Cecilia Lui
M.A. (Communication)
Communications Advisor, Intercultural Trainer & Coach
www.luminalearning.com/practitioners/cecilialui
A native from Hong Kong with a Canadian upbringing, Cecilia has spent the past 15 years in Hong Kong deepening her own understanding towards her native culture. Through a passion to transfer her knowledge and skills from the West, Cecilia found a perfect way to create positive impact while serving local communities through leadership roles in both the corporate and nonprofit world.
With 30+ years in corporate, business and consulting experience from both continents across sectors and industries, Cecilia is a seasoned communications professional with superb client and relationship skills, always meeting objectives and exceeding expectations.
Cecilia holds a Masters in Communication and received coaching & NLP training during her time in HK. She also has publishing credits with the South China Morning Post and other publications on coaching, business, personal development, lifestyle and parenting subjects.
Cecilia started her cultural work in 2006 when she was an adjunct lecturer at HKUSPACE teaching International Business Communication Skills. In 2008, she entered the field of cross-cultural training & coaching. Such service also provided spousal and family support on integration and career transition, and advisory on assisting children through transitions. With increasingly diverse cultural workforce in the Asia Pacific, local staff also needs to be trained with essential communication and team skills to function properly within the global link.
Cecilia applies her cultural insight across all disciplines of her work in consulting, training, coaching and writing. Collaborating with a global alliance of practitioners, Cecilia’s unique value proposition lies in her East-West perspective and is frequently sought after for her insightful, troubleshooting ability on perplexing issues in the workplace. In training, program design, consulting or coaching, this translates to effectiveness and results. Her corporate experience adds tremendous value to her coaching and cultural work with business professionals where an issue sometimes may not be simply cultural, but a combination of leadership, team, or personality.
Cecilia has coached and trained executives and junior employees at Goldman Sachs, Asurion Asia Pacific, Manpower, Texon International, China Light Power and others. Organizations she has worked for included the Clinton Global Foundation, Mercer, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST), Sprint Telecom, Nexen Oil & Gas, University of Alberta and others.
As a trainer, presenter and consultant, she has taken her work across the APAC to Malaysia, Singapore, China, Thailand, Taiwan and Australia.
Cecilia is also a certified practitioner for Lumina Learning (UK), a psychometric assessment tool for personal and talent development, team building and diversity inclusion. She complements her work with Lumina to provide professionals the tool to recognize their strengths and shortcomings, complementing talents and potentials in their different roles in life.
As a member of SIETAR, Cecilia actively participates in global conferences to deepen her knowledge in the field. In 2014, she presented at the Canadian Congress on the cultural impact of the pursuit of dreams on immigrants and migrants, sharing the challenges of reintegration into our root culture after living abroad extensively. At the 2015 Int’l Congress, Spain, Cecilia presented on the value of understanding and incorporating “Cultural DNA” to training and in our attempts to connect with others. This topic was also presented at the 21st IAICS cum 11th CAFIC Conference (July, Hong Kong).
As a coach, Cecilia is inspiring and empowering with a result-oriented and no-nonsense approach, arriving at action plans jointly with clients to bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to be, in situations, skills, characters building, relationships, careers, and dreams. People often feel hopeless because they lack confidence, options and execution to move forward. Holding her clients accountable for progress, Cecilia tailors her approaches based on individual cases, supporting clients towards achieving their fulfilled and happy state, encouraging them to be their best selves, with cultural understanding and resources.
Education, Training & Membership:
- Master of Arts (Communication) – California State University, USA
- Lumina Learning (UK) Certified Practitioner
- Coach-the-Coach & NLP Training, Hong Kong
- SIETAR UK & Europa (Society for Intercultural Education, Training & Research), Member
- CAFIC (China Association for Intercultural Communication), Member