Hello and welcome to the second edition of our newsletter this year. 

The first half of the year has been an eventful one for OWIT-Toronto with engagements across various sectors, thematic areas, and countries. An engaging Annual General Meeting ushered in new Board Members with tremendous credentials and a robust Strategy Meeting reinvigorated our work, expanding on our vision in light of the global economic outlook with a concrete forward look on advancing women in international trade. 

We are gearing up for the second half of the year and would like to take this opportunity to reflect on some of our accomplishments. 

• After a successful Annual General Meeting, we welcomed new Board Members, Clare Barnett as our VP Communications, Jessica Horwitz as our VP Legal and Secretary, and Myra Sable as one of our Directors. We also bid farewell to Aylin Lusi, one of our Directors who has been an integral part of our Board, supporting the success and visibility of OWIT-Toronto. To Aylin, we thank you wholeheartedly. 
  
• We were pleased to welcome the newest member of our Trade Policy Committee, Jessica Horwitz, to strengthen our work in supporting inclusive trade policy. 
  
• We rolled out key partnerships with Futurpreneur to champion the power of entrepreneurship in Canada and with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Mexico, CanCham Monterrey to advance international business success for women entrepreneurs, executives and service providers. 
  
• Our Board Members have been busy representing OWIT-Toronto on different platforms and in different countries, continuing to move the dial on advancing women in international trade.
• An inspiring Strategy Meeting set the tone for our work this year and for advancing our vision of promoting women doing business internationally and enhancing the status and interests of women in global trade.    
  

In this issue, you will hear more about our new partners, Futurpreneur and CanCham Monterrey, where we have been, what’s coming up and the impact of our engagements. You will get a glimpse of what it is like to be an OWIT-Toronto Board Member, as well as part of the OWIT-Toronto family. 

Looking forward, there is still so much work to be done. For the second quarter of 2023, there has been a prediction of a slowdown in global trade growth, pointing to recently downgraded world economic forecasts and factors such as persistent inflation, financial vulnerabilities, the war in Ukraine and geopolitical tensions.

With these challenges, our dedicated Board of women at OWIT-Toronto are ready to provide more insightful programming; educational talks and policy inputs to help women entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses to expand their global footprint. 

We would like to thank you all for your continued commitment and partnership. We believe that together we will achieve a greater impact. We look forward to seeing you at one of our events this year and please, do keep an eye out for all our upcoming events!

Audrey Ross

Co-President