Who are we?

40% of the CWF members are independent entrepreneurs and 60% are corporate employees. In 2008, the Forum proudly reached the number of 12 Corporate Members: ALCOA, BCGe, Deloitte, Firmenich, IBM, ICRC, Julius Baer, Lloyds, Mirabaud, Pictet, PWC and Richemont,

This growing trend indicates today how much management of these companies realise the importance of networks and of supporting their female resources.

What have we achieved until 2009?

Over the past 26 years, the CWF has organized numerous important events; we were the pioneers in female networking in French-speaking Switzerland and initiated the CWF Prize for Entrepreneur of the Year and co-organised varied business and social events in Geneva.

The CWF has invited more than 250 speakers from all different sectors of which most were "wow" women, able to inspire others.

In 2004, we launched a Mentoring program for our members and in June 2008 launched a further Mentoring program together with the University of Geneva where over a year our members benevolently mentor young students, both young men and women, just graduating from university to help them start their career and provide role models of those who have succeeded both in their private and professional lives.

In 2005, we joined the EuropeanPWN and established an alliance with IMD - the prestigious business school in Lausanne, Switzerland. Professor Martha Maznevski, one of the eminent professors of IMD and Peter Lorange, former CEO of IMD, signed the alliance to work together to prepare female executives to serve on a board of directors. The CWF decided to focus on growing the number of women in executive roles, from middle to top management. A few months later, we launched the first course of study for "board-ready" women and gave access to the renowned MBA program, until then only reserved for the MBA students.

In 2006, we co-organised with First Tuesday a special event with an interesting panel of guest speakers speaking about Women on Boards. Spring 2008, we co-organised a conference with HR Genève, a Human Resources Association Geneva on the theme: "Corporate Men and Women Executives: Same success factors?"

Why organise this 1^st WAVE Forum "Women as an Added Value to the Economy"?

Beginning 2008, following the considerable success of the new Corporate Member program, Caroline Miller, CWF President, thought to bring together CEOs and top management of all these Corporate Members in order to share experiences, best practices and ideas about how they prepare the future of their company by integrating the largest workforce in today's economy: women.

Women's economic participation is increasingly seen as the key to sustainable development. This is not a simple reform; it is really a revolution in the economy.

This 1^st WAVE Forum was dedicated to all the companies, international organisations and banks that are waking up to "womenomics" as Avivah Wittenberg-Cox would say. To quote her: "The economic revolution is created by women's growing power and potential. No business can afford to ignore it"....or another quote from the magazine The Economist about Avivah's book (April 2006): "Forget about China, India and the Internet; economic growth is driven by women."

That is why we gathered on January 27th.

This was our way of officially thanking our 12 Corporate Members who have supported their senior women over the past years. The CWF has dedicated to them this 1^st conference where top speakers from different countries and backgrounds along with the senior management of our Corporate Members share a common interest in the topic of "Women as an Added Value to the Economy".

In the context of the current crisis, it is interesting to concentrate on the diversity of the resources available, of which women are a natural component. The Forum included renowned speakers who discussed the economic value of woman as well as panellists who exchanged «best practices».

Caroline Miller and Pascal Vuistiner, Deputy Chief Editor of BILAN, a leading economic magazine in Switzerland were happy to introduce the prestigious speakers. The talented Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, founder and CEO of 20-First and the founder and first EPWN President, assumed the role of energetic moderator with panache.

Who were the participants?

The guests reunited leaders of most of our Corporate Member companies, institutions sponsoring up to 15 female executives from their companies, and who recognize the high potential of these executives in the economic community. Over 160 participants attended, 20% men of the top management of our Corporate Members and 80% women, mostly from our 12 Corporate Members as well as individual members.

Who were the speakers?

We had speakers from the political world, as well as from the academic and private sectors, from the US, UK and Switzerland:

• François Longchamp, Geneva State Counsellor in charge of labour issues speaking on the role of women in a diversified economy
• Candice Morgan, Senior Associate, Catalyst Europe AG (Zurich) who spoke on: "Future trend in the workplace and women's positioning"
• Gloria Cordes Larson, President of Bentley University (USA), an ex-public policy expert, ex-lawyer and business leader on "Women Leaders Today: US politics, higher education and business"
• Pierre Lambert, Commercial Director, Reconstruction Division Suisse Romande, Losinger & Karim Abdelatif, Human Resources Manager
• Hannes Ehrensperger, Architect & Senior Partner, CCHE Architecture (Lausanne) who spoke on adapting the corporation to retain competencies