Patrick Shen is a partner with Fragomen’s Government Strategies and Compliance Group. He previously was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate in 2007 as Special Counsel for Immigration-related Unfair Employment Practices. He also served as ICE Policy and Planning Director, Chief Immigration Counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and trial attorney with DOJ’s Office of Immigration Litigation. Patrick was an adjunct professor of law at American University, and became an emergency medical technician in 2002 in Maryland where he still volunteers with his fire department. Patrick was a sports reporter in Taiwan before law school.

Salman Cheema is a managing attorney at Erickson Immigration Group in the Global Practice group. Cheema’s focus is in assisting multinational organizations develop an immigration strategy to hire and retain elite talent around the world.

Laurette Bennhold-Samaan is an international executive with over 30 years of experience in world-class organizations including Accenture, The World Bank, Honda of America, and The Peace Corps. Laurette is currently VP, Global Advisory Services, NetExpat (Global Provider for Intercultural Solutions and Partner Assistance) and prior she was VP, HR for an international non-governmental organization.

Laurette is steeped in the global mobility field as she led Accenture’s Global Mobility department and co-created the Global Mobility department at The World Bank, supporting expatriates and their families in preparation for assignments in over 100 countries. She has authored and co-authored several intercultural books. Laurette has personal experience with Global Mobility having been an expat, an accompanying spouse and a child of an expat.  Born in Egypt, Laurette has lived in Nigeria, Germany and Canada. She currently resides outside Washington DC with her family. LinkedIn profile.

Wibke Bittner works as HR-manager for the Global Assignments-Team at Volkswagen AG and is located in Wolfsburg, Germany. After various positions in educational and extracurricular departments as well as in international HR she is responsible for the group wide Partner Support Program since 2011.

Her main focus is to balance the diverse requirements of relocating partners with fast changing surrounding conditions and  a group wide consistent mobility policy.

Des McKell has spent 30 years in the world of relocation and global talent mobility, working for Relocation Management Companies and now with NetExpat, the world’s leading provider of Intercultural training and Relocating partner assistance. During his career, Des has helped organisations across all sectors and industries to build talent mobility programmes designed to deliver “experience” led support and is an advocate managed intercultural and partner support which if mis-managed, can become a “hard” risk to organisations talent strategy and financial investment. Des is based out of the NetExpat UK office in London and is Regional Director for UK & Ireland. LinkedIn profile

Gill Gordon is Chair of Permits Foundation and has been a Board Member since its establishment in 2001. Gill spent most of her career with Schlumberger and her last appointment was as HR Director UK from 2014 to 2020, based in London. She held many different positions including HR Director for the global seismic business WesternGeco, Director Executive Compensation for Schlumberger, and HR Director for the global R&D population. She played a key role in setting up and developing a shared services organisation for the HR function in Europe, Caspian and Africa and was also HR Director for a global electricity and gas utilities business.

Gill was involved in a number of strategic initiatives in the areas of career development, diversity and mobility as well as numerous acquisitions and divestitures. During her career, she spent over ten years in expatriate assignments in France, Germany and the US. Gill started her career in international HR at Ford Motor Company and has a BA Hons. in French & German from Heriot-Watt University.