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  • About
    • Values
    • Beliefs
    • Consulting Approach
    • Teaching Approach
  • Services
    • Organization Transformation
    • Culture Change
    • Leadership Effectiveness
    • Team Effectiveness
    • Commercial Effectiveness
  • Team
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Who might help you?

Our core team, led by Maggie, consists of experienced professionals who have collaborated closely with each other for many years, and who dedicate a significant portion of their time to Sokrates Partners projects.

  • North America
    • Akira Otani
    • Amy McDonald
    • Elspeth Chasser
    • Johan Naudé
    • Laura Daley
    • Martha Debs
    • Margreet (“Maggie”) Van De Griend
    • Michelle Malloy
    • Mike Moore
    • Rob Elsey
    • Ushma Pandya
  • Latin America
    • Martin Sommer
  • Europe
    • Alper Tengüz
    • Andrea Ingrisch
    • Arjen Iwema
    • Brian McIlroy
    • Deborah Thomas
    • Jason Rabinowitz
    • Margreet (“Maggie”) Van De Griend
    • Martha Debs
    • Michael Newman
    • Nick McRoberts
    • Paul ter Linden
    • Philippe Leonard
    • Sara Ais
  • Asia
    • Akira Otani
    • Bel Popovic
    • Huihan Lie
    • Martha Debs
    • Sankar Krishnan
Menu
  • North America
    • Akira Otani
    • Amy McDonald
    • Elspeth Chasser
    • Johan Naudé
    • Laura Daley
    • Martha Debs
    • Margreet (“Maggie”) Van De Griend
    • Michelle Malloy
    • Mike Moore
    • Rob Elsey
    • Ushma Pandya
  • Latin America
    • Martin Sommer
  • Europe
    • Alper Tengüz
    • Andrea Ingrisch
    • Arjen Iwema
    • Brian McIlroy
    • Deborah Thomas
    • Jason Rabinowitz
    • Margreet (“Maggie”) Van De Griend
    • Martha Debs
    • Michael Newman
    • Nick McRoberts
    • Paul ter Linden
    • Philippe Leonard
    • Sara Ais
  • Asia
    • Akira Otani
    • Bel Popovic
    • Huihan Lie
    • Martha Debs
    • Sankar Krishnan

Martha Debs

The Art of Communication

About
Credentials
About

Martha is a communications consultant with over 30 years of corporate experience in Japan, the US, and Europe. Raised in the flower-power-era San Francisco Bay Area, she was catapulted into a straight-laced girls’ high school in Osaka as a 16-year-old exchange student, and never took communication for granted again.

After many rewarding years in Japan – including a stint as the only foreigner in the 5,000-employee HQ of a major Japanese conglomerate – she received an offer she couldn’t refuse: an opportunity to serve management consulting teams and clients in Europe as an editor and ghostwriter. Based in the Benelux, but living out of suitcase much of the time in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, Martha found herself increasingly involved – and increasingly interested – in communications skill-building initiatives, mainly the design and delivery of training programs on topics as varied as exhibit design, cross-cultural communications, meeting effectiveness, team dynamics, and synthesis in verbal and written communication.

After all her travels, Martha still finds packing and unpacking a chore, but she delights in working with, and learning from, colleagues and clients around the world. She is known as a warmly caring and conscientious trainer and coach who listens well, prepares thoroughly, and goes the extra mile to ensure an enjoyable and high-impact learning experience for each participant.

In her spare time in Amsterdam, Martha can be found studying her favorite Vermeers at the Rijksmuseum, applauding performances of the Dutch National Ballet, speedwalking in the Vondelpark, or people-watching at her “regular” canalside café.

Credentials

LANGUAGES

  • English
  • Japanese
  • Spanish
  • Dutch (basic)

EXPERTISE

  • Adult learning
  • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
  • Logical structuring of ideas/messages
  • Business writing
  • Presentation skills
  • Influencing skills
  • Facilitation skills
  • Workshop design

EXPERIENCE

  • McKinsey & Company, Senior Communications Specialist – Tokyo, Amsterdam, Brussels, 1984-2011
  • Nissho Iwai Corporation, foreign press liaison / editor – Tokyo 1982-1984
  • Mitsubishi Inter-national Corporation, assistant to the branch manager – San Francisco, 1978- 80

EDUCATION

  • MA, BA, East Asian Studies, University of California
  • BA summa cum laude, Spanish Language & Literature, University of California
  • MBTI accreditation, OPP, Oxford
  • Diploma, Stanford University Center for Japanese Language Studies, Tokyo

CURRENT PROJECTS

MBTI Temperaments & Teamwork training

  • 2021 Sokrates Partners LLC.
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