country Experts

Africa

Derived from more than 25 years in line management, business development, recruiting and training, Steve has experience in researching and building business in Africa, recruiting employees at all levels and developing working partnerships. Steve has carried out assignments in Angola, Benin, Cameroon, China, Cote D’Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria,  Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Togo, Tanzania, UAE and USA and is now using this experience in the field of cross cultural consultancy.

He lectures on African Trade and Transport Infrastructure at UK Universities and has written on African Trade and Transport for Port Strategy, Cargo Systems, World Cargo News, Fairplay IAPH.

Since joining RTI as Marine Director in 2011,  he has been involved in developing and managing a number of projects, including East and West African due diligence studies, a UKTI scoping mission visit focused on West African transport, researching and writing Anti–piracy and other risk and safety training programmes.

Steve is a Vice Chairman of the Business Council for Africa, Trustee of the Africa Centre London, a member of the Royal African Society and an Ambassador for the Microloan Foundation and has been working in association with Farnham Castle Intercultural Training, since 2005.

Asia

Joyce, MA (Hons), is a senior leadership coach and intercultural business consultant. A specialist in leading effectively across cultures she has more than 20 years’ experience working with senior executives of multi-national corporations, government, educational and non-profit organizations in Asia, Europe and the US. Originally from the UK, Joyce has spent much of her life in Asia. Currently based in London, she divides her time between the UK and the Asia-Pacific region providing leadership coaching, training and intercultural consultancy for a client list which includes Fortune 500 companies, SMEs, family businesses, educational institutions, humanitarian organizations and NGOs.

Joyce’s extensive senior management experience includes ten years as Executive-Director of a UK government initiative to promote links between industry and education and two years as Business Development and Marketing Director for a prestigious international arts body. She spent three years in Japan working for the communications department at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and for Toyota Motor Corporation, designing and facilitating development programmes for their senior executives managing global teams. In Singapore, she spent two years working as Training Manager for a relocation company, designing and delivering training for expatriates on international assignments before setting up her own business.

Having grown up in Pakistan, India and Thailand, Joyce studied European Languages at undergraduate level before completing her MA studies in Chinese and Japanese at the University of Edinburgh.

Joyce’s articles on business, management and education issues in Asia regularly appear in regional publications, such as the South China Morning Post. She has also published and edited a number of books and magazines relating to Asian business and leadership. Joyce has lectured at universities in the UK, Japan, Thailand and Singapore and is an adjunct faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) where she trained as a leadership coach. She speaks Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Thai as well as French, German and English.

India

With over 24 years of international software industry experience, Sunit is focused on facilitating successful business partnerships between India and overseas, assisting organisations to develop new business skills demanded by offshore outsourcing. A fluent German speaker, he assists British/European companies in understanding and working with cultural diversity, with particular emphasis on the outsourcing process. Drawing on his first-hand experience of working and living in various continents, including India, Austria, and the UK, he is able to bring his personal experiences to his training with a wealth of anecdotes and examples illustrating difficulties faced within the offshore outsourcing process.

Latin America

Carlos is a senior Latin American management and business consultant. He has designed and facilitated international business consultancy, training and coaching programmes for global corporate clients entering and developing businesses in Latin America. As a senior international business executive, he managed, expanded and developed corporate entities in; leadership and management, localization, market entry strategies, business formats, integration strategies, business development and expansion, corporate culture, negotiations, communications and social media. He is a leading speaker at international; business events, conferences, universities, colleges and international non-governmental organisations.

Carlos has extensive working and living experience in Mexico and has conducted and produced more than 30 international consultancy projects involving corporate strategic consultancy and IMIS sector/market studies for key global clients operating or wishing to operate in the Mexican market. He is a leading and regular speaker on the Mexican market at UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) export promotion events and assists UK companies wishing to enter the Mexican market.

Carlos has conducted management consultancy, business development work as well intercultural management programs in Latin America for the oil industry, retailing, banking, travel and tourism, pharmaceuticals, infra-structure and e-commerce sectors.  He specialises in the following countries; Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru. In the last decade he has trained more than 200 Mexican executives that have been assigned by their respective companies to work in the UK, Ireland, Europe and other international markets.

Director of a Latin America expert investment, management and business development consultancy, providing specialist investment, management, market entry strategies, business development, marketing, brand building, communications, support and help companies on targeted investment and growing their businesses in the Latin America region.

Middle East

Donna has worked on five continents throughout her 30-year professional career in the fields of banking and information technology. She has worked throughout the Middle East for much of her career, where she held various sales and new business development roles covering territories from North Africa to the Afghan border, including Saudi Arabia as a businesswoman in her own right. She managed a variety of business partnerships that included American, European and Indian multinationals, big-name Gulf and Levantine family businesses, and conglomerates from the Far East. Countries include: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE (including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Al Ain), Yemen. Secondarily:  Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia.

She now provides cross cultural business consultancy services, focusing on best practices for businesses and their employees expanding into territories new to their organisation. She has worked with a variety of prestigious organisations in the fields of banking and finance, insurance, legal, oil and gas, pharmaceutical, health care, education, media, FMCG/retail, technology, manufacturing, transport, aviation, defence and for the British Government. She has delivered her consultancy services in the UK, the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Ireland, continental Europe and the US. She continues to travel to the Middle East several times per year.

She is the author of several books and a contributing author to Lonely Planet’s 2010 edition of Oman,
UAE and Arabian Peninsula.