Bert Verdonck, an innovative business coach, experienced trainer and die-hard India aficionado. Further to a business and trade mission to India, it was he who created India Business Support with the aim of providing coaching and assistance to businesspeople wanting to work with and/or in India but lacking the experience to do so. He is the author of a series of blogs and several books and audio CD's on how to make the life of the businessperson simpler and easier, and create bigger output and better results. See more on bertverdonck.com.

Francis Laleman, originally a scholar in Indian Studies (Sanskrit, Pali, Hindi, Urdu), moved from academics to business in the early nineties, riding the waves of the telecom boom. Held positions in training, competence mgt and operational mgt (custserv). Now a senior business and management consultant/trainer/coach with an extensive track record in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, in 2007 he joined Bert Verdonck in IBS, extending its services portfolio from sourcing facilitation to all aspects of doing business in or with India. Also, with Michaela Broeckx he founded Beyond Borders, and with Eddy Van Hemelrijck Dunya. Author of and contributor to a great number of books and articles on Indian Studies and management, he is also a founding partner at Anand vzw, an organisation to further the development of the Dalit comminties in Bihar, India.

Michaela Broeckx joined Francis Laleman in Beyond Borders and Dunya as she was living and working in Damascus, Syria, and travelled on to the Sultanate of Oman for a major training assignment in the telecom industry. Since then she has focused on developing training programs on a variety of subjects, while she remains on the field as a trainer specialised in systems and applications. Like Francis, she divides her working life mostly between Antwerpen (Belgium) and Delhi (India), with frequent stops in the Middle East.

Eddy Van Hemelrijck, a lecturer in sustainable business, corporate social responsibility and intercultural management, gathered momentum as a barter trader in the Far East, before holding a series of major commercial executive positions both in Asia and South America. He is the CEO of Maror nv, and, with Francis Laleman and Michaela Broeckx, a founding partner of Dunya - joining IBS in 2010, when it became one of Dunya's subsidiaries.

Bilal Chapri is a son of veteran explorer, environmentalist and social worker Yusuf Chapri. Having settled in Delhi, he and his brother Altaf have managed a series of family owned businesses and companies for more than 15 years, altogether giving the hospitality business in India a new face and a new meaning. Being accustomed to working with a European market and making use of his extensive and intercultural Indian network, Bilal is your ideal master of hospitality when doing business in India.