Ibis Schlesinger, Founder and CEO

Ibis is the founder and President of Ties to the World. She has been involved in projects to help people in need all her life - from entertaining at leprosy centers, senior centers and orphanages as a junior and senior high school student, to designing low-income homes for earthquake victims as a young adult, to coordinating medical and other supplies for flood relief in Guatemala more recently.

As a community leader, she has been president of a Northern California political party, chair of the education committee for the San Francisco Hispanic Chamber, and served on several boards and chaired several fundraising events.

As a business entrepreneur Ibis founded and owned two small businesses and was marketing director for a consumer products company in Guatemala. As a writer she has a column in La Voz, a bilingual newspaper in the U.S., writing about leadership and relationships. She is a published author - her latest book a political novel about Guatemala in the 1980s entitled, The Cry of the Jaguar.

As an artist, her paintings feature California and Guatemala subjects; her photographs have been published in various newspapers. As an athlete, she was the only female on 64 teams of boys, MVP of the year, pitched for the Guatemalan National Team in the World Softball Championships and the Pan American Games, and was Guatemala's National Queen of Sports.

Ibis television appearances include 'Mid Morning Los Angeles,' 'Sun-Up San Diego,' San Francisco's 'Bay Watch,' and Oakland's '2 at Noon.' She has been interviewed on more than 50 talk shows in the United States, Canada, and Guatemala. She has been interviewed for several newspapers and was chosen person of the month in the August 2007 edition of La Voz.

Ibis holds degrees in Interior Design with additional studies in architecture, as well as a bachelors in psychology, masters in organizational behavior specializing in leadership studies, and did doctoral studies in organizational development with emphasis in leadership and international relations.

mission is to assist orphanages to become self-sustaining through the development of social entrepreneurial businesses. We are starting at an orphanage in Guatemala as our pilot study. Once the business model is established, our goal is to work with other orphanages in Latin American and then those around the world.

Our vision is to provide the tools, training, and opportunities so that children living in orphanages can become stable citizens able to support themselves and their families in their home countries and be able to raise their children with a chance for success.

We offer opportunities to U.S. youth leaders to spend time at an orphanage and serve in a variety of ways. They can conduct a feasibility study for a business at the orphanage, meet with business people in the country we are serving and in the U.S., as well as meet with peers with the same zeal for social entrepreneurship. They can also spend time teaching, playing, and interacting with the children and staff.

Our belief is that together in partnership we can provide orphans with a chance to succeed.