History of YPO
| 1950 | Ray Hickok founds the Young Presidents’ Organization in New York. |
| 1951 | YPO welcomes its first female member, Elsie Frankfort, president of Page Boy Fashions in Texas. |
| 1956 | Former U.S. President Herbert Hoover inducts YPO’s 100th member. |
| 1960 | YPO hosts its first University in Miami Beach, Florida. |
| 1961 | The Europe Chapter becomes the first chapter outside North America. Chapters in Japan, Mexico and the Caribbean follow. |
| 1975 | Forum is established by the Northern California Chapter. |
| 1979 | YPO elects its first non-North American International Chairman. |
| 1985 | YPO reaches more than 5,000 members. |
| 1992 | YPO founder Ray Hickok dies. The Hickok Award is created to recognize members who exemplify Ray Hickok’s legendary dedication to YPO. |
| 1998 | The MyYPO website is created as a way to connect members around the world online. |
| 2000 | YPO members celebrate YPO’s 50th year at an Anniversary Summit with notable speakers including Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan; Jack Welch, CEO of the General Electric Company; and Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. |
| 2001 | YPO launches the “Renaissance @YPO” and begins to focus on three guiding principles: Connectivity, Diversity and Excellence. |
| 2002 | Powerful new networking tools and better ways of connecting online create an explosion of traffic on MyYPO. |
| 2006 | YPO admits its 10,000th member, from the Shanghai Chapter. |
| 2007 | YPO merges with WPO (World Presidents’ Organization) to create the premier lifelong leadership network. Membership grows to more than 16,000 members in 100 countries. |
| 2008 | YPO and WPO launch regional and international Forums designed to provide members and spouses/partners with a more culturally diverse Forum experience. |
| 2009 | YPO and WPO launch YPO Global Pulse, a quarterly economic confidence index designed to share member perspectives on the economy and provide insight into emerging business opportunities around the world.
YPO elects its first female International Chairman. |
| 2010 | More than 1,500 YPO and WPO leaders convene for the Global Leadership Summit in Barcelona, the largest gathering in the organization’s history. YPO launched its 60th anniversary celebration during the Summit. |
| 2011 | YPO launches a new public website (www.ypo.org) at the Global Leadership Summit in Denver, Colorado. |