Dear Colleagues,

It was a pleasure to chair this year’s FFI board retreat in London. Board members attending were Maya Prabhu, vice-chair; Dan Frosh, secretary; Sandra McNeely, treasurer; Patricia Angus, Jeremy Cheng, Jeff Cobb, Heinz-Peter Elstrodt, Panikkos Poutziouris, Sanjay Sharma, Bilal Zein, and Helena von der Esch. Also attending were legal counsel Michael Connolly; Judy Green, FFI president; and Brigett Owens, GEN and conference coordinator.

The retreat was preceded on Thursday by a meeting of the 2024 conference program committee and a regional reception for FFI members and friends in the London area.

The board retreat began officially on Friday afternoon and focused on strategic planning centered on FFI’s three strategic pillars of Research, Public Awareness, and Education. We reviewed the mission, vision, and values of FFI and had a robust discussion about how the field has evolved since FFI’s founding. We explored a mapping of the field and sharpened our aspirations for FFI’s continued leadership and quality as we look ahead to FFI’s 40th anniversary in 2026 and beyond.

Over the course of Friday and Saturday, we covered important strategies, including:

• The Education pillar, including the GEN program and the conference model.
• The Research pillar, including FBR, academic partnerships, and opportunities with the 2086 Society recipient, Nomadic School of Business.
• The Public Awareness pillar, including FFI Practitioner and opportunities to broaden FFI’s reach and visibility.

At various points the board broke into small groups to discuss the upcoming conferences, including formats and locations. The 2024 conference will be held in London with the London Business School as the academic host. The 2025 conference will be in Boston, and in 2026, we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of FFI at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square in New York City.

The 2024 Board Nominating Committee co-chairs Patricia Angus and Jeff Cobb led a discussion reviewing expectations for current and future board members as well as how the board composition reflects the strategic initiatives. An invitation will go out in an upcoming issue of FFI on Friday with more details from the Nominating Committee and the possibility of submitting names for consideration as future board members.

The meeting adjourned late Saturday afternoon, and all agreed that it is a pleasure and honor to be in leadership roles for this extraordinary organization amid a time of such growth and opportunity.