REBECCA PARRILLA
Director of Intercultural Programs

Rebecca brings to LCW a lifetime of intercultural experience as well as a wealth of expertise with consulting services and learning programs for multi-cultural audiences. She has lived and worked for extended periods in Asian, Latin, and North American cultures and is a native of Puerto Rico. Rebecca joined LCW after spending twelve years consulting within the global banking industry and, more recently, leading education programming in Shanghai for two years at the university level. Rebecca speaks both Spanish and English fluently and—inspired by her recent years in the People's Republic of China—has recently started studying Mandarin Chinese as an addition to her language portfolio.

As Director, Rebecca's specialty is preparing client organizations, global managers, diverse teams, and traveling subject matter experts to succeed in cross-cultural settings. She leads the design and implementation of LCW's growing body of highly acclaimed Intercultural Development Programs and supports our clients in their goals to incorporate cross-cultural competencies into their worldviews, systems and workflows.

Her expertise in this area benefits from over a decade with ABN AMRO, one of the largest and most far-reaching global banks in the world. There she served as an International Treasury Management Consultant and designed solutions with financial services clients in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia. She managed numerous, often competing priorities with ease while fostering projects' success in multi-cultural environments, across dispersed global teams. 

A few years ago, Rebecca chose to leave ABN AMRO to pursue a full-time teaching position at Shanghai Dian Ji University in China. There she expanded upon her corporate expertise with cross-cultural work in adult education contexts. In her years at SDJU in Shanghai, she was responsible for the development and delivery of creative English language programming preparing Chinese university students to succeed in one of the world's fastest growing economies. She also took over the responsibility of acting as liaison between the University's International Education College administrators and the foreign teaching staff.

She is a certified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and continues to explore best practices in global organizations through the Intercultural Communication Institute. She is also a member of the Society for Intercultural Education Training and Research (SIETAR-USA). 

Having grown up in Puerto Rico, Rebecca first moved to the mainland of the U.S.A. to attend Washington University in St. Louis and obtain a Bachelor's degree in business.  She later earned an MBA in International Business from DePaul University in Chicago, as well. Rebecca has studied Italian business best practices in companies such as the Four Seasons Hotel (Milan) and Whirlpool Europe (Comerio) through a DePaul University-sponsored International Business Seminar. Her education is further supplemented with on-the-ground experiences in the U.K., France, Spain, Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. Today Rebecca resides in Chicago.
 

LANGUAGES: Spanish, English, beginner Mandarin