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 five 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, merger & acquisitions, 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 the United States, she developed a love for foreign cultures and 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 eight years and she is currently co-authoring a book on cultural differences between French and Americans in the workplace. She further honed her intercultural expertise, living, studying and/or working in Italy, Switzerland, Mexico and Ecuador, and through travels to nearly 50 countries on five continents. With a Bachelor’s degree in Romance Languages and a Master’s in Intercultural Relations, Julia blends strong academic training with her extensive global experience. Fluent in French and Spanish, proficient in Italian, and currently studying Brazilian Portuguese, she believes language and culture are deeply interconnected and integrates this perspective into her work navigating linguistic and cultural complexity.
After more than a decade in international business and education, Julia co-founded Intercultural Alliances, LLC in 2002 to help individuals and organizations thrive in global work environments. She has since designed and delivered customized programs for thousands of executives, students, educators, military personnel, and government and NGO professionals across four continents and in multiple languages. She currently serves as a Senior Consultant at the World Bank, contributing to expanding its intercultural program and to the design and delivery of its intercultural courses.
Julia has served as adjunct faculty at George Washington University and University of Maryland. She has held multiple leadership positions at SIETAR USA (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research) including Board member, conference co-chair, local groups coordinator, and co-founder of its monthly webinar series and coffee chats. She currently serves on the Women in Leadership Board at the French-American Chamber of Commerce of Washington DC. A sought-after speaker on intercultural topics at conferences and for professional groups, Julia is equally committed to community building. She co-launched a Community Cultural Conversations series in her neighbourhood and more recently has hosted global Listening Circles designed to bring people together across differences.
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.
Sylvie Day
- Based in Paris, France
- 25+ 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
Ursula Leitzmann
- 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
Liliana Cantu
- 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
Lucy Linhares
- 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
Amy Liu
- 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
Diane Walsh Sasaki
- 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
Sunita Nichani
Based in Chennai, India
20+ years experience in business, diplomacy and higher education
Expertise in coaching C-suite leaders, multicultural teambuilding, post-merger integration, intercultural competence, and global mobility training
Master’s degree in Language & Communication Studies
Fluent in English, French, Sindhi, Hindi and Tamil
Co-founder and President of SIETAR India
Alla Kuznetsova
- 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
Sudhesh Bhaskaran
- 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
Judy Steele
- 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