friendship, leadership exchange, cross cultural/professional/personal development and discussion to advance women's leadership around the globe.

I'm also proud to say there is more. IWF's Executive Development Roundtable program series has taken off and will be conducted in the United States , Mexico and Argentina this year. Our Leadership Foundation Fellows' program has been expanded to include two classes of Fellows now hailing from over 21 nations worldwide. And, we are continuing to expand the size, capacity and delivery of this first-in-class program for the benefit of a new generation of high potential women. I want to thank the many members across IWF's world serving as mentors, trainers, facilitators, donors and supporters of the IWF Leadership Foundation and Fellows' Program. You are ensuring that the gains women have made will endure and that a lasting legacy will open the way for a new generation to follow.

I encourage IWF members to visit and use your new website at www.iwforum.org which was launched last October. With expanded service points, capacities, and custom-built utility for members and forums, you will want to leverage this valuable tool often. Just log-in at the member prompt at the top of the page, click on the Next prompt at the bottom of the following page, and scroll down the Membership Services tool bar at the left column for Member Roster to update your bio, provide your photo, and your current contact details. The more IWF members who contribute this information to our highly secured website, the more useful the networking and “search” function will be for all the membership to find business connections, speakers, friends and networking circles at IWF!

In Argentina on May 6-8, 2008, IWF will present women leaders rising across the South American continent and around the globe with a look inside the trends producing a new hope for a comprehensive approach to solving the challenges that confront the world. Never before have elements of progress for women leaders been this favorably aligned for a future where women lead more prominently and abundantly on a global scale; and never before has the purpose of IWF been more relevant and the possibility more exciting.

I look forward to seeing you soon, often and most particularly, in Buenos Aires !

Warm wishes,

Esther Silver-Parker

IWF President