Who We Are
Intercultural Alliances, LLC (ICA) helps clients optimize their global business relationships, create high performing and inclusive teams, and mitigate challenges to increase productivity and revenues. Our mission is to provide insight into the cultural factors that contribute to attitudes and behaviors that may impede day-to-day work and offer solutions to help leaders, teams and staff improve engagement, communication, collaboration and performance.
Since 2002, ICA has provided tailored intercultural services on six continents to a broad range of U.S. and international companies, organizations, governmental and academic institutions, in both the public and private sectors, to enrich communication, leadership and teamwork in an environment of global expansion, workforce diversity, expatriation, and outsourcing.
Meet ICA’s President
Julia Gaspar-Bates, M.A.
Julia’s intercultural journey began at birth in London into a bi-cultural family. Raised in coastal Maine, she developed a love for cultures and foreign languages at a young age through frequent travels with her family. At age 22, Julia moved to Paris, where she lived and worked for nearly 8 years. She further honed her intercultural communications skills over time, whether it was co-living with Russians while helping restore a church in the former Soviet Union, learning funeral protocols while attending a cremation ceremony in a Balinese village, attempting to communicate in Swahili with locals while climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, or working with women in a homeless shelter in Cuenca, Ecuador.
After more than 10 years working in international business and educational environments, Julia co-founded Intercultural Alliances, LLC in 2002 with the purpose of helping others thrive in a global work environment. She has since designed and delivered customized programs for thousands of executives, students and educators, military service members, and governmental and non-governmental staff from around the world on four continents and in multiple languages. She currently serves as an in-house consultant at the World Bank where she contributes to the strategy, development and delivery of its intercultural programs.
With a Bachelor's degree in the Romance Languages, Julia is fluent in French, Spanish, and Italian, and currently studying Brazilian Portuguese, and is able to incorporate a deep understanding of the complexities of communicating across linguistic barriers into her work. In addition to her years in France, she has also lived in Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, and more recently, Ecuador and has traveled to more than 45 countries on five continents. Her workshops are peppered with personal anecdotes sharpened from a lifetime of interacting and working with people from different cultures. Combined with a sound foundation in intercultural theory gained through her Master’s studies in Intercultural Relations, she is able to connect with her clients and participants in her programs and provide a deep awareness of the “whys” behind behavior. Julia is passionate about helping her clients develop authentic and lasting business alliances and integrates mindfulness-based practices to encourage them to cultivate a deeper awareness of self and their cultural behaviors.
Additional Experience and Certifications
ICA’s Consultants
ICA has a network of certified cross-cultural consultants in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia with expertise in cross-cultural and diversity training and international coaching. Our consultants all have:
Click each dot on the map to see more information about each consultant.
France
- Based in Paris, France
- 15+ years of experience conducting multicultural and virtual teambuilding, global leadership, presentation skills, cultural awareness, and expatriation trainings
- Experience living and working in Europe, the U.S. and the Middle East
- 10+ years in industry doing sales, marketing, training, management, IT and finance
- MBA with concentration in management, marketing and finance
- Certified in Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC), MBTI, DISC and several intercultural intelligence tools
- Fluent in French (native) and English
Germany
- Based in Munich, Germany
- 20+ years experience coaching, training and facilitation
- Experience living and working in the U.S. and France
- Expertise in leadership and talent development, teambuilding, cross-cultural competency and international business skills
- Master’s degrees in communication and in intercultural relations
- Professional Certified Coach with ICF
- Fluent in German (native) and English, proficient in French
Mexico
- Based in Monterrey, Mexico
- Expertise in intercultural communication, global leadership, diversity & inclusion training and consulting
- Professional experience in human resources, public relations, relocation services, translation
- Master’s of Science in International Communication
- Fluent in Spanish (native) and English
Brazil
- Based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Expertise in cross-cultural, communication, education and diversity training programs - 10+ years experience as a sociology professor
- Industry experience managing development projects and health care programs
- Master’s degree in Social Anthropology
- Fluent in Portuguese (native) and English
China
- Based in Shanghai, China and Taipei, Taiwan
- 18+ years experience conducting cultural awareness, global teambuilding and leadership training and executive coaching
- Lived and worked in China, Taiwan, U.S., Japan and France
- Professional experience in marketing, international education, account executive and English-language teacher
- Certified coach through The Newfield Network
- Author “Taiwan A to Z: The Essential Cultural Guide”
- Master of Arts in Counseling Education
- Fluent in English, Mandarin and Taiwanese, proficient in Japanese
Japan
- Based in Tokyo, Japan
- Expertise as communications consultant and trainer in diversity, teambuilding, cross-cultural conflict management, leadership development and expatriation/repatriation
- Native of USA with 30 years as an expat living and working in Japan and Singapore
- Certified coach through ICF
- Master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language
- Fluent in English (native) and Japanese
India
- Based in Mumbai, India
- Expertise as executive coach and global leadership, multicultural teambuilding and expatriation trainer
- Indian national with experience living and working in the UK and USA
- 30+ years experience in advertising/marketing
- Master’s degree in Advertising and Marketing
- Certified coach by COACH U
- Certifications in DISC, 360, NLP Practitioner and several cross-cultural assessments
Russia
- Based in Moscow, Russia
- Expertise in executive coaching and intercultural training, including cross-cultural conflict management
- 10+ years experience working in management
- Lived and worked in U.S. for 14 years
- Master’s degrees in International and Public Affairs and Organizational Psychology
- Fluent in Russian (native) and English
UAE
- Based in Dubai, UAE (originally from India)
- Expertise in cross-cultural communication, multicultural workplace and expatriation training
- Industry experience as language teacher, publishing editor, television anchor, sales and marketing manager
- Post Graduate degree in Mass Communications
- Fluent in English, proficient in French and Japanese
Australia
- Based in Sydney, Australia
- Expertise in global strategic development and expatriation training
- Professional experience as university professor, ESL teacher, and filmmaker
- Lived and worked in Korea and Japan
- Master’s of Arts in Media Arts & Production