Welcome

   

Joint Event with Federation Gold Partner, The Royal Bank of Scotland

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Announcing EPWN Amsterdam’s strategy 2013 – 2014 and beyond

Dear colleagues,

It is a very exciting time to be part of EPWN Amsterdam. Following the introduction of the new Board last Fall, our primary focus has been to build a new strategy to offer you the best women’s network, one that targets your needs. In this email – bear with me for a few minutes – I will introduce our new strategy and invite you to begin an active dialogue about what your needs to make your next step in your career, and how you believe EPWN can support you.

The analysis that we did in order to develop our new strategy gave us some great insights. We are thrilled by the amount of diversity and score of talented women that make up the membership of EPWN Amsterdam. To give you a brief overview: the average age of our nearly 200 members is 42 years, and approximately 60% are from corporate and 40% are entrepreneurs. What resonated most in our findings is our world citizenship, with members coming from a range of countries or having an international background.

Our relevance as an international group of professional women is underpinned by current trends that we see:

  1. From our collaboration with McKinsey & Company Amsterdam we know that the largest percentage of women in the Netherlands stepping off the career ladder does so when they are in middle management roles;
  2. We also learned that ‘international’ women offer the biggest pipeline, and therefore the most potential for becoming the new female leaders in the Netherlands, be it as (potential) board members in corporate business or as leading business entrepreneurs.

Understanding that we are part of a select group of women in the Netherlands is exciting. The Board of EPWN Amsterdam is committed to helping you unlock and grow your potential.

So let me share our mission and our strategy for the coming years and let you know what we aspire to in our programming. Important to note is that we are strengthening our links with the broader network through the Federation of EPWN and have aligned ourselves to the European-wide strategy.

AIM: EPWN Amsterdam: Grow your potential – connect, share and learn

MISSION: EPWN Amsterdam believes in a stronger leadership role for women in business and society. Unlocking the potential of professional women by supporting their leadership development, through connecting, sharing, learning and supporting, is core to everything we do. EPWN is unique as a global women’s network, with over 3000 members who are closely connected through our online platform.

STRATEGY: EPWN Amsterdam has been bringing internationally minded professional women together to connect, share and learn since 1986. We are a global network which offers inspiring and engaging events, workshops, training and mentoring. Our strengths are in recognizing the changing needs and challenges of our members and providing a tailor-made agenda of workshops and events.

Our programming agenda for 2013/14 is driven by three themes:

  • Content themes that we recognize as leading:
    • ‘Women leading change’
    • ‘Engaging men’
    • ‘Women on boards’ and ‘Women Ready for Boards’ (Corporate)
    • ‘Women building businesses’ (Entrepreneurship)
  • Learning:
    • Mentoring program
  • Networking:
    • Providing opportunities to meet others in more informal settings, which facilitate sharing and learning

We are in the process of building strong partnerships with leading organizations to support our strategy and bring you the best network experience. These organizations include corporate partners, executive search firms, and organizations and academics considered as thought leaders.

In our programming we will build on our current offering of thought provoking events and our networking gatherings by introducing more tailored workshops and events that target your specific needs. We recognize the value of learning and acknowledge our role in providing you with the latest knowledge. Therefore we will be introducing more learning experiences, complementing our successful Mentoring Program and the MBA initiative where we will also give more focus.

We look forward to growing the network and to continue on this exciting journey. The strength of EPWN comes from our members and therefore we would like to hear your views and comments about our new strategy and programming. Please send me an email or speak to one of the Board Members at our events.

I look forward to seeing you next Tuesday, 19 February, at our Financial Intelligence event. http://epwn.etheryl.net/events/4206

Best wishes,

Pamela Koo
President – EPWN Amsterdam
president@europeanpwn-amsterdam.net

Latest news

Engaging With Men in Advancing Women’s Development

May
16
19:00
Robert_baker
“Research recently released has highlighted that women’s progress at work is in danger of stalling and that engaging men is critical to advancing women in the workplace. It has also indicated that there are tangible benefits for men in working with women on this.
Join us for an interactive session led by Robert Baker, VP Engaging Men on the Federation Board of the European Professional Women’s Network (EPWN).
In this session we will explore:
  • Why should we engage with men?
  • What’s in it for the men?
  • How can men actively support women?
  • What are the barriers and how can we overcome them? 
Robert will go beyond presenting the latest research to profile some concrete actions and tools you can take back to your company to speed up change. He will show how getting actively involved in this can enhance your personal development and also lead to happier, more productive working environments. This can create sustainable competitive advantage for your organisation and broader benefits for society. 
We will then have an open discussion and will be seeking your feedback and input on the topic.
This event is open to men and women. Come along and learn more about the real business benefits of working together in diverse teams.”
About Rob Baker:
Robert Baker, Senior Partner & Global Manager at Mercer based in London is responsible for Mercer’s relationships with a number of key global clients. He manages all aspects of the client relationship: ensuring Mercer understands the client’s business goals, structure and people issues; working with Mercer teams to develop solutions that meet the client’s needs; coordinating project planning and delivery of these solutions; and ensuring the client is fully satisfied with the service that Mercer provides. Robert’s previous experience includes some 20 years in Mercer’s investment consulting business, helping build its European presence and developing its investment consulting services for multinational companies. Robert has facilitated a number of discussion panels for EPWN and the Vine (Mercer’s women’s network). Robert participates on the steering committee for the Vine and is also a member of Mercer’s UK Diversity Council.

 

Program:

19.00 – 20.00:  Networking and Welcome refreshments

20.00 – 21.30: Presentation by Rob Baker, VP Engaging Men Federation Board EPWN; interactive group discussion and wrap-up session

21. 30 – 22. 30: Closing drinks

The Challenge of Change: Networking Event with Catherine DeVyre MSc CSP (2010 Australian Keynote Speaker of the Year)

May
29
19:00

Catheryne

Shift Happens -The Challenge of Change

Catherine DeVrye, best-selling author of 8 books translated into a dozen languages, also past winner of the Australian Executive Woman of the Year understands the challenge of change from both a professional & personal perspective. She has attended short courses at Harvard & lectured at IMD in Lausanne but believes the best education is common sense.

Incorporating material from her #1 best seller-Good Service is Good Business and other best-sellers-Who Says I Can’t?- ‘Hope Happens!…Words of Encouragement for Tough Times’-and ‘Hot Lemon & Honey…Reflections for Success in Times of Change’…Catherine shares her extensive international business experience and an inspirational personal story, which can be readily applied to all our working lives. From early days in an orphanage in Canada-to an education in the USA-to her parents dying of cancer the year she graduated from university-to arriving in Australia jobless and near penniless-to a senior role in government and an international career with IBM in Japan.

As a trainer or workshop leader, her goal is to make world-class business principles come to life through practical, everyday examples; combining humour with useful substance. Since winning the Australian Executive Woman of the Year Award, her clients have increasingly asked for a greater diversity of presentations on teamwork, leadership, managing change, resilience and turning obstacles into opportunities in our personal and professional lives.

In her speech at this networking event, Catherine will outline how: 

  • Change is inevitable. Learning from change is optional
  • Success today doesn’t equal success tomorrow so avoid complacency
  • Winners become victors from change-rather than victims of change
  • We can’t always control circumstances but we can always control our attitude
  • Resilience=Results
  • We can be empowered to turn stumbling blocks to stepping stones

Catherine has swum with sharks, bungee jumped, trekked to Timbuktu and climbed 20,000 feet to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro and will be based in Holland 3 months every year and available to work with individual companies to help them provide better customer service, manage change and be more resilient.

You can find out more about her on www.greatmotivation.com

Registration and Guest Policy:

Registration is required for both members (free) and guests (€20). Guests may attend two EPWN-Amsterdam functions per year. For questions concerning registration for events and membership, please contact Wendy Mackey Jones, our VP Membership at membership@europeanpwn-amsterdam.net. Inquiries concerning the programme of the event can be addressed to the VP Programming at the following e-mail address: events@europeanpwn-amsterdam.net

In order to keep our administrative processes manageable, we unfortunately cannot refund your guest registration fee should you need to cancel your attendance.

Members are kindly asked to de-register in time if not able to attend (registration information is used for arranging catering for the event).