John Metselaar’s Post

Today marks the end of an era - and I need to share.    I started to serve The Conference Board Europe pretty quickly after retiring from Procter & Gamble now almost 10 years ago already to lead its European Innovation Council. The first thing intuition drove me to do was reach out to the other side of the ocean and connect with my equivalent in the US.    Leading the US's sister Innovation council was Rita Shor. From the very first moment Rita and I forged a strong partnership that soon developed beyond the respective councils into jointly creating a global "Innovation & (Digital) Transformation Institute". We established a global Advisory Board, created a Web Hub, published insightful articles and case studies, organized webcasts, podcasts, and masterclasses, and generated a now extensive network of Senior Fellows - who represent some of the best global minds - from Silicon Vally to East Coast, to across Europe, all the way through to Bangalore, KL, and Singapore) - and who contributed to the Institute pillars in presenting and writing.    Over the years, we met in person in Brussels, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Paris, and, just last month, as per picture, in Brooklyn, NY, at The Conference Board's "Leading the AI Transformation" conference.    Rita has announced her desire to forego her Institute responsibilities from today (while maintaining her US Innovation Leadership Council ones).    Thank you for a wonderful decade of partnership and friendship together, Rita. I will miss our collaboration in the Institute responsibilities but I wish you continued joy in work and life, and we'll stay connected at council level for continued opportunities ahead…… As you always say: "With Appreciation"! The Conference Board of Asia, Anne Greer, Bart van Ark, Charles Popper, Chander Velu, Peter Coffee, Dan Elron, Bruce Vojak, Jayshree Seth, Beth Ladd, MBA, Mike Kesti, Philip Clark, Ph.D., Jim Fitzhenry, Olivier Houpert, Cordell Hardy, Erik Hansen, Carlos Pignataro, Brian Evergreen, Stephen Shapiro, Andrea Kates, IVAN POLLARD, Sara Murray, Harry Miskin, Ludwig Melik, Nicolas van Zeebroeck. (And please on to those who I missed...)