Co-Founder Yen is a multi-passionate entrepreneur, a foodie, has travelled extensively for work, was based overseas in the US, Spain, Jakarta & Malaysia which helped broaden her horizons. Yen has spent the last 30 years, managing multicultural teams in the corporate sector; a banker with the Development Bank of Singapore & Citibank for 15 years, managing 5 star hotel benchmarking in the Asia Pacific region for STR Global, market research consultant for AQ Services International - project managed large scale customer service initiatives for key international clients in Singapore, Indonesia and Australia. Born & bred in Singapore, Yen speaks English, Malay and Bahasa Indonesia fluently. Yen also speaks and understand a little Mandarin, Tamil, Cantonese, Punjabi and Boyanese. Yen loves languages; French, Italian and Spanish among her favourites. Yen migrated to the Southwest region in 2012 with her Australian husband, Peter & mom and has lived in Margaret River since 2014. Yen is passionate about assisting the migrants in Margaret River and in the region in the areas of isolation and language barriers. Co- founding Intercultural Action Group Inc. in 2018 has provided Yen with lots of opportunities to be involved with other organizations (District Health Advisory Council, Harmony Alliance, FECCA, Welcoming Cities) to spread the word and bring up the issues faced by migrants in the region. Yen is absolutely enjoying her journey while slowly building trust together with the migrant community in the region.
ELLEN LAHTI
Co-Founder My international background (born in Germany, mother from Belgium, father from Finland) and ongoing passion for intercultural affairs has led me to live in different countries and has made me fluent in many languages. Having lived between Germany, Belgium, France and Finland, I have participated in intercultural exchange programs which have consolidated my interpersonal, multilingual and cross-cultural skills through constant exposure to different cultures and languages. Co-founding Intercultural Action Group Inc. has been a dream-come-true as I am now able to combine my passion and past experience to help people and spread awareness about intercultural issues. I want to help people from migrant backgrounds as well as see more local people get comfortable among multicultural settings. I aspire to teach and inform people without overwhelming them. Intercultural issues have always been here, and now more than ever, we need to continue to raise awareness, educate and take responsibility. We all live in a multicultural and globalized world. Together we can support each other and find solutions that help everyone thrive, regardless or their race and culture. " Ellen lives with her French partner and is a mum of two little boys. She is fluent in 5 languages (Finnish, Dutch, Swedish, French and English) and has studied French literature and linguistics as her major and intercultural communication as her minor. She is also interested in anthropology, psychology and languages in general.
