Julien S. Bourrelle

His expertise on understanding cultural differences did not come from his formal education, but by his life experience observing and adapting to the local cultural norms and rituals of the seven countries where he lived. Julien is a mechanical engineer in field of astrodynamics (rocket science) and it is through this education that he was brought to live in Germany, Spain, France, Australia, New Zealand and Norway. He also spent long periodes in Southeast Asia, East Africa and in several other European countries. 

 

His work explaining cultures started when he was elected as a board member at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). NTNU is the largest and most renowned university for the education of engineers in Norway. Julien represented the university's academic staff on NTNUs board of directors and was the first non-Scandinavian member of the board since the foundation of the university in 1910. He helped to strengthen NTNU's internationalisation processes by sharing his unique experience from the five internationally renowned universities where he had studied. It is through his board work that Julien developed his illustrations to explain how expectations and perceptions change from one culture to another, and how interactions with locals can be challenging when one lives, study or work abroad. 

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His innovative way to bridge cultures received national attention and Julien decided to take a break from his doctoral studies and his career in engineering. He started working full-time to help companies and organisations succeed with internationalisation, benefit better from diversity and build more robust multicultural teams.​