Feb-11-2009

MCC President Ploeger accompanied by IWEC Co-Chair Sunita Bajaj, WBE Chair Lani Doktori and Hilka Klinkenberg traveled to New Delhi with the MCC IWEC Awardees to receive their awards Feb. 4-6th and participate in business matchmaking.

Nancy Johnson, Optimyze, and Kalpana Patel, UCI, along with Rob Aiudi representing Rachel Allgood and Isocurve, all received their awards presented by the Indian Minister of Industry and Commerce, Dr. Ashwani Kumar, at the FICCI/FLO conference center on Wednesday Feb. 5th.  Along with awardees from India, Barcelona, Africa and Central Asia (15 in total including this years' new additions from Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand), these business women were feted by the members of FICCI/FLO during the three days of events.

IWEC's Chairperson, Ambassador Ruth A. Davis, presided over the event with presentations by all of the Chamber leaders.  In addition, several other events were held during the three day event to foster networking opportunities for awardees and Indian companies seeking business opportunities.

There have been several success stories thus far through the IWEC program including a business partnership with an MCC member and African awardee from 2008; and an opportunity with an MCC member and Spanish sponsor from 2008; a testimonial from the 2008 Capetown awardee who says that her business has doubled since winning the award due to the credibility and additional exposure the IWEC Award has given her.

"It is an honor to be recognized for years of hard work put into building a business, but even more so to be included in such an incredible group of women business professionals.  I look forward to promoting IWEC and the continued success of women business owner around the globe," says Nancy Johnson, Founder and Prsident of Optimyze.

The event was sponsored by la Caixa, the leading savings bank in Europe, IESE Business School and Bilt Papers of India.

Capetown is bidding to host the next IWEC awards in September, 2010.

Additional awardees in 2009 are:

From Barcelona, Spain:

     Nuria Vilanova, Infopress

     Maria Del Carmen Nur, Manpower

     Rosa Maria Esteva, Grupo Tragaluz

From Africa:

     Millicent Warigia Gathuthi,  Mill Bakers Ltd,  Kenya

     MargaretNkem Orakwusi, United Fisheries Ltd,  Nigeria

     Irene Ivy-Schuurmans, The Cape Herb and Spice Company,  South Africa

From India:

     Dipali Goenka, Wellspun Retail, Ltd

     Anita Lal, The Goodearth Company

     Vasundhara Mantri, Professional Jewelry Designer

and From Central Asia:

     Poonam Sagar, PT Infotech Solutions,   Indonesia

     Ramya Weerakoon, Ramya Holdings, Srilanka

     Yupin Macleod,  The Best Group of Beauty Salons, Thailand