What would you do if you could make a “World of Difference”?
On October 19th at the 2009 TIAW World of Difference Award luncheon, more than 150 women and men in Toronto, Canada heard how a group of truly exceptional women from six continents and more than 20 countries answered that question.
The 2009 recipients are women whose actions, efforts and inspiration truly do make a "World of Difference" in supporting the advancement of women. Whether it is a small village project in a developing country that has ripple effects throughout the community, or an event or initiative on a global scale, the TIAW World of Difference Award recognizes the power within every individual to change the world we live in for the betterment of women.
Each year, TIAW names a TIAW Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, a woman whose contributions over time and the stature of her accomplishments have made an international impact on the economic empowerment of women. The recipient of the 2009 World of Difference Lifetime Achievement Award is Barbara Annis, President of Barbara Annis and Associates.
For the past 20 years, Barbara has been passionately advocating the importance of understanding, acknowledging and accepting the differences in the way women and men think. She believes that those differences must be leveraged to improve productivity and remove barriers to women’s career advancement.
Barbara has facilitated thousands of corporate workshops, keynotes, and executive coaching sessions on gender intelligent leadership to Fortune 500 Corporations, including Deloitte & Touche, IBM, Smith Barney Citigroup, UBS, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Intel. She is the author of two best-selling books: Same Words, Different Language, which offers groundbreaking insights to create win-win relationships between the genders and break through gender barriers; and Leadership and the Sexes, co-authored with Michael Gurian in 2009, which reveals the latest brain-based research on gender differences in leadership and how to tap the innate talents of both genders in the workplace and in the world.
Barbara is the Chair-elect of the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Her extensive studies have included work with exceptional thinkers such as linguist Dr. Fernando Flores at University of California at Berkeley, neuroscientist Ruben Gur at the University of Pennsylvania, psychologist Virginia Satir, Dr. W. E. Deming, and Dr. Willis Harman, Founder of the Noetic Sciences Foundation and The World Business Academy.
TIAW also announced the winner of the Marian (Mandy) Goetze Award recognizing a member of TIAW who has made an extraordinary contribution to the organization. The 2009 recipient is Lisa Mezzetti, a prominent Washington DC litigation lawyer at the firm Cohen Milstein Sellers and Toll who has played a number of key roles in more than 11 years of service on the Board of Directors of TIAW. Throughout the years, Lisa has been in charge of Resource Development, the high profile Washington Briefings events and has also served as 1st Vice President of the Board. She is an integral link between the current board and the growing and influential group of former board members who remain in touch and are kept informed of TIAW’s progress and accomplishments by Lisa. Her extensive travels with TIAW have played a part in building the extensive network of powerful women she is in touch with around the world.
Created in 2008, the TIAW World of Difference 100 Award annually names up to 100 women who have made “a world of difference” to the economic empowerment of women. Whether they are “unsung heroines” doing extraordinary things without recognition, or whether they are well known, the 58 women from 23 countries who were named to the list have all made an exceptional contribution to the economic empowerment of women.
Saida Agrebi, Tunisia Afnan Al Zayani, Bahrain
Raja Al-Gurg, United Arab Emirates Ingrid Antonijevic, Chile
Juliet Asante, Ghana Gaetane Austin, Fiji Islands
Irene Bailey, Canada Susan Baka, Canada
Sue Barnes, Canada Meisa Bataneh Maani, Jordan
Wanda Bedard, Canada Lili Campbell, Canada
Claire Chiang, Singapore Eniola Dada, Nigeria
Carol Dailey Fabbri, USA Anne Day, Canada
Teresa Correia de Lacerda, Portugal Connie Dejak Canada
Sabra Desai, Canada Ann Diamond, USA
Dianne Dinkel, USA Patricia Foley Hinnen, USA
Tema Frank, Canada Nancy Gomez, France
Kate Grussing, UK Roswyn Hakesley-Brown, UK
Kelley Keehn, Canada Maggie Kigozi, Uganda
Sung-Joo Kim, Germany & Korea Victoria Kisyombe, Tanzania
Mei Sim Lai, UK Kate Laneve, USA
Carina Lundberg-Markow, Sweden Runa Magnusdottir, Iceland
Kim McArthur, Canada Leila McKenzie, Canada
Julian Omalla, Uganda Gülseren Onanç, Turkey
Kathleen O'Neill, Canada Shelly Price, Canada
Candice Rice, Canada Virgina Robinson, USA
Diann Rodgers-Healey, Australia Dalila Rodriguez, Panama
Reeta Roy, Canada Emily Sanders, USA
Geeta Shekar, Canada Rita N. Singh, USA
Majorie Singley-Hall, USA Carol Stephenson, Canada
Dennie Theodore, Canada LaVergne Turpin, USA
Mary Louise Uhlig, USA Lucrecia Ulate Sanchez, Panama
Kah Walla, Cameroon Betsy Weber, USA
Donna Zazulak, Canada
