Organizing Committee

X-Culture Organizing Committee

Dr. Vasyl Taras
Founder, X-Culture

  • Dr. Vas Taras is a Professor of International Business at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
  • He is the Vice President-Administration of the Academy of International Business and the founder of the X-Culture Project. He received his Ph.D. in International HR and International Business from the University of Calgary, Canada.
  • His research and work revolve around cross-cultural and global virtual teams and experiential approaches to international business education and development. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of International Management, the International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, the European Journal of International Management, and Cross-Cultural Strategic Management, and an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of International Business Studies, Academy of Management Review, and Journal of World Business.
  • Vas has lived, worked, and studied in half a dozen countries and has experience as an academic, manager, entrepreneur, and business consultant.

 

Dr. Leilani Baumanis
Conference Chair

  • Dr. Leilani Baumanis is the Program Coordinator and Professor for the International Business Program at the College of Business and Management at Lynn University.
  • She earned her Doctorate in International Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University and has over 25 years of teaching experience with a focus in active learning, cultural intelligence, and study abroad opportunities.
  • Since 2013, Dr. Baumanis has played a vital role in X-Culture, which comprises more than 400 universities worldwide. X-Culture focuses on teaching university students to collaborate effectively through global virtual teams. In 2017, she joined the Executive Team and contributed to developing the X-Culture Global Business Symposium. This week-long international conference brings together 200 of X-Culture’s finest students and faculty. Additionally, Dr. Baumanis leads the X-Culture Academy, a global virtual team program that concentrates on college-bound students aspiring to enhance their international business skills through collaboration with like-minded students from across the globe.
  • In recognition of her expertise, Dr. Baumanis was appointed the Academy of International Business, Southeast (AIB-SE) X-Culture liaison in 2022. In this role, she oversees X-Culture’s US-based Global Business Symposium, fostering connections and knowledge exchange among participants.

 

Karen Lynden
Conference Faculty
Development Lead

  • Karen Lynden teaches at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, supporting the International Business and Management concentrations. Her teaching philosophy is centered on experiential and project-based learning.
  • As an active member of the X-Culture project team, Karen is the Coaching Program Faculty Advisor, in addition to supporting roles. She has been teaching with Global Virtual Team programs since 2014 and has had over 1,000 students complete these projects successfully in her courses across multiple higher education institutions.
  • Karen brings with her 20+ years of higher education and industry experience. Organizations have relied on her to develop global and domestic teams while managing a broad portfolio of client accounts. A primary focus of her industry experience includes creating and facilitating organizational development training programs.  Karen’s research interests include global virtual teams, cross-cultural team and management topics, and organizational training and development.

 

Timothy Muth
X-Culture Client Management

  • Tim Muth has taught various Business courses at the Florida Institute of Technology since 2007 and has been involved with X-Culture since 2012. He spent over 25 years in various executive management positions working for a Fortune 500 technology company and has worked in or traveled to over 50 foreign countries. Tim holds degrees from Florida State University and Wake Forest University.
  • Tim has won several teaching awards. In 2019, he was named one of six faculty members to receive the prestigious Master Teacher Award. A scholarship named the “60th Anniversary Professors” was established to honor the Master Teachers. In 2020 and 2021, he won the Student Government Association “Professor of the Year – College of Business” award.
  • Tim is actively involved with several non-profit groups. He leads a non-profit organization (Hearts Out to Haiti) that provides support for educational programs in two remote mountain villages.
  • He coordinates the Business Challenges and Student Professional activities at the X-Culture Global Business Week.

 

Maddalena Dulio
X-Culture Lead Ambassador

  • Maddalena Dulio is a Senior Project Manager of the legal department at the German-Italian Chamber of Commerce in Milan, Italy.  She graduated with an MSc in Foreign Languages and International Management at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. She has collected several international experiences in cross-cultural counseling services, market and business development, and event management. She can fluently speak English, German and Italian.
  • She has been part of the X-Culture family since 2014, being a former X-Culture student, X-Culture Coach and Head Coach, and X-Culture Student Ambassador.
  • She is one of the X-Culture Professionals Program Administrators.
  • She was the Conference Assistant and the Lead Ambassador of the X-Culture Business Week in Lublin, Poland.

 

Carlos Cardona
X-Culture Lead Ambassador

  • Carlos holds a degree in International Business with a concentration in French from the University of La Verne, California, where he developed a strong foundation in global business strategies, cross-cultural communication, and international market dynamics.
  • As a former X-Culture student, Coach, and Senior Coach, Carlos gained extensive experience in global virtual collaboration, international project management, and leadership development. His journey with X-Culture provided him with hands-on experience in guiding diverse, multicultural teams to successfully complete complex business projects.
  • From 2017 to 2021, Carlos served as the X-Culture Coaching Coordinator, where he was responsible for overseeing the global coaching program, mentoring new coaches, and ensuring the effective management of student consulting teams worldwide. In this role, he played a pivotal part in enhancing the quality of team performance and project outcomes across various international business challenges.

 

Srishti Konduparthi
X-Culture Lead Ambassador

  • Srishti Konduparthi is an honors undergraduate student majoring in finance, minoring in music, and pursuing a HR management certification at the University of Central Florida.
  • She completed the X-Culture project as part of her dual enrollment International Business course at the Florida Institute of Technology in 2021. After graduating high school, she decided to take a gap year and joined the Coaching Program and has been a part of X-Culture ever since.
  • She has served as the Webinar Coordinator for the X-Culture Coaching program; an Ambassador for the X-Culture Global Business Week Conference in Lublin, Poland and Chiang Rai, Thailand and as the X-Culture Assistant at Academy of International Business conferences in Atlanta, Georgia and St. Louis, Missouri. She co-authors the company challenges with Professor Tim Muth for various X-Culture symposia.

 

Local hosts at the University of Vaasa

Dean, Professor Adam Smale – University of Vaasa, Finland

British and Finnish by nationality, Adam Smale has lived in Finland since 2004. He is Professor of Management and has been serving as the Dean of the School of Management since 2018. He has taught courses in International Human Resource Management, International Strategic Management, and International Management on the EFMD-accredited Master’s Degree Programme in International Business. He has over 20 years’ experience in teaching on MBA programmes and has received a number of awards for his teaching at the University of Vaasa. Since 2018, his teaching case on global talent management at KONE has been an international best seller and won the Best Case Award in 2020 for cases in the organisational behaviour/HRM category. His research interests focus on HRM, talent management, and careers in the international context, and he has published in journals such as Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, and Human Resource Management. He currently sits on the editorial board of Human Resource Management Journal. He is the HR Ambassador for Finland in the Academy of Management HR Division (www.hrdiv.org/international-ambassadors-2), and is a Finland representative in the GLOBE studies (https://globeproject.com), CRANET (www.cranet.org), and the Cross-Cultural Collaboration on Contemporary Careers (5C, www.5c.careers).

 

 

Dr. Aušrinė Šilenskytė, University of Vaasa, Finland
Lead Faculty Host

Aušrinė Šilenskytė is a Program Manager (Bachelor’s in International Business) and an Ambassador for Internationalization at the School of Management, University of Vaasa, Finland. She also serves as a Founding Governing Board member at the AIB-CIBER Doctoral Academy and previously served as a Chair and Vice Chair (Communications) at the Academy of International Business Teaching and Education Shared Interest Group. Šilenskytė holds a PhD in the area of international management, is an alumnus of the prestigious Nord-IB program, and her research centers around strategy implementation, blockchain adoption in international business management, and innovations in business education, particularly related to social sustainability. Aušrinė teaches various topics related to international management to undergraduates, master’s degree learners, executives, as well as professionals in continuous education. Aušrinė has received several international awards for her research and as an educator. Before joining academia, Aušrinė worked in managerial positions in Lithuania and Egypt. Throughout her academic career, she has consulted international firms and led international industry-academia collaboration projects, such as DEI4SME. She is Lithuanian by nationality and lives in Finland since 2010.

 

 

 

Tiphaine Delecour – Coordinator
Faculty Coordinator

Tiphaine Delecour is a project researcher and coordinator at the University of Vaasa. Her research fields focus are international business management and strategy implementation; and, she works closely with different projects, companies, and researchers, to raise awareness in these fields. Her expertise in project work serves the School of Management and several projects. Tiphaine is also an active supporter of the international community in Finland through her work and volunteering activities.