Rob, please tell us a little bit about yourself and your background. What services does Independence Wealth Management offer?

Independence take care of cross-border clients with a UK connection by helping them get the most from their money. We provide a combined asset management and tax annual service, with separate briefing courses. Our courses brief people on what they need to know to make good long term financial decisions. My background is:- grew up in Africa; Royal Air Force; engineering degree; transition to finance, and professional qualifications in tax, investments, and planning in US and UK; currently CEO at Independence.   more ...

Ruth, what inspired you to set up Top Schools HK?

I saw a need! I saw parents stressing about getting their kids into kindergartens and primary schools and no-one to turn to for help. The system is very complicated and I saw parents getting themselves into a mess and making unnecessary mistakes and thought that I could do something about it.

What services does Top Schools HK offer?

We place children in international and private schools here in HK. We work both with expats who contact us once they are thinking of moving to HK and we work with parents already here for many years, or born here.   more ...

Edina, can you tell us a bit about your background before joining Savills?

I started my Real Estate career in 1987 working with expatriates looking for homes in Hong Kong. At that time one of my major clients was Jardine Fleming Holding Ltd with approximately 150 leases. I joined FPD Savills in 1989 as a member of the Prestige Homes Division successfully selling high value residential homes. I worked closely with high net worth clients and major developers. In 1993 I was promoted to Associate Director before leaving the company to start a family. In 2000 I rejoined to head the Residential Leasing Department.   more ...

Angie, what inspired you and your husband to set up PetRelocation?

My husband Kevin and I moved to Austin from San Francisco back in 2000, and after starting a small pet taxiing business I saw the potential for incredible growth in the pet industry. Having relocated with my own dog and cat and realizing how stressful an experience it can be, it only made sense to explore how we could make it easier for people to get their pets from point A to point b efficiently and safely. We now have over 30 employees and handle hundreds of corporate and personal moves each year. To see this initial idea grow into a global business has been incredible, and the best part is knowing we’ve helped so many families keep their pets with them when life throws a big change into the mix.   more ...

Lindsay's blog: yoursaucepans.blogspot.com
Lindsay's Expat Focus column: www.expatfocus.com/lindsay-de-feliz
See below for interview transcript.   more ...

Judy, can you tell us a bit about who you are and your background as an expat?

I guess you could call me a professional trailing spouse. I was born and raised in the UK and unwittingly married a Third Culture Kid. Soon after, we immigrated to Canada where I built a successful career in real estate. When my son was 9 years old my husband’s job took us to Azerbaijan just after its independence from the Soviet Union, which was a huge culture shock, but also a life-changing experience (in a good way!)   more ...

Tai, can you tell us a bit about your background before producing and hosting The Expat Radio Show?

My road to ultimately creating the Expat Show was a series of wild events one can only describe as unpredictable, long, winding and nightmarish! Hope you will bear with me.

To start, I come from an entrepreneurial background. I think anyone who has that quality in their blood knows how important it is to create and be independent. My first company was Taico® Incentive Services and centered around providing incentive education, awards and tracking tools for our corporate clients in the USA. Taico® Incentive Services still operates and can be visited at: www.taico.com. The success of the company gave me the motivation to leave the hustle and busy life of NYC to experience the beauty and peace of life in the country. I purchased a small house on a small lake and received all the necessary approvals to renovate the property.   more ...

Tina, can you tell us something about your background and what prompted you to write "The Global Nomad's Guide to University Transition"?

I am a third culture kid (TCK) myself. My father was in the military and I once asked my parents how many moves I had made by the time Dad retired. It turns out that I had moved 15 times by age 13. My husband and I have raised our own TCK daughters across four cultures and continents. As a family we have made 10 moves altogether.

A good friend who happened to be a psychologist who worked with globally mobile families offered to give me a transition workshop when she heard my family was repatriating after having lived nearly 15 consecutive years abroad. She taught me that we needed to treat our home country the same way we would a foreign one as it would be foreign to us in many respects. This training was a godsend. Although we still had some hurdles to jump, it made us more aware of why things were happening and what we could do about it.   more ...

Julian, can you tell us a bit about your background before founding expat-blog.com?

Before founding Expat blog six years ago, I worked as a web developer and marketer in the UK then in Spain for a few years. I went to London right after my studies where I got my first job. I must say that I fell pretty young under the spell of living abroad.

I have always been passionate about travel, foreign cultures and web technologies: Expat blog is a perfect blend of all of these!


What prompted you to start expat-blog.com?

In 2005, I was looking for information on the Internet about living abroad and more particularly in UK and in Spain where I lived as an expatriate. I must admit that they were only a few about real life abroad. At that time, blogging was fast-growing. I started a blog and noticed that they were a lot of expatriates’ blogs: I decided to gather all those blogs on a unique platform. Then as Expat blog was developing, we added more features and we are now a community website with more than 250 000 active members.   more ...

Narin Ganesh is the Regional Finance Director responsible for international relocation operations in the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia and recently featured in the Channel 4 program 'Undercover Boss'.


Narin, can you tell us a bit about your background before you joined Crown Relocations?

Before I joined Crown Relocations I was Finance Director at Neal's Yard Remedies, a manufacturer and retailer/wholesaler of natural plant-based cosmetics & toiletries. Before that I spent four years at Alpha Airports Group in a couple of controlling roles. Elsewhere on my CV you'll see that I have worked for Sainsbury's, Pendragon (in automotive retail), as well as a lengthy spell in social housing and in private practice, so a pretty varied background.


What services does Crown Relocations offer?

Crown Relocations is one of the world’s leading relocation specialists. We are experts at moving people virtually anywhere in the world. We relocate over 100,000 people internationally every year, guiding them through the relocation process and helping them to settle in when they get to their new host country. From packing plates to delivering dogs we’ve made moving people and their possessions into an art form. Our team of professionals can pack, transport and store personal belongings, expertly handling personal goods and delivering them securely across the globe.   more ...