Dr. Ruth Cherington

Trained as a sociologist, Ruth gained her Masters degree from the London School of Economics. She worked in advertising for a stint before becoming a lecturer in Higher Education. Ruth taught a variety of sociology courses in English and Chinese universities, which sparked an interest in youth studies that led to her doctorate from the School of Oriental and African Studies in 1995. She retains an interest in contemporary Chinese studies. In the early 90s, she researched and wrote about teaching and learning methods in adult education. In Bulgaria, Ruth spent 5 years teaching cultural and media studies at Veliko Turnovo University. This was followed by project work in Poland and consultancies throughout Eastern and Central Europe as well as Central Asia.  

At the Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies (Warwick University) Ruth ran a number of MA courses in cultural and media studies. She is now a freelance cultural studies researcher, trainer and writer. Her current work revolves around aspects of community in the globalised world. This ranges from looking at ‘traditional’ centres of community such as working men’s clubs in the UK, to online community websites. She is writing a book on working men’s clubs which integrates aspects of inclusion and exclusion: class, gender, age/generation and ethnicity.

For further details see:

www.clubhistorians.co.uk

Jeremy Comfort

Jeremy was born in 1953 in Alexandria, Egypt. He studied English and History at the University of Keele and later Applied Linguistics at the University of Essex. Early in his career he spent 2 years working as an in-company teacher for a German coal mining company.

He is one of the founding partners of York Associates which started in 1980. He specialises in intercultural training, delivering seminars on managing international teams and international project communication. He is a member of the Team Management Systems network and also an accredited consultant for The International Profiler. He works with our international clients throughout Europe.

Jeremy is also the author of a number of titles on Business Communication, including the Business Skills series for Oxford University Press, Business across Cultures for Falcon Press and Best Practice for Heinle ELT. Recently he has been working on our DPI project developing an approach and materials for intercultural learning.

He is married with two daughters (27 and 25 years old). He lives outside York in the village of Sutton-on-the-Forest and his interests include golf, which he plays badly with ex-partner Derek Utley, art, travel, cinema and modern fiction.

prof. Slawomir J.Magala

He was educated in Poland, Germany and the USA.He is currently holding a Chair in Cross-Cultural Management and chairing a Department of Organisational Sciences and Human Resource Management at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He has published numerous books, e.g., George Simmel, Class Struggle in Classless Poland ( under  the penname of Stanislaw Starski), Cross Cultural Competence ( Magala, 2005), The Management of Meaning in Organisations ( Magala, 2009). He translated the works of Susan Sontag, John Barth, Samuel Beckett, Norman Mailer, Alfred Whitehead and George Ritzer into Polish and is  an Editor-In-Chief of Journal Of Organisational Change Management.

Jens Ocksen

Born in Germany, spent his early childhood years in South Africa where he attended an international primary and high school. After his family returned to Germany, he continued his education and 1985 he graduated from the Technical University of Hannover with an engineer degree in the technology of production. Shortly after graduation he began working as a planner in the assembly department of T4 Transporter.

In years 1993-1996 he took up the position of the production manager at the Volkswagen plant in Taiwan. This was a Greenfield operation in a joint venture with a Chinese partner.

After returning to Hannover he continued his career at managerial positions in various departments by the assembly of LT, T4 and T5 models.

In 2003 to 2006 he held managerial position in the VW Group Quality Assurance Department being responsible for the release of the production start of VW models world wide.

Since June 2006 he has been holding key positions in Volkswagen Poznań, initially as the production manager and starting with February 2007 as the CEO of Volkswagen Poznań Sp. z o.o.

Tonya Trappe

Has had a varied and exciting career in ELT, as a teacher, author and teacher trainer.  Publications include Insights into Business and the ‘Duke of Edinburgh’ award winning Intelligent Business series for Longman and  ‘five plays for today’ for Penguin Readers. She is currently running a school in Paris and developing an ‘English through drama’ programme.