Speaker: Rieke Smakman

We had a fabulous discussion with our members new and senior at the Library in January. We’d like to broaden the discussion and present some of our new and on going collaborations with our members.

Please join the EuropeanPWN-Amsterdam board at the Renaissance Hotel for discussions about opportunities here and abroad in collaboration with some of our other European Professional Womens Neworks.

Guests are of course always welcome to the borrel, conversation will be tailored to our “club” business. There will be no guest speaker at this event. Rieke Smakman will be facilitating our discussion.

The assembly elected Marijo Bos and Rieke Smakman as Presidents along with Susanne Forsman-Hey, as Treasurer of the Federation and Sandrine Joseph as, Secretary General. Marijo, Rieke and Susanne served as Presidents of Madrid, Amsterdam and Nice respectively. Furthermore, Monica Pesce will continue in a Federation leadership role as a VP now focusing on Women on Boards, Karine Heckmann as VP New Networks and Ana Baranda and Malika Mir sharing the VP Technology role. Strategic Partnerships will be led by Marijo Bos and Marketing, Public Relations and other appointed leaders will be announced shortly.

The leaders of the networks reinforced EuropeanPWN’s values of win-win, generosity, and a focus on excellence and co creation of initiatives across networks. “One of our continuing priorities is to broaden and strengthen our strategic partnerships offering visibility on key initiatives at the European level while ensuring there is a strong local presence and connection with members across the local networks,” said Marijo Bos.

Rieke Smakman added, “It’s also a key priority for us to create even more opportunities through connecting, knowledge exchange and support across our networks since this is one of the great benefits of being part of a network across borders.” They both added, “it is a privilege to continue supporting the progress of women in business given the strong foundation that the outgoing board and the champions of this network have created.”

The new EuropeanPWN Board is pleased to serve as a facilitator of the exchange ideas and experts across networks, ensuring inclusion of ideas and support from local networks on the federation’s overall strategy and key priorities linked to this strategy. There will be a continued focus on achieving a high level of excellence for all of our stakeholders.

The outgoing board was responsible for achieving impressive expansion of the network and programs, now consisting of 3500 members across 17 city networks. Please follow this link to learn more about the numerous accomplishments under the former leadership and their outgoing message of support as we make this transition. Thank you to Mirella Visser, President since 2007, Marie-Claude Peyrache, Secretary-General (VP Corporate Affairs from 2007 – 2009), Brigitte Pichat-Sese, Treasurer (since January 2007), Therese Torris, VP Website Strategy (also VP Mentoring from 2007-2009), Annalisa Gigante, VP Women on Boards (since June 2007), Marijo Bos, VP Corporate Affairs (since June 2009), Monica Pesce, VP New Networks (since June 2009).

Twenty-one of our members gathered at the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam on 27 January 2010 for New Year’s drinks, followed by an Open Board Meeting of the EuropeanPWN-Amsterdam Board.

Anna Farrenkopf opened the meeting and talked about the history of the network since it was incorporated in 1986, how we got involved in the Federation 5 years ago and the accomplishments of our network builders. This set the stage for an invigorating discussion on our City Network’s ambitions for the future, and our desire to continue to play a lead role in the Federation’s future successes.

The Amsterdam Board members shared their stories on what motivates them and their passion for the network. Their enthusiasm triggered interest with the attendees to collaborate and develop leadership skills by getting involved in exciting projects and opportunities that are unfolding within the Amsterdam City Network organization and on cross-network level.

Ursula Brinkmann, Managing Director of Intercultural Business Improvement commented: “It’s fantastic to know that the European wide network creates an environment for women to prove they can make a difference. Members should seek this opportunity to show they’re the right stuff .”

The Amsterdam Board members would like to take this opportunity to thank all attendees for their continued support. We will be following-up to continue this collaborative effort. We plan to schedule a follow-up Open Board Meeting in March 2010, and a number of intermediate get-togethers where needed to advance specific items. Please contact any of the Amsterdam Board members if you too want to get involved in the entrepreneur’s initiative, corporates’ think tank, marketing, membership recruitment, programming, IT or financial team.

Join us to continue to make this network a successful and sustainable one!

OBA (the Bieb)
Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam
Oosterdokskade 143
1011 DL Amsterdam

Happy New Year
This is your chance to come borrel with the Amsterdam board.
Ideas, brainstorm, feedback, questions are welcome.

We’ll all be on hand to talk with you about the organization, logistics, planning, future board positions, what’s happening with the federation, and how you can help to grow and to sustain the organization with your participation. “Club business” and updates.

We will meet in the New Library – next to Amsterdam Centraal Station
(same as last year). Join us on the top floor at the bar for tapas and beverages in the La Place Restaurant.

We have also reserved a meeting room – on the 6th floor.

We really enjoyed the productive discussions last year in this format.
Please join us again!

New Year, New Chances.

Proost!