Dr. Barry Keehn is a highly popular and engaging facilitator with three decades of industry, governmental, and academic experience in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Africa. As a trainer, he primarily works with Americans to increase their effectiveness with the Japanese. As a management consultant, he works with high-performance executives and on transcultural organizational psychology.

In the private sector, he has worked with major Japanese manufacturing, financial, trading houses, and entertainment organizations. Currently, as well as a cross-cultural trainer, Barry is a psychologist working with individuals and groups on well-being and performance issues. He has assisted Korn/Ferry International with executive assessments and performance reviews and provided assessment services for Social Security and the Veteran’s Administration.

Barry has coordinated research projects and taught in a number of academic and research settings, including Cambridge University, the Japanese Prime Minister’s Office, the Research Institute of the Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry (Gov. of Japan), the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (Tokyo, Japan), and the National Institute for Research Advancement (Tokyo, Japan). His writings on Japan have appeared in such venues as the Harvard Business Review, Foreign Affairs, the National Interest, The Times of London, the Japan Policy Research Institute, the Brookings Institute, the Encyclopedia Britannica and This Is Yomiuri.

He has conducted programs and briefings on Japan for clients such as Toyota, Toshiba, Amgen, Boeing, Epson America, Lucas Aerospace, Mitsubishi International, IBM Europe, Verizon Wireless, Toyota Financial Services, Landis+Gyr, and the British Commonwealth Secretariat. He has worked closely with executives and government officials on issues of policy, personnel development, and organizational design on both sides of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and is the past President of the Japan America Society of Southern California.

Dr. Keehn received his B.A. in Asian Languages from the University of California at Berkeley, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science, with an emphasis on Organizational Theory and East Asian affairs, also from the University of California at Berkeley. He has been the recipient of two Fulbrights for research on Japan. Mid-career he added a doctorate in Psychology from the American Behavioral Studies Institute.

Taka Muraji is a native of Japan and an experienced intercultural trainer and coach who works in both the United States and Japan facilitating cross-cultural business training programs. Holding a Masters Degree in Linguistics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, he has lived in the United States for over thirteen years.

Beginning in 1982, Mr. Muraji worked in advertising in Japan and continued working in the industry in New York City until 1996. While he was studying for his Masters Degree at the University of Colorado, he began consulting with U.S. firms such as Disney and Motorola helping them to establish marketing and advertising plans for Japan.

Mr. Muraji currently designs and delivers cross-cultural and global communications training to executives and high-potential employees working in global business settings. He has provided these types of intercultural business trainings and team-building sessions for clients that span a wide variety industries, including the auto, pharmaceutical, consumer goods, high tech and aerospace industries. He has conducted major team building interventions for Japanese subsidiaries in the U.S., Mexico, Europe, and Japan. Among many others, clients have included Wal-Mart-Seiyu, Yamaha, Boeing, Panasonic, Verizon and NEC. A sample of program titles include:

• Working with Americans: A program for Japanese
• Understanding Cross-Cultural Communication and Western Style Management
• Understanding Cross Cultural Management
• Creating a Third Culture Environment
• How to Manage Global Business with Westerners
• The Japanese: Why They Are Misunderstood

In Japan, Mr. Muraji has also conducted a series of seminars and lectures for the Committee of Yonezawa City Industrial Development Project, the Mid-Year Seminar for the JET Program of the Yamagata Board of Education, and the Dewashonai International Forum. In 2004, he also conducted his new program "English Pronunciation Training" in Yamagata for the Japanese English learners as well as conducting other seminars for professional translators. In the last three years, he has been participating in an official Yamagata government program, called "Understanding America," as a program leader/coordinator.

David Severance is a much sought-after coach and team facilitator who assists companies in overcoming barriers that occur at the Japan-U.S. interface. He brings 25 years of experience and insight to both large and small companies working across cultures. 

Having studied at Kansai Foreign Language University in Osaka during college, he began his career at Japan's largest airline, the All Nippon Airways Group (ANA). At ANA he became one of the highest ranked foreigners in the company, overseeing several departments and leading a variety of intercultural projects over a fourteen year career. In 2001 David began working for both American and Japanese companies as a cross-cultural coach and facilitator. 

As part of his professional development he earned full ICF (International Coach Federation) certification as an executive coach, and earned a further certification in Emotional Intelligence assessments and coaching. He is one of a very small number of people worldwide to hold both of these certifications. 

He has conducted major team building interventions in Japanese subsidiaries in the U.S. and Europe. He has also used his coaching and team-alignment expertise in serving such companies as IBM, GE, Johnson & Johnson, Panasonic Companies, Pfizer, Chevron, Toyota, Honda, and Sumitomo Chemicals.

David serves as a trainer and coach, for both individuals and teams. His work begins with helping executives understand key differences in cultural values, behavioral styles and assumptions about colleagues. He then assists them in developing and practicing more effective ways of thinking about and interacting with others.  Working with executives for sales, finance, engineering, or other backgrounds, he focuses on effective communication and team collaboration to help those facing international and cultural obstacles achieve their goals successfully.

April Yacoub is a senior Cross-Cultural Consultant who coaches executives and leads management programs designed to help individuals in expatriate transition and global business effectiveness.  Ms. Yacoub focuses on the client’s cultural work style and behaviors that affect international business communication, leadership roles, interpersonal relationships and conflict resolution.  She also prepares them to work with a specific country such as China, Denmark, Japan, or the US.  

With over 20 years of international experience in more than 40 countries, and experience of living and working in Japan, Israel and throughout Europe, she brings a global point of view to her work. Participants in her programs come from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and from a broad range of industries that include information technology, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and food service.  

Ms. Yacoub has extensive experience in developing training content based on organizational and individual cultural knowledge gaps, and tailoring presentations and exercises for executives to mid-level managers to children based on their specific needs.  She also helps prepare individuals and families to thrive professionally and socially in their temporary expat assignment.

April received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of California, and her Master of Science degree in International Relations and Development from the Aalborg University in Denmark. In addition to her native English, she is proficient in German, Spanish, and Japanese with a basic knowledge of Arabic, Tagalog and Visayan.  Prior to consulting in Europe, she worked at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium and assisted at the U.S. Consulate in Dusseldorf, Germany and the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark.

She has co-written several blogs for the Association of Talent Development on international business experiences such as Get to Work or Get to Know: A Close-Up on Diverse Cultures; Am I Polite Enough for Your Country; and Does it Matter Where You Sit in a Meeting?

Clients she has served include: Carlsberg, Caterpillar, Coloplast, Danfoss, Dell, Ferrosan Medical Devices, Ford, Fujitsu, Harmon International Industries, Hitachi Metals, Johnson & Johnson, LEGO, NEC, Nike, Nissan-Renault, Nokia, Novo Nordisk, NTT, SAP, Symantec, Stanley Black & Decher, Starbucks, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Toyota.