Understanding and building relations in the Asia Pacific region
Guest: Vina Nadjibulla (executive of an Asia Pacific trade organization)
What is going on in the Asia Pacific region? And how do we use that knowledge to do business and build relations? That is the mission for Vina Nadjibulla of the Asia Pacific Foundation. After all, understanding different places seems to be her calling, being born in the Soviet Union and growing up in multiple countries – and even working with the United Nations.
“HR has a place in every department of every organization” because there are people in them, according to Kevin Howlett. As a human resources professional, managing people’s roles at work is the core of what he does, on top of having difficult conversations, reintegrating them into the workforce, and more. Before retiring from Air Canada, he had to oversee over 40,000 employees around the world – he had to learn to be efficient to survive in this nonstop 24/7 job.
Thomas Codrington represents the United Kingdom in British Columbia – and that is no small job. He helps create economic growth between the province and the UK, trying to make business easier for both sides. And this is just the start, as he also connects with universities and the provincial government, while running the mission in Vancouver.
As the co-founder and CEO of Tru Earth, Brad Liski has to make sure the entire operation runs smoothly. This can mean putting together a leadership team that knows how to run everything even better than he can – and putting trust in them. This is a far cry from where finance and stockbroking, which was his original field of interest. Oddly enough, Brad thinks it was him being a bad employee and wanting to set his own destiny which drew him to become an entrepreneur, leading him to co-found Tru Earth, which makes eco-friendly laundry products.
Nicolas Baudouin’s job takes a ton of energy but he loves it. As a diplomat and consul general of France in Vancouver. In addition to running the consulate, he helps to form business and cultural relations between Canada and France, whether it be working at trade events, attending film festivals featuring French films, or any other tasks that strengthen the ties between France and Canada, especially in Western Canada and Vancouver. This was seemingly a calling, growing up in a part of France that had classmates from different parts of the world, with stories that resonated with Nicolas for life.