Speaker Biographies

• Dr. Lionel F. Laroche
  (Registered as a P.Eng. in Ontario)
  President, MCB Solutions
  

  

  Over the past 14 years, Lionel Laroche has provided job search and career management services to over 25,000 people on four continents. Lionel specializes in helping technical professionals and organizations reach their professional objectives in rapidly changing and unfamiliar environments. He has written two books, “Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions” and “Recruiting, Retaining and Promoting Culturally Different Employees”, which have both sold over 5,000 copies.

  Lionel has worked with many organizations in the resource and energy sectors (Syncrude, Total, ConocoPhillips, Kinross Gold, Goldcorp, etc.) as well as engineering consulting firms (SNC-Lavalin, WorleyParsons, etc.). His work makes extensive use of his 12 years of international experience as a product / process development engineer.
  
  Born in France, he obtained his “Diplôme d’Ingénieur Polytechnicien” from the Ecole Polytechnique de Paris, France and his Ph. D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, USA.
  
  

  Personal Growth through Cross-Cultural Mentoring
  Objectives

• Within the APEGA mentoring program, about 70% of protégés and 40% of mentors were born and educated outside of Canada. As a result, the majority of mentoring relationships involve people who were born in different countries and virtually all permutations can be found. This cultural richness of the program brings tremendous personal growth opportunities – mentors and protégés can both increase their cultural dexterity and bring their newly developed ability to work with people who are different from them back into their workplace or personal lives.
  
  These cultural differences can be a double-edged sword and create challenges when the feedback provided by one is not understood by the other the way it was meant to be received. This workshop examines the root causes of these discrepancies and, through a combination of concrete exercise and practical tips, helps participants learn how to manage these differences effectively.
  
  Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
  
  • Describe the cross-cultural dynamics that lead to feedback being received differently than the way it was intended
  • Provide feedback in a way that is more likely to be received the way it was intended
  • Identify feedback mismatches when they occur and deal with them quickly and effectively