VAN DER BOON Mary

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An intercultural and diversity management trainer and consultant to multinational, governmental and non-governmental organisations, Mary van der Boon has lived and worked outside her native Canada for 25 years. She speaks Dutch, Thai, Lao, Malay and Bahasa Indonesian, in addition to English and French. After studies in journalism and communications, she studied anthropology and traditional law at one of Indonesia’s oldest universities.

Mary is a member of the Instituto Europeo para la Gestión de la Diversidad in Barcelona and regularly conducts programmes on diversity management for this institute and others. She lectures at top business schools in Europe and North America, including Richard Ivey in Canada and the Leiden University School of Management, and has held facilitator and guest lectureship positions at universities in Indonesia, Thailand, Canada and the Netherlands. She is also the ‘Doing Business Abroad’ and intercultural expert at http://www.expatexchange.com and a member of the distance learning faculty of the University of British Columbia’s Certificate in Intercultural Studies.

Mary van der Boon is a regular speaker on the international conference circuit and a frequent contributor on international business and expatriate themes to a wide range of publications. She is contributing author to the International Handbook of Women and Entrepreneurship and to ‘Career in Your Suitcase’, a guidebook for international professional women.

A witty and entertaining speaker, Mary doesn’t shy away from difficult and controversial topics. She covers a wide range of subjects in the world of international business: intercultural communication and management; Asian, North American and European business cultures; managing the international development assistance assignment; HR issues in mergers & acquisition, expatriate and inpatriate assignment management; coaching of expatriate families, particularly in the areas of expatriate adjustment and dual career management; global workforce and virtual team development; ethics and corporate social responsibility; diversity and women in international management.


Proposed themes

- Managing across borders
- Leveraging diversity
- Building multicultural teams
- Women in international management
- Career strategies for international women
- New trends in international relocation
- International assignment management
- Intercultural management