On April 30, 2009, the YPN welcomed Mary Davis who gave an hugely interesting and inspirational address to the assembled members. Mary's achievements include both tendering for and successfully organizing the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Ireland. Mary is also Chair of the Task Force on Active Citizenship and a member of the Council of State, the body established to advise the President in the exercise of her discretionary, reserve powers. Mary Davis has also channeled her extraordinary motivation into completing the New York marathon and reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Mary began with a short video of the 2003 Games, which captured the massive number of volunteers, well-known celebrities and world leaders, and most importantly , athletes who all combined to make the Games such a success. Mary then expanded on the skills required to achieve success such as belief, tenacity, leadership, motivation and delegation. She emphasized the importance of these skills for young professionals at the beginning of their careers particularly in how they address the difficulties of the current economic climate and work towards prosperity once again.
The Young Professionals' Network is sponsored by the European Commission under the Europe 2.0 project.
