Most memorable journeys

Susan spent 16 years gaining extensive corporate and management experience at a senior level in Equity Sales, Research and Corporate Marketing in investment banks DLJ, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. Passionate about helping people reach their full potential, she has developed training courses, facilitated development workshops and mentored high potential individuals throughout her career. Between jobs, she travelled to France to learn French and fell in love with Carcassonne where she spent the money that she had saved to buy a studio flat in London on a house.

Today, she is an experienced and professionally qualified corporate and executive coach, award-winning speaker, best-selling author and transformational trainer.

She is passionate about creating sustainable peak performance and success for clients by helping them increase their confidence, energy and impact.

In addition to one-to-one executive coaching and VIP strategy days, she runs a High Performing Woman program for women in business, bespoke workshops/speeches, an annual De-Stress and Assess retreat, and a series of corporate career masterclasses for clients such as Barclays Bank, Expedia, Jefferies, JP Morgan, Man Grp, Deutsche Bank and InvescoPerpetual.

https://www.tedlondon.com/about.html

Tracy lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. After realising that she didn’t need to compete with the world for acceptance and belonging – that it was something within her – she was inspired to help others to do the same.

In addition to her work as a transformational catalyst and speaker, she is an independent financial consultant, as well as an accomplished photographer, specialising in portraiture.

In her spare time, she love connecting with her daughters, family and friends, spending time in nature and enjoying international travel. She is passionate about people, intrigued with how we relate to ourselves and each other, and drawn to the ocean of possibilities within each one of us.

In her book “UNLOCKED” she talks about being trapped in a passionless marriage. So, we become liars. We become liars trapped behind scriptures and moral facades. We learn to hide ourselves behind our reputations, as long as we look good to society. We put others, and their aspirations, before our own. We are taught that if we make a promise before God, then that covenant is cast in stone, even if your feelings do not align. That if you were once out of integrity, you can never go back. Even if it means you become a blatant, perpetual liar.We learn that there is no point of return; and no turning forward either. We learn that where we make our bed, we sleep. We learn that there is no justification solid enough to even tempt squeezing our new, evolved, wiser self through the cracks of a promise once made. We are told that we are warm when we are cold; that there are many things to be happy about, when we feel sad. When we cry out that we are hungry – hungry for more – we’re told we should be grateful for the fill we already have. We are told how to feel. And we are told how not to feel. We are moulded into an expectation of uniformity; homogenised into a fictitious ideal of normality.So, we stay. And we pretend. We mask and we ache. With a smile. We laugh when all we really want to do is cry. We close our eyes and focus on the positive and turn away from the knowing – a constant gnawing groan from somewhere deep inside of us. We tell ourselves that we’re being silly – a hopeless reiteration of what we’ve been told is silly. We turn a deaf ear to the loud hungry pangs from our gut.

https://www.tracyloubser.com/why-tracy/

https://www.amazon.com/UNLOCKED-Journey-Inward-Utter-Truth/dp/B08JDXG3DL

Agni Scott was born and raised in Cyprus and is a multilingual actress whose first language is Greek. She spent the first 18 years of her life on the sunny shores of the Mediterranean island before moving to the United States to pursue higher education.

Agni Scott is known for Bridget Jones's Baby (2016), Persuasion (2022) and Spooks (2002) but we all fell in love with her in “Find me Falling”, the recent movie produced in Cyprus which is trending on Netflix.

Agni has an MFA in acting from Brandeis University and earned a BFA in acting from Florida International University in Miami.

She is married to Scott Handy and she is the mother of two children.

Rania was born during the war in Beirut in 1975 . Her childhood education was in Beirut and she studied at the very prestigious AUB (American University of Beirut)

Her journey has taken her from Germany to the UK, to Saudi Arabia and the UAE and now, she lives with her beautiful family in Cyprus. She has learned to the importance of adaptability and continuous learning. She has a mind for business, values that were taught by her family as well as love for culture, art and island life.

Ranya is a seasoned businesswoman and educator with a diverse background in journalism, banking, advertising, and consultancy. She began her career as a journalist for the pan-Arab business magazine Al-Iqtisad wa Al-Aamal and later worked in the first E-banking department in Lebanon as a Customer Relationship Service Manager at Credit Libanais. She also gained experience in the advertising industry at Memac Ogilvy. Ranya founded Miza Advantage Consultancy in Lebanon and has taught at Zayed University in Dubai and Effat University in Saudi Arabia. She is a certified SAP ERP Associate and excels in business planning, strategy, CRM, and curriculum development. Ranya has been recognized for her excellence in teaching and is a founding board member of BPWESC, among other associations. Ranya likes to learn languages and is passionate about work-life balance, sports, art, fashion, business, travel, and music. Her motto is "empower herself to empower others."

Kelly Groehler is a corporate communications executive in the U.S. and the creator, executive producer and host of The WTAF Show: Women. Travel. Art. Food. It’s the only women-first food & travel show out there – and a double entendre. Kelly created the show after seeing women are the travel,

food and art super consumers, yet 95% of food & travel shows are hosted by men. The stories they share on The WTAF Show are by women, about women, and told by women. Their episodes focus on the incredible creations by the top chefs and contemporary artists living and working in the places they visit. They share these stories via full episodes and shorts on their YouTube channel and Substack! And they have reels on IG, FB, Threads & TikTok.

https://thewtafshow.com/

Petros Kkolas is a Digital Consultant in Engineering, working on mega projects in the UK and Greece. His expertise lies in Highways Engineering and the development of sustainable mobility solutions for the clients he serves. He is currently employed by ARUP, a global engineering consultancy with more than 19,000 employees and 94 offices in 34 countries. The company was founded by Sir Ove Arup, an Engineer, Philosopher, and Architect. The most significant project was the Sydney Opera House, where the principles of Total Design were applied.

In addition to his role at ARUP, Petros is also the Innovation Scout for the Midlands Region in the UK, responsible for promoting innovation activities in the region and engaging with start-up companies. Petros has also supported LGK Productions during the production of three documentaries with a primary focus on women. The three documentaries are:

1. Queens of Amathus - trailer link
2. Queens of the Commonwealth  - trailer link
3. Queens of Cyprus. - trailer link

He is currently responsible for all PR and Media Liaison activities in the UK and Cyprus. In his free time, Petros practices creative writing and poetry. He is working towards the publication of his poetry collection in Greek by the end of the year.

Travel is another passion that fuels his creativity and broadens his perspective. Petros has travelled to 25 countries and aims to reach 30 countries by the end of the year. Among all the places he’s visited, New York and Rovaniemi in Finland hold a special place in his heart. The bustling city life of New York (documentary premiere) and the serene beauty of Rovaniemi (chasing the northern lights at -30 degrees) have left indelible impressions on him.

In all these endeavors, Petros strives to bring together his diverse experiences and interests to create, innovate, and inspire. Whether it’s through engineering solutions, documentaries, podcasts, or poetry, he is committed to making a positive impact.

I met Stelana at the Diaspora Forum (once more thank you Paul Lambis) and instantly liked her. She is genuine and very authentic.

Stelana Kliris is a South African Cypriot writer/director/producer and the founder of Meraki Films which is a production company based in Cyprus and established by Stelana as a banner for both her own films and those of local filmmakers, women in particular. The mission is to tell authentic stories that can travel to an international audience.

Stelana has a long-standing reputation on the island for being a reliable, persistent and hard-working professional. She has taken on multiple roles in local productions, but is most at home when she is writing, directing or producing.

Before establishing Meraki Films, she wrote, produced and directed the first independent feature film in Cyprus after the crisis caused State cinema funding to be cut in collaboration with AMP Filmworks and producer Marios Piperides, and with the generous support of the Pouroulis Foundation. Despite the low budget, COMMITTED went on to be distributed in multiple territories and optioned for a Hollywood remake. She also produced the award-winning feature film PAUSE, the feature directorial debut of Tonia Mishiali, under long-time collaborator AB Seahorse Film Productions with producers Andros Achilleos and Tonia Mishiali. She recently completed FIND ME FALLING, her second feature as writer/director and is working on several new projects under the banner of Meraki Films.

Find Me Falling has been translated to over 30 languages and will stream across 190 countries and over 260 million Netflix accounts, premiering on July 19.

https://www.meraki-films.com/new-page

Talking to Andrea about how life doesn’t always turn out the way we expected it. After studying psychology in the UK and coming back to Cyprus, she realised that things were complicated. For fun she joins an open recruiting day for flight attendants at Emirates Airlines and gets accepted. Even though her father wasn’t thrilled with the idea, she moves to Dubai and spends five years working for one of the world’s top airlines, allowing her to travel and explore cultures in over 70 countries.

On top of it all, she gets to have Brad Pitt as a passenger in first class…

Today she works as a Marketing Manager at Harneys Fiduciary, a company she had joined in Dubai after she decided to end her flying career. She also organizes women’s retreats and the best way to find out more is by following Andrea on Instagram @‌being.andreachara

Talking about growing up in Lahore and Guyana, what it means to be a third culture kid. Her childhood was informed by the Islamic call to prayer and her education at the American School had her playing with kids from all over the world of every color, creed and religion.

When one grows up like this, is it any wonder that the world becomes enchanted? That other humans become enchanted? She is endlessly thrilled with meeting other people and getting to know who they are and what makes them tick. She finds that developing relationships and building respectful community, as well as joy-filled community is essential to her being happy. She is a podcaster, screenwriter, author and so much more.

Also talking about walking the Camino and her adventures in France, much growth and experience await.

https://bytesizedblessings.com/

Nitsa Anastasiades was raised in UK, London. She holds an MSc in Creative Writing Fiction from Edinburgh. Her work has been commended by the Bridport Prize and Fish Publishing respectively. With her husband who is a school principal and her family she has worked and lived all over the world.

She is the author of several books and a great storyteller.

Hamster Rats & Other Stuff Going On … is her debut work, based on her experiences in 1980’s – 2000’s Britain.

OUR FOREIGN BORDERS, a collection of stories set in cities around the world, concerning themes of loneliness, alienation, the sexes, landscape, culture, prejudice and displacement, influenced by her travels and working in 11 different countries teaching English, is her second book.

She is now working on a novel - Sea With Salty Water - based on the Cypriot diaspora; her Greek Cypriot upbringing in 70’s Britain, juxtaposed with the 1974 coup in Cyprus.