During 2022 and into 2023, as I saw “names in the news”, often software developers, product managers, management – I cross checked them on LinkedIn. In nearly 100% of cases, individuals “in the news” (even if relatively low-level staff) had international experience.
Having international experience is critical to success in many industries and fields of study. Without appropriate global experience, your career will stagnate.
Global experience typically includes
- Was born abroad
- Studied abroad (possibly earning entire agree abroad)
- Worked or lived abroad
- Has native fluency in one or more languages other than English
- All of the above!
I began tracking those I saw mentioned in the news by doing a quick cross lookup on LinkedIn, Wikipedia, etc – and the pattern was apparent:
- International experience is important
- International experience is de facto mandated for upper management positions
- Attending at least one “name” university appears to be important too but there also notable exceptions decades ago – Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Dawn Trudeau.
- Highly successful people usually have international experience.
Nearly everyone mentioned in a news report has global experience; perhaps less than 10% of those I cross checked had no obvious experience (but may still have had it). I believe global experience results in a global perspective that many of us lack, builds significant self confidence, and in some cases, creates a sense of bravado – this translates into confidence and courage to push ideas that others may not support. But it is from these actions that great accomplishments are made.
Related: My list of prominent people with surprising international connections: visit this original post. Did you know former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was born in the U.S. and held U.S. citizenship? Or that U.S. Senator Ted Cruz was born in Canada and held Canadian citizenship? Amazing – see the link for details.
Observations About the list
- There are more women than men on the list. This might be because, at least in the U.S., women are twice as likely to do a study abroad program, than men.
- From the bios, many attended private schools and elite universities and came from wealth. The education at elite universities is not that different than the education at non-elite universities. The difference is the peer group and connections one develops.
- Grads of Yale, Harvard, Stanford, MIT and other elite schools often come from strong family financial situations, had global experience before and during college, and were in the right place at the right time, to (often) develop important products and solutions with former student colleagues. Their financial base enabled them to pursue riskier strategies – like doing startups – versus others of us who had to have a safe income stream as fast as possible.
Jeremy Howard
- Data scientist known for many achievements, but interestingly, data analysis for tourism forecasting. Founded some companies.
- Born in London, grew up in Melbourne, Australia
- Studied in Melbourne, and in 2013 at Harvard.
- Now works in the Bay area (U.S.)
- Speaks English and some Chinese
- Founded “#MasksForAll” and wrote the first news article that led to cloth face covering mandates. He insisted, and the media promoted, the myth that Covid was spread by “droplets” and could be stopped by homemade cloth masks assembled from random designs and materials such as t-shirts and pillow case.
Rodney Brooks, PhD
Professor emeritus of robotics at MIT, founder of iRobot, and a lifetime AI/robotics researcher, he is from Australia, came to the U.S. to pursue his doctorate at Stanford University, and then stayed.
Canada’s Current Four Active Astronauts
- Each of the four has international experience, typically by studying in another country during some part of their career and/or working in another country.
- See their bios.
- All speak English and French, and 3 speak other languages too.
Yemise Brookes
Highly accomplished media producer/director mentioned in a Schwab article. She’s from the UK, went to school and worked in the UK (BBC, etc) and now works in New York. Has worked on projects in many international locations.
Gur Kimchi
Former head of Amazon’s Prime delivery via drone development group, and VP of Prime Air at Amazon, Kimchi, he has done some work in the U.K. and has native language proficiency in both Hebrew and English. He previously had a distinguished career at Microsoft and Boeing.
Steve Jobs
Jobs attended one semester of college, dropped out to work on early video games, then quit that to travel and live out of a backpack in India for 7 months, and take illegal drugs. He later said the experience in India led him to his “Think Different” mantra and the counter-culture image he set for Apple. While Jobs was adopted (and who he regarded as his parents), his birth father was Abdulfattah “John” Jandali, educated in both Beirut and at the University of Wisconsin (Ph.D.). His birth mother, Clara Hagopian, born in the U.S. to parents who immigrated from Armenia. He had little contact with either.
Elon Musk
Musk was born in South Africa to a South African father and a Canadian mother. At 18, he moved to Canada to live with a family relative and start college, later transferring to the University of Pennsylvania. Since his mother is Canadian, he qualified for “right of descent” citizenship in Canada. Many years later, working in the U.S. the VC’s of his business assisted him to go through the naturalization process, after which he received U.S. citizenship. Thus, he is a citizen of South Africa, Canada and the United States.
Av Zammit
He is the global public relations lead for Amazon, based in the UK. Early in his career he did a UN internship in India and has a BA in international relations. (Cool factoid – he was a drummer in the London 2012 Olympics. I missed all of the 2012 Olympics as my 93 year old mother was in hospice and died in early August 2012.)
Athina Kanioura, Ph.D.
Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer at Pepsi, she is from Greece, attended universities in both Greece and the UK, worked in Athens, and London, and now working in the U.S. Speaks English, Greek, French and Spanish.
Alison Snyder, AXIOS Science Reporter
Unlike most “science” reporters, Snyder has a degree in chemical engineering and a Masters in botany and evolutionary biology. Her S.B. in chemical engineering is from MIT, her MA in Journalism from NYU, and a Masters in botany and evolutionary biology from the University of Canterbury in Christchuch, New Zealand.
Gene Berdichevsky
Co-founder and CEO of Sila Nanotechnologies, his bio does not say much about international experience but … he was born in Ukraine, lived in Russia and immigrated to the U.S. at age 9. He developed one of the first mass produced Lithium ion batteries for EVs for Tesla.
Cory Doctorow
Author and activist, he grew up in Toronto and now lives in Los Angeles. His grandparents escaped the Nazis and with his father, immigrated to Canada. His mother’s family were first generation immigrants.
Timnit Gebru, Ph.D.
An electrical engineer who has previously worked for Apple, Microsoft and Google, and others, and founded The Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR). She is from Ethiopia.
Jamie Haenggi
President of ADT Solar, she has an undergraduate degree in International Relations, and Japanese, and was previously VP of Worldwide Marketing for ADT. Generally, anyone with a degree in International Relation and a language focus, did a study abroad program.
Alex Coffey
Trading Strategist with Charles Schwab mentioned in the Schwab article. From the U.S., he did a study abroad at the University of Oxford and credits this experience for his understanding of the international economy.
Reporter Olivia Harden
Harden is a reporter, writing for the SFGate.com news source. From her own website, she is an experienced global traveler and previously worked for a travel publication.
Reporter Shelby Filangi
Born in Central America, she is now a reporter in Colorado.
CNBC Producer Katie Tarasov (Schoolov)
Studied and works in the U.S. but also did an internship in South Africa. Has apparently been to at least 43 countries.
Izzie Ramirez, an Editor at VOX
Studied in the US, but also in San Sebastian, Spain and is C1 fluent in Spanish.
Tanaya Macheel, CNBC
Attended private Convent & Stuart Hall school in SF ($39k to $52k/year). Graduated from NYU; did internships in Paris and London. Now based in NY.
Xunjie Zhang, CEO Shift Robotics
Educated in the U.K., with a study abroad to the U.S., then later a second Masters degree from CMU (US), then worked in the UK, Singapore, and now in the U.S. where he is CEO of Shift Robotics.
Britney L. Grayson, MD, PhD
Awesome individual, from, trained and worked in the U.S., and is also on the faculty of AIC Kijabe Hospital in Kenya.
Evan Spiegel, Founder Snapchat
From Los Angeles, as a college student he interned in South Africa. Since 2018, he is a dual citizen of both the U.S. and France. His wife is from Australia.
Tracy Høeg, MD, PhD
Have followed her social media comments during the pandemic. From and educated (MD) in the U.S., she earned her PhD in epidemiology in Denmark and lived there for several years. She speaks English and Danish and has dual U.S/Danish citizenship. She does so many things she must be a superhero.
Ashley M. Gjøvik, J.D
From Wisconsin, educated in Vermont and Oregon, worked for Nike, then Apple, then left for law school in California. She’s filed a raft of corruption complaints against Apple (which appear to be gaining traction). Studied international law, including at the University of Oxford.
Reporter Brooke Depalma
Works for Yahoo Finance, studied 4 years of Italian and did a study abroad in Italy.
Reporter Ken Dilanian
The first job he lists on his bio includes work in Baghdad, and Rome-based, covering issues in Europe. He had collaborated with the CIA on his reporting, sometimes writing what the CIA asked and asking how to spin stories to favor the CIA. Having lost credibility, he now works for the AP.
Reporter Benjamin Ryan
An independent reporter, he grew up in Seattle but did “stints” in Paris. Pretty much everyone has done some international stuff.
Reporter James Rodriguez
Real estate reporter for Business Insider, did a study abroad for a summer in Argentina.
Reporter Natasha Bertrand (CNN)
She attended Vassar College in the U.S., the London School of Economics and Political Science, worked as an intern in Spain, an intern in London, and thereafter in NYC or Washington, DC. She has native fluency in English and Spanish.
Timothy Johnsen, Ph.D.
Geologist/data scientist in Canada, educated in both Canada and Sweden, work experience in both.
Marina Mogilko
Now living in Silicon Valley, she is co-Founder of LinguaTrip, Founder of Linguamarina, Youtube content creator @SiliconValleyGirl (with 3 content channels, some in English and some in Russian), she immigrated from Russia to the U.S. (her first visit was at age 23). She has a Masters in econometrics and quantitative economics from the Saint Petersburg State University, and additional studies at Technische Universitätt Dresden, in Germany. She received approval for her O1 visa in just 2 months, and her “Green card” for U.S. work and residency in 2 years. She has both permanent residency in the U.S., and citizenship in Russia. Her husband Dmitrii Pistolyako also immigrated from Russia.
Benedicte Engen
She immigrated to the U.S. from Norway and moved to New York to found Viking Waffles. I have no idea how one does that – to move between countries to start a business in the new country.
Orna Guralink, PsyD
Celebrity psychologist and therapist was born in the U.S. but moved to Israel at age 7, later serving in the Israeli army and studying at Tel Aviv University. She then moved back to the U.S. and completed a doctorate in psychology. She is highly accomplished. She has also lived in Europe and presumably is a citizen of both the U.S. and Israel.
The next 3 appeared on a list of “Women in AI”:
Natasha Crampton, VP/Chief Responsible AI Officer, Microsoft
She’s from New Zealand. Works in Redmond, WA, USA.
Jen Gennai, Director of Responsible Innovation at Google
Attended university in Dublin, worked for the British Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia, now works for Google in California.
Mira Murati, CTO Open AI
From the U.S., did a one year work assignment in Japan.
Henrique Dubugras, co-CEO of Brex
From Brazil, attended Stanford in the U.S., worked in Brazil, Germany and now the U.S. Speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English.
Greg Reverdiau
Co-Founder The Pilot Institute in Prescott, Arizona, and a terrific instructor, Greg immigrated from France. (Disclosure – I am a customer of The Pilot Institute).
Johann Beishline
He is also co-founder of The Pilot Institute. His LinkedIn bio says he speaks Finnish, and his PI bio says his grandfather visits from Canada. This doesn’t confirm international experience but is suggestive of it, perhaps from Finland or perhaps via Canada. On LinkedIn he shares posts from Finland, as well.
Bobby Quinn, CEO Paypixl
USAF and private experience in Japan and Afghanistan.
Mike Kreiger
Co-founder of Instagram, prior to it’s sale to Facebook, Kreiger is from Brazil, and immigrated to the U.S. to attend Stanford University. His wife, Kaitlyn Trigger is an American, a Yale grad, who spent some time growing up in China, as a young child.
His co-founder, Kevin Systrom, is the from the U.S.. His parents were both executives and he attended a private school, then Stanford University. His bio indicates he came up with the Instagram product idea while on vacation in Mexico. His wife, Nicole Systrom, is CIO at Galvanize Climate Solutions. No surprise that she’s shared her global travel experiences on Instagram.
Farhad Ghayour
Pasquale Romano, CEO Chargepoint
His father was an immigrant from Italy and Pasquale speaks Italian. That means he qualifies for Italian citizenship through their expansive right of descent citizenship program but it is unknown if he has pursued that. In addition to his tech background, he and his wife run a winery. As CEO of Chargepoint, he thinks (and I agree) that it may be 20 years before EVs can be considered mainstream.
Chiaki Ma
Gen Zer made it into the news for having lost her job in late 2022 (really) and patched together earnings on her own, no longer working a corporate job. She made a TikTok video about this (because that’s what everyone does and TikTok is the primary, high quality source for news reporters in 2023). She did a study abroad in Denmark.
Mila Antonova
Famous for allegedly having an affair with Bill Gates (alternate link as that first one is pay walled), she grew up in Russia, attended university there, and then immigrated to the U.S. and did additional training in software. She now works in Silicon Valley. Since the story of her affair went public, her LinkedIn page has been deleted.
Stacey Reeves
VP of Operations and Sales at Avid Telecom. Avid, Avid’s CEO and herself have been sued by 48 state Attorney Generals for implementing massive spam phone call systems, initiating more than 24.5 billion spam calls. While mostly working in the U.S., her LinkedIn page says she worked in Barbados from 2013 to 2016.
Boris Nikolic, MD
Science advisor to Bill Gates, now with Biomatics Capital. Nikolic is from Croatia.
Julie Sunderland
Julie Sunderland is the co-founder of Biomatics Capital, has an MA in international relations from Johns Hopkins. “I spent a lot of time wandering around Africa, and other parts of the world, investing primarily in cellular companies and financial services.” and “I was living and working in Ghana and I was doing work in the agriculture sector.”
While looking up her background, I ran into different Julie Sunderland, who works in climate related solutions, has an MBA in international business from Stanford, and studied climate topics at Cambridge University. (Hasn’t everyone?)
Rosemary Barnes, Ph.D.
Many of us know her for her Youtube channel “Engineering with Rosie” about renewable energy, she is from Australia, but spent over 4 years working on wind generation in Denmark.
“Frank” Founder Charlie Javice
Not much bio information on her but LinkedIn says she has native language proficiency in French. Attended the French American School in NY and am assuming she spent time in France (and Quebec) on travels. Lives in New York. She is under arrest and charged with fraud.
Kathryn Lueders, formerly of NASA, now at SpaceX
She led human exploration at NASA. After retiring, she joined SpaceX. Her LinkedIn page didn’t mention international experience but her Wikipedia bio says “Kathy grew up in Japan” and watched the Apollo 11 moon landing from Tokyo.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO Uber
Born in Tehran, his family fled Iran for France, and later the U.S. After U.S. college education he rose up through the ranks, eventually becoming CEO of Expedia, and now Uber.
(As a just promoted, first-time project manager, my first hire was a young woman engineer who escaped from Iran just prior to the Revolution.)
Dr. Sophia Kogan
Just saw a news item with her – there is nothing in her online bio about where she is from, but in the video she appeared to have a slight accent. She is from Russia.
Carolina Dybeck Happe
Saw her mentioned in a financial news item – she was the CFO of GE. She was born and grew up in Sweden, earned an MS in Business and Economics, and then worked in Sweden, Russia, Switzerland, UK and the U.S., eventually ending up as CFO of GE in Massachusetts. She is also on the Board of Directors of Ericsson (Sweden) and E.ON (Germany). She is fluent in Swedish, English, German and Polish. Very international.
Pita Limjaroenrat, Thailand Politician
Went to high school in New Zealand, attended Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Good example of how international experiences works in other countries too!
Jessica Rose, Ph.D.
A Canadian mathematician, immunologist, molecular biologist and biochemist, trained in both Canada and Israel.
Elizabeth Busby, previously with Twitter and D.C. politicians
Her name appeared today, from when she was previously working for Twitter and had requested censorship of some tweets. From the U.S., she worked six months in Ghana during her undergraduate studies, which included a major in international affairs, and before her current position, led global marketing for Caribbean, Latin America and Europe.
Nichole Maffey
Appeared in a news story about working in startups versus corporate jobs – she did a study abroad in Italy, of course. My observation is that to be in a position where you are quoted in a news story, you needed to have had international experience; this is very common.
Alexandra York
The author of the column that describes Nichole Maffey, above, graduated from NYU but also attended the NYU campus in Prague, and the Dalian University of Foreign Languages in Dalian, Liaoning, China. Interestingly, I followed a link to another of her reports, and the main subject in that article speaks 3 languages fluently, and has working proficiency in a 4th language.
Jo Bertram, Managing Director Virgin Media O2
Saw her mentioned in a Tweet – she’s from the UK but also worked in South Africa, Ethiopia, UAE, Switzerland, Ireland and Australia. When at Uber, she managed their product introductions into Finland, Denmark, and Norway. Very international.
Sidney Craig, Jenny Craig and their weight loss centers
Born in British Columbia, Canada, grew up in the U.S., then moved to Australia where he and his wife, Jenny, founded Jenny Craig. Their weight loss center chain was later sold to Nestle, which then sold to a private investment firm.
Alissa Heinerscheid, previously VP of Marketing for Bud Light
Can’t see that she has international experience however, her husband Henry C. Heinerscheid’s father appears to be from Switzerland and lives and works in Luxembourg. Under Swiss rules, the son would have had Swiss citizenship rights but would have lost those rights if not claimed by age 22. However, if his father was born in Luxembourg, then he has a right of descent citizenship available to her.
Investment Manager Ramona Persaud
Her cultural background is South Asian, but she has lived in many parts of the world—born in South America, spent her youth in Latin America, was educated in the United States, and now calls Europe home.
Ramona Persaud discusses uncertainty, change, and career success – Cornell MBA
Elizabeth Fettes, VP/Marketing executive in the cruise industry
Sarah Gungle, PsyD.
Read a column she wrote about when she was called into the school principal’s office because her then six year old daughter had drawn a abstract representation of the Holocaust. Mom’s grandfather was a holocaust survivor, and many extended family members had died in the holocaust. She’d taught her daughter about the Holocaust. The school principal thought this was too young to teach kids about the Holocaust – even though it was her own family’s history. Geesh. Mom is well qualified. In addition to her Psy D degree, she has a BA in middle eastern studies, and an MIA in international law, and is an international mental health consultant.
Andy Oranen, VP at Kore Power
Based now in Idaho, his LinkedIn bio says he attended Western Washington University and the University of Newcastle (Australia). Saw this shared by a friend, who is herself a highly educated engineer from Russia, having lived in the U.S. for decades now. She first came to the U.S. as a study abroad to the U.S., from Russia.
Luca Maestri, CFO Apple
Born in Italy, educated in Italy and the U.S., he has worked in Europe and the United States. Likely has dual Italian/U.S. citizenship.
Linden Malmgren
I was looking up someone else with a similar name (and likely related) when I saw this bio – studied in Canada, spent a year abroad in Europe, undergrad degree in international relations.
SVP of CBS News Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews
Has a lot of international experience.
Actor Ben Affleck
Speaks fluent Spanish; spent a year living in Mexico as a teen.
Reporter Bethan Moorcraft
From the U.K., now resides in Canada. Worked a summer in the U.S. as well.
Denise Landis, CEO/Founder, TheCooksCook
Born in Britain, educated in the U.S., now residing in the U.S.
Google CFO Ruth Porat
She has dual British/U.S. citizenship and studied at universities in Britain and in the U.S.
Investor/Author Tatiana Koffman
From Canada, she has apparently worked in Canada, the mid-east, Africa, and now Los Angeles.
Elizabeth Gravier, Reporter
This never fails – quick look up on LinkedIn, and she did a study abroad in Australia.
While looking her up, also found a different author, Elizabeth Graver, who was born in Istanbul, then migrated to Spain, Cuba and eventually New York.
Jessica Kriegel, MBA, Ed.D.
Is a “Global consultant for a human capital management solution”. Her MBA is in international business and her bio says she speaks French and Italian.
Heidi K. Gardner, Ph.D.
A Harvard Law School Fellow, she also worked in London and Johannesburg, did a BA in Japan studies, earned her MSc at The London School of Economics and Political Science, and her PhD at the London Business School. She now works at Harvard University in Massachusetts. Her bio notes she has lived and worked on 4 continents.
Lolly Daskal, Leadership Consultant
Her bio says “Her extensive cross-cultural expertise spans 14 countries, six languages and hundreds of companies” and at least 4 continents.
Shou Zi Chew, TikTok CEO
- From Singapore
- BA from University College London, then worked for Goldman Sachs in London for 2 years.
- MBA from Harvard University (US)
- Internship at Facebook in California
- Went on to lead a team at DST Global that invested in ByteDance (owner of TikTok)
- Years later became CEO of TikTok.
- Previously lived in Hong Kong, but reportedly also lives in both Singapore and Beijing
- Interesting comment on the importance of attending the right grad school – a network of friends who have similar global experience: “After earning their MBAs, the pair lived in London, Singapore, and Hong Kong before settling in Beijing, all the while keeping in close touch with HBS classmates, many of whom have visited them in the various places they’ve lived.”
Renat Heuberger- CEO, Co-Founder, South Pole
South Pole is a carbon offset trading company. A recent Bloomberg investigation says much of the carbon offsets they sell are scams.
- Attended MS program at ETH Zurich
- Attended Harvard Kennedy School (USA)
- Attended INSEAD program at unspecified campus (either Europe or Asia)
- Work experience Zurich, Netherlands, Indonesia, other unspecified locations.
- Native of professional/full proficiency in 5 languages, some proficiency in 2 more
Laxman Narasimhan, CEO of Starbucks
- Born in India.
- BS in mechanical engineering, India.
- MA in German and International Studies, University of Pennsylvania (presumably including a study abroad in Germany – the international studies program also requires a 2nd language proficiency but not for graduate students who have English as their 2nd language already).
- MBA Finance, University of Pennsylvania.
- Speaks six languages.
- Worked in multiple roles in the U.S. and Asia, later CEO of PepsiCo operations in Europe, Latin America and sub-Sahara Africa.
Dorien van Blooijs, Ph.D. candidate
She is mentioned as an investigator in this very interesting study about brain processing speed versus age, partnered with the Mayo Clinic at Rochester for her PhD research, but is from the Netherlands where she is a PhD candidate at UMC Utrecht. It is a very neat study.
All of the following were born in India, studied in India or in the U.S. or Europe, and now lead U.S. tech companies:
- Parag Agrawal, CEO Twitter
- Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google
- Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft
- Shantanu Narayen, CEO, Adobe
- Arvind Krishnan, CEO, IBM
Ramesh Balwani
Was the CEO of Theranos, later convicted of fraud and sentenced to prison. Was from Pakistan, later moved to India, but was educated at U.S. universities after his parents moved their family to the U.S. He speaks 4 languages. He met his future wife, Keiko Fujimoto (since divorced) while traveling in China; she is Japanese but both lived in San Francisco for many years.
Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter
I didn’t recognize his name – he was the former Chair of Marvel Entertainment, also a billionaire, born in Palestine (now Israel), later emigrated to the U.S.
Horacio Gutierrez
Saw his name mentioned in same article that mentioned Permutter. Gutierrez is the chief legal counsel for Disney. He was previously General Counsel at Microsoft for over 17 years, and early in his career, was a law partner at a firm in Venezuela, where he is from. He speaks both English and Spanish.
Julie Yankey, Ph.D.
She wrote a doctoral thesis (sample size n=8?????) examining the odd ratio of women versus men in study abroad programs (as of today, 67% women:37% men). She herself has studied or worked in over 15 countries.
I wished I stopped there since my goal with this list is to show the connections to global experience, but I read her thesis and it is not impressive: She creates a stereotyped caricature of men, and then interviews 8 students who fit her caricature, concluding that gender stereotypes are a primary reason more men are not studying abroad.
Youtube Content Creators
I made wrote a post about Youtube content creators in the spring of 2022 – I realized that most of the Youtube channels I followed were done by content creators with international experience.
- Sam Denby (Wendover Productions, Half as Interesting), American, studied 4 years at Univ of Edinburgh, Intl Business
- CGP Grey (his real initials), born in US, has dual citizenship in US and Ireland and was a teacher for years, in London
- Joseph Pisenti, Real Engineering, American, has degree in international relations, is fluent in Russian, and is eligible for Italian citizenship
- Spain on a Fork, Alex Bave, born in Spain, grew up in Los Angeles, returned to Spain. (Best cooking channel on Youtube).
- Antoanetta Now, only bio is moved from Los Angeles to Spain and Europe
- Medhi Sadaghdar, ElectroBoom, born in Iran, relocated to Canada as an adult.
- Evynne Hollens. I noticed she sang songs in Spanish and is co-developing a bilingual musical called Milagro. Turns out she has a degree in Spanish which means …
- Paul Jorgensen, Langfocus and Geofocus channels. Canadian, of Danish heritage, traveled in the mid-east and is now an English teacher living in Japan. (The story where I read about this was written by an American who attended the University of Nevada but now lives in Spain…)
- Ria Jairam, Ria’s Shack (wireless communications and ham radio). Born in the Trinidad/Tabago islands, now in the U.S., she is an engineer, former ARRL Director, and an energetic producer of wireless-related videos.
- Greg Reverdiau, Pilot Institute, originally from France, he is co-founder of the Pilot Institute in Prescott, Arizona (also listed above).
- Jonas Marcinko, flying and aircraft building. He’s from the U.S., and his wife is a native of Lithuania. Great channel for us aviation geeks.
- Dan Markham, “What’s Inside?” channel. American, living in Utah, but was born in Manila. Totally unexpected to learn that.
- Martin Johnson/Julie Johnson and family, “Off Grid Living” documenting their homestead project in North Idaho. Julie studied in Argentina, and the whole family were missionaries for 9 years in Indonesia.