BRINGING BRITISH FLAIR TO THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE

Diane's early CV certainly has a distinctly British flavour, with a degree from the London School of Economics, followed closely by a graduate placement at IPC Women’s Magazines in the early seventies. By 1976, Diane had studied for a CAM Diploma and made it to Senior Sales Executive at IPC. After a brief interlude teaching in Africa, her career in the media, advertising and sales industry really began to take off. She spent two years as Media Manager at Gillette, before moving to a number of senior positions in advertising and sales on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 1987 Diane returned to IPC as Client Sales Manager, handling relationships with the COI and multinational firms such as Mars and Nestlé. Her reputation for project management, organisational flair and effective communication was, a few short years later, to lead her all the way to Tokyo. Since then, her affinity for Japanese and other Far Eastern cultures hasn’t dimmed.
"There’s a great deal I admire about Japanese culture," comments Diane, "the courtesy you’re shown, for instance, and the way in which relationships revolve around consensus. Wherever I’ve travelled, however, I have always seen myself as someone who’s promoting Britain and I’ve worked closely with our embassy staff abroad to that end."

Much of Diane’s time in the Far East was spent managing her own advertising sales agency, with prestigious clients such as BMW, British Airways, Dunhill and the Financial Times on her books. Her proudest achievement, however, is the work she undertook for Hong Kong’s DNMstrategies - a business that provides opportunities for constructive dialogue between top executives and politicians, academics and other thought leaders. "It was during the Asian economic crisis," recalls Diane, "and I worked closely with DMN’s CEO, Sam Moon, to reach a $US1 million sales target." No mean feat in anyone’s book and an achievement that is fondly recalled by Mr Moon himself (see testimonial page).
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