Cultural correspondents

The list shows our current and also some major past contributors. If you would like to join, check out

• becoming a Cultural Correspondent

Virginie Sandrock BON

Virginie Sandrock Bon is an executive coach, trainer and intercultural consultant with extensive experience of the cultures Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates. She is currently based in France.

Abayneh Haile

Passionate about learning and development, Abayneh Haile has a masters in Teacher Education from University of Leeds in the UK. He has done practical work in teaching, teacher training, project management and consulting in various education projects in Ethiopia and beyond. Abayneh Haile also has a lot of experience delivering training in more than ten countries in sub-Saharan Africa. He is a Master Trainer for the British Council school leadership project. He has set up a training company and offers a range of soft skill courses. His vision is to help people unlock their potential.

Kathryn Libioulle-Clutz

Kathryn is American and lives in Nantes, France. She has over 25 years’ experience in leadership coaching and development on an individual and team level.  A native New Yorker, she has been living in Europe since 1998, working with multi-national companies and their leaders to facilitate leadership impact, team development, and organizational effectiveness.   She has worked with clients in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Ani Lamrani

Anissa Lamrani is a British/Algerian/French tri-national, who has lived and worked in all three countries. She is a certified intercultural trainer and language teacher with 28 years of overseas experience in the business and academic sectors in the UK, Algeria, France and the USA.

Her intercultural career began in North Africa where she facilitated business relationships between US agricultural specialists and Maghreban partners in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. She later set up an in-house language and intercultural business school for a multinational retail company and its international subsidiaries, managed a multicultural team and delivered bilingual intercultural awareness courses while living and working in France for 23 years.  Currently based in the UK, Anissa wishes to build further intercultural bridges, not only within the Higher Education system where she has taught many international postgraduate students, but also when she occasionally assists UK-based intercultural communication training companies in delivering specific modules for business professionals. She is a member of SIETAR UK, IATEFL Besig and former member of TESOL France. In her free time, she enjoys travelling to discover new places and people, reading, playing the piano, swimming, rowing and cycling.

Languages spoken

English, French and Arabic all to native speaker level

Vassilis Chantziaras

Coach and trainer for more than a decade, Vassilis is certified by the Behavioral Coaching Institute and as a Practitioner by HeartMath. He delivers training on sales, customer service, management, leadership and performance management. He has a track record managing and implementing large scale transformation. He has worked on recruitment, training and executive coaching for diverse organisations. Earlier in his career, he worked for McKinsey in Switzerland and in Greece. Vassilis has lived and worked in Germany. He holds an MSc in Human Resource Management from the University of Surrey. He is Founder of Self Transformed.

Maria Teresa Ruiz-Hedstrom

Maria Teresa has spent her career studying and specialising in racism, discrimination and intercultural communication within sociocultural and commercial settings. She is originally from Ecuador, where she took her bachelor’s degree in Political and Social Science. Throughout her career she has run programmes in intercultural communication for locals and expatriates from the countries of Latin America and many other regions of the world.

Maria has lived in Costa Rica for twenty-five years and earlier in Sweden for thirteen. Living outside her native culture has given her a deep understanding and knowledge about the diversities and social norms in those countries. Working as an independent consultant with several international organisations she has successfully shared her expertise with expats in Costa Rica and with locals who are aiming to do business abroad.

Erin Reyes

In her 14 years as an expat, Erin has gone from life as a single woman in a remote village of Central America to raising a family in one of the largest cities in the Middle East. She is the founder of Culture Dive and is also a co-founder of Shababeek Intercultural Development Center in Amman, Jordan, where 65,000 hours of Arabic language sessions were facilitated in their first 7 years of operation. For Erin, life as an expat has provided every opportunity to thrive. Having learned three languages during her time abroad, she knows the frustration of struggling to communicate, the stress of frequent transitions, and the exhaustion of learning a new way of life while feeling constantly misunderstood. Her company, Culture Dive, is all about providing expats with the tools, support and mindset they need to conquer the challenges of life abroad and unlock the benefits an intercultural life can bring. She lives to see people from different backgrounds engage profoundly, because she believes this leads to mutual transformation.

Gerry Higgins

Gerry Higgins has spent his working life working outside his home Country of Scotland, living in 9 Countries in Asia, Africa and the Nordics with his family. An engineer by training, Gerry has managed business units and projects in these Countries and so has a wealth of real-life examples to draw upon in his work as Intercultural specialist.

As a result of that exposure and experience, Gerry has seen first hand the effect both his and his host’s culture can have on business outcomes, both positive and negative.

He is eager to help others to avoid the mistakes he made, and also to help them to leverage Intercultural knowledge in a positive way to help smooth the road in negotiations, communication and most importantly, relationship building. Because “business” isn’t just a transactional, mechanical affair. It is really all about the human connection and how we interact with each other.

He is married with 3 children and has returned to Scotland after 35 years away, mainly to see if the weather is as bad as he remembers it.  It is !

Justin Ngoga

Justin Ngoga is a Cultural Intelligence Certified professional with comprehensive experience in human capital development and cross-cultural training and orientation. He graduated from the former National University of Rwanda (current University of Rwanda) with a bachelor’s degree of English in 2011. Given the amount of cross cultural challenges internationals were facing living and working in Rwanda and Rwandans struggling to relate with people from other cultures, Justin decided to fill the gap and started the first intercultural program (Impact Route) in Rwanda. Impact Route is a social business that provides Rwanda cultural awareness and intercultural training skills to facilitate cross cultural interactions.

DéLise Vaccino

DéLise is an American linguist and interculturalist with a background in psychology, emotional intelligence, non-verbal communication and international etiquette. She is the founder of The Artistry of Etiquette and internationalcrossculturaletiquette.com. She has lived abroad for over 30 years, experiencing the cultures of nine different countries. She lived principally in Italy, including 20 years in Sicily, and is currently living in Israel. Her career in teaching languages, cross-cultural competencies, etiquette, and the importance of understanding body language and facial expressions in communication has extended for more than a quarter century. She is a cross-cultural corporate trainer for multi-national corporations and has worked widely in leadership and corporate mediation. She was a liaison in Sicily where she founded a cross-cultural association. Her specialisations are the U.S, Europe, particularly, northern, central, and southern Italy, the Middle East: Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and China. She speaks English, Italian, Sicilian, French and is learning Hebrew.

Tamara Makoni

Tamara is an interculturalist and strategic communications specialist, founder and lead consultant of Kazuri Consulting.

She’s passionate about helping businesses demystify culture and harness growth opportunities within the global economy. Having worked for and with large multinationals for the past 10+ years, her work currently focuses on client projects related to diversity & inclusion and effective cross-cultural communication.

Dana Lefeuvre

Dana Lefeuvre delivers training and mentoring in Facilitating Multinational Executive Committees to (Re-)Define their Visions and obtain engagement; Coaching Senior Women Leaders in Energy, Resource Management & Finance to increase visibility, confidence and personal effectiveness; Partnering with Experts & Engineers to develop a more participative management style leveraging collective intelligence; Masterminds, Action Learning, Co-Development for inter-sector HR Professionals and Sales Enablers to exchange around Best Practices, Cross-functional teams to leverage collective intelligence, Executive Committees to identify common, shared purpose to drive corporate results; Construire de la Resilience & Identifier Ressources

Annabel Rattigan

Annabel is an Intercultural Training Manager at International Consultants Centre in Australia. Having worked, studied and travelled extensively in the Asia-Pacific region, she is passionate about working with people to build their Asia capability. She has delivered over 300 intercultural coaching sessions for employees in telecommunications, insurance, automotive, resources, airline and education sectors as well as designing and delivering local and offshore country and cultural intelligence programs for individuals, their families and culturally diverse teams.

Annabel studied Bahasa Indonesia at Universitas Gadja Mada in Yogyakarta, she has a BA(Hons) from University of Melbourne majoring in Indonesian and Gender studies, and qualifications in Training and Assessment and Intercultural Studies at University of British Columbia. In her spare time she enjoying doing yoga and chasing after her three young children.

Hana Bui

Hana Bui is an Intercultural Trainer and Bestselling Author, specialising in the cultures of Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. Her workshops are tailor-made, interactive, and learner-centered. Hana Bui’s international clients appreciate the tailoring of the training programs to their specific needs. Clients comment that the sessions are interactive and experimental which helps them a great deal in working with local people at ease. “When Global Meets Local – How Expatriates can Succeed in Myanmar” is her bestselling book about Myanmar, first published in 2019. Many expats say “It should be compulsory reading for expats in Myanmar!”

Viviana Premazzi

Social Entrepreneur, Founder of Global Mindset Development – GMD. Lecturer in Cultural Intelligence and Equality at the Place of Work at the University of Malta. International migration expert and consultant. Ph.D. in Sociology of Migration, MA in Intercultural and Interreligious Conflicts Management, Accredited Lecturer in Intercultural Management by Hofstede Insights.

Viviana Premazi has worked as a consultant for corporations and not-for-profit organizations in Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle East and has provided expert advice in education, security, HR, marketing and management to international organisations, government agencies, national and international companies, NGOs, charities and social enterprises. She has also been a researcher and lecturer for universities and research institutes in Europe and North America.

Viviana is a strong believer in the power of Edutainment (Entertainment Education) and of learning by doing.
Her aim is always bridging research with practice and fieldwork.

Grazia Ghellini

A university instructor at several institutes, including Montpellier Business School and the University of Minnesota. Specialising in Global Business and Business Ethics. CEO of GG Language Services.

Sophie Bosch

Sophie is Cultural Correspondent for The Netherlands and the founder of Happy Around the Globe which offers Intercultural Training, Relocation Training and Expat Coaching. Sophie has a Masters Degree in International Business from the University of Maastricht, is accredited as a Coach by the European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC) and the NOBCO (Dutch Coaching Council) and a Certified Intercultural Trainer for Argonaut’s CultureConnector Assessment. Besides these accreditations, she has extensive hands-on intercultural experience, since she lived in 5 foreign countries. Her home country is the Netherlands and she has also lived in Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, India and France. By experiencing life in so many different countries and educating herself on both cultural understanding and personal transformation, she has gathered the tools needed to help anyone succeed in an international setting.

Néné Keita

Afro-European bridge builder. Connecting the worlds and opportunities. Founder and Director of Yeleenma Consulting.

Néné Keïta runs an incubator for startup talent bringing solutions for the development of the private sector.

She has strong experience in supporting entrepreneurs and start-ups as well as development projects and training.

Yesenia Ferrabone

Professor of Translation, Freelance Translator, Cultural Trainer, Interpreter (Spanish-English)

Janette Goodman

Janette Goodman has comprehensive experience in Human Resources including career coaching, executive coaching, talent selection and development, diversity and inclusion management, driving and supporting company culture, succession planning, mentoring leaders, compensation, retention strategies, as well as partnering with operations to achieve efficiencies in resources and long term collaboration.

Florence Chabert

Florence Chabert d’Hieres’ unique story started as an international adoptee and led her to become an intercultural trainer and international parenting expert. She created Coach4expat to help expats to adjust to their new life in a host country. She is a certified practitioner of Brain Gym. In 2018, she wrote “I’m a citizen of the world”, her first book for parents and children, guiding them in achieving their journey and creating their own family culture. Florence Chabert d’Hieres is also the creator of the burger Metaphor which helps expat families create a sense of belonging during their expat adventure. She has lived the reality of expatriations as a young adult in the USA, Switzerland, Australia, and then as ‘Chief Family Officer’ in the Middle East and Europe.

Francisca van Dusseldorp

Francisca is a trainer in (women) leadership & people management and a coach for personal development. She lives in Benin and works with the global training & consultancy firm MDF. She is involved in support programs for local entrepreneurs and in training and coaching in francophone countries in west africa.

Stephanie Balendra

Intercultural Trainer supporting organisations and expatriates in Sri Lankan and Maldives culture. Entrepreneur with deep experience of the finance business and a wide range of other economic sectors.

Margarita Celedón

Cross-cultural Management, Thematic and cultural Tourisme advisor, Executive Coaching , Soft Power, Soft Skills, International Negotiations : Latin America and Europe. Multilingual, lived in 15 different countries , specialist of Latin America and Europe. Chile, Brazil,Mexico, France, Portugal and Belgium are countries that I know very well, both in terms of business and cultural habits. During my career, I have had the opportunity to lead companies, intervene with politicians and carry out missions in international organizations. I have acquired a unique expertise in intercultural dialogue: the power of persuasion, “soft power”, which has become a sixth sense over time. I can accompany your company on trade missions in Latin America. I can advise you about the thematic or cultural tourisme in Portugal, France, Belgium, Chile and Brazil. I can coach your executives who leave on expatriation or on a trade mission in Latin America.

Marie-Hélène Girardin

Marie-Hélène Girardin previously worked as a Consultant and trainer in communication and cross cultural management.  She founded MG LINK, a company specialized in cross cultural management consulting and teaching French as a foreign language – client base CAC40 companies. Marie-Hélène grew up and studied in France and Senegal. She has 10 years overseas experience working in France, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Syria.  She was one of Disneyland Paris ambassadors, during a 10-year career at Disneyland Paris. Marie-Helene founded the African crafts company Kër Carabane. She is certified in Emotional Intelligence – EQ-i 2.0 and EQ360, graduated from INSEEC Business School, Bordeaux, France. Her native language is French and she is fluent in professional English.

Agnès Domercq

Agnès is a professional intercultural trainer with business and cross-cultural experience which is both deep and wide. She has worked in executive roles in a New York communications agency, in marketing in Japan, in the Olympic organisation committee in Brazil and in training in a large number of geographies. She has lived for extended periods in the USA, Japan, Spain, Mongolia, Brazil and France. Now based again in her native France, Agnès focuses on developing her clients’ global intercultural competence by uncovering and building essential skills for a VUCA world: cross-cultural agility, global mindset and more generally, ability to deal with “otherness”. Agnès is trained in various approaches for expatriate effectiveness including Active listening, Enneagram, Non Violent Communication, TIPI and more. She speaks French, English, Portuguese and Japanese.

Eva Gaborikova

Eva has been a coach and trainer of cross-cultural business communication and etiquette since 2001, conducting group trainings for companies and governmental bodies, universities and lifelong education centres, consulting and coaching executive managers and facilitating multicultural teams. Her professional fields are: intercultural consulting and coaching, intercultural negotiations, cross-cultural business etiquette, facilitating multicultural teams, intercultural mediation, adult and youth coaching and trainings, cross-cultural HR, country specific trainings and coaching sessions focused on Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria. Eva is a frequent conference speaker and author of much published work on Slovakia. As President of Institute of Intercultural Understanding Eva facilitates the intercultural success of families, married couples and youth. Eva speaks Slovakian, English, Italian, French, German and Russian.

Gabriela Weglowska

Gabriela is an Argonaut Cultural Correspondent for Poland. She specialises in an intercultural and soft skills training and coaching. Her professional experience includes diversity and inclusion project management and training in Non-Governmental and Higher Education sectors. She enjoys creating inspiring, effective learning journeys with an impact and she has designed and delivered intercultural awareness workshops in the UK and Brazil. Born and raised in Poland, Gabriela studied and worked in the UK and Spain, and participated in a cultural exchange visit to China. As a life-long learner, Gabriela achieved MA in Intercultural Business Communication, is a certified Personal Performance Coach and is pursuing CIPD Diploma in Learning & Development. She is an accredited trainer of several tools for developing cross-cultural competence and personal effectiveness. With her passion for human development, Gabriela’s vision is to create the world where cultural diversity is always seen as an opportunity, never a threat and she is currently exploring cultural psychology to deliver that vision.

Iva Pozsgai

Iva is the Argonaut Cultural Correspondent for Bulgaria and currently lives in Switzerland. Iva is a passionate Learning and Development professional with both corporate and consultant background. In her latest role Iva is managing training and change activities for large cross-cultural transformation projects. Driven by her working and family environment, Iva has a keen interest in facilitating mutual understanding between different cultures, especially in a remote setting.

Ana Carolina Jacinto

Ana is very interested in Interculturalism. She has a background in International Relations and lived in UK for a year in order to do a M.Sc. in International Business. Currently, she works with international consulting, assisting organisations to internationalise, foreign companies to do business in Brazil, Brazilian companies to go abroad, as well as Investment/Export Promotion Agencies to promote themselves and their locations. International Marketing, Culture, Business Strategy and International Relations are her main areas of expertise. Ana’s vision is to contribute to the development of her country. She is passionate about art, literature and history and the power they have to provide an understanding of a country’s society and culture.

Elizabeth Masamune

Elizabeth Masamune is Managing Director of @Asia Associates Japan, specializing in cross-cultural communication, organizational culture and diversity. She is based in Tokyo and practices mainly in Japan, with a broader focus on the Asia Pacific region. Elizabeth built her career as a senior executive with the Australian Trade Commission, the trade and investment promotion arm of the Australian Government. As a diplomat and trade envoy, she has spent more than 25 years living and working in the key Asian markets of Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea, in 2006 receiving the Public Service Medal from the Australian Government for her work in advancing the interests of Australian companies in Asian markets. A passionate advocate for improving opportunities for women in the workplace, she served as the first female Senior Trade Commissioner from Australia to both Korea and Japan. Elizabeth originally qualified as a simultaneous interpreter and translator of Japanese. She has also studied Indonesian, Korean, Vietnamese, French and Spanish. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds several directorships in addition to her advisory work. She is married to Japanese graphic designer Toshiaki Masamune.

Lara Statham

Lara is a Personal Performance Coach, intercultural trainer, university teacher and expert in Italian business culture. She has delivered intercultural training as a key component of Business English training courses in Italy for 20 years. She has seen that trying to reduce the cultural gap through language training and technology alone is simply not enough for business professionals today. To succeed in business, you have to reduce the cultural distance and to do this you must have cultural awareness of your international business partners. Language is what you say, but cultural awareness is how you understand what is meant and how you bridge that gap. Apart from Italy, Lara has also worked in Greece, Jordan, Egypt and China and knows that it can be useful to have a knowledge of national characteristics as a starting point but to be taken seriously and to develop professional relationships having the ability to see beyond those typical behaviours is critical.

Lara has a degree in Modern European Cultural Studies, an MA in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and a Diploma in Personal Performance Coaching.

 

 

Marloes Rozing

Marloes has found herself at the crossroads of culture personally and professionally all her life. She is a third culture child who was raised in Germany to Dutch parents. She obtained a Master’s degree in Chinese language and culture at Leiden University and has over 15 years of professional cross-cultural experience in event management, business development, account management, project management and service design. She has worked for small and large enterprises, universities and the public sector across Germany, the Netherlands, China, the US and the UK. Marloes has been designing and delivering cultural training for expats and multinationals since 2012, including individual coaching and relocation programmes as well as corporate group training. She has a keen interest in e-learning and facilitates interactive virtual learning programmes.

Siiri Sutt

Siiri is an interculturalist who is passionate about other cultures, and loves to learn more about people and communication in different countries. She has over 15 years of international experience as an expat support professional, cross-cultural trainer, language instructor, and executive search and talent management consultant. She has worked as a head hunter in Estonia, taught Estonian language and culture to US diplomats and advised International Monetary Fund employees’ families on settling-in to the American life in Washington DC.

Siiri hold as MA degree in Linguistics and she is a member of the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR). She is fluent in Estonian and English and communicates in Russian and Finnish.

Siiri is Estonian but has lived, worked and raised her three children in the United States and Luxembourg for nine years in total. She considers the tiny Estonian island Muhu, where Time Rests, as the dearest place in the world.

Tõnis Mutt

In a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous VUCA-world, Tõnis coaches, consults, and trains executives and managers to fill the gap between what leaders know and what actions they should take. Executive coaching enhances both remedial and high performance and it is similar to how an elite athlete works with a coach.

Joanna Smit

Joanna Smit is a consultant specialising in international business and based in London, UK. She advises international organisations on areas such as international marketing, business development, strategic project management, intercultural management.

Joanna’s background includes a decade of experience in investment banking and SME finance across several European countries. Her work included supporting governments raise finance from international investors, which gave her first-hand experience in international sales, marketing andproject management.

Joanna holds a B.Sc. in Economics, has lived and worked in her home country Luxembourg, as well as Germany, France, the UK and Spain and speaks several languages fluently.

Nikolina Korecic

Nikolina Korecic was born in Zagreb, Croatia. Her interdisciplinary education (MA in Languages, MA in Music and Master of European Studies) and international work experience (Belgium, France, Croatia, the USA) have given her know-how from various fields working for small firms to large corporations. She is an expert in the fields of intercultural communication, coaching and training. She likes working in a team and bringing her special energy as a naturally born communicator, self-initiator and leader.

In 2011 she was an IATEFL Business English Local Conference Organizer in Dubrovnik, Croatia where she brought 350 participants from all over the world for the first time in Croatia. She showed the same degree of enthusiasm being part of the team for Croatia’s EU accession event at the European Commission in Luxembourg on 1 July 2013. She worked as a Croatian Translator at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium. As a Croatian Lecturer in Grenoble, France she was actively involved as organizer of different cultural events. She is also an author, university lecturer, certified court interpreter, translator, editor and professional musician-opera singer.

 

Mojca Straus Istenič

Experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the human resources industry. Strong human resources professional skilled in HR Consulting, Coaching, LearningManagement, Executive Coaching, and Team Building.

David Walsh

David Walsh is a consultant and trainer in the field of diversity. He has published guidance to public bodies on responding to diversity and helps individuals and organisations put new approaches into practice through innovative training programmes. He is a licensed practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming and a creative force in his clients’ successes in diversity management.

Mikkel Hougaard Orlovski

Mikkel has worked within the fields of international recruitment, talent development and management training for the past 10 years, with a special focus on integrating talents and managers in culturally diverse settings to ensure success for both individuals and organizations. With an academic background in Intercultural Communication & Psychology, he bridges the latest theoretical developments with practical and personal implementation in cultural training seminars for newcomers to Denmark, managers of culturally mixed staff, and cultural intelligence seminars for broader audiences. Furthermore, managers and talents are individually coached to make sure they can fully develop the potential in a system of expectations and communication styles that are different to their own.

Mikkel has a specialization within psychometric testing and the influence of culture on the interpretation of its results, and uses this to great effect in team building and personal development.

 

Neil Payne

Neil brings an in-depth knowledge of the Middle East to the cross cultural training field. As well as being the Iran Cultural Correspondent for Culture Connector, he also runs Commisceo Global, an international training company specialising in intercultural skills and his personal training firm, Yek, which specialises in training on Islam, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Turkey. Born in Iran, raised in Kuwait and having spent much of his twenties working, studying and travelling across North Africa, the Levant and the Persian Gulf, Neil is passionate about breaking stereotypes about the Muslim world.

Lisamaria Markula

Lisa is truly a global citizen who has visited 55 countries and lived in 10 of them in 3 continents. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from University of Westminster and holds two Masters Degrees in European Studies and World Politics from King’s College London and the University of Helsinki respectively. She is a trainer, mentor and a life coach, and she has personal, first-hand experience of various business cultures, including fast-growing economies. Having worked for 3 years in export promotion for PwC Mexico, she started her own venture and currently works in Pakistan facilitating Finnish organisations’ entry into Pakistan in the fields of strategy, market research, operations, representation and culture.

Marcela Vallejo

Accomplished executive with record of improving profit, building brands and creating new products. Excels in building high-performing organisations and transforming stagnant sales into vibrant growth. Unbroken record of top performance in management, sales and development of teams to achieve aggressive goals.

Meg Pocock

For twelve years Meg was an intercultural trainer and consultant, most recently with International Consultants Centre in Sydney.  Her background is in psychology and education.  She has lived and worked as an Australian Volunteer Abroad in Indonesia, and with her diplomat husband has been involved in a wide variety of activities in their countries of posting, Vietnam, France, the Republic of Korea, the Soviet Union, Pakistan and Belgium.  She is now retired in Sydney and still exploring the world.

Lisa La Valle-Finan

A self-described culture shock preventionist, Lisa is the “expat whisperer” who believe that anthropology is a birthright. She draws on over 20 years of personal international, academic, and professional experience. She delivers deep culture workshops for executives, teams, and their families in global transition. She’s a highly sought-after author, speaker, and instructor on the subject of “deep-culture” who delivers “transformative” cross-cultural alignment programs around the world. With a sixth sense for cross-cultural insights, she fosters smooth transitions for the expat lifecycle including coping and adapting strategies for unfamiliar cultural contexts. Lisa re-frames the intercultural practice with a highly empathic, yet bold style, delighting audiences with culture change programs for academic institutions, content research for enterprises. She speaks to groups and moderates panel discussions about globalization, intercultural understanding and collaboration, and has authored numerous articles contributing to the literature of cross-cultural communication. Conversant in basic French and Greek, her graduate work is in applied anthropology, and live by the maxim that “a little local knowledge goes a long way.”

Eric de Lame

As a lifelong expatriate with diplomatic missions in Africa (Cameroun & Equatorial Guinea), in Northern America (US Mid-West & West Coast, British Columbia), in Europe (France, Spain, Netherlands), in Asia (India, Japan, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia & Philippines), Eric has developed a keen interest in cross-cultural communication skills to successfully develop business in new markets.

He has observed many faux-pas and recorded as many success stories. Eric has authored several articles in business magazines and edited cross-cultural manuals on the USA and Malaysia as well as conducted cross-cultural workshops for expatriates and business executives.

Eric prefers sharing real stories and triggering insights on cultural differences over listing rules and business etiquette. Learning about those differences should be fun and make sense. In Eric’s view, history throws much light on otherwise difficult-to-explain behaviours. At the end of the day, a mindful cross-cultural experience accelerates your business development in new markets and enriches you as a human being in our ever more globalized world.

Irene Hotz Glanzmann

Irene grew up in the German part of Switzerland and has a background in modern languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian) and in Human Resources Management. She worked in international companies for more than 13 years until 2004. After giving birth to her second son in 2004 she left her position with a Swiss Automotive supply company where she had worked in corporate HR for 7 years.

In 2005, after the Argonaut accreditation course in London, she decided to build up her own company specializing in intercultural management and international HR. She also teaches human resources and diversity management in leadership courses, and English to senior citizens. Irene is married and has two teenage boys.

Elena Shliakhovchuk

Elena (Olena) Shliakhovchuk is an intercultural coach and consultant. Her specialization is highly customised interactive cross-cultural and repatriation programmes for adults, young talents and kids using coaching tools and techniques. She serves as an Area Expert for Ukrainian, Russian, Belorussian and Spanish cultures.

She holds degrees in Linguistics, Management and Philosophy. Her PhD research focuses on investigating how digital natives acquire different types of knowledge, in particular surrounding cultural literacy and the impact of video game environments on the formation of intercultural competencies.

She uses gaming mechanics (gamification, pointification) to activate the intrinsic motivation of her students to study while teaching in university and college. Her passion about games-based learning led her to an author a game and to co-author a tool for developing intercultural competence for doing business in Ukraine.

She spent most of the years since the start of the Century working and intensively visiting a wide range of countries including the USA, Canada, China, Israel, Thailand, Spain, India, Sweden, Germany, the UK, UAE, etc. working side by side in daily interactions with Polish, Turkish, Italian, Spanish, English, etc colleagues. Her professional experience includes working for Peace Corps where she acted as a language and cross cultural facilitator for American volunteers.

Elena is bilingual Ukrainian and Russian, speaks fluent English and Spanish, some Portuguese and some Arabic.

Elaine Teo

Elaine Teo Mosimann is an intercultural expert passionate about bringing the benefits of meditation, mindfulness and emotional balance to individuals and organisations. Elaine is the founder of Living Potential International (www.livingpotentialinternational.com), a multilingual Oxford-trained psychologist and philosopher, leadership development trainer and facilitator, executive coach, university lecturer, entrepreneur, regional marketing communications and premium product development manager for American Express and Singapore Airlines, meditation practitioner, and full-time mother of two boys and a girl. She is respected for her original thought leadership on bringing the worlds of education and work closer together, diversity and inclusion, gender equity and managing intergenerational cultures, and mindfulness and emotional balance for professional and personal success. She is Singaporean Chinese based between the UK, US and Singapore.

Guy Bondonneau

Going back to his training as a civil engineer, Guy now builds bridges but between cultures. He draws on his personal experiences of a bi-cultural family, French and Swedish, growing up in Uruguay, studying in Zurich, first job in Bangladesh and finally landing in the UK. His training also benefits from diversity in his professional life in the UK, merchant banking in the City, purchasing agent for a Saudi company, interior designer for corporate and private clients, and website design.

Expert contributors

Neal Taylor

Neal Taylor has lived and worked in five different countries. He holds a degree in International Management and Modern Languages from Bath University in the UK. His career so far has been in publishing, specifically in the area of language learning and eLearning. Neal is personally interested in the relationship between language and culture. He also enjoys travelling, photography and sharing stories.

Lucie Houde

Lucie Houde is founder of a diversity consulting firm based in Montreal, Canada. She has a master’s degree in the field of intercultural training and is specialised in cross-cultural training, global leadership coaching and global competencies assessments. She has lived in Senegal, Mauritania and England. Her first work experience was in Northern Quebec with Cree – Eeyou women. This contact with First People guided her career, focused on cultural diversity. She works both in French and English.

Victor Batista

Victor Batista is the CEO of FORVM, a consulting company founded in 1997, specialised in international business and based in the city of Joinville Brazil. He has almost 30 years of experience and expertise in areas such as international marketing, business development, strategic project management, intercultural management and export promotion. Additionally, Victor has a Bachelor Degree in International Trade and specialisations in International Relations and Marketing. He comes from a Swiss/Brazilian background – his family’s roots are from Switzerland, but he was born in Brazil. Apart from Brazil, he has lived in Italy, Canada and Switzerland. Victor can communicate in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. He likes to deal with different cultures and contribute to the development of business in Brazil.

Kate Gilkison

Experienced Project Coordinator and Intercultural Facilitator with a demonstrated history of working across sectors. Skilled in training delivery, stakeholder engagement and project management, with a Master of International Development and postgraduate studies in business.

Jane Hayman

Niels Dyrelund

During his time as a Cultural Correspondent for CultureConnector, Niels worked on building bridges between business and development issues and across cultural boundaries. Niels is a business and development economist by training and has a passion for creating great learning experiences for organisations and individuals. As a trainer in intercultural learning, Niels started out with non-formal education in a world-wide intercultural exchange community, before he moved into management consulting.

Julie Granek

Julie Granek is an Intercultural Training Manager, HR professional and Social Worker. She has lived in the Middle East for several of years, where she worked with local and expatriate communities. She combines her academic background and her experiences abroad to prepare individuals and corporate teams for international relocation, manage of their repatriation, as well as to provide support to those working in an intercultural context.  Julie holds a BA, BSW (Hons) and MMgt (HR) from The University of Melbourne. She also has qualifications in Workplace Training and Assessment. Julie was the recipient of the 2015 Eric J. Ingram prize for Strategic HRM from The University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Business and Economics.

Natasha Aksenova

Natasha Aksenova is an intercultural and communications consultant and trainer with over 17 years of intercultural experience, having lived and worked in Russia, the US, Germany, and in the UK. She specialises in country-specific training (Russia and the UK). Other areas of Natasha Aksenova’s expertise include cultural awareness and sensitivity, presentations and public speaking, Negotiating and influencing, as well as Working effectively across cultures.

Grant Douglas

Grant Douglas runs the language and international relations departments of several engineering schools in France, where intercultural communication has been made an integral part of the study programmes. His work is now exclusively in the fields of international relations and intercultural communications. Apart from research and teaching in this field, he prepares individuals for overseas missions and is an active member of SIETAR-France, the Society for Education, Training and Research. Grant studied at the Universities of Leeds (UK) and British Columbia (Canada).

Elspeth Fink-Jensen

Elspeth is an Argonaut Cultural Correspondent for Australia and General Manager at International Consultants Centre (ICC). She manages ICC projects for international and domestic mobility, including cultural training, mobility frameworks, assignment outsourcing and policy design. Elspeth coordinates ICC’s intercultural learning and development projects for individuals and teams and has a background as a cultural trainer at ICC. Prior to this Elspeth worked as a Change Management specialist with Accenture working across Australia, Europe and the United States. Elspeth has a BA (Hons) from the University of Melbourne, post graduate diploma in Change Management from RMIT, Change Management Qualification (CMQ) from the Australian Graduate School of Management and has trained in cultural studies at Templeton College, Oxford. Elspeth has also studied at the Sorbonne.

Eva Gordon-Smith

Eva-Gordon Smith brings academic and business experience to the field of intercultural competence. Her work with cultural synergy in cross-border acquisitions and general intercultural competence have benefited organisations across Europe and America.

Ma Hongyi (Alex Ma)

Alex Ma is a researcher, consultant and teacher in the field of globalisation, economics and culture. His work with China’s Research Center for Economic Transition (Beijing University of Technology) makes him deeply involved with solving the challenges of cultural adaptation and international operations for a number of multinational organisations. He also advises individuals on cultural transition.

Cristina Ramalho

Cristina Ramalho is a Brazilian native living and working in Germany. With an academic background in Roman Philology and German Studies, and teaching Brazilian Portuguese, she became fascinated with the culture behind the language. That lead her to a career as a coach and consultant in intercultural communication, where she has added numerous intercultural qualifications to her resume.

Regina Reinhardt

Regina Reinhardt is an intercultural practitioner from childhood. Born in Switzerland with a German mother and Swiss father, raised in Greece by her mother and Greek stepfather she today lives back in Switzerland. She runs her own organisation both in Switzerland and Greece, offering intercultural trainings, intercultural conciliation in the health area as well as country trainings for expats in Switzerland and Greece. Her clients, groups as well as individuals are executives, managers and privates with national and international background from the area of service, IT, finance, food, non-profit, education as well as automotive industry. She delivers trainings and coachings in English, German, Swiss German and Greek language. Her awareness and intuition combined with strategic business orientation offers clients new perspectives and enable them to gain a holistic view.

Gabriela Ribeiro

Gabriela Ribeiro is a film director and author who was born in Rio de Janeiro. She encountered her first culture shock when moving to Portugal in the 1980s – being exposed to provincialism in her early life inspired her later work. She left Lisbon in the middle of her communication and cultural studies in college to spend two months in Boston discovering multiculturalism. She has also studied Musical Theatre (Mountview Academy) in London, and media, journalism and American politics in Paris. She has an MFA in Film Directing. Gabriela wrote her first satirical novel about the narrow mindedness and the clichés of Brazilian women in Portugal.

Anne Rupp

Anne Rupp is an intercultural trainer from Germany who has lived and worked in Spain (Madrid and Barcelona). She specializes in raising intercultural awareness, Spanish and German business culture and negotiation styles, communication tools and offshore projects. Anne gives trainings both in the private sector (e.g. SONY Spain or Giesecke&Devrient Group) and in the public sector. Anne also has specialist knowledge of international collaboration through her work as the project manager of a public-private partnership project involving Indonesian, German and Spanish companies. As an interpreter in international negotiations, she has been at the heart of many negotiation scenarios. She is an active member of SIETAR Spain.

Claire Snowdon

Claire’s extensive background in the retail clothing industry has taken her around the world, with professional assignments in Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Israel, Portugal, and the UK, her home country. She has held strategic positions with Liz Claiborne, successfully planning and supporting a business model change and increasing efficiency of delivery of global brands. Additionally, she was responsible for the training, placement and support of cross functional technical staff in Madagascar/Swaziland/Pakistan/Indonesia/Jordan/Egypt. She integrates her international living and work experience in her current business: Expat Know How, which provides relocation and repatriation training and support for anyone intending to work overseas, or planning to return home after an extended time abroad.

Margret Steixner

Margret Steixner’s professional interest and practice is centered around intercultural learning and competence development. Margret lived in different African countries and intensively researched the nature of intercultural challenges in her PhD thesis. She lectures at universities, trains and coaches intercultural topics in NGOs and other international organizations and companies. Building on her training and coaching expertise, she looks at intercultural competence as an integrated part of personality. Margret’s strength is the combination of theoretical knowledge with firsthand work and life experience. As an educationalist Margret strongly focuses on creating a supportive learning environment by using a variety of interactive methods and tools.

Lucie Houde

Lucie Houde is President & Founder of Archetypes-Inter, a Diversity consulting firm based in Montreal, since 2001. She has a master’s degree in the field of intercultural training and is specialised in cross-cultural training, global leadership coaching and global competencies assessments. She was introducted to cultural diversity in her formative years, as part of the first children of cooperants for the Canadian International Development Agency, living in Senegal and Mauritania, then further her experience as an expat student in England. Her first work experience was in Northern Quebec with Cree – Eeyou women. This contact with First People guided her career, focused on cultural diversity. She works both in French and English.

Zsuzsanna Tungli

Zsuzsanna Tungli professional interests are in international transactions, multinational teams, intercultural competency assessment, and knowledge transfer within companies. She has worked in management consultancy and taught at universities across Europe. She has played an active part in developing SIETAR Europa and SIETAR International (the Society for Intercultural Research and Training).

Yvonne Verhoeff

Yvonne Verhoeff taught the Dutch language to foreign people for 25 years before specialising in the field of intercultural communication. She designs and delivers intercultural trainings for clients in various sectors including schools and universities, international sales and migration.

David Walsh

David Walsh is a consultant and trainer in the field of diversity. He has published guidance to public bodies on responding to diversity and helps individuals and organisations put new approaches into practice through innovative training programmes. He is a licensed practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming and a creative force in his clients’ successes in diversity management.

Birgit Weiss

Birgit Weiss is an intercultural coach, consultant and trainer for clients of all sizes. In her current work she is focussing on intercultural practices and communication and has conducted extensive research in the field of cultural diversity. Birgit holds a Magister degree in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Vienna, Austria. She has lived, worked and studied in Austria, Sweden, Australia and Spain. Her PhD research is on Transit, Translocation, Transversality.

Anggie Wulandari Hall

Anggie Hall is the cultural correspondent for Indonesia. She is an Indonesian living in London. Her fascinations in people and culture started when she was selected to participate in an exchange students program to the USA as a teenager. With an academic background in cross cultural psychology, she has work as a cross-cultural trainer and Bahasa Indonesia teacher with many years of experience working with multinational companies. Anggie qualified as a trainer for the AFS Intercultural Link Learning Program and is a certified trainer following completion of the Crossing Culture with Competence workshops at the Interchange Institute.