ICEF, Global. Marie-Claude Svaldi has recently joined ICEF as its VP of government relations. She will enable ICEF to forge new relationships, alliances and partnerships with government bodies, educational groups and sector associations across the globe. Due to her background and extensive list of contacts, she will play special roles in our market development in the US and the Middle East, taking the overall lead of ICEF’s scholarship events. Originally from Lebanon, Marie-Claude was initially a government consultant and project manager for Pearson Education, where she directed numerous projects for school boards, ministries of education and higher education in the Middle East. She then became the Assistant Director at the ESL Institutes & Placement Department at the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission in the US, overseeing all English language programmes nationwide, managing 62,000 SACM students enrolled in the United States on behalf of the Saudi Cultural Mission and Ministry of Education. She has also provided consulting services to the Libyan Ministry of Higher Education while administering their scholarship programs worldwide, and was the founder and president of ECCOS. Today, as Partner and VP of Government Relations and Recruitment MENA at ELS (where she will maintain her role of VP of Government Relations) she has come full circle and acquired the knowledge and expertise of the business and industry from all its various aspects while maintaining excellent relations on a very high governmental level and with key stakeholders within the industry.