The selected 2007 International Bridge Award Honorees were as follows:

Culture: Fallingwater

Community: The Ireland Institute of Pittsburgh

Commerce (in categories based
on sales revenue):
• Hall Industries, Inc;
• Bombardier Transportation;
• Respironics, Inc.
• PPG Industries, Inc.

2007 Sponsor List

2007 Bridge Award Photos

Presented by The Pittsburgh Council for International Visitors
September 9, 2008
Westin Pittsburgh Convention Center
6:00 p.M. – 9:30 p.M.

International Bridge Award
The Pittsburgh Council for International Visitors (PCIV) created the International Bridge Award in 1993 to acknowledge corporations, organizations or individuals whose efforts had succeeded in building bridges between the Pittsburgh region and other parts of the world. The event, a fundraiser for PCIV, was inaugurated in the community to highlight Pittsburgh’s international achievements. Past honorees include Dr. Thomas E. Starzl, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Brother’s Brother Foundation Sony Electronics Inc.; Paul Wilhelm and United States Steel, H. J. Heinz Company; Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Honorable Dick Thornburgh. In 2006, awards were presented in the categories of Commerce (Alcoa), Culture (the Mattress Factory), and Community (the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh) to celebrate our region’s global accomplishments. In 2008, the event will continue to celebrate our region’s international connections by recognizing companies, institutions, and individuals making a global impact as well as introduce Pennsylvania’s overseas trade representatives from other countries to the community.

The International Bridge Award Reception still serves as the primary fundraising event for the PCIV and has become a unique celebration of the region’s global connections and a major networking event.

For the past forty eight years, PCIV has been building bridges between the region and emerging world leaders and rising young talent living in the region for short periods of time. The organization is the only community-based non profit with a mission to forge cultural, educational, and business relationships between Western Pennsylvania and the global community through citizen diplomacy. PCIV highlights the best that our region has to offer, providing invaluable services to local corporations, universities, and medical centers in Western Pennsylvania by helping international students, scholars, expatriates and their families adapt. PCIV also provides services to international delegations. PCIV is the designated liaison for western Pennsylvania for the U.S. Department of State’s prestigious International Visitor Leadership Program; Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom came to Pittsburgh through that program in 1982.

Citizen diplomats are the heart of PCIV programming. In the organization’s past fiscal year, professions in the community spent 448 hours sharing their expertise with their international peers. Volunteer hosts devoted 381 hosting visitors for dinners in their homes or spent an estimated 11,165 hours interacting with international guests staying at their homes to immerse them in American culture.