To read 400-word biographies of our coaches based throughout Latin America, click on a country below:
MEXICO | ARGENTINA | BRAZIL | CHILE
MEXICO
SANDRA HUBERT GIL is a global executive coach, team facilitator, and clinical psychologist who works in multiple international settings. Long fascinated by the dynamics of diversity and the nature of cross-cultural adaptation and collaboration, she realizes her passion by working with coachees and teams in a variety of cultural settings. She enjoys native fluency in Spanish and English.
Originally from New Orleans, Sandra holds a masters degree in clinical psychology from the University of the Americas, and she’s completed her doctoral coursework in clinical psychology at the Universidad Iberoamericana, both in Mexico City. She has been certified as a trainer, facilitator, and coach by the Center for Creative Leadership and the Young Presidents’ Organization, and she holds a postgraduate professional certification in organization development from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
Sandra is a seasoned facilitator of teams and groups, bringing to her work the experiences of developing leaders across cultures and managing expatriate assignments. She understands the challenges of leading teams in times of great complexity, and of bridging global leadership cultures. She works closely with clients to design and deliver professional development and other initiatives across sectors and cultures. Enrichening Sandra’s coaching, consulting, and team facilitation are several decades of experience supporting business development throughout North, Central, and South America.
Sandra leverages her experience with organizational systems and her cross-cultural and psychological background to engage in constructive conversations that promote self-awareness, sustain active learning, address complex change, offer concrete growth strategies, and enhance leadership competencies. Her clients have included the Inter-American Development Bank, Unilever, Beiersdorf, Avon, Banco de Crédito Perú, Banco Popular de Colombia, Sura Mexico, Fiat-Chrysler Mexico, Syngenta International, and YARA International. For the Center for Creative Leadership, she is the Lead LATAM Regional Coach. For the Young Presidents’ Organization, she has served in several capacities including designing and delivering customized personal growth retreats.
Sandra divides her time between Mexico City and Austin, Texas. She has four grown children who also have crossed borders; two are living now in the United States, two in Mexico. Having been brought up with good food and great music in New Orleans, Sandra especially loves to cook either a seasoned creole meal or a spicy Mexican dish. And whenever possible, she can be found dancing to rock, salsa, or cumbia.
ARGENTINA
LAURA BERTONE, an Argentine-born cross-cultural specialist, lived in Europe for almost 20 years. As a Paris-based interpreter for high-level international conferences, she became fascinated by the structuring patterns behind words and actions. Working in this intensely multicultural setting, she developed a life-long interest in cultural and linguistic differences.
Laura’s interest led to a Ph.D. at La Sorbonne on a specific linguistic activity related to cognitive processes. This, in turn, gave rise to numerous published articles on communication strategies, thinking processes, and cross-cultural management, and to her book, En Torno de Babel. (In September 2009, the English version of her book, The Hidden Side of Babel: Unveiling Cognition, Intelligence and Sense, was awarded the Samuel I. Hayakawa Book Prize by The Institute of General Semantics.)
Returning to Buenos Aires, Laura set up a consulting firm that organizes major seminars for industries and organizations on communication concerns. For smaller audiences, she offers a seminar called “Mental Organizers: Relearning How to Think”; this has been appreciated by audiences as diverse as top executives and students at provincial schools. Recently, she developed the multimedia presentation “Constructing Understanding: Tools to Facilitate a Mentality Change.” Laura also consults on internal corporate communication issues for the leading privatized utilities in Argentina. As a coach, she has worked with the top authorities of Edenor, one of Argentina’s leading utilities.
Since late 2001, Laura has focused on a partnership with Dr. Patrick Lagadec, a leading French expert on crisis management, with whom she had already organised several seminars. As a consequence of their fresh initiatives, they were asked to write a book that was published in France as Voyage au Coeur d’une Implosion (Eyrolles, 2003), and in Argentina as Crisis and Reconstruction: What the Argentine Experience Is Teaching Us. In 2004, Laura initiated, organised, and took a leading role in a very successful cross-cultural meeting on “the search for the roots of our identity,” meant to connect the intellectual world of Buenos Aires with the contributions of Argentine provincial populations.
Laura also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute of General Semantics, and has been a visiting professor at the Monterey Institute for International Studies in California.
Laura maintains contact with Argentina’s wide-open spaces. Together with her companion, Teophilo, she enjoys the seaside, gardening, horses, and other aspects of country and family life that strengthen her inner resources.
AIDA FRESE, an expatriate and executive coach, has an enduring interest in understanding how culture impacts identity, behavior, and one’s capacity for personal growth. Her life-long experiences living and working in different cultures has enabled her to be an effective coach of corporate leaders involved in cultural transitions and/or cross-cultural business dealings.
A native of Argentina with an Italian passport, Aida holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Buenos Aires, and a masters degree in public policy and organizational development from Purdue University in the United States. She holds two coaching certifications: One, from New York University, is in executive and organizational coaching. The other, from Escuela Argentina de PNL y Coaching, is in ontological coaching. Recently, Aida attained the level of Professional Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation. She also has participated in Philippe Rosinski’s program on coaching across cultures. She is completely fluent in both Spanish and English.
Having accompanied her husband to the United States, Aida began her coaching experiences by tutoring and coaching Spanish-language-learners: In Washington, D.C., she worked with business people at Berlitz. Later, in Indiana she worked with college students at Purdue, and with executives and their teams at AgAlumni Seeds. After returning to Argentina during 1995, she worked for the consultancy dQ International, where she participated in the design and delivery of trainings, and enhanced her skills in team-building, cross-cultural competence, negotiation, and communication. Returning to the United States again, she joined the United Way of Norwalk, Connecticut, coaching and supporting the parents of young children. Also at that time, she and a Dutch partner operated a coaching practice for business expatriates.
Now back in Argentina, Aida provides expatriate and executive coaching to executives and professionals, and to expatriates and their spouses. She is active as well as the coordinator of volunteer work and community service for the Argentine chapter of the International Coach Federation.
A resident of Buenos Aires with her husband and three daughters, Aida loves to be outdoors, especially playing golf. When she travels alone or with her family, she prefers to use public transportation, which allows her to closely observe local people and gain a better understanding of their daily life. From the nations she visits, Aida brings home cook books so that she can prepare international dinners at home. Finally, she is working to improve her Italian.
BRAZIL
ROBERTA FERRAZ ROSENBURG understands from her own global experience how challenging, and yet how important, can be one’s interactions at home or abroad with people from different cultures who have unfamiliar values and practices. Her mission is to enable coachees and clients to learn how to learn in such situations so that they rapidly gain both cross-cultural competence and a sense of personal completeness and satisfaction.
Born in São Paulo, Roberta graduated from Simmons College in Boston; she is now completing a masters degree in conflict resolution and mediation from Universidad Científica del Sur in Peru. She holds certifications in executive and life coaching from the Integrated Coaching Institute in São Paulo, and in ontological coaching from Newfield Network institutions in Peru and Chile. In May 2013 she was designated an Associate Certified Coach by the ICF. Roberta also has been certified to use the Change Style Indicator, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and FiroB. She converses and works in Spanish and English as well as in her native Portuguese.
Roberta began her career with seven years in the entertainment industry. She was an actress at the Rede Globo Broadcasting Network, performing in soap operas that were broadcast internationally as well as within Brazil. As an independent theatre producer, she performed in as well as produced plays throughout Brazil. In 1999, Roberta (recently married) worked at Salomon Smith Barney and Sun Life of Canada while pursuing her degree in Boston. During this period, she also lived for a time in New York City.
After Roberta returned to Brazil in the early 2000s, she decided that what she cared about most was the ability to understand, communicate with, and influence other people; this realization pointed her toward the practice of coaching. She gained certifications and began practicing in Brazil, serving clients that included Rede Globo Broadcasting Network, Queiroz Galvão Oil and Gas, Blitz Design, and BGN Bank. During 2010, Roberta and her family relocated to Lima, Peru; there she built a coaching and training practice that also involved her as an associate coach for both the Newfield Network and the Center of Creative Leadership. During this period, her clients (including coachees at the executive level) were Grupo Breca, Scotiabank, Banco de Crédito del Peru, Prima AFP, Edyficar, Mota Engil Construction, Odebrecht, and Olsare Insurance.
Now again living in her native Brazil, Roberta has personal interests that are mainly centered on her husband and children, and include a love of books and theatre.
SVEN DINKLAGE is a senior consultant and executive coach with extensive professional and international experience. He thrives by helping others to pursuit their personal and professional objectives while living a fulfilled and balanced life.
Born in Germany, Sven completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of Würzburg, and continued his studies at ESCP Europe in Oxford, Madrid, and Paris, graduating with a European master of management degree. He has been trained as a quantum analyst by Quantum University, São Paulo, and holds certifications in the DISC and several intercultural tools such as Aperian Global’s GlobeSmart and TMA World’s Country Navigator. In 2012, Sven completed an 18-month executive coaching course at Instituto EcoSocial in São Paulo. Besides his native German, Sven is fluent in English and Portuguese, and has solid facility in Spanish and French.
Before settling in Brazil in 1998, Sven lived in the USA, England, Spain and France, where he acquired significant experience in living and working internationally. Between 1998 and 2007, he worked for the Robert Bosch Corporation in Brazil, managing projects in marketing, sales, and strategic planning. He was responsible for the implementation of a Latin American shared services center and for acquiring new projects for Bosch in Argentina.
Since 2007, Sven has worked as an HR consultant and trainer in the fields of management development, cross-cultural training, and team building, helping to develop leaders with complex global roles. His training experience also comprises employee engagement, motivation, communication, decision-making, effective presentations, highly effective teams, and virtual team leadership. He has coached international and Brazilian executives. Among his clients have been ApexBrasil, BMW, Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte, Clariant, the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research, Robert Bosch, Tupy S.A., Voith Group, and ZF-Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen, and Peugeot Citroën.
Sven is co-author of the 2010 and 2014 editions of Willkommen in Brasilien, and of the 2011 edition of the São Paulo Newcomers Club’s Dicas (“Hints”). Recently, he co-authored Culturas diferentes, costumes diferentes: A importância de conhecer hábitos e peculiaridades dos visitantes estrangeiros (“Different cultures, different costumes: The importance of knowing habits and peculiarities of foreign visitors”), published in 2017 by Pontes Editores. Sven is a founding and board member of the Society for Intercultural Education, Training, And Research in Brazil, and is a leader of FranklinCovey Brazil.
Married to a Brazilian and father to a teenage son, Sven and his family reside in Campinas, not far from São Paulo.
CHILE
MICHELLE CLARKE is an executive and leadership coach who works with already-successful, high-achieving individuals and teams, coaching them to sustain their value proposition holistically as well as professionally. Her mission is to strengthen leadership capabilities whilst ensuring that her clients also realize enhanced self-value.
A native of South Africa, Michelle studied at the University of Witwatersrand before beginning her professional career. Over the years since, she completed several coach training programs, beginning with work at The Centre for Coaching in Cape Town. Subsequently, she gained certification as a Master Coach from The Behavioural Coaching Institute in London, and as a TeleCoach from TeleCoach International in the U.S. Michelle is trained in the methodologies of both Team Action Learning and Nancy Kline Time-to-Think, and she also studied with intercultural coach Philippe Rosinski.
Michelle began her career in the IT industry with Cortech Holdings as a sales engineer, brand manager, and eventually branch executive. During her late 20s, she founded, managed, and later sold her own IT business before migrating into the corporate arena to lead the entrepreneurial department of Old Mutual Investments. Her portfolio included managing a diverse and remote team of retail property specialists to drive realization of untapped revenue from retail properties.
Michelle founded her own coaching consultancy in 2005. She discovered that she has an affinity for individuals who are already performing at a high level, such as C-suite executives. Her expertise lies in the positive reinforcement of her coachee’s skills, knowledge, and competencies while also coaching them toward integral personal and professional growth. Among Michelle’s clients have been the Parliament of South Africa, Safcor Panalpina, Nedbank, AdvTech Holdings, Marie Stopes International, PACTWORLD, Aveng Mining Chile, KPMG, and Bloomberg News. In 2013 she was named an Associate Coach by the Centre for Creative Leadership.
Since 2007, Michelle has taken leadership roles in the coaching community. Formerly, she served as the regional president and head of marketing for Coaches & Mentors of South Africa. Currently, she leads a group of over 1000 coaches worldwide in a Coaching via Technology initiative, which facilitates their development of technology-embracing coaching skills.
Since early 2013, Michelle has lived and worked in Santiago de Chile, where her conversational Spanish is improving daily. She is an enthusiastic traveler and photographer and enjoys combining her work with travel across South America. She is also a yoga practitioner, an improvisation actor, and a life-long student of astrology.