Faces of Ibu - Cathie Black

Cathie Black begins her book, Basic Black, talking about the importance of Drive. Persistence. Passion. A fearless forward motion in a woman that doesn't stop when set back. 

I'd say she is describing herself. This woman who became the first to head up Marketing for a ground-breaking upstart called Ms. Magazine when women's issues were hardly at the forefront of public discourse - this woman threw herself into an almost impossible job and didn't give up. I'd call that Drive. 

But it was her tenacious leadership as president of USAToday, joining in year one and turning it into a successful reality, that really taught Cathie about persistence. Later heading up both the Newspaper Association of America and Hearst Magazines as Chairman and President - Cathie broke so many glass ceilings that the shattered mosaic strewn in her wake is luminous. 

In the midst of this driving forward motion, Cathie mentored, counseled, and otherwise elevated the women around her. She took those life lessons and put them into a book with such candor that anyone can feel the force in it. 

Which is what the women we work with at Ibu daily embody. Drive. Persistence. Fearlessness.

I met Cathie at a gathering of powerful women and immediately loved her dynamism and humor and, well, her Basic Black Force.  It is my joy to take just a portion of her drive, and match it to that of women with whom Ibu works daily. Hassana, Samina, Concepcion, and thousands of other women leading their communities worldwide - there is nothing Basic going on here. This world is changing. Let's start a global newspaper about that. 

With applause, 

Susan Hull Walker