Our Story
Ophthalmic Women Leaders (OWL) was inspired by an incident that occurred in late 2002.
After an unfortunate turn of events at a national tradeshow, an experienced sales rep suddenly found himself out of work.
Standing in the aisle, surrounded by a few colleagues, the gentleman mopped sweat from his furrowed brow, and nervously asked: "How am I going to tell my wife about this?"
Then, a remarkable thing happened. Six to ten male colleagues congregated protectively around their friend. These seasoned industry veterans focused their collective networking power to help their friend. Cell phones were dialed, PDAs were consulted, as contact information "beamed" around the circle. Impromptu meetings were happening. The circle grew. At one point, someone mentioned the possibility of "creating a job" for this man with exceptional talent.
By the end of the day, the sales rep had a new job that was even better than his previous position.
From her company’s booth, one of OWL’s soon-to-be founding members watched the events of the day unfold.
As she exited the booth that day, high heels digging into plush, purple carpet, she asked herself: "Why can't we women be more like this?"
Thus, OWL was born.
OWL continues to evolve in exciting ways. With the generous support of industry, we continue to host smashing events, and plan to offer members even more opportunities to grow with us in the future.
Women have remarkable gifts and talents to share. We can help ourselves by helping each other along the way.