Dr. Margaret Amaka Ohia-Nowak

Dr. Margaret Amaka Ohia-Nowak is an inclusive language expert, an anti-racism consultant, and a certified intercultural trainer. She is a certified trainer of the FRIS® methodology that accurately describes ways of thinking and behaviour. She is an expert at the Think Tank Diversity Hub.

Margaret is a founder of the Centre for Intersectional Justice in Poland that focuses on facilitating conversations about race and supporting affinity groups for healing racial trauma through somatic and emotional work, and NVC (non-violent communication). She provides tailor-made training on embracing diversity, reducing bias, and promoting anti-racism in the workplace. She helps leaders and teams enhance their inclusive communication skills by implementing non-exclusionary language used in the work environment. 

Margaret received her PhD in linguistics from the University of Wroclaw and MA in cultural studies from the Jagiellonian University. She graduated from Black Europe Summer School and Dimensions of Citizenship, Race and Ethnic Relations at National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its Legacy in Amsterdam. She was a Fulbright scholar at the University of California at Berkeley. She was a Visiting Scholar at City University London and University of Amsterdam. She currently teaches at Tischner European University in Krakow, Poland.

Margaret authored and co-authored lesson scenarios, educational materials and scientific publications on cross-cultural, anti-discrimination and global education topics. She has also published and presented academically on race and racism in contemporary public discourse, racist discourse and representations of black ethnic minorities portrayed by media in Poland. She is the editor of the Dictionary of Empathetic Polish Language. She is a Board Member of the Polish People of African Descent Association and a member of SIETAR Polska, and Never Again Association. 

Tariq Modood

From Multiculturalism back to Anti-Racism?
Multiculturalism and anti-racism are frenemies: the latter emphasising systemic racism and the former emphasising the civic inclusion of multiple identities. At one time it seemed that political multiculturalism was able to encompass racial explicitness and the goals of racial equality but the rise of a new anti-racism, exemplified by the ideas of ‘white privilege’ and ‘Black Lives Matter’ suggests that the appeal of a black-white racial dualist politics has once again to be considered by those committed to a more multiculturalist inclusion.

Tariq Modood is Professor of Sociology, Politics and Public Policy and founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship at the University of Bristol and the co-founder of the journal Ethnicities. He has held over 40 grants and consultancies, has over 35 (co-)authored and (co-)edited books and reports and over 250 articles and chapters.

His work is frequently cited by policy-makers and practitioners and on several occasions has influenced policy. He was appointed a MBE by the Queen for services to social sciences and ethnic relations in 2001, made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK) in 2004 and elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2017. He served on the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, the National Equality Panel, and the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life. His impact case study, ‘Influencing law, policy and public discourse on the accommodation of Muslims in Britain’ was one of three which collectively were ranked as 3 rd in the UK by the Sociology 2013 Research Excellence Framework (REF). His latest books include Essays on Secularism and Multiculturalism (2019), Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea (2 nd ed; 2013); and as co-editor Multiculturalism and Interculturalism (2016) and The Problem of Religious Diversity: European Problems, Asian Challenges (2017). His website is tariqmodood.com.

Laurence Romani

Laurence Romani, Ph.D, is Associate Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics (Sweden). Her work focuses on issues of representation and interaction in respectful and enriching ways with the perceived cultural Other. She considers contributions from critical management, feminist, and postcolonial organization studies to further cross-cultural management research and teaching.

Laurence’s most recent works examine how discrimination of persons seen as an ethic minority is taking place in organizations despite their best intensions not to discriminate: How diversity management programs can end up producing a form of benevolent discrimination, or how companies can create conditions for the under valorisation of persons with a migration background.

Laurence works on the promotion of critical cross-cultural management studies, that is, considering intercultural interactions always at the intersection of multiple power positions. She does so with the organization of conference tracks (CMS, EGOS), editorial work (Journal of Business Ethics) and edited volumes such as Cases in Critical Cross-Cultural Management: An Intersectional Approach to Culture (Routledge) co-edited with Jasmin Mahadevan and Henriett Primecz or The Sage Handbook of Contemporary Cross-Cultural Management co-edited with Betina Szkudlarek, Dan Caprar and Joyce Osland. Laurence has published articles in journals such as Organization, Gender Work and Organization, Organizational Research Method, Journal of Business Ethics or the International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management and multiple book chapters in international handbooks and edited volumes.

Henriet Primecz

Henriett Primecz is a professor at Corvinus University of Budapest, Organizational Behaviour Department. She is also Vice President of the IACCM (International Association of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management).

Her main research interest is cross-cultural management, gender and diversity, and paradigm plurality in organization studies. She has published several journal articles and book chapters on the state of the art in cross-cultural management (International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, International Studies of Management & Organizations, The SAGE Handbook of Contemporary Cross-Cultural Management) and on paradigm plurality and paradigm interplay (Organization Research Methods, The Routledge Companion to Cross-Cultural Management, German Journal of Human Resource Management).

She co-edited two international case books (Cross-Cultural Management in Practice. Culture and Negotiated Meaning, Edward Elgar; and Critical Cross-Cultural Management – an Intersectional Approach to Culture, Routledge). Henriett is Europe Associate Editor of the International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management and associate editor of the Qualitative Research in Organization & Management. Henriett acted as special issue editor several times, in International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management in 2009, 2016, in European Management Review in 2020, and works on two forthcoming special issues in Culture and Organization and International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management.

Her teaching includes Organizational Theory, Organizational Culture, Cross-Cultural Management, Gender Issues for graduate and postgraduate students.

Carolin Debray

Carolin Debray is a researcher at the Department of Languages and Literature at the University of Basel. She is also a Council Member of the IACCM (International Association of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management).

Carolin has previously worked as a lecturer at the Institute of Intercultural Communication at the University of Hildesheim (Germany), and the Department of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick (UK), where she also obtained her PhD.

Carolin has taught on intercultural communication and linguistic degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level in all three institutions, with her teaching often bridging cultural studies and linguistics and covering topics such as globalisation, theories of culture and culture contact, professional communication and lingua franca interactions.

Her main research interests and publications are located in interpersonal and intercultural pragmatics, and workplace and team communication, where she focuses on positive relations as well as on power, conflict and marginalisation in intercultural interactions.

Justin A. Sitron

Justin A. Sitron, PhD is associate dean in the College of Health and Human Services at Widener University where he also serves as the director of the Interdisciplinary Sexuality Research Collaborative. Dr. Sitron has been a sexuality educator since 2005; prior to his career in sexuality education, he was a public school teacher. As a teacher, he recognized the incredible need for teachers and other human service professionals to better understand and serve their students, especially their students of color, LGBTQ+ students, and students from other marginalized and oppressed populations. He is a sexologist, interculturalist, educator and facilitator.

Justin is a compassionate and challenging coach, advocate, and transformational leader. He centers his approach on supporting people’s development to be culturally responsive, sex positive, relationship-focused, anti-racist social justice change agents to make the world a better place than it was when we found our place in it. His research and program development work centers around sexological worldview, specifically its components, development, and measurement. He is a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory, skilled facilitating a variety of tools and processes.

Dr Katharina Lefringhausen

Associate Professor
Warwick Applied Linguistics
Community Development Director, SIETAR UK

My research expertise is in cross-cultural psychology and quantitative research methods. I am particularly interested in the theory of acculturation, intergroup contact and threat theory, as well as the social identity theory, concepts of culture (values, beliefs, norms, etc.) and positive psychology.

Specifically, I explore how host country nationals’ identity, behaviour and values may change towards other cultures experienced in their own home country (e.g., at the workplace, University campus or neighbourhood) as well as its effect on their tendency to thrive (i.e., globalisation-based proximal-acculturation).

I have also contributed to published work on ethnic behaviour, intragroup marginalization, mental health literacy, and how personality traits influence social media usage (FB and Twitter). I have presented my work at TEDx (2013), at the 2014 and 2018 Congress of the International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology, at the International Association of Intercultural Research Congress 2019 and the BPS social psychology conference 2019.

As the Director of Research and Academic Relations at SIETAR UK (2016-2019) and Current Director of Community Relations (2019-present), I am also strongly involved in the application of intergroup research within the public, private and third sector. This has also led to my position as a steering group member as part of a project on intercultural relations initiated by the British Council (The Big Conversation: values and international cooperation in a changing world, 2019-2020) and led by a research team at the London School of Economics

Dr. Nanda Dimitrov

Dr. Nanda Dimitrov is the Senior Director of the Centre for Educational Excellence at Simon Fraser University, Canada. She is an educational developer and intercultural communication scholar. Her faculty development work focuses on intercultural learning in diverse classrooms, faculty mentorship, graduate supervision across cultures, and interculturalizing the curriculum.

She has been teaching in higher education for over 20 years, both at the graduate and undergraduate level. Her research on intercultural teaching competence received the Christine Stanley Award for Inclusion and Diversity Research in Educational Development (Dimitrov and Haque, 2017), and she has had the privilege of speaking about her research and facilitating faculty development programs at over a dozen Canadian higher education institutions, and at universities in France, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Japan.

Bastian Küntzel

Bastian Küntzel is a facilitator of learning in many forms; trainer, coach, lecturer, author, broadcaster – you name it. His work lives at the intersection of culture, connection and leadership. His clients range from UNESCO, UNFPA, UNV, the Council of Europe and the European Commission to small local NGOs, from global corporates such as Google, Ikea or Daimler, to boutique design and technology firms. He is the author of “The Learner’s Journey” and producer/host of the podcast “Learner Journeys”. Bastian teaches at a few universities and researches identity. He is a father, a partner, a cook and a nerd. And he’s looking forward to meeting you. 

Dr. Ebun Joseph

Dr Ebun Joseph is a Race relations consultant, Director Institute of Antiracism and Black Studies and Chairperson, African Scholars Association Ireland (AFSAI). Dr Joseph holds the position of Career Development Consultant at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Teaching Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. Ebun is an author, TV panellist, Columnist, equality activist and convenor of various webinars on Anti-Racism.

With a research focus on Labour markets and race relations, she has presented at several conferences, businesses and non-profits. Ebun is published and contributes regular responses on contemporary issues of racism in Ireland. Her recent book is titled, Racial stratification in Ireland: A Critical race theory of labour market inequality.

She also co-authored the book, Challenging Perceptions of Africa in Schools: Critical Approaches to Global Justice Education with Routledge in Jan 2020.

Dr Mabouba Diagne

The Vice-President in charge of Finance and Corporate Services at the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), Dr. Mabouba Diagne, is a seasoned international investment and development banker with more than twenty (20) years of various executive responsibilities in different parts of Africa.

He holds a Ph.D in Financial Management and Portfolio Optimization from the University of Kaiserautern, Germany, a Masters degree in Financial Mathematics from the same University, a Masters degree in a Applied Mathematics and Computer Sciences from Gaston Berger University, Senegal, a Postgraduate Diploma from the United Nations Prof Abdou Salam International Centre of Theoretical Physics, Trieste Italy, among other qualifications.

Prior to his appointment at EBID, he was the immediate past Regional Director Senior Executive Coverage and Deal Structuring at Trade & Development Bank, Kenya where his schedule of duties covered Mauritius, Comoros, Seychelles, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madgascar, Sudan, South Sudan, Mozambique and Angola.

Before his immediate past appointment as Regional Director Senior Executive Coverage & Deal Structuring at Trade & Development Bank, Kenya, Dr. Diagne served as Director Head of Credit Valuation Control at Dresdner Bank London, Director Head of Credit Valuation Control at Credit Suisse London, Regional Managing Director, Group Head of Corporate and Investment Banking at Atlas Mara, Banc ABC, Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was responsible for Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Rwanda.

Dr. Diagne worked at Barclays Bank, South Africa, as Managing Director, Regional Head of Corporate Coverage Southern (Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Seychelles). In the course of his career, Dr. Diagne has established an extensive network of working relationships with many African countries, major regional and international financial institutions in several countries on the continent. Dr. Diagne is fluent in English, French, German, Italian and Wolof from Senegal.

Milda Žilinskaitė

Milda Žilinskaitė is a Senior Scientist and Center Manager at the Competence Center for Sustainability Transformation and Responsibility, Vienna University of Economics and Business, and a visiting faculty at the International Anti-Corruption Academy. She has also taught at universities and/or on company premises in Austria, Germany, Indonesia, Spain, South Korea, and the U.S.

She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, San Diego in 2014. Her teaching and research interests are highly interdisciplinary, spanning the areas of (social) sustainability and the SDGs, business ethics, labor migration, cross-cultural management, and public and private sector collaboration.

Finally, she is grateful to have a personal history of low-status jobs as a migrant and for continuous opportunities to challenge herself out of her comfort zone. These experiences in particular have been an inspiration behind co-founding the Migration, Business & Society global network initiative (https://www.migrationbusinesssociety.net/).

Aida Hajro

Aida Hajro is an Assistant Professor at the Management Department of the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Her current interests lie in sustainable development, with special focus on the social-side of sustainability, specifically, migration. In her research, she addresses how multinational corporations tackle migration-specific targets as reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Agenda 2030.

Her work has been published in journals, such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of World Business, Academy of Management Learning and Education, and Human Resource Management Journal. It has been also recognized by prestigious awards including the Academy of Management Review Outstanding Reviewer Award, Academy of Management IMD Robert H. Schaffer Award, and the British Academy of Management Award. Aida has served on the editorial review boards of the Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies and Journal of World Business.

She is also the co-founding member of the “Migration, Business, and Society” global network initiative (https://www.migrationbusinesssociety.net/).

Dr. Joel Brown

Dr. Joel A. Brown is the Chief Visionary Officer of Pneumos LLC, a management consulting and coaching company based in San Francisco, USA, specializing in cultural intelligence, leadership, change management, and strategic storytelling. As a change agent, Joel works strategically with organizational leaders to cultivate innovative, creative, and adaptive environments where the cultural genius of everyone can be harnessed and leveraged successfully.

Best known for his critical analysis, creativity, humor, and his ability to build consensus, Joel has partnered with Fortune 500 Companies, non-profit organizations, and government agencies to help them achieve sustained growth and organizational breakthroughs. His clients have ranged from LinkedIn to the United Nations, and his “sweet spots” have included change management, DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging), leadership development, and intercultural communication.

Joel is also an adjunct professor at the IESEG School of Management in Paris and Lille, France, where he teaches executive MBA courses on strategic storytelling and story listening. Dr. Brown also is an accomplished spoken word poet.