Dear Members, Women Business Owners, Partners, and Friends:
It was 10 years ago on this very day, at 1:13 pm EDT to be precise, that WEConnect International was formally established. As I reflect upon my own journey and the journey of the organization, there is much that we have accomplished, and I wanted to take the time to thank you for making our work possible.
In the past 10 years, we have grown from one employee sitting in a home office with a visionary Board of Directors and pilots in the UK and Canada to 25 expert team members, nearly 100 member buyers and over 9,000 women-owned businesses based in more than 120 countries.
Together, we have conducted more than 1,000 market access events and trained more than 20,000 women business owners to help increase their capacity to grow their businesses, while also facilitating the sharing of thousands of competitive bid opportunities.
And through all of this, we have helped to facilitate hundreds of contracts secured by women-owned businesses through our dedicated member buyers and tracked over US$10 billion in member spend with women-owned businesses based outside of the U.S.
And this is just the beginning.
As you may know, the past couple of months have brought substantial opportunities for growth for WEConnect International. From convening public-private partnerships to a feature in the Global Citizen, P&G, and National Geographic documentary series, it has been a very busy summer. Each of you has helped to create these opportunities through the work you do every day and we now have a true global community to build upon as we enter the next 10 years.
And the journey must continue.
We are committed to your success and please know that through the connections with and among you, we can move the needle on spend with women-owned businesses to help deliver innovation, create jobs, and reshape the global economy to be more inclusive, transparent, and sustainable for everyone.
And ultimately the WEConnect International network – you – will play a key role in helping to achieve Sustainable Development Goal #5 on Gender Equality by 2030.
Thank you for your leadership and support!
Elizabeth A. Vazquez
CEO and Co-Founder
WEConnect International
