If you’re doing business across borders, Marina Ibrahim should be on your radar.

I saw her speak on a panel at the Greater Birmingham Chamber event. She wasn’t just interesting. She was on point. Everything she shared was crafted for that room. You could tell she wasn’t guessing. She knew.

Marina isn’t a speaker who happens to know her stuff. She’s an expert who happens to speak. Big difference. Her depth in cultural team integration and inclusive leadership came through clearly, calmly, confidently.

What I appreciated most was how she made the complex feel simple. She didn’t generalise. She gave us the little things, the real things. The kind you only learn by living it.

Cultural intelligence isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the edge. One gesture, one pause, one misread email... and you’re out before you begin.

If you’re serious about building trust and making things work internationally, Marina is the person you call. She gets the small differences. The kind that make all the difference. Harun Rabbani, Speaker & Consultant | CEO, Young Leaders Nexus

Marina Ibrahim is an expert in understanding the importance of recognising cultural differences as a way to build strong and resilient businesses. 

She shares this expertise in a brilliant talk called 'Culture Clash or Culture Cash', which I was lucky enough to see when she delivered it in the Professional Speaker of the Year contest. 

Marina shares how her own multi-cultural heritage was the starting point for her deep understanding of how different cultures can cause organisational challenges, or be turned into massive growth and success strategies. Her style is engaging and highly professional, and any organisation struggling with mergers, international expansions or combining cultures would gain tremendous value from it. I highly recommend Marina and this talk. 

Carol Benton, Respected, dynamic Professional Speaker & Author

I had the pleasure of seeing Marina Ibrahim deliver her speech “Culture Clash or Culture Cash” as part of the PSA Professional Speaker of the Year 2025 competition - and it was outstanding. 

With her unique German–Egyptian–British background, Marina shows how cultural agility and inclusive leadership turn international teams and M&As from potential points of conflict into drivers of collaboration, innovation, and profit.

It’s a game-changer for any organisation working across borders.

Marina speaks with warmth, authority, humour and energy — making complex global challenges instantly relatable, and equipping leaders with practical tools to build trust and deliver results.

If you’re an HR or L&D director, international project manager, or M&A leader, Marina is the speaker who will help your people thrive globally — and your business achieve measurable impact - book her now! Cat Williams, Professional Speaker 'The Stallion Mind' | TEDx x 2 | Author

Working with Marina is an absolute pleasure! Marina is highly organised, professional, and conscientious. Her training sessions are exceptionally well-received by the participants. They report being highly engaged and thoroughly enjoying the insightful content. Marina creates an open and inclusive learning environment that facilitates meaningful discussions and active participation, fostering empowerment and personal growth.

We initially reached out to Marina to assist with training in Germany, as she is bilingual and could better engage with a German-speaking team. However, we have complete confidence in her ability to deliver our course in any setting.

The communication between Marina, our team, and the clients before, during, and after the training was clear, prompt, and responsive.

We would highly recommend Marina. Her friendly and energetic demeanour is infectious and makes her an excellent trainer. Darren Booth, Director at Seventh Wave. a People Training Company, UK

We recently ran an Unconscious Bias session with Marina, and I can’t recommend her enough. She’s nothing short of a culture guru. From the outset, she took the time to really understand our goals and reasons for running the session, tailoring both the content and format to suit our audience perfectly.

Her style is interactive, engaging, and genuinely thought-provoking. The structure of the session was slick, digitally well-designed, and paced just right. Most importantly, she helped us understand the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ behind unconscious bias - and where we need to focus next. She gave us the tools to start recognising and unpicking those biases and replacing them with more inclusive and constructive behaviours. Hannah Soye, Chief People & Culture Officer at Haiilo, UK

Liebe Marina, ich erinnere mich sehr gern an die sehr gute Führungskräfte Schulung und unsere gemeinsame Arbeit. Auf der Regionalleitertagung im Telegrafenamt in Berlin konnten wir an historischer Stelle (mit einer besonders magischen Verbindung zum Thema Kommunikation und Verbindung) unsere unterschiedlichen Talente sehr gut nutzen, um eine wirklich zauberhafte Performance zu erzeugen. Dank Dir haben wir Vertrauen zueinander gehabt und konnten uns sehr gut auf uns verlassen.

Daher danke ich Dir herzlich, Du hast aus uns ein tolles Team geformt bzw. diese Formung katalysiert und unsere Kräfte freigelegt, die wir gemeinsam nutzen können. Ich freue mich auf das nächste Mal!  Arzt für Anästhesie, Intensivmedizin, Spezielle Schmerztherapie, Germany

I had the pleasure of attending Marina’s leadership training, and I cannot recommend her expertise and delivery highly enough. Marina’s approach to leadership development is both engaging and insightful, striking the perfect balance between theory and practical application.

Her ability to create a collaborative and open learning environment encouraged meaningful discussions and active participation. She tailored the content to address real-world challenges, making the material relevant and immediately applicable. Marina’s deep understanding of leadership principles, coupled with her dynamic communication skills, ensured that every participant left with actionable takeaways.

What stood out most was her genuine passion for empowering others and her commitment to fostering growth. Her training didn’t just focus on leadership as a concept but inspired us to apply these principles with confidence and authenticity in our roles.

I wholeheartedly recommend Marina to anyone looking to elevate their leadership capabilities or provide their team with impactful training. She is a true professional and a remarkable facilitator. Liam Tennant, Executive Director - Freelancing/Contract - Germany at Halian

Das Führungskräftetraining von Seventh Wave mit Marina war ein voller Erfolg. In sechs Modulen über drei Monate lernten wir, uns als neues Senior Leadership Team besser kennenzulernen, effektiver zusammenzuarbeiten und eine gemeinsame Vision zu entwickeln.

Besonders wertvoll war der praxisnahe Ansatz: Wir konnten das Erlernte direkt im Alltag anwenden, reflektieren und Best Practices etablieren. Marina hat uns dabei mit klaren Impulsen und gezielter Unterstützung hervorragend begleitet. Der Workshop hat uns nicht nur als Team gestärkt, sondern auch individuell darin gefördert, neue Perspektiven einzunehmen und effektiver zu führen.

Dank eines Handbuchs mit unseren Erkenntnissen und Plänen können wir langfristig auf die Inhalte zurückgreifen. Als SLT erinnern wir uns gern im Alltag an die Inhalte und unsere Vorhaben. So verfestigen sich noch immer jeden Tag die Inhalte ein bisschen mehr und animieren uns zur Umsetzung.

Danke, Marina und Seventh Wave für dieses transformative Training! Lara Louisa Ridder, Director Commercial & Legal bei Halian, Germany

Marina delivered a great workshop 'Inclusive Collaboration – Leading the New Work Era' at the Institute of Leadership's Leadership Live 2024 Annual Conference that got delegates interacting and sharing experiences across sectors. 

Being one of the delegates, I found it highly informative and the questions to work through digitally with other attendees prompted great discussion. Having different groups’ answers accessible online too created a great collaborative spirit. In addition to the workshop, Marina added a vibrancy to the rest of the day in her approach to networking and being part of the very convivial atmosphere.

I’d highly recommend Marina as a workshop facilitator around cross-cultural working and leadership in diverse environments. Emrys Green Chair of the Board of The Institute of Leadership, UK

We were delighted to engage Marina to speak about 'Embracing Diversity - Enriching Care' at our Care Managers Conference. I’ve been following Marina for many years on social media and when we were formulating the agenda for our conference, Marina was the obvious choice to speak about diversity and inclusion.

Marina has been a pleasure to work with. She engaged with us early on to ensure she understood the audience and the aims and objectives of the event. We do a lot of conferences for our members and its very obvious to us whether or not our audience engages with a speaker. I’m pleased to say that Marina smashed it. We were really impressed with the level of engagement with the audience and the allotted speaking time flew by before we knew it.

I'd definitely recommend having Marina speak at your events. Keiron Broadbent, CEO West Mindlands Care Association, UK

I had the pleasure of listening to Marina deliver a very thought-provoking talk at the PSA event this month and found myself both emotionally and intellectually stimulated. 

Marina has such a lovely way of presenting - you feel engaged from the moment she begins and inspired to take action at the end. It is obvious her life experiences have really helped her to share valuable messages and she is extremely passionate about making changes.

I would highly recommend Marina to any organisation! Jo Mousley, Managing Director PDW Group (UK) LTD, UK

Marina recently delivered a talk at a PSA event I was hosting. She is clearly a subject expert, bringing in both lived experiences and evidence of the work that she does to make her content highly relatable. Marina draws on personal cultural experience to make what is now a very common topic - diversity and inclusion, one that is very relatable to all. In this area where there are a lot of speakers, I would highly recommend Marina be considered as a speaker that will help people to really take ED&I to a greater level. Caroline Cavanagh, Regional President PSA, Anxiety Specialist, National Award-winning Therapist, UK

Shropshire Chamber were honoured to be joined by Marina Ibrahim as our guest speaker for our HR in Focus event. Delegates found her talk 'Empowering Inclusion - Transforming HR into a Catalyst for EDI Excellence' to be very informative and insightful with a lot of key takeaways for their business. The presentation was very interactive encouraging the group to really share best practice and ideas and delegates found this incredibly useful. Marina demonstrated a wealth of experience on key HR topics and transforming HR into a driver for equality, diversity and inclusion.

Her delivery was fantastic and so engaging, I would highly recommend Marina.' Kelly Riedel, Events & Training Manager, Shropshire Chamber of Commerce, UK

I attended Marina’s Successful Hybrid Teams - Online Masterclass and it was very insightful, very good insights in challenges Hybrid teams face but also good recommendations that can be applied to teams straight away. Enjoyed that practical examples were shared. Presentation was clear, good pace and overall amazing, would recommend anyone to attend it, especially if you work in hybrid teams !  Nadege Welsch, Coach & Training Consultant, Founder of Be-a-chameleon

Marina recently supported our 2020 Kick Off Conference in delivering workshops to our international senior management and sales team on ‘Cross-cultural Leadership’. The workshops were aimed at improving understanding and engagement with one of our core values “Open Mind”. 

Marina is very knowledgeable on this subject and her experience on developing global leaders in their cultural agility and cross-cultural communication was evident throughout her workshops. She was able to successfully translate our brief into the workshop concept with high impact: focused, energising and insightful. The delegates really enjoyed Marina’s highly skilled delivery and the buzz created that left everyone with something valuable to apply an ‘open mind’ back at work. 

Marina has been a great pleasure to work with. We experienced her as a creative team player, committed and reliable. We would be delighted to engage Marina again for future cross-cultural teambuilding and communication training to leverage high-performance, problem-solving and innovation, so crucial for the competitiveness of our international organisation. Rupinder Kaur Sodhi, Sales & Marketing Manager at Moove Europe, UK

Marina was an absolute pleasure to work with, she has helped me with my move from SA to the UK, every step of the way. I must say her guidance and understanding of relating to different cultures is outstanding. She was extremely supportive and patient with me. Having support with cultural change makes things so much easier to absorb. She has many techniques and informative ways that helps put things at ease. Thank you Marina for all your support and guidance. Denese Nadasen, Commercial Finance Specialist at BMW Financial Service

Marina was an absolute pleasure to work with, she has helped me with my transition of my international assignment from Germany to the Egypt as Vice President Finance. it was an excellent training. highly recommended. many thanks!

I must say her guidance and understanding of relating to different cultures is outstanding. She was extremely supportive and patient with me. Having support with cultural change makes things so much easier to absorb. She has many techniques and informative ways that helps put things at ease. Thank you Marina for all your support and guidance. Vice President Finance - Business Unit Egypt, DEA Deutsche Erdöl AG 

In life, we all occasionally come across a person whose passion and enthusiasm for what they do is so awe-inspiring, that it blows one out of the water. I’m talking here about one of those people you only meet once in 10 years – the person who would never accept that the sky has limits. Marina is such a person, and I would recommend her to anyone who wants to work with a a truly inspiring person either as a partner, client or customer. Don’t believe me? Go meet with her for an hour and see what transpires. John Edmonds, Huddersfield Business Generator, Business Adviser to Start-up Businesses

Dear Marina, Thank you for time and guidance last week. We both now feel much more confident about recognising and understanding the reality of everyone’s “deeper” cultural differences and have a good insight of what to expect when we are in South Korea. We really appreciated the day and both feel that it was your energy and engagement, and how you found examples and anecdotes closer to own personal situation, that made the day very enjoyable and fun for us too. We are looking forward to our overseas adventure and as you iterated, we will “trust the process”. Thanks again! Executive Manager of a Fortune 500 electrical supply brand 

Great cultural training, really good session and I look forward to putting it all to use! The content has been extremely valuable for me. It was well delivered and the discussion on all areas has been helpful to think about different aspects of my assignment. Marina was extremely flexible in discussing all aspects of interests but also really structured to get it all done in the timeframe. I also learned how to manage the assignment to my strengths and to take all tools into account to manage cultural differences of my multi-cultural team. Executive Manager of a Fortune 500 FMCCG company 

Dear Marina Ibrahim, Greetings and big congratulations!  In recognition of your excellent performance in 2020, the Cartus Intercultural Academy would like to award you our highest recognition: The Service Excellence Award. This award is being presented to you because of the impressive achievement of delivering all your 2020 programs with 100% Very Valuable on post-program evaluations and 100% Very Likely to Recommend on follow-up surveys from our assignees and their families.  Quite an achievement!

Please accept our deepest appreciation for the brilliant work you do on behalf of Cartus.  Fully recognizing it was a year requiring tremendous amount of flexibility and adaptability, it remains evident that you are committed to providing our assignees and their families with highly customized and meaningful cross-cultural programs that make a difference no matter the circumstances.  We hope you take pride in this accomplishment, as it is a big one.  We certainly value your dedication to your work and your contribution in delivering programs that yield such excellent results.  Once again, thank you for your significant contribution in exceeding the Intercultural Academy’s 2020 targets. We are very much looking forward to continued success in 2021 especially as we move to the delivery of Cartus programs on the Digital Learning System.  Thank you for being a part of this exciting initiative.  Cartus Intercultural Academy, Diane Mullen

Before starting my new role in Egypt I needed some help in understanding Egyptian culture and etiquette as I wanted to make a good first impression. Marina provided valuable insights and understanding on both the culture and language of Egypt. She also provided me with background reading and references for further study and gave me some coaching in some basics of Egyptian Arabic. Marina had obviously prepared thoroughly for our meeting, has a great coaching style and I would heartily recommend her services to others who are considering visiting or doing business in Egypt for the first time. Executive Manager of a Fortune 500 energy brand 

The programme leader Marina has exactly responded to my particuar interests and needs. She has been a great facilitator – understanding and embracing multicultural apporaches which will hugely increase efectiveness. She provoked thought and her sensitiveness to the issues helped me gaining a good understanding of the assignment and have enhanced it with more confidence. Executive Manager of a Fortune 500 sports brand 

Excellent training, insightful and inspiring. Good Delivery. Good people interaction exercises. Results accurate. Will add value to the work we are doing together. Mark Bowd, Group Engineering Director, Arriva plc, on Intercultural Competency Training 

A clear and effective method to uncover and address issues within our team structure. Michael Boback, Head of International Procurement, Deutsche Bahn AG on Intercultural Competency Training 

I liked the ‘perceived Do’s & Don’ts session’. It brought out some interesting points. DiSC is simple – but a good session to inject energy into the day. Thanks! Paul Haycock, Management Consultant, Pricewaterhouse Coopers on Intercultural Competenccy Training 

I have been working with Marina on a number of different training programmes around cross-cultural team building and cultural sensitisation. She is very hard-working, diligent, reliable and delivers high quality training sessions. She is very passionate about inter-cultural communication, which helps participants to engage in discussions very quickly. Vera Hillmann, L & D, Kwintessential 

We were delighted with the intercultural training session that Marina held for us. Her personal expertise in the field of travel and intercultural understanding made it a very insightful session and all participants felt very at ease in her presence, thanks to her warm and positive character. Through Marina’s training, our participants were able to discover more about themselves and identify key skills that they possess. I am convinced that Marina has given them the confidence to deal with any challenges they encounter. Jenny Price, Programme Manager, European Training Service 

I have had the pleasure of working with Marina for some years now and in that time have found her to be a highly professional and a very personable person. Marina is very highly thought of for her knowledge and commitment to the creative industries. Marina has a skill that enables her to go straight to the heart of the problem for the businesses she works with and helps solve it with the greatest of ease. In short Marina is a great asset to the creative sector and i have no hesitation in recommending her. Percy Emmett, Specialist Freelance Trainer, Coach and & Mentor for Creative, Cultural & high Growth Businesses 

I worked with Marina over a period of two years developing a Creative Industries focused incubator on the Science Park in Wolverhampton. The project was very ambitious; the challenges were wide ranging from attracting high quality creative businesses in an area where the majority of talented businesses were attracted to Birmingham Manchester or London to finds their success. The incubator was an excellent success based mainly on Marina’s innovative approach to the incubator and person dedication. Marina created an environment and culture which encouraged a community of creatives to develop and thrive. The incubator at Wolverhampton Science park was became one of the few incubators to work effectively, meeting the targets of the funding organisations and stakeholders. I would recommend Marina to any company looking for a person to create a positive change within their business. Aidan Sheridan, Research and Enterprise Manager at Goldsmith, University of London

Marina’s contribution to the creative industries in Wolverhampton was considerable. In managing the promotion of the specialist facilities in Wolverhampton Science Park she ensured that the burgeoning creative sector was supported and remained relevant. Marina’s strong leadership and creative skills ensures that difficult issus are tackled and overcome. Bhanu Dhir, Head of Policy Business Growth 

I’ve always found Marina to be a passionate advocate for business incubation and even more so about her clients – she really pulls out the stops to ensure that her clients succeed. I cannot recommend her highly enough. Toni Harrison, Project Manager – Business Development at Oxford Innovation 

Marina has assisted me in developing leadership skills, time and people management, marketing and networking. In our stressful and pressured world she has an excellent ability to maintain focus on the key issues at hand during the coaching sessions and delivers this in a relaxed, enthusiastic and constructive manner. Her services have been truly appreciated. Many Thanks! Sarah Butler / Associate Director at Donald Insall Associates 

Marina was brilliant and facilitated the session very well! She gave us absolutely what we needed, engaged our thoughts and encouraged wider thinking. All information was relevant to our needs. This will help endure our business activity. Thank you! (General Manager/CIC)