The Council of EuRA 2007-2008

Helmut Berg EuRA President

Helmut Berg, born in March 1945, lives and works in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. Most of his business life has been spent working for German companies owned by US corporations. He is an expert in marketing and franchising for service oriented products.

Helmut has been in the relocation industry since 1987 when he started as General Manager for PHH Homequity in Germany. In 1990 he founded RSB Deutschland, a leading relocation provider in Germany. He is one of the promoters of the relocation industry in Germany and has strongly supported the formation of EuRA. Prior to that Helmut was a member of the ARP and still is.

Helmut has been in relocation for 17 years and feels that serving EuRA will help him to give something back. Helmut believes he has the skills to drive EuRA forward and increase its success as the mouthpiece for the European Industry. Helmut’s extensive experience in international relocation along with his experience in marketing will be an asset to the council.

As well as being the President, Helmut is also the PR Liaison for EuRA.

Kathryn Andrews EuRA Vice President

Kathryn Andrews of ABC Relocation, joined the EuRA Council as representative for the Benelux region in 2006. Kathryn has a great deal of experience in domestic and international relocation, having been Managing Director of Andrews Blakeway Consult for over 8 years.

The company is based in Belgium but has offices also in the UK.

As well as being the Vice President, Kathryn is also the Membership Liaison for EuRA.

Ileana Clapham (Central Region)

Ileana Clapham is the founder and Managing Director of Clapham Relocation in Germany and her company was co-founder of grm relocation management gmbh. Ileana has been a EuRA council member since 2003. 

Ileana is the Training Liaison and has special responsibilty for the structure and delivery of EuRA's Europe wide and regional EARP accredited programmes.  

Ileana was also very involved in the Berlin 2005, Budapest 2006, Lisbon 2007and Rome 2008 Conferences in her role as the Training Liaison.

Nathalie Gazal (Southern Region)

Nathalie Gazal who has joined the Foursquare group last June 2006, at their Paris office, is now the Development Manager – Relocation Services at Primacy France as Primacy acquired recently Foursquare.  Nathalie has extensive experience in international relocation management, but also has personal experience of international assignment and the relocation process having lived in South East Asia for 12 years.  Returning in 1990, in France, Nathalie joined the industry and has become an expert in HR Mobility Management.  Nathalie has always placed a great emphasis on the importance of understanding cultural difference, and has been very involved in the development of training on cultural adjustment and the repatriation process.

Nathalie is the Marketing Liaison for EuRA.

Ase Lofgren Gunsten (Northern Region)

I am so pleased to have been elected to the EuRA Council.  Here is a summary of my background; I am somewhat similar to the village mutt, a mixture of this and that! Norwegian mother and Swedish father who met each other in the Philippines early 50’s. I spent the first 14 years there, only flying in to Scandinavia every third year for vacation. As you can understand, moving permanently to Sweden at age 14 was quite a shock! I guess that’s why I’m doing what I do today. I am a Registered Nurse from the Red Cross School of Nursing. I also hold a degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Stockholm. I founded my first relocation company 1993. I joined Susanna Bolinder 1994 and created Europatria Sweden AB. In 2003 the company merged to form Relocation Group Sweden. In 2004 I became sole owner of the company. In 2007 Nordic Relocation Consultants joined my company. Today we are one of Sweden’s biggest relocation companies with our own offices in Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg. On the private side, I have four children, all grown up and the same husband going on 29 years now! Now that’s what I call an accomplishment - the long marriage I mean!  Last , but not least, I am a certified CERP level 2, hoping to graduate Level 3 in 2008.

Eric Klitsch (Benelux)

As you are aware, I have been for three years a member of the EuRA Council, from 2003 to 2006 representing the Benelux Region. I have worked in several of the Council Commitees, most recently in the Marketing Commitee and in the Training Commitee. 

After a year out of the Council, I have a feeling of unachievement and I really want to be able to again share my expertise and provide my dedication to this Council to help our Associaion continue its progresses and remain more and more when it comes to quality and professionalism for Relocation Services in Europe.  As for the biographic part, I have been working in the Relocation sector in Belgium since 1988 and I have founded and managed Brussels Relocation since 1990.

Patrick Oman (Northern Region)

Patrick is a veteran of the relocation industry. Prior to his involvement with IrishRelo, which itself was one of the pioneers in Ireland having been established in 1994, Patrick served on the board of OMNI the Overseas Moving Network International and was President of that organisation from 2000 to 2002.

He became managing director of IrishRelo in 2002 and has been fully engaged in relocation since. Patrick joined ERC in 1996 and EURA prior to their Dublin conference, when IrishRelo was Gold Sponsor. He has been invited onto various industry committees and is currently on the editorial advisory panel of “Mobility”.

As a strong supporter of the EARP and EURA Quality Seal Initiatives, Patrick is a CERP Level 2 and IrishRelo is among the first to achieve the Quality Seal accreditation.

Isabel Reis (Southern Region)

Isabel Reis, Triplicado’s Senior Partner and Manager started life as a third culture kid in Angola. Isabel finished her higher education in Translation and Portuguese Language and Culture, at Lisbon University. She also studied at the French Institute and British Council, achieving full qualifications for teaching Portuguese to relocatees to Portugal.

In 1987 Isabel began teaching expatriates Portuguese Language and Culture, at the same time as working with a government sponsored relocation initiative.

In 1992, she became Lead Teacher in the AUTOEUROPA Ford / Volkswagen project to 200 families moving to Portugal. This involved taking over all teaching and translation activities, employing around 30 teachers, consultants, technical translators and interpreters.

To facilitate these activities and to meet the strong demand for relocation services, Isabel formed Triplicado Relocation. In 2000 Triplicado took-over Portugal Relocation, their main competitor and have since became the accredited Portuguese representative for the largest international relocation companies as well as direct clients.