Ruth Mastron
Ruth Mastron is vice-president of SoCoCo Intercultural. She
first developed her intercultural skills while studying and
working in England and France. Her senior research project was an
ethnographic study of proverbs relating to food and cooking in the Gascon
culture in Southwestern France. Following five years in France, she moved
back to the United States and started designing and teaching corporate
French language and culture programs. In addition, prior to joining SoCoCo
Intercultural, she has held various positions within American subsidiaries
of foreign companies and became the liaison for their overseas international
operations department. Her last job was with the legal department of
Thomson Software Products, an American unit of Paris-based Thomson CSF.
Ruth recently completed her Master's Degree in Intercultural Relations
with the McGregor School of Antioch University. Her thesis topic was "The Feasible
Dove: Cultural Reconciliation in the Aftermath of Genocide." She has presented
her work at the annual conference of the Network of Coalitions for Peacemaking
and Conflict Resolution, as well as congresses of the Society for Intercultural
Education, Training and Research in Europe and the USA.
She has also participated in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute of
Eastern Mennonite University.
Jan O'Brien
Jan O'Brien is a UK-born intercultural trainer, consultant and coach who has
lived, studied and worked extensively overseas, in particular in the US, the UK,
France, Singapore and Thailand. Based in Houston, Texas, she has worked with
clients from many language and cultural backgrounds, providing intercultural
communication and leadership training to companies and individuals in both the
domestic and international workplace. Jan has had considerable interaction
with employees and their families in the oil, gas and chemical industries
both overseas and in the US and has experienced first hand the benefits and
challenges of both relocating and doing business in the international arena.
Born in Nottingham, England - the land of Robin Hood and Sherwood forest, she
has worked for the BBC World and Foreign Language Services and continues to
serve as a contributor and research consultant on intercultural topics
concerning the modern global workplace. She holds the Certificate in Intercultural
Studies through the Centre for Intercultural Communication at the University
of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Catherine Tansey
Catherine Tansey is co-founder of Isis Group International, a multinational
firm which focuses on leadership, teambuilding and conflict management in a
global context. Catherine developed her intercultural skills as a student in
Denmark and a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco. After returning to the United
States, she received her master's in teaching from the School for International
Training in Brattleboro, Vermont. Then, she moved to Boston, Massachusetts,
to develop and direct an English language institute.
In order to learn about Asian cultures, she joined American publishing companies
in Tokyo, Japan and, as a publisher, traveled throughout Japan, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong, When the exchange rate adversely
effected foreign publishing operations, Catherine joined the American
International Group (AIG) in Tokyo to develop a language and business skills
program for AIG's Japanese managers. After thirteen years in Japan,
she moved back to the United States where she now trains and coaches
people to develop their intercultural awareness and skills.
She is currently Chairman of
the Board of Directors of the International Institute of New Jersey which
assists in the settlement of 15,000 immigrants a year in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Jo Ann Hinshaw
An intercultural specialist, trainer and consultant for the past
fourteen years, Jo Ann Hinshaw is on faculty at the University of
Maryland and Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C. At
Meridian, she designs and delivers cross-cultural communication and
adaptation workshops for inbound professionals from all corners of
the world. She has consulted and trained with US AID, USIA, the French
government, NGOs and private companies such as McCormick Spice,
Armstrong World Industries and Intelsat. During her eight years'
professional experience in France and Belgium, she served in the U.S.
Foreign Service as well as the banking sector. In addition to training in
Russia, Canada, Belgium and Central Asia, she has designed and developed
training materials such as texts and videos for the intercultural classroom.
A speaker of French, she is a frequent presenter at conferences in the
U.S. and Francophone countries.
Rita Wuebbeler
Rita Wuebbeler is a German-born intercultural trainer and management
consultant with over fifteen years of professional experience in the U.S.,
the U.K., Spain and Luxembourg. She began her international career as a
translation assistant at the Translation Department of the European
Parliament in Luxembourg and moved to the U.S. in 1986 after two years
as a business and social sciences translator for a German university. Her
first American experience involved working as a project coordinator for
an Atlanta-based management consulting and business start-up firm. As
president and founder of INTERGLOBE Cross-Cultural Business Services, she
specializes in German and American cultural awareness training, team-building
for diverse workforce and cross-cultural business consulting. She also
facilitates cultural change and awareness processes for multicultural
groups dealing with global management practices.
LaMonte Miller
LaMonte Miller, born and raised in the United States, has trained individuals,
families and groups for over 8 years, in expatriation, repatriation and intercultural
business in the US, France and the UK. She has worked for
various cross-cultural companies and has also conducted seminars in Business and
Journalism Schools in Paris. Having relocated many times nationally and internationally,
she has practical experience moving across borders and understands first hand the
complexities that arise in multi-cultural environments. Prior to entering the field,
LaMonte has had a productive career in hi-tech sales giving her first hand knowledge
of the American perspectives related to customer service, relationship building,
management through empowerment, team building, and coaching. She holds a B.S.
in Psychology and French from the University of Maryland. Before graduation, she
spent five years in Paris, where she studied those subjects at the Universite
de Paris - Sorbonne (Paris IV and V).
Our Associates in Europe
Natalie Lutz - Consultant, Training Director
Natalie Lutz has been training international managers in business communication for
over 15 years. She has lived in the US, London, Mexico, and France. Natalie has extensive
experience designing programs for top executives in various areas of business communication,
including giving powerful presentations. For the past three years she has also been teaching
a Master's level course to International Business students on Intercultural Negotiation at
the University of Marne La Vallée. Most of Natalie's time is dedicated to training expatriates
in international corporations on living and working in their host country.
Based on her research, Natalie has written a book entitled: French and American Perceptions
of Arrogance in the Other, which focuses on fostering more productive working relations between
the US and France. Natalie is regularly asked to present at congresses and in Universities in
France and abroad on the topic.
Natalie has a Master's in Intercultural Communication from UMBC (University of
Maryland, Baltimore County, USA). She is bilingual, bicultural French-American and
speaks Spanish. Natalie lives in the Paris area with her husband and two children.
Anne-Helene Gutierres
Born and raised in France, Anne-Helene has extensive international training
experience and is fluent in French, English and Spanish. Between 1995 and 2001,
she worked for Window on the World, a cross-cultural training firm based
in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As Director of Curriculum, she oversaw all the training
and development programs that were offered in the global training workforce
department. Her mission was to assure the highest level of quality and expertise
in the company. As a trainer, Anne-Helene specialized in European cultural awareness
and worked with diverse corporate audiences. She facilitated pre-departure training
for expatriate families moving to Europe and group sessions for employees of Fortune
500 companies. Anne-Helene is now based in Paris and oversees SoCoCo Intercultural
training in Europe. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Speech Communication from the
University of Minnesota.
Carmel Connell
Carmel Connell is an English management consultant based in Paris. For
the past fifteen years, she has been conducting seminars, coaching
employees and doing consultancy work with international clients. For instance, she
assists executives in building management skills such as negotiation, interpersonal
communication, teamwork and assertiveness. She also conducts
cross-cultural training seminars and facilitates cultural awareness as
well as culture-specific workshops on France and Great Britain.
Carmel is a certified master-practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic
Programming (NLP) and is also trained in systems management. Of Irish
descent, she has Chilean connections in her family and considers herself a
truly multicultural person, being able to bridge differences across these
two cultures as well as in France and Great Britain. She regularly works
in French and English and is also fluent in Spanish.
Vincent Merk
Born in Strasbourg, Vincent Merk is a Frenchman who has been living and
working in The Netherlands since 1981. His main affiliation is with the Eindhoven
University of Technology (TUE) where he teaches technical and business French,
intercultural business communication, and management and negotiation in two post-academic
programmes. In addition, he works as a training consultant in intercultural business
communication, negotiation and management for various organizations and companies in Europe.
He is the author of several articles on intercultural communication and negotiation
and co-author of a book in Dutch on doing business with the French. He holds a Master of Arts in English and German with a specialization in
Business Administration from the university of Grenoble and has carried out
post-graduate studies in Amsterdam. He speaks French, Dutch, English, German and Spanish.
