Samuel van den Bergh is the founder of the Centre for Cross-cultural Competence which was part of the School of Communication at Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland. He is also the founder of his own training and consulting company, van den Bergh Thiagi Associates GmbH, which specializes in cross-cultural communication, management, teambuilding and diversity management.
He studied English and German linguistics at the Universities of Zurich and Berkeley (California), graduating with lic. phil. and MA degrees. Since the early nineties he has intensified his own ongoing education to include cross-cultural communication and competence.
Since the beginning of 2000, his work has shifted towards educating business leaders as well as students from various colleges and universities in cross-cultural awareness training. He lectures modules of Cross-cultural Management in several Executive MBA programmes. He runs in-company trainings on subjects such as "Leading Across Diversity and Cultures" and "Managing Multicultural Teams". A number of well-known companies are among his customers.
His specialties include training, consulting, coaching and research in the various areas regarding cross-cultural competence, cross-cultural and diversity management and cross-cultural team building.
His network has been highly international: Cambridge University (graduate level course), ICI (Intercultural Communication Institute, Portland Oregon). He has co-organised the international Train the Trainer Courses ICPT (Intercultural Competence for Practitioners and Trainers) in Winterthur Switzerland for 5 years. He has been a speaker at numerous national and international congresses.
Cultural and diversity differences are often the biggest challenge to successful interactions for health care professionals and patients. A lack of understanding of these factors causes conflicts, creates distrust, results in inaccurate treatment and leads to poor health outcomes. Therefore, bridging cultural and diversity differences is crucial.
25 Critical Incidents for self-study and classroom training