Fragrance Notes Summer/Fall 2017 | Page 5

ME S S AG E FROM THE PR ES ID E NT & C E O T he business of advocacy is relationships. As your trade association, IFRANA focuses on perfecting and implementing the art of relationship building to more effectively represent your interests with lawmakers. We engage both our seasoned and our rising leaders to develop and implement a more modern and multifaceted approach to relationship building. By emphasizing the value-add of IFRANA, our experts and the fragrance industry at-large, this new approach is already bearing fruit. Specifically, IFRANA has obtained unprecedented levels of access to key decision makers, including Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. We also had a record breaking Lobby Day. While roughly the same number of IFRANA members participated as in previous years, IFRANA secured twice as many congressional meetings in 2017. 2017 also marked the first time IFRANA participants met with Ways & Means and Finance Committees and Subcommittees, engaging with influential Congressional Members and staff on cosmetics reform, TSCA implementation, tax, and trade policy. In addition, IFRANA has made significant strides in elevating the fragrance industry in the business community, including with our allied consumer product trade associations. For example, IFRANA participated on a General Session Panel at the Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA) Mid-Year Meeting alongside Stephen Caldeira, President & CEO, CSPA; Cal Dooley, President & CEO, American Chemistry Council; Matthew Shay, President & CEO, National Retail Federation; and moderator Jerry Porter, Vice President, R&D, The Proctor & Gamble Company. We are in a time of great upward momentum and we look forward to building and strengthening relationships to effectively advance the fragrance industry. Farah Ahmed, President & CEO “I value your perspective especially because I have experience in the chemical sector. I have good sense of the needs, opportunities, and challenges for your industry.” - Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce. FRAGRANCENOTES.ORG 5