Cross-Cultural Specialists

Cross-Cultural Expert – China/US

This cross-cultural consultant has worked for over 10 years with the Chinese and U.S. government, high-tech, manufacturing, biotech and healthcare industries. She works closely with U.S. and Chinese businesses to establish mutually beneficial relationships, inspiring enthusiasm and teamwork across cultures. She assists American firms with sourcing vendors, understanding business practices, Chinese culture, working and managing Chinese employees, negotiations, transmission of reports and contracts, translation and interpretation, lends her skills to interpret the language, as well as teaching about culture and motivations of the Chinese workforce. For Chinese businesses, she interprets foreign cultural practices new to them.

Since 2006, this expert has worked with American and European companies, including high tech corporations and multibillion projects. Some of the companies she has worked with include: Intel FAB68 Project, Honeywell C919 project, Westinghouse AP1000 project, GE, Motorola, On-Semiconductor, LSI, Sandia National Lab, Boeing, Port of Portland, PTC, QVC, ADM, Disney, American Express, Grainger International, SanDisk, Cisco, Wal-Mart, Marvell, Bayer, SVTC, Bosch, and many more. She helped them with tasks such as doing business in China and how to facilitate the differences in business practices to build trust along a wide spectrum of clients from senior executives, high level and business managers, to spouses and children, to rural farmers-turned-factory workers. She has successfully completed “Global Executive Coaching” at SIIC. She has trained over 2000 people/families within the last 4 years, which included over 400 expatriates and their families relocating to China who she helped prepare for the cultural insights, language, social practices, and expectations needed to experience successful assignments. Additionally she worked with over 400 Chinese who came to the States for a high-tech company overseas training, including both face to face training as well as Webinars. She has delivered, with high praise, the “Working with China and Advanced Managing of Chinese workers” for over 800 Americans as well as “Working with America” for over 400 Chinese clients. With her high levels of energy, flexibility in teaching technique, and avid love of learning, she challenges trainees to meet and exceed their learning goals. This cross-cultural specialist also attended the 13^th SIETAR USA in Washington D.C. in 2013 and presented a China session at the conference titled, “Me Generation – The Young Generation and Today’s China,” which was well received and earned enthusiastic praises.

Born and raised in Beijing, she graduated from Tianjin Medical University, and worked as a medical doctor at Tianjin Medical University General Hospital in the early 1990’s. In 1994 she transitioned to Motorola in Tianjin, to direct a staff of 12 doctors and nurses providing primary and emergency care for 10,000 employees. After training at Motorola’s Arizona facilities, she returned to Tianjin to organize Motorola’s Environmental, Health & Safety Standards (EHS), and Occupational, Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) programs. She worked closely with human resources to develop consultations, assessment, treatment and training for mental health stability among employees. She moved to the U.S.in 1997 to pursue a dual Master’s degree at Arizona State University, and to work in the Motorola (Arizona) EAP program. She visits China frequently, and speaks fluent English and Mandarin Chinese.

Global Business Expert – Middle East

One of our trainers is an international consultant who specializes in business establishment, growth and sales channel development in the Middle East and Africa.  He brings over thirty years of experience in sales, marketing and operations development as well as use of Manufacturers Representatives/Agents in the Middle East, Africa, EU and USA where he managed products, solutions and services to the process industries for Fisher Controls/Fisher-Rosemount/Emerson Process Management.  During his global career, he spent 16 years on international assignments in England (6 yrs), Dubai (3 yrs) and Saudi Arabia (7 yrs). As a result, he is intimately familiar with the culture, customs and local living conditions of this area

He has led the recruitment, selection, development and establishment of overall representative management programs including goals, evaluations, contracts, consolidations and terminations.  His business contacts and experience include the countries of Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Egypt. In addition, he has traveled and/or worked in Libya, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. He also has permanent resident status in the United Kingdom.

He has a B.S. degree in Engineering Management from the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (now called Missouri University of Science & Technology, in Rolla, MO) and was an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  He is also currently a member of the Middle East Policy Council, Theta Tau Professional Engineering Fraternity, Rotary International, ITEBS & Associates, Iowa Council for International Understanding (Board of Directors), Iowa State University–College for Seniors Curriculum Committee, and the Greater Des Moines Committee on Foreign Relations.

This trainer is a consultant for various companies and has resided for over two years in Saudi Arabia or Abu Dhabi since 2002.

Global Diversity Expert – US/Africa

In 11 years, this consultant climbed from being a dish washer to a Vice President of Diversity at one of the largest banks in the United States of America, Wells Fargo.  He was born in Nigeria, lived in the Ukraine and Spain and is now a naturalized citizen of the United States. His wide-ranging career trajectory has given him a tremendous wealth of experience to assist clients in the areas of diversity training and education, community development and leadership.

He spent the first 16 years of his career in construction and real estate before moving into the banking industry. He worked for Wells Fargo Bank for 10 years in several roles including teller, customer service representative, personal banker, and community development and diversity consultant. In 2010, he was promoted to Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion for Wells Fargo Financial. Currently, he is the President/Chairman of OPX International LLC, registered in the United States and Nigeria.

In 2009, he was one of 12 Arab American Business Fellows and Senior Advisory Council members sent to the Middle East (Dubai and Egypt). This opportunity came through the Business for Diplomatic Action program in association with the US Center for Citizen Diplomacy. He served as a business ambassador, engaging with local government leaders, business groups, NGO’s, nonprofits, and media companies to identify emerging business opportunities in the region and how American businesses can best approach and work with Middle Eastern companies.

This trainer has been the recipient of numerous honors including recognition in 2010 from the Federal Bureau of Investigation which presented him with the Director’s Community Leadership Award. A year prior, he also received the Dr. David J. Wang Humanitarian Award from the Chinese Association of Iowa. In 2006, the Des Moines Register listed him as one of the top 30 Influential Business and Civic Leaders in Des Moines. During his years at Wells Fargo, he also received numerous awards for his volunteering and diversity efforts. He has served on many boards including the American Red Cross and the Political and Economic Research Council (PERC) as well as serving as a member of the Des Moines Chapter of Rotary International where he was a member of the International Service Committee.

He is fluent in English, Spanish, Russian and five Nigerian dialects. He holds a degree in Quantity Surveying from Auchi Polytechnic – Nigeria and graduated from the Wells Fargo & Company African American Leaders Program at the John E.  Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California – Los Angeles. He also has the unique experience of having achieved one of his lifelong dreams, founding and leading an orphanage in his native country of Nigeria called the Cornerstone of Hope Orphanage.

Global Leadership Expert – Sydney, Australia

A highly experienced expert presenter, researcher, trainer and consultant, in International Relations, Economics, and HRM this consultant based in Australia has a background in international relations globally but with a special focus on Asian economies. In this he is able to draw on academic and practical experience in economics, banking and finance, human resource management, government, politics, and business with an international perspective. He has presented many keynote addresses at international conferences, managed international research projects, and taken a leading role in many international organizations and business associations.

He has led and presented in many training programs across a wide variety of fields for many Asian countries such as China, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam, but also Kuwait and a United Nations sponsored group from Iran.

Over the years he has held roles such as President of the Australia Vietnam Business Council, Director of the Australian Chinese Business Development Association, Program Director for the Hong Kong Australia Business Association, Chairman of the Sydney Trade Point and of the New South Wales Trade Efficiency Association. He has had active roles in UNESCO, OECD, and APEC, as well as other international organizations.

Over the last two decades this trainer has often been a Keynote speaker at International Conferences, including both chairing and presenting business conferences for the International Institute for Research IIR in both Hong Kong and Singapore, for the World Bank in Shanghai (at the request of the Chinese Ministry of Finance), and for JETRO to business leaders in Tokyo, Japan as well as to many scholarly conferences/seminars
at IDEAS in Tokyo and Chiba.

He is currently an Associate in International Relations at Macquarie University as well as the former Director of APRIM (the Asia-Pacific Research Institute) pursuing a number of commercial consultancies.

Cross-Cultural Expert  – US/Europe

This consultant has 20+ years as a public relations (PR) executive, and marketing and training and development professional. Her specialty is start-up situations and creating sustainable, result-oriented relationships. She has led and collaborated on hundreds of successful business, government, and not-for-profit initiatives.

From 2006-2009, she lived and worked in the Republic of Macedonia, where she developed a film commission, rural tourism projects, and presented workshops and trainings on PR, marketing, change management, and personal and professional development to business and government professionals and to university students.

She recently spent three months in the Republic of Georgia as a Response Corps PR Advisor to the Ministry of Environment Protection, where she designed and presented PR trainings and shared environmental PR best practices.

She has a Master of Science in Management, MSM: Leadership and Organizational Development with honors, and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. in Psychology. As an undergraduate, she was honored to receive a Special Faculty Award not presented every year: The Psychology Prize for “High Academic Achievement and Contribution to Research”. She is also a certified life coach.

She has great memories of growing-up as part of a large eastern European family in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. She and her family have lived in Florida since 1988, but she spends 6-8 weeks each year in Macedonia and the region working on projects, and reconnecting with friends.