Committee members

BESIG is run by a group of volunteers who take on various jobs during the year. Key amongst these are the eight members of the BESIG committee, elected at the

The committee as of November 2009 consists of the following members:

Marjorie Rosenberg (Joint Coordinator)

My interest in business English stems from having worked in the advertising branch in New York as well as the 27 years of teaching experience that I have acquired in Austria. I have created materials for a number of business English courses for adults and am currently teaching BEC preparation as well as marketing and personal selling for Campus02, a university of applied sciences in Graz, Austria. In addition, I have developed a new business English course at the language institute of the University of Graz where I have been teaching general English for the last several years.

In addition, I am a materials writer. My publications include In Business, CUP; Communicative Business Activities, öbvhpt, worksheets for In Company Intermediate, Macmillan and, as a member of an authoring team, BizCon (Business Connections) a series of course books for commercial colleges in Austria.

Paul East (Joint Coordinator)

Married, 3 children

Owner and Managing Director of The Pyramid Group, based in Ulm, Germany. Pyramid offers specialist training in such areas as HR, insurance, finance and technical English – is also Germany´s leading provider of legal English. Translations and interpreting services are available in 58 languages. eBooks World is the publishing business of The Pyramid Group (ebooks and POD).

Memberships include the Ulm Marketing Club, German Mittelstand Verband and Ulm Arbeitskreis Technik. Currently, Paul is the President of ELTA Ulm/Neu-Ulm and joint-cordinator of IATET (International Association of Technical English Trainers) and also sits on the EULETA board (European Legal English Teachers Association).

Over 20 years experience in Business English training with a very wide range of contacts throughout the teaching sector including publishers and sponsors. Event organisation is one of my key skills e.g. squash world championships, ESP conference and EULETA annual conference.

Wolfgang Ridder (Events coordinator)

After only 3 years in my job as one of the two Directors of Studies in the Language Department of the Volkshochschule Bielefeld/Germany, my boss asked me why we didn’t do any classes for participants who wanted an added qualification for their jobs. This was the starting point of my interest in Business English, ESP and EOP. After reading extensively in the local library I came across the name IATEFL and wrote to the address given. I became a member and literally never looked back. As I found out I was quite good at organising things I soon found myself in the position that people asked me to organise things for them. And thus it was that Christine Johnson, one of the founders of BESIG, asked me, if I would be interested in being on their committee and organise events. That eventually led to me “inventing” the annual international BESIG Conference, only we called it “Workshop” in those days, and so I invited interested members of BESIG to an event in 1988 at the Volkshochschule Bielefeld. After a number of detours through various other SIGs (Teacher Development, Young Learners, ESP/EAP, Global Issues) where I either functioned as Coordinator or Events Organiser, I came back “to my roots” in 2005 after the Monaco conference and joined the BESIG Committee again, as an Events Organiser and though the ravages of times have not by-passed me (I now walk with a third leg, so-to-speak) I still like doing what I did all those years ago: “organising events and net-working possibilities for practitioners of Business English.”

Cornelia Kreis-Meyer (Events coordinator)

Since I joined IATEFL/BESIG in 2000 I have never missed a BESIG conference. As a freelance English trainer and translator based in Germany, I greatly appreciate the networking and knowledge sharing opportunities at the annual conference and the benefits of being a member of such a prestigious teacher organization. I know from experience what commitment and hard work is involved behind the scenes. From 2000 to 2007 I was on the committee initially as Membership Secretary and then President of ELTAS (English Language Teachers’ Association Stuttgart). Furthermore, I am the co-founder and Vice President of the recently established association IATET (International Association of Technical English Trainers) and one of the three organizers of the bi-annual English for Specific Purposes Conference.

Prior to my involvement in ELT, I worked for an international engineering company and was responsible for organizing trade fairs, international events and liaising with the worldwide network of distributors.
My first encounter with a computer was back in 1979. Ever since then I have been an avid technophile and know how to use computer technology confidently and effectively.

Originally from the States (Texas, Alaska, Colorado) with a bilingual education and background, I moved around a lot in my life and learned to adapt to new situations quickly, meet new challenges and communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds.

I would love to have the opportunity to be a part of the events team and develop new ideas to make BESIG an even more attractive organization.

Andrzej Stesik (Events coordinator)

In 1988 I graduated from the English Department of Pozna? University with an M.A. in English. In October 1988 I started work as a teacher of English at Pozna? University.

I became interested in teaching ESP, specifically Business English, very early on. In 1992 I became Coordinator of the newly formed BESIG of IATEFL Poland. In 1994 I was one of the organizers of a very successful BESIG conference in Pozna?, the first international event of this kind in Poland. In my work as BESIG Poland Coordinator I was instrumental in organizing various seminars and workshops on teaching Business English, and often acted as presenter myself.

Together with my wife Ania I have been running an English language training centre – INTERSECTION - in Pozna? since 1995. Over the years we have managed to create a professional teaching and training institution. In 2002 INTERSECTION became British Council and Cambridge ESOL Examination Centre for the region. INTERSECTION has also been a full member of EAQUALS for several years now. In my capacity as Director, Training I coordinate and supervise all aspects of Business English / in-company language training at INTERSECTION.

Julia Waldner (Newsletter editor)

My name is Julia Waldner and I originally come from the land of song and rain (Wales). I moved to Germany in 1991 and have been working here as an EFL teacher ever since. I do mainly in-company courses and, like most of you, I suspect, I love the job - the variety of the work, the people and the different industries.

I joined my local ELTA (ELTAF in Frankfurt) way back when and soon become involved in committee work, initially as the inter-ELTA liaison. As the name implies, my role was to liaise with the other ELTAs in Germany to exchange ideas and find out what each was doing.

For the past 10 years I've been the editor of the ELTAF Newsletter, which comes out on a quarterly basis. As with any editing work, this involves contacting publishers for review books for our members, following up on contributors, liaising with the proof-reader, graphic designer, mailing team and printer and, last but not least, editing submissions.

Last year at the BESIG conference, the very first ELT person I saw just happened to be JoAnn (in the breakfast room on the Saturday morning, as I had driven through snow and arrived too late to attend the Friday night opening ceremony) and when we got talking, she told me that the editorial position for BESIG would be open for applications in 2009. I decided to apply.

John Warner (Administration and Development & Events Organiser)

I am a teacher of Business English in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and have recently helped in the process of setting up our own English Language Teachers' Association here in Ostwestfalen-Lippe called ELTA-OWL eV.

Having trained as a teacher in the UK I worked there for many years both in teaching and in industry as well as providing management training both in house and as an outside consultant. These have all been useful in my career in Germany.

My involvement in BESIG started in Berlin when attending the BESIG conference in 2007 – I ended up helping the committee and local organisers with registration and trouble-shooting problems. This led to me being involved in the 2008 conference in Bonn where I had the privilege of welcoming BESIG members and speakers to the event and will be the local organiser for the 2010 conference in Bielefeld.

I have acted as secretary in a variety of voluntary organisations and organised events both small and large in a range of locations and settings. I am familiar with computer technology and have managed and maintained computer databases and websites.

I believe that with these skills hopefully leavened with a little humour will help the committee in functioning fully and I can support and assist the events team in their work too.

Carl Dowse (Website Coordinator)

I have been involved in English language teaching since 1992, and currently, as well as continuing to offer training to corporate clients, I am employed full-time by a business college in Essen, Germany, where I am responsible for business related English courses on the Bachelor programmes. Before this, I had a similar position in Milan, Italy.

In the last five years I have become increasingly interested in the use of ICT in language teaching. After taking part in a number of ICT training programmes, which were both classroom related and directed towards teaching online, I joined the Consultants-E online teacher training team and now moderate a number of course including an online Cert IBET course and Moodle training. For the last four years, I have been developing Moodle courses and using other online tools (e.g. wikis and blogs) for teaching my university students and business clients.

I recently wrote a teacher's guide for a blended business English which was published by the German publishers Cornelsen. And have been involved in producing online study activities for the Cambridge University Press backed business English learning platform English360.

My university students are all in full-time employment, which means that their courses take place in the evenings and at the weekend. Course preparation, marking and exams, as well as teaching take up a lot of my time, but what free time I do have, I like to spend reading – mostly novels and short stories (I studied English literature), listening to music (pop, rock, jazz and classical), going to the cinema (I love most types of film), cooking (especially Italian food), playing tennis (badly, but with passion!) and when possible watching football – especially Arsenal FC.

Duncan Baker (Treasurer)

I started my professional life in the Royal Navy. I went to Dartmouth and then spent 4 years navigating diesel submarines. I left the Navy in 1975 and joined the Diplomatic Service. I served in London and Nairobi before learning Arabic and then serving in Sana'a as 1st Secretary and, for a short while, Chargé d'Affaires. My interest in language learning was kindled during my Arabic course - there had to be a better way! My wife, Rita, and I founded Lydbury English Centre in 1985. Rita's professional life has been devoted to language learning and language teaching so she is the guiding light behind the whole enterprise.

I have been a member of BESIG since its inception and have served on the committee in the past and as coordinator. I was a founder member of the committee launching and nurturing BusinessEnglishUK for the past 10 years or so but, now it is on a stable and thriving footing, I have retired from that which enables me to put my time and enthusiasm back into BESIG. It is amazing how BESIG has developed and prospered over the years – full marks to all those who have helped this happen! In parallel, global technical facilities have evolved enormously and I am very happy to be part of a new committee with the experience and expertise that will enable BESIG to continue developing in this new and exiting area.

Rita and I have 4 grown up children - two engineers who have moved into the area of business development and facilitation, a prison governor and one in the Gurkhas. In my spare time, I walk the Shropshire countryside, sing in a couple of choirs and play the flute and bassoon. When I can, I turn off my mobile phone, leave my computer behind and sail.