EMEA 2020 Speakers

Khalaf was born and raised in Aleppo, Syria. He completed a Bachelor of Software Engineering at the University of Aleppo. Upon completion of his studies, Khalaf was faced with an impossible decision: stay in Syria knowing that he would be conscripted to serve in the Syrian army during the civil conflict; or leave his home, his family and his friends in search of safety and opportunity. Khalaf left Syria for Lebanon at the end of 2013. In 2019, Khalaf registered with Talent Beyond Boundaries was identified as a strong candidate for a Software Engineer position at Iress, a multinational financial software company, in Cheltenham, UK. He underwent a competitive recruitment process, completed a coding test (with distinction), and was extended an employment offer. He moved to the UK on a Tier 2 (General) visa with his wife and two daughters in August 2019.

Ezeibe is a seasoned mobility professional with 15 years’ industry experience in immigration and global mobility. He currently leads the consultative arm of Equinix’s Global Mobility team. Ezeibe has global responsibility for day-to-day mobility case management, while simultaneously driving strategic mobility conversations with business leadership. A qualified (now non-practicing) lawyer, Ezeibe has held regional and global mobility and immigration roles spanning the Legal, IT, Advertising and Business Consultancy industries. Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company. The world’s leading businesses interconnect their digital infrastructure through Equinix’s platform, because Equinix helps to simplify and bring together the right digital foundation to solve their toughest challenges and leap ahead of the competition.

Jo is an Attorney and Managing Partner of Fragomen’s Brussels office. She is responsible for managing corporate immigration compliance and advisory work for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. In this role, she supports multinational and medium-sized corporations and individuals with effective and efficient immigration solutions for both inbound and outbound moves. In addition, Jo leads Fragomen’s Government Strategies initiatives in relation to European institutions and represents Fragomen in the European Commission Expert Group on Economic Migration. Jo has developed the Fragomen Europe Center of Excellence and Integrated Advisory Services which are linked to Day One Compliance and work readiness (including immigration, Posted Worker and immigration compliance) and EU mobility and workforce planning. Prior to joining Fragomen, Jo was a member of the Board of Directors at one of the leading audit/tax consultancy firms in Belgium. In this role, she developed and endorsed the overall responsibility of the global mobility service offerings with respect to immigration, international social security and labour laws. Jo has spoken as an immigration law expert at numerous national and international seminars and has authored a list of publications related to economic migration and international social security law. Jo has also contributed to various focused studies on migration for the European Commission and the European Migration Network (EMN). She was also part of the legal experts group overseeing the Legal Migration Fitness Check conducted by the European Commission. Jo’s thorough knowledge of all aspects of global mobility, ranging from immigration to social security and individual labor law solutions, gives her a well-rounded and strategic view of immigration-based and cost containment solutions on behalf of her clients. Jo speaks English, Dutch and French and has a working knowledge of Spanish.

Paul Bennett is CEO and co-founder of PerchPeek. Paul launched PerchPeek after identifying a gap in the market after his own personal struggles when moving to London. Previously, Paul has held a position at Amazon from 2015 -2018, a role that saw him helping to launch new businesses, including assisting in the launch of the Treasure Trucks into the UK. Paul studied  Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University.

Chris is a Global Mobility Manager responsible for the Change Management, Function Redesign and Strategic development of the Global Mobility team at Aviva, a Global Insurance Provider. Chris’ focus is on enabling the Function to develop away from policy management and administrative processes into an expert consultation service able to demonstrate clear business value for Aviva’s 33 million customers, it’s customer facing business units and it’s functional group centre and market teams. Chris has led on the Implementation of a new strategically aligned relocation vendor, internal structure and process improvements, automation and data integrity development and is currently implementing Aviva’s first use of Global Mobility technology into its program. Chris has worked within Global Mobility for 7 Years, previously looking after Aviva’s UK immigration compliance and UK Inbound moves before moving to support its global market network in 2016.

Jackie started her mobility career in the US in 2008 and a few years later moved to the Avery Dennison EU headquarters in the Netherlands for an international assignment to implement mobility programs in EMEA. She localized in the Netherlands and continues to manage the US Domestic, Americas, and EMEA mobility programs. Prior to mobility, Jackie worked in Boston in various fields including immigration advising and public accounting at Deloitte. With a passion for always learning more, she has degrees in French, International Relations, an MBA, and recently followed the masters course in International HR & Global Mobility at Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

Since September 2019, Yann Blandy is CEO of Santa Fe Relocation. Keeping people and digital transformation at the forefront of everything he does, Yann is responsible for driving the growth and commercialisation of the business to ensure long-term success and also holds the role of Chief Commercial Officer. C-suite executive and strategic leader, Yann’s international expertise spans across a broad range of areas: with a proven track record as an HR leader including over 12 years’ experience in senior roles, he is best placed to understand the challenges faced by Global Mobility professionals today. In addition to Santa Fe Relocation, Yann is a Partner at Lazarus Advisory and Lazarus Equity Partners, Swedish private company. French-born and Paris raised, Yann moved to Stockholm (SE) in 1995. Yann is married to Tanja with whom he has two kids: Zoé and Alex. He now shares his time between Stockholm and London.

Said is the Director of Global Mobility & Immigration for Elastic, a search company that builds self-managed and SaaS offerings for search, logging, security, and analytics use cases. With over 2000 employees and 18 offices around the world, Said is responsible for developing a premier, global mobility & immigration practice and providing strategic direction for Elastic’s international transfers. He serves as a strategic partner for Elastic’s business leaders and HR Business Partners to ensure the highest level of compliance with immigration, tax, and relocation policies. Said has over 15 years of experience in the mobility industry and he has been a frequent guest speaker on numerous global mobility & immigration events.

A Dutch national, Cyril is responsible for ECA's clients in the Netherlands and Germany. His experience includes advising major multinational companies on current international HR practice and assisting clients with the management of international assignments, including data briefing, project management and implementation of ECA’s software solutions. Cyril also co-presents ECA’s International HR Practitioner training course and regularly speaks at events and panels.

Marina Brizar was born in Sarajevo, and after the Bosnian War was resettled as refugee with her family in Australia. She has almost a decade of experience in immigration law, human rights advocacy and leadership, and currently holds the position of Talent Beyond Boundaries, UK Director. In 2015 she was named the Young Migration Lawyer of the Year, in 2016 the Woman Lawyer of the Year – Up and Coming, and in 2017 100 Woman of Influence. In 2018, Marina was awarded a Churchill Fellowship and researched labour mobility as a complementary pathway to humanitarian resettlement in Australia, Canada, USA, UK and Germany. In the same year, she also travelled to Syria with Australian Senator to film the documentary series “Go Back to Where You Came From”. She holds a Bachelor of Laws/ Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Vivi Cahyadi is the CEO & Co-founder of AltoVita, a cloud-based Business to Employee (B2E) platform connecting relocation companies and assignees with a network of duty of care compliant accommodation in 480+ markets globally. Supported by 24/7 Reservations & Guest Experience teams, the collaborative platform aims at promoting price transparency and improving employee experience to ensure a seamless experience. Vivi is a product of global mobility, having relocated from NYC to Hong Kong and then London during the first 5 years of her career in corporate finance. After spending 8 years managing over $100m of real estate portfolio across Asia, Australia and the UK, she founded AltoVita and pioneered its proprietary technology, the Global Distribution & Reservation System (GDRS).

Gareth’s mobility career started out with 10 years managing expatriate tax programs with the Big Four. Leveraging his Diploma in International Human Resource Management, he switched to managing in-house cross-border programs for respected Employers within the Finance and Consulting industry – more latterly spending 7 years as the Head of Mobility for one of the UK’s iconic Aerospace / Manufacturing sector Employers. Taking this wealth of experience, in his role as VP of Technology Solutions, Gareth aspires to help Equus clients to apply the company’s technology to optimize their programs and solve their complex Global Mobility challenges.

Mark began his career as an expat tax advisor for international clients with PWC, and later became an in-house global mobility manager for Deloitte in the Netherlands. He lived and worked for three years in South Africa as Global Mobility Lead for Unilever. In 2015, Mark joined Arup in London as Head of International Mobility. And since 1 November 2018 Mark is based in Amsterdam as Head of Mobility with Booking.com. Mark is also a member of the Advisory Board with Certino and is a registered Senior Global Mobility Strategic Talent specialist (SGMS-T) with the Worldwide Employee Relocation Council and a regular speaker at global mobility industry conferences.

Charlotte is an Engineering Team Lead at Iress and was the first team lead in the UK to welcome displaced talent into her team. She is an advocate of displaced talent and has first hand experience of team integration. A product management professional who has moved into delivery and engineering leadership, Charlotte has worked at previous establishments such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services and Turnitin before moving into a leadership role at Iress.

Sangeetha is a human rights barrister, writer and activist passionate about improving access to rights for the most vulnerable members of our global community. She is a specialist in asylum, immigration and international human rights law. Recognised for her contribution to the profession, in 2020 alone she has been shortlisted for Barrister of the Year Award, Inspirational Women in Law Award and the International Bar Pro Bono Barrister of the Year awards. Sangeetha led a two-year long European Commission project to improve access to fundamental rights for undocumented children and families across Europe. In this role she published a book which was instrumental in broadening out the discourse on irregular migration within European institutions and member states. Sangeetha is uniquely placed to have experienced some of the humanitarian crises that people are fleeing from first-hand, to have viewed the changing position of European courts and to have worked directly in reception countries on the 'first shores of Europe.' She sits as Director of the board of Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid, a legal NGO providing pro bono legal services to asylum seekers in Lesvos. She is also an Associate of the Border Criminologies Department at the University of Oxford which provides original research on the effect of border control.

John Kaye is the Market Development Director for the Europe region at UnitedHealthcare Global. He has 20 years experience in the Private Medical Insurance industry, the vast majority of that in an international setting. During almost 16 years at Cigna, from his base in the UK, John fulfilled a variety of commercial roles serving the Europe, Middle East and AsiaPac regions, before becoming Managing Director of the European Global Health Benefits business. Leveraging this extensive experience, John is responsible for the expansion of the UnitedHealthcare Global footprint in the key European region.

Andy is the Global Mobility Manager at Improbable, one of the fastest growing tech startups in London. He joined Improbable from Google as a technical recruiter and proceeded to set up the Global Mobility Function due to the company’s need to have access to the global talent pool. This has given Andy the opportunity to setup all relocation, immigration and tax services for the company in a short period of time, while trying to continue to help the company grow. At the FEM EMMAs, Andy has won the Global Mobility Rising Star of the Year in 2016 and the best Small Mobility Programme of the Year in 2017.

With vast experience in HR and Operations, Efrat is experienced in culture, business & organization transformation; change management; M&As next to building sustainable teams in constantly changing international environments. Originally Israeli, Efrat lived in the US, UK before making The Netherlands home. She developed in different leadership roles in big public organizations (eBay, NetApp) from one, and private scale ups from the other (OYO, Optiver, uniQure). In all organizations she is focused on fulfillment of business strategy with people and service strategies which focus on growth, efficiency and getting things done. Efrat lives in Amsterdam with her husband & 4 kids.

Dr Rachel Lewis is a Registered Occupational Psychologist, who works both as an academic and as a practitioner. Rachel and colleague’s research and work aims to improve levels of employee health, wellbeing and engagement, and enhance people management and leadership skills. Rachel’s research is particularly focused on mental health within critical occupational and both this, and her practice have been multi-award winning. She has contributed to the development of guidance materials used within organisations and provided by bodies such as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, ACAS and the Health and Safety Executive, written articles for both peer reviewed academic and trade publications, and co-authored and edited three books.

Magdalena Marchlewska is currently a Global Mobility Account Manager at The Coca-Cola Company based in Warsaw, Poland. Magdalena’s professional experience in Human Resources started back in 2011 when she joined Ernst & Young and worked in Recruiting, Employer Branding, HR Operations, and finally became passionate about Global Mobility. As a result of this passion, she finished her postgraduate studies in HR Management from the Warsaw School of Economics with the thesis “The Challenges of International Mobility”. Since 2015, she continued her career at PwC as a Global Mobility Senior Consultant in a regional Mobility team responsible for Central and Eastern Europe. After 4 years spent at PwC, Magdalena has moved to Coke joining the global team of Mobility professionals and is now responsible for managing the international assignments within the EMEA region. Magdalena has participated in the London and Amsterdam Global Mobility Summits organized by the Forum for Expatriate Management which triggered her interest in contributing to the FEM's Warsaw Chapter as the first event of its kind dedicated for GM professionals in Poland that took place in April 2018. She was also one of the initiators of the first whole day Global Mobility conference in Poland that happened in October 2019 and is one of the organizers of the CEE Global Mobility Conference.

Like so many others at Equus, Vicki has a strong appreciation for international travel and countries’ distinctive cultures – interests that naturally led her to a career in Global Mobility. Vicki’s global travel bug kicked in right after college when she got a job and relocated to Japan. After 10 years, there, she repatriated to the U.K. where her Mobility career blossomed. Over the past several years, her efforts have grown to encompass project managing vendor RFPs and technology implementations, service delivery design and program change management. As SVP Solutions Consulting, Vicki is at the cutting edge of the mobility industry – part of the reason she frequently speaks at industry conferences and events.

Julia Onslow-Cole is a Partner in Fragomen specialising in Global Government Strategies and Compliance supporting clients worldwide to optimise global mobility strategies, enhance compliance and leverage best practice in all critical immigration related policies including crisis management. Before joining Fragomen Julia was a Partner, Legal Markets Leader and Head of Global Immigration at PwC leading complex multi-jurisdictional client engagements and providing strategic global immigration advice. Julia has been advising on the global impacts on immigration policy and practice through the COVID-19 crisis. Julia has been liaising with Government and Business on Brexit and has given expert evidence at the European Parliament. Julia has represented business at the Prime Minister’s immigration stock take meeting and acted as an advisor to the Home Office on business, investment and growth. Julia is a member of the Mayor of London’s Brexit Advisory Group, a board member of the Permits Foundation and the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a member of the Society for Human Resource Management’s Immigration Speciality Panel.

Dr Anthony Renshaw provides medical advisory for multiple leading global organisations across the academic, resources, banking, infrastructure, manufacturing, government and professional services sectors. He has expensive expertise in emergency response and managing public health crises, including pandemic planning. Since joining International SOS in 2008, Anthony has overseen healthcare delivery and consulting platforms across China, Mongolia, Sakhalin, Korea and Japan; led community health programs in the Pacific; run remote health services across Australia; and worked in correctional services and defence health. He has consulted widely across Africa, Europe and Asia-Pacific focusing on global health security, occupational medicine and emergency care. He has a keen interest in the interplay between global health and the private sector. Prior to joining the company he was a surgeon in the UK and South Africa. Anthony is a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, where he is an Associate Member of the Faculty of Rural, Remote and Humanitarian Healthcare. He is a Founding Fellow of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management, and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health. He holds a doctorate in reconstructive surgery from UCL, and an Executive MBA from INSEAD. He read medicine at the University of Manchester, where he also holds degrees in immunology and oncology.

Ian is a Partner in Fragomen's London office where he focuses on UK immigration. Ian has worked in immigration for 15 years, and manages a large team that supports businesses across a range of sectors, including IT, energy, professional services and London's burgeoning tech community. Ian also manages Fragomen's UK Government Strategies practice, working with key governmental decision makers with the aim of helping business understand how the immigration system can better support their needs. He also co-heads Fragomen's Brexit Taskforce. Before joining Fragomen, Ian spent eight years at the Home Office where he was a key figure in developing and overseeing the UK's economic migration policy.

Christine is an Attorney and Director in Fragomen’s Brussels office. She manages the Netherlands corporate immigration practice and leads Fragomen’s EU Brexit Task Force. Christine is responsible for European Brexit planning and sets Firm strategy preparing clients for future arrangements in the EU. Christine is also responsible for the Private Client practice for Benelux/France. Christine is an executive in Fragomen’s EU Advisory and Government Strategies group, with a particular focus on the EU ICT permit. She directs government strategies efforts in the Netherlands, working with decision makers ensuring Dutch immigration policies support business and individuals moving to the Netherlands.

Claire has more than 20 years’ experience in communications, working for major publishing platforms as a senior managing editor, writer and journalist at events, in print and the digital world. Now directing the FEM website, events and reports, Claire leads the FEM London Chapter and produces and chairs all the major conferences, summits and awards (EMMAs) in the Americas, APAC and EMEA where she is keen to engage with new members and to broaden the FEM community.

Caroline joined Worley in March 2020 (12 mth contract role) to take on responsibility for the full global mobility program management worldwide of around 500 assignees. She joined a fantastic team of experienced and dedicated professionals who had a large remit for change. Worley had recently acquired part of the Jacobs business, doubling their assignee headcount overnight and the challenge this provided in terms of harmonisation of approach & policy, process and improvements was extremely enticing. Worley delivers projects globally in engineering across the oil & gas, chemicals, power, and mining sectors. With significant volumes of assignees into some of the most challenging locations globally, there is never a dull day. Current projects include policy review, re-launch of assignment management software, an international payroll project and generally ensuring that the mobility programme is fit for purpose. Caroline started her career in a Big 4 tax accounting firm, moving into global mobility in 2005. Caroline has worked in a variety of industries (financial services, oil & gas, FMCG, consulting) and has experience life on both sides of the fence - vendor and client. She has lived in some interesting countries including UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Vietnam, Singapore but recently repatriated back to Europe.

Nicolai has +20 years mobility experience. He recently joined the Global Mobility CoE, which is strategic responsible for global mobility. Key responsibility areas: International Operations, Global Workforce Compliance, Mobility Technology and Systems. Novo Nordisk is a global healthcare company with 95 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care. Novo Nordisk employs approximately 43,000 in 80 offices around the world. Beginning his international career in 1997 at Arthur Andersen, Nicolai specialized in international tax and social security advisory. He continued his career at Deloitte where he was responsible for change management projects and process optimization. Before Novo Nordisk, Nicolai has head of Global Mobility in Ramboll 2013-2020.

Mike joined AIRINC in 2014 and leads the advisory services practice in EMEA. Mike works with global organisations to devise mobility programmes which support overall company strategy, with a particular focus on mobility compensation, operational, and policy solutions. Before joining AIRINC, Mike spent 15 years at Deloitte, the last four years of which he was the Partner leading Deloitte’s Global Mobility Compensation Services (GMCS) practice in Europe. Having been an expatriate himself, Mike and his family localised in Belgium in 2007. Mike started his career as a tax advisor with Arthur Andersen after gaining a BSc (Hons) in Business Administration from Bath University. He is an alumnus of IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Louise has spent over 25 years working in Assignee Services and Global Mobility. Initially in the area of UK and US tax compliance within Deloitte Global Employee Services, Louise was more recently Deloitte UK’s Head of Global Mobility and a member of the Deloitte North West Europe Global Mobility Council. In 2019 she took on a new challenge within professional services and is currently leading the UK based KPMG International Global Mobility Central team. This team governs Global Mobility across a network of over 150 firms within the KPMG network worldwide. Her current project is leading a significant initiative requiring a transformation of KPMG Global Mobility across all areas of policy, technology, process and communications to drive cultural change for the benefit of KPMG clients, Partners and employees.