The PWN Paris Annual General Meeting 2019 was held at Mairie du XVIIème on December 3rd, just before the Christmas Party celebrations. For those who were unable to join us for the AGM, here are some highlights:

18 months in review: Boldness and Innovation  

Boldness and Innovation are the two words that Co-Presidents Françoise Derolez and Cécile Bernheim used to sum up the last 18 months at PWN Paris (since the previous AGM was held in June 2018).  

In this period PWN Paris showed commitment to promoting gender balance by first launching Inclusive Mentoring programme in February 2019 and more recently opening the network to men in June 2019, a bold and innovative move which made PWN Paris the first inclusive network in France. 

Other highlights included supporting female entrepreneurship and another edition of Prix Entrepreneure Responsible (PER), as well as a very successful Congress on the theme “Talents and jobs of tomorrow” that took place in June. 

All this in addition to regular professional development workshops (including the launch of new tracks: Drive Your Career and Unleash Your Talents), Mentoring Programme, The Board Network activities, flagship big annual network events and many others. 

In 2019 we also launched 2 new programmes to make PWN Paris even more inclusive: International Hub that caters to internationally minded members and Young Talents for the new generation of leaders. 

We also introduced the new organization of our offering into 4 pillars: Inspire, Network, Develop and Share.  

We also had a positive message on the financial outlook, with the presentation by Jarka Houssin, PWN Paris Treasurer, showing a strong balance sheet and financial stability for PWN Paris, as well as reinforced finance governance.

All this wouldn’t be possible without the support, engagement and contributions by our members, partners, volunteers and friends. Thanks to all of you!

Results of 2019 Board Elections 

Claire Perrin, PWN Paris General Secretary, presented the results of 2019 Board Elections. This year 6 strategic positions (Co-Presidents, Treasurer, VP Communications, VP Membership Experience, VP Partnerships and VP Network) were open for elections. The voting was held online from November 12th to 26th  and the results are as follows:

• Françoise Derolez & Marie-Laetitia Gourdin elected Co-Presidents
• Jarka Houssin elected Treasurer
• Anna Zgadzaj elected VP Communications
• Virginie Pourquery elected VP Membership Experience
• Pierrette Doz-Perdrix elected VP Partnerships
• Christina Balanos elected VP Network

Congratulations to all successful candidates! 

Click here to learn more and meet the new board. 

Special thank you to Cécile Bernheim 

Last, but by no means least, there was also an emotional moment of saying thank you to Cécile Bernheim who had been co-leading PWN Paris (together with Françoise Derolez) for the last 4.5 years.  Her presidency and contributions are hugely appreciated – and she achieved some amazing things for our network during that time.  This was the last AGM co-presided by Cécile, but we are happy to have her join our Advisory Board and continue her involvement with PWN Paris. 

Watch the special video we prepared to say #ThankYouCecile here 

Read Cécile’s story and her look back at her PWN Paris years to date here