Events > BETT Global 2022

BETT Global 2022

 

DIT Commercial Officers

Please use the following links to view the DIT Commercial Officer profiles available for in-person and virtual 1-2-1 meetings as part of BETT Global 2022.

 

Attending In-Person:

Attending Virtually:

Attending BETT Global 2022 In-Person

DIT Africa

Tamir Campbell Ismail

Education Sector Director - Africa

 

Tamir leads on DIT's education sector work in Africa, supporting UK businesses export across the continent. He works with a team of trade advisors who are committed to finding high-value and high-impact commercial opportunities for the UK sector in every educational sub-area from early years’ provision to edtech in HE, as well as where the UK can support larger-scale interventions on Ministry of Education-led reform projects across the region. With over 10 years’ experience working in the education sector in both development and commercial oriented roles, Tamir is passionate about education transformation and is clear about the UK’s ability to make a real difference in this space, supporting African governments, schools, teachers and learners access the very best of British education solutions.

 

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Carina Gastelsberger

Trade Advisor

 

Carina joined the Commercial Section of the British Embassy in Vienna nearly ten years ago and in her role as Trade Advisor supports British companies wishing to export to Austria. During her time at the Department for International Trade (and former UK Trade and Investment) she built up a vast experience in various sectors, but has been focusing on education and education technology in the last year. Her activities included an extensive sector and stakeholder mapping, as well as two digital events on Covid-19 and the role of EdTech to deliver education.

Carina was born and raised in Austria, and therefore has first-hand experience with the local education system, as well as an excellent understanding of the Austrian business culture and mentality.

 

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Abir Barua

Trade & Investment Manager

 

Abir Barua has been working in Department of International Trade team in the British High Commission in Bangladesh as the Trade & Investment Manager since 2016. He provides sector knowledge to UK companies looking to export to or establish their presence in Bangladesh. His specialist areas are in specialist services, which have been identified as the priority sectors for expanding UK-Bangladesh trade: Education, Healthcare, Agri-tech, Water and Environment and Technology. He holds a Master’s degree in Business and Economics from East West University and previously worked with an international microfinance institution as an investment analysist for Asian and African markets.

 

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Larissa Vazquez

Education and Training Officer

 

Larissa Vázquez is the Education and Training Officer at DIT Brazil. Her role is to support UK education providers entering and growing their presence in Brazil by providing market information, identifying opportunities in the market, connecting UK companies with key local buyers and government representatives and working on strategic activities to open the market for UK providers in Brazil. She covers all areas of education focusing her time particularly in English Language Training and Education Technology. Larissa holds a degree in International Relations and her experience includes engagement with higher education institutions from Brazil and abroad. She also has experience in project management, account management and government relations.

 

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Anelia Todorova

Deputy Director DIT Sofia

 

Active Business Developer and Consultant with a proven track record of 15+ year of managing successful projects of big international companies in Bulgaria and the region. Currently responsible for a team of DIT officers in Central Europe (Poland, Hungary, Czech, Slovakia and Bulgaria) with a focus in Education.

My goal for BETT is to have a better understanding of the UK Educational offer in order to promote it to Bulgarian buyers and partners. Come and talk to me if you are chasing an opportunity in the above-mentioned markets.

 

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Kateřina Fričová

Senior Trade Adviser for Financial Services and Education

 

Kateřina joined the British Embassy in Prague in 2019, acting as a political officer before moving on to the trade team the following year. In her role as a Senior Trade Adviser for Financial Services and Education, she supports different UK companies with interest in the Czech market and facilitates contact between them and prospective local partners, also utilizing her previous experience as a representative of a Czech company specializing in corporate language education. She is a part of the wider Education Campaign team in Central Europe and works closely with her colleagues to identify export opportunities in the region.

 

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Hayley Waskett

Head of Creative Industries and Retail

 

Hayley Waskett leads the retail and creative industries campaign at the Department for International Trade in France, based at the British Embassy in Paris. Her role is to offer support to UK companies looking to expand their activities in France, and to accompany French investors into the UK. Education and Ed-Tech are particular focuses of the campaign, but also all creative applications of technology and consumer goods. She supports all companies including SMEs, start-ups, scale-ups and large multinational conglomerates, providing support on export strategies, regulation, visibility in the market and introductions to local partners. For French companies, Hayley regularly facilitates expansions and introductions into the UK ecosystem, offering support in all facets from introductions to growth partners through to regulation and logistics.

 

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Botagoz Seitbekova

Trade Officer

 

Botagoz Seitbekova is a Trade Officer at the DIT Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. She joined the team in 2019 year and covered education, healthcare and financial sectors. Her main focus for the Education sector is on EdTech, Trans-national education and Higher Education. Botagoz has supported a range of DIT's trade missions, virtual webinars and life visits, as well as helped various British companies who wished to come to Kazakhstani market and find partners/distributors. She is the one responsible for the annual education group round table within the frames of Inter-Governmental Commission between UK and Kazakhstan. Please feel free to book an appointment to meet in person at the BETT Show DIT stand.

 

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Diala Michlawi

International Trade & Investment Officer

 

Diala Michlawi leads on the Education sector at the Department for International Trade (DIT) British Embassy Beirut. As a Trade & Investment Officer, my priority is to promote the UK's global leadership in education, and to grow UK Lebanese education partnership through our various services that we usually provide. The Edtech sector has been our main focus since the last couple of years and it has grown over especially with Covid-19; The ministry of Education and Higher Education together with the private sector in the market are looking into so many Edtech solutions from the UK. We are further working on improving education access and quality, and focus on increasing activity in mainly four areas:

  • Special needs education;
  • EdTech;
  • Universities and alumni;
  • Qualifications and English language teaching.

 

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Abril Ramos

Trade Officer for Education

 

Abril has been part of the Education team in DIT Mexico for over 4 years now. She promotes the UK Offer with Mexican distributors and institutions at all educational levels for them to know innovative UK products and services and create business opportunities.

She is keen to meet EdTech companies/institutions whose offer is focused on primary and higher education. She would also like meet companies that have been successful in the LATAC market.

She works very closely with her colleagues in the Skills programme, boosting activities aimed to sponsor projects with social impact in subjects like education, technology and innovation, among others.

 

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Nankling Danfulani

Trade Adviser Education, Technology and Creatives

 

Nankling Carol Danfulani is an International Trade Adviser with an Education and Technology background. Se has experience working in the private and public sector building relationships and helping companies and individuals trade and invest internationally.

In the past, she has lead teams as a Project/Product Manager building software products in Education Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Financial Technology, and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems. Most recently, she has worked in Product Consulting, Marketing, and Development.

Her expertise spans Agile Project Management, Trade Advisory, Product Development, Product Marketing, Technology Consulting, Strategy, and KPI development.

 

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Ghufran Abbas

Education Lead Pakistan

 

A business graduate of Heriot-Watt University, Scotland leading the efforts of DIT's Education sector in Pakistan since 2019. My main objective is to help the UK achieve its commercial objectives in a way that supports long-term prosperity agenda, including through inclusive growth and economic development in Pakistan. As a key member of the UK trade team in Pakistan, I help deliver our regional and country business/ trade policy plans. Promoting credible, export ready UK companies to achieve more business with local governments/private sector opportunities in this exciting growing market. Was recently shortlisted globally for which I won a DIT Championship Award. I have previously worked with John Lewis Partnership, Exxon Mobil, Tesco etc. I have a keen interest in developing Education ties between the UK and Pakistan. Been working closely with number of British Universities, Chartered Institutes, EdTech firms to support their partnerships and development in Pakistan. Aside from work, I am an advocate for animal rights and climate change, working with different charities/NGO's to support the cause.

 

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Phumla Mntambo

Senior Trade Advisor

 

Phumla is a professional Trade and Investment Advisor with experience supporting businesses with market entry, transactions in market, facilitating the development and implementation of tailored commercial solutions, and attracting foreign investment to support sustainable and inclusive growth for mutual prosperity across markets.

Over a period of eight years, Phumla has directly contributed to the implementation of business development strategies and the coordination of partnership opportunities involving both local and international stakeholders. She has had the pleasure of building networks with various public and private sector stakeholders to originate a pipeline of deals in key strategic sectors, including but not limited to Education, Technology, Financial & Professional Services and more recently, Healthcare.

Phumla thrives on embracing new challenges, delivering ‘firsts’ (a consequence of always wanting to innovate, adapt and push boundaries), solving problems, answering questions that haven’t been asked, and helping others to achieve their objectives. Working within the complexities of global markets, particularly the emerging business markets of the world has been a responsibility met with exceptional discipline, flexibility and continuous learning which Phumla strives to expand upon throughout her growing career as a business advisor.

 

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Paula Alonso de la Sota

Trade and Investment Adviser

 

Graduated in International Relations, with experience in public organisations, currently working as a Trade and Investment Adviser at the Department for International Trade, at the British Embassy in Madrid.

I help British companies succeed in Spain by providing high quality market information and support Spanish companies to establish their business in the UK. One of the main sectors I am currently responsible for is Education, with a focus on EdTech companies, for which I have organised several trade missions and events to create connections with relevant stakeholders in Spain. I also cover Financial and Professional Business Services, including subsectors such as Fintech, Legaltech or Insurtech.

I am very much looking forward to meeting EdTechs interested in exploring opportunities in Spain. If you want to know more about the Spanish education system and how we might be able to help you, book a meeting!

 

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Nantamas (Jaja) Chatraporn

Trade Manager - Education

 

As DIT Thailand Education Trade Manager, Jaja’s role is to promote UK education export to Thailand and support UK-Thailand education partnerships in schools, higher education, TVET, ELT, ed tech, special needs education, and TNE. She works on the UK side with DIT Education sector team, DfE, British Council, and various UK providers; and on the Thai side with government agencies - especially the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education, international schools, universities, vocational colleges, education agents, language schools, and others.

Jaja joined DIT Thailand at the British Embassy Bangkok in January 2019 as Trade Policy Assistant working to liberalize the Thai market and resolve market access barriers for UK businesses in 14 sectors following Brexit. Jaja got promoted to be the Trade Manager for Education in mid-2020. Jaja has four year work experience with the Thai Government working as Plan and Policy Analyst in the International Cooperation Office at the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC). She also holds a master’s degree in International Development from the University of Denver, Colorado, USA.

 

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Attending BETT Global 2022 Virtually

DIT Brazil

Maria Sales

Education and Training Intern

 

With a background in International Relations, Maria has worked in a variety of industries supporting clients and companies to achieve their commercial goals. Driven by a passion for creating positive social and environmental impact, she has experience in the Brazilian business landscape and a record of accomplishment in establishing commercial relationships. As part of the DIT Brazil Education Team, her responsibilities include trade support, such as matchmaking, account management and helping new providers in local market, and events and social media promotion. On her previous roles, Maria has acquired leadership and customer service skills by working in client-facing positions in companies such as J.P. Morgan.

 

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Viviana Daza

DIT Commercial Officer

 

Viviana is based at the British Embassy, Santiago de Chile. She is a Business Administration Engineer, graduated from the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana in the same city and holds a postgraduate degree in Project Evaluation from the Universidad de Chile. She joined the International Trade Department team in 2015 to cover the mining sector, successfully linking multiple companies to the Chilean market. As of April 2020 she was also appointed to simultaneously cover the education sector. Viviana is keen to support UK companies with the ability to offer education products and services to engage with key players in both the private and government sectors, as well as finding business partners in Chile.

 

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Si Su

Head of Education Technology and Higher Education

Sharon Qu

Head of Schools and All-round Education

 

Si Su:

Su Si works in the Department for International Trade (DIT) as the Head of Education Technology and Higher Education, based in the British Consulate-General Shanghai. In this role, she supports UK Education Technology companies and Higher Education institutions to explore high value business opportunities and government collaboration projects. She also works on foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in education sector, supporting Chinese companies to invest in the UK.

Prior to joining the DIT, Su Si worked in the British Council for UK-China education partnerships and mobility programmes, focusing on higher education and K12 education.

Sharon Qu:

Sharon Qu is the Head of Schools and New Markets at the Department for International Trade (DIT) based at the British Consulate- General Guangzhou since January 2019. With MA Media Industries from University of Leeds, Sharon worked at Mars Wrigley China as a key account manager for 4 years before joining Department for International Trade With extensive experience in both private and public sectors as well as expertise in dealing with business and government clients to broker partnership deals, Sharon is helping UK schools and other education service providers to pursue their collaborations in China, and to explore high value opportunities and government projects for UK education institutions and Chinese investors.

 

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Almoataz Ibrahim

Senior Trade Adviser - Healthcare & Education

 

Worked in several departments within the Egyptian Commercial Service (ECS) since 2015 where he was the desk officer responsible for the bilateral trade relations between Egypt and its partners in Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa. During that time, he gained hands-on experience in the various issues of international trade and commercial diplomacy. In January 2020, he was appointed as deputy head of the Institutional Communication and Public Relations Unit at ECS, where he developed an understanding of how to communicate and liaise between the government and the business community to help foster partnerships and further the goals of ECS.

Near the end of 2020, he served as Deputy Head of the Commercial Office at the Egyptian Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, where he acquired multifaceted and interdisciplinary experience from dealing with business people that represent almost all the manufacturing sectors that account for the Egyptian exports to Kenya, to delivering country position to COMESA secretariate on the issue of suspension of preferential treatment that Kenya extends on its imports from COMESA Members in contradiction with its commitments within COMESA.

 

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Augustine Owusu

Trade Advisor - Digital and Education

 

Augustine is a Trade Advisor for Digital and Education with the Department for International Trade at the British High Commission, Ghana. Augustine supports the work of the in-country Team by identifying commercial opportunities for both sectors, flagging these to UK companies and guiding them to efficiently compete for these opportunities. Before moving to DIT, Augustine was the Economic Prosperity Officer for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Ghana. He was mainly responsible for managing projects, coordinating the regional work of the Prosperity Network and managing a number of cross-mission committees. Prior to joining the British High Commission, Augustine worked with the private sector, mainly gaining experience in the FX brokerage industry. He supported the establishment of two FX Brokerage in city of Accra. Core expertise gained from work in the private sector include financial sales and business strategy & development.

 

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Sophia Ip

Head of Education

 

Sophia works in the trade team in Hong Kong. She is the lead for the education and training sector for all sub-sectors. Her portfolio ranges from international school set-up, eLearning opportunities, education infrastructure to transnational education opportunities. Prior to this she has worked in a variety of different education organisations including, the British Council, the International Affairs Office of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and as an education consultant for a leading education agency in Hong Kong. Sophia is also a member of the of the education committee of the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. The role of the Committee is to be a voice on educational issues that affect British business in the Hong Kong SAR.

 

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Piyush Awasthi

Senior Trade Advisor

 

Piyush Awasthi is the Senior Trade Advisor for the Technology vertical in India, he has been focussing on promoting UK's expertise in Educational Technology in the Indian Market for 2 years, in total he has a professional experience of 14+ years of working with various technology and product design and development companies in India and the Europe. His primary job role at the department for international trade involves helping UK companies access the Indian Market, majority of the support delivered includes making relevant business introductions, helping UK firms with market intelligence, promoting UK tech at major industry events and also helping with intelligence to set up business in India.

 

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Shabrina Atrasina Fadhila

Trade & Investment Manager (Education)

 

As Trade & Investment Manager in Education, Shabrina works to identify and promote business opportunities in Indonesia’s education sector, as well as provide advice and assistance to UK companies and institutions. She is passionate to support the scaling up of UK-Indonesia partnership in education to develop Indonesia’s human capital, which has become a signature focus of the government, through proactively managing the relationships between UK and Indonesian stakeholders. Her previous experiences include becoming a liaison officer in wide-scale project for multinational energy company and managing CSR in education. She earns her Master’s degree in Development Studies from the University of Melbourne.

 

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BeeBee Gan

Senior Trade Manager - Education

Husna Hashim

Head of Education Asia Pacific- Trade

Gurpreet Kaur

Assistant Trade Manager

 

BeeBee Gan:

BeeBee Gan's engagement in partnership development and marketing management as an educational entrepreneur spans over 30 years. She has effective communication skills which set her confident demeanour to liaise with staff in institutions, as well as stake holders and local government agencies in ASEAN countries, China, India and the Middle East. Qualities such as diplomacy, sensitivity, a commitment to excellence and a proactive, enthusiastic approach are fundamental to her attributes. BeeBee's specialism cover a diverse range of internationalization of facilitating links, managing global relationships for the UK HE fraternity and the British Council's Education and Training arm.

A professionally trained educationist from the University of Leeds and an education marketing management professional from Salford University, BeeBee has strong project and relationship mangement skills with strong service orientation. She has much experience leading regional teams whilst working in several countries in Asia and the United Kingdom with technology, digital, public-listed companies and scale-up or corporations. BeeBee is self directed, manage multiple initiatives in parallel, independent, proactive and highly motivated. She has the courage to ensure the vibrant resilience of educational entrepreneurship in these few years to come while supporting the stake holders in the challenges they face today. Using her skills and experience, BeeBee is confident to develop sustainable growth in partnerships, impactful collaborations, achieving projected targets and engaging for the new post CoVid-19 change and the Industry Revolution 4.0 in the education landscape.

Husna Hashim:

Husna leads the ASEAN Education HVC work for Deparment for International Trade which involves developing and delivering campaigns to promote UK business interests. Husna works with UK Education companies to help grow their international revenue across Malaysia and the ASEAN region. Prior to this, Husna was a Programmes and Partnerships Manager at the British Council and has successfully delivered many regional programmes nationwide including the International Inspiration, the first ever international legacy initiative ever linked to an Olympic and Paralympics Games London 2012. . She was also responsible for the implementation of the National Education Technology project under the Ministry of Education Malaysia

Husna holds an MEd specialising in Curriculum and Instructions.

Gurpreet Kaur:

As the Assistant Trade Manager for Education within the Department for International Trade (DIT) Section of the British High Commission Kuala Lumpur, Gurpreet provides expert advice and support to British companies/institutions on opportunities and potential collaborations within the Malaysian Education and Training Sector. Joining DIT with a background in Law, Gurpreet has experience in working with the Student Education Services during her stint at the University of Leeds.

DIT Education Malaysia works very closely with the Malaysian Education Ministry on opportunities with the Malaysian government, and with international educational institutions for collaborative prospects within the education sector. The Education Team at post receives the most requests from businesses all year round.

 

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Imad Arafat

Trade Officer - Energy & Education

 

I am the Trade officer supporting the Energy & Education sectors with the Department for International Trade (DIT) in the UAE. I am based at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. While generally supporting the Education lead in the UAE , my areas of focus are SEN, Early Learning and overlap with training specific to Energy. I have lived in the UAE for over 12 years and prior to joining the British Embassy I have held positions with an engineering consultancy and the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service in support of the Energy, Environment and Power sectors.

 

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ANH BUI

Trade Manager

Phuong Ho

Trade Manager

 

ANH BUI:

More than 10 years in civil service working for both Vietnamese and UK governments. Active local knowledge and network. Strong interest in furthering UK education offer and leveraging UK soft power values. Diverse trade experience from trade negotiation, promotion and facilitation. Passionate to match UK globally known expertise and Local market needs towards sustainable development. Having been working across numerous projects with a mixture between development and business.

Other experience varied from private sector in marketing and branding, banking and investment. Would be delighted to hear from UK business on their approach to the market and explore potential opportunities for connection.

Phuong Ho:

Phuong has joined DIT (known as UK Trade & Investment (UKTI)) Vietnam since July 2006. Before this she worked at the BritCham (known as British Business Group Vietnam), the local UK business chamber, for over four years and prior to that the European Chamber of Commerce (EUROCHAM) for over two years. Phuong also worked as the Business Centre Officer in the SOFITEL Hotel Plaza Saigon. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management. This background makes Phuong one of DIT Viet Nam’s most experienced officers in providing expert support to UK companies. Phuong looks after the Education and Training since she joined for more than 15 years. She would be delighted to have meetings with UK companies, who have an interest in, or looking to explore further, Vietnam’s market. This will enable Phuong to gain an understanding of a company’s activities and introduce Vietnam’s market, potential business opportunities and how DIT Viet Nam can offer its support.

 

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