Elizabeth Vennekens-Kelly appears on Writers Abroad radio show

Elizabeth Vennekens-Kelly

Elizabeth Vennekens-Kelly is an intercultural trainer and consultant. She was born and raised in the United States. Before relocating to Europe Elizabeth was a business executive in the United States for twenty years. She has spent the last 10 years working in Western Europe, interacting with individuals from more than 40 countries around the world, professionally and collegially, where she has gained invaluable knowledge about individual cultures. Combining her business experience, familiarity of expat living and intercultural knowledge, Elizabeth works to help those relocating to and doing business overseas to effectively interact and communicate in multi-cultural situations. She works with both individuals and groups, conducts training seminars and workshops, and gives intercultural presentations throughout Europe. She has worked with people from numerous firms, organizations and companies such as Sony, Honeywell, European Central Bank, Suez Energy, Janssen Pharmaceutica, and Bloomberg Financial. Her philosophy is: having good management and communication skills are essential for effective business leaders; similarly, having cultural competencies are vital to effective managers working in multi-national companies. Management and communication skills, along with intercultural interactions are not complex concepts, but when they are not understood and utilized, the results can be very costly. Elizabeth is a member of organizations including SIETAR, FIGT, AWCA, MIWC and FAWCO. She served as the Chairperson of FAWCO’s Sharing Cultures Task Force (2009-2012). Her goal is to help individuals develop the cultural competencies they need to be successful and to encourage people to make the most of the unique opportunity of living outside their passport country. In addition to English, Elizabeth speaks Dutch and has a working knowledge of German.