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Audrey Lustgarten is a dual US/Canadian citizen who lives in the tiny lakeside town of Harbor Springs, Michigan with her husband, two kids, a pet bunny and a tortoise. Her passions include traveling, cooking (mostly vegetarian), cross country skiing (slowly), dancing (not well), drinking good scotch and finding ways to support the empowerment of vulnerable immigrants, minorities and women.
Audrey is the Managing Partner of WR Immigration’s Global practice. She has practiced immigration law for more than 15 years, focusing exclusively on global (non-US) immigration law. In this capacity, she and her team provide companies with a one-stop source for comprehensive global immigration assistance around the world. This includes procuring employment visas, work permits, residence permits and business visas for key employees. Audrey is licensed to practice law in the US states of Georgia and Michigan. She has held leadership roles with the American Bar Association, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and Refugee Family Services, a nonprofit dedicated to helping refugees attain self-sufficiency in the US.
With paradiGM she is excited about creating a space for global mobility professionals to gather meaningfully, grow professionally, and give back in ways that empower vulnerable populations, while embracing the sense of fun and adventure that she has grown to love among her global mobility colleagues.
Ben Sookia is proud to belong to a truly international family – he is a dual Mauritian/UK national and his immediate family are from Australia, Poland and New Zealand. He lives in Alexandra Palace, London, where he is part of a caring community of people from many different places. Ben loves speaking different languages and learning about new cultures and you will generally find him wearing at least one item of clothing (usually red) associated to his favourite football club, Arsenal.
Ben has specialised in supporting businesses with global immigration services for ten years and enjoys finding ways to connect the right people with each other across different sectors and regions. Strong communication, creativity and emotional intelligence are his most valuable skills.
Much like his family and football team, the global mobility industry has given Ben a great sense of belonging over the last decade. Now it is time to give back, be inclusive and promote intergenerational solidarity. The paradiGM Community exists to do this and make sure that together, we continue to do better.
Daniela Lima is a proud Brazilian citizen who loves her country because its vibrant and happy culture matches her own positive spirit.
She lives in São Paulo, the biggest city in Brazil, where she has a beautiful view of the never-ending skyline from her apartment. She lives with her husband and two kids, a boy and a girl. Her passions include traveling, reading, learning about different cultures, interior design and hanging out with friends. She enjoys combining these interests with her love of champagne. In brief, anyone that knows Dani, as she prefers to be called, will tell you that she is a very energetic and emotive person.
Dani is now the Managing Director Americas for Newland Chase/CIBT. She has over 20 years of experience in Brazilian immigration law, outbound immigration, relocation matters and advising multinational companies on executive transfers to Brazil and Latin America. She has worked with companies of all sizes from almost every country.
Fluent in Portuguese, English and Spanish, Dani graduated in law and has an MBA Degree in Strategic Management and Business Economics. She has been recognized by the International Who’s Who of leading Corporate Immigration Lawyers as a leading Brazilian immigration lawyer. Dani is also an active member and regular speaker at AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association), IBA (International Bar Association), ERC (Employment Relocation Council) and EURA (The European Relocation Association). She is also the founder and part of the counsel of the Brazilian Association for Immigration and Global Mobility Specialists (ABEMMI). ABEMMI today plays an important role liaising with all government spheres and embracing the importance of bringing a community together.
Dani is passionate about paradiGM as it will be an open space for her and others to share new ideas and encourage creativity at work. She is excited to build an inclusive global community that will support future generations of professionals in the industry.
Marco Mazzeschi is an Italian “seasoned” lawyer specializing in immigration and citizenship law, founder of Mazzeschi srl and adjunct professor at the Chinese Culture University. He lives in Siena (Italy) and Taipei.
He has been an American Immigration Lawyers Association member since 2002 and he is frequently invited to speak in international conferences and seminars. He is also a regular contributor to Thomson Reuters and Lexis Nexis publications.
He enthusiastically supports paradiGM because of its goals and, in particular, he wants the community to be inclusive and open to anyone with good ideas and good values. ParadiGM must be based upon merits and not on seniority or titles.
Massimo Maesen is the grandson of Italian immigrants and a Dutch grandmother, so there was always a strong connection in his life to immigration law, and helping foreign nationals in moving from one country to another, either for work or other reasons.
Massimo has worked over nine years at one of the largest immigration law firms in the world, serving on the Belgium-inbound team, French coordination team, Swiss coordination team, the Netherlands-inbound team and the client services team.
Massimo studied law and graduated at the KU Leuven in Belgium and is a registered Belgian Attorney at Law. Massimo is the Practice Leader and found Partner of Expat Management Group Belux, and is heading the Belgium & Luxembourg practice out of Brussels, Belgium.
His favourite pastimes include enjoying food, beer and wine, reading about history (no matter what subject, as long as it happened in the past), watching documentaries and movies and enjoying and discovering music (from Jazz to Drum ‘n Bass, to rock and classical, as long as it is good music).
Massimo became part of paradiGM as there was a strong feeling that something was missing in his professional/personal life. Although corporate immigration is a big adventure, with a lot of excitement and challenges, Massimo felt that there was more that he could do. Massimo believes that what we are striving for with paradiGM might offer just that. Massimo is a strong supporter of diversity, inclusion, equality, and is convinced that we at paradiGM will do great things together in that regard.
Sophy King is a UK citizen, born and bred in London, who loves the international community of immigration specialists and lawyers and who has lived in Russia, China, Japan and Spain. She now lives back in the UK, in Bristol with her husband, three children, cat and dog.
Sophy has worked in global immigration for around 20 years: she has been a global immigration consultant, manager, director, and business owner. In 2011 she formed her own company, Peregrine Immigration Management Ltd, which specialised in immigration software and knowledge sharing. She eventually sold Peregrine to CIBT/Newland Chase, and took the role of SVP of Global Immigration. In this role, she was responsible for unifying immigration practices across a 26 country footprint, network partner management, global client engagement and, of course, immigration software.
Sophy is now independent again, owning and running Owl Immigration Ltd, which focuses on helping companies develop their immigration practices, including through advice and support with software innovation. Owl also hosts an online immigration community with active forum boards and member webinars – the Owl Immigration Parliament. Sophy is also the Immigration Liaison for EuRA Relocation.
Sophy is excited about paradiGM because she believes in the power of people collaborating to support one another. She also likes it when people invent cool new ways of doing things. The international immigration industry is exciting because it is, by its nature, so diverse, with practitioners working all over the world in small owner-managed firms as well as large, global organisations; in-house or as service providers. When all these people come together to share ideas and to support one another, good things happen.
Yuu Shibata grew up in an international environment. Having a Bolivian mother and a Japanese father that used to travel often for business reasons, she has lived in many countries such as Japan, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, etc.
She holds a PhD in European Union Law (University of Bologna). She has joined Mazzeschi SRL in 2018 and currently, she is working as the Head of the Japan Desk and the Spanish Desk. Her main role is to support Japanese corporations to establish a business presence in Italy and to assist in their immigration requirements for their assignment in Italy. She is also very active in writing articles for Chambers of Commerce and for some Japanese banks about Italian corporate immigration practices, business (legal) tips and corporate / commercial law.
Her main passions are dogs, gardening and cooking international food.
Yuu is excited to be part of paradiGM and to build, all together, a new international community and a platform for global mobility practitioners that are willing to participate in an inclusive community to discuss new ideas.
