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Benoît Thao

Chief Operating Officer

Benoît Thao currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer of ETS Global. He is responsible for ensuring the execution of business plans for growth and profit, and also to supervise all business and channel operations including product delivery, e-business, sales, marketing and communication.

Before joining ETS Global, Benoît was Executive Director, Channel and Major Accounts, at Demos Group, which provides the largest range of European professional B2B training. There, he was responsible for growing the business by developing dedicated service offerings including technology, new local customer support and dedicated sales policies. Prior to that he served as Director, Channel and Major Accounts, at Agefos, the first network of professional training funds management and consulting. Responsible for the creation and management of a new value-added customer’s acquisition plan, he was a key player contributing to the rise of the corporation revenue.

With over 16 years of experience in International Sales, Marketing and Management in the corporate training and service industries, Benoît understands what it takes to build a customer-focused organisation. He has an outstanding track record at improving business results and is known to be a leading advocate of co-ordinating high productivity, technology, organisation, processes and human capital development.

Benoît has a Bachelor of Arts in law from Paris X. He has also completed a course in Corporate Consultancy from Université Paris 7 Sorbonne.

Gerben van Lent

Executive Director, Business Development

Gerben van Lent's primary responsibility is to direct the development, conversion and growth of new business in parallel with ETS Global's standard testing programmes. With his team, he culls new business opportunities using market information, conceptualises solutions, and leads the implementation of projects. These projects can cover all or a subset ETS' core areas of expertise: test design and development, test delivery and scoring, test analysis and reporting, or research and development. Often starting with consultancy and technical assistance, the activities are aimed at establishing long-term relationships for the development and delivery of large scale assessment solutions. Gerben represents ETS Global and ETS in dealing with potential clients, government officials, other external organisations and agencies, and at professional meetings.

Before his appointment as Executive Director, Gerben van Lent was Director of Business Development of ETS EMEA in 2007, and of ETS Europe from 2004 to 2006, with similar responsibilities but geographically specific. 

Gerben and his team have coordinated pilot projects on automatic scoring of essays in India, research on age independent testing in England, e-marking in the UK, non cognitive admission aspects for higher education in the Netherlands and linking English language test results to ECTS credits, amongst other such projects. He has presented or conducted workshops at international conferences in the UK, Germany, France, Portugal, at IAEA conferences and AEA Europe conferences, and for the European Commission; on quality assurance, large scale assessments and assessment and technology issues. He has contributed articles to journals in the field of education and measurement. He is an external member of the Research Committee of AQA in the UK and a board member of ACETS, the Arabic Centre for Educational Testing Services, a joint initiative of ETS Global and the Amman Arab University for Graduate Studies.

Prior to his role at ETS, Gerben was Senior Advisor of the International Department of CITO (National Institute of Educational Measurement) in the Netherlands. Here, he was responsible for business development and project management, leading amongst others, 3 educational reform projects in Eastern Europe and developing policy papers for educational reform. He also coordinated test- and item development programmes for national mathematics exams in the Netherlands and for PISA mathematical literacy.

He started his career as a teacher and teacher trainer in the Netherlands and Africa.

Gerben holds a Masters Degree from Leiden University, The Netherlands, with a major in Mathematics and minors in Economics and Teaching). He has taken courses in general management, educational management, financial management, management styles in different cultures and total quality management and capture management.

Fiona Ellis

Finance Director

Fiona Ellis joined ETS Global BV in August 2006. Based in the Paris office, her responsibilities include financial reporting for ETS Global, ensuring the accuracy of intercompany reporting and ensuring effective cash management. Fiona develops and administers the financial policies of ETS Global, and also develops reporting procedures in support of business growth and expansion plans.

Fiona has over 12 years experience in international finance, also covering treasury, taxation and business review. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in the UK with KPMG in London, Fiona moved swiftly into the business arena first with Emap PLC and then IIR in The Netherlands, where she was handling and managing financial issues for all companies worldwide. Here she contributed to building a sold financial reporting base ensuring transparency and control and also improving the profitability in line with corporate objectives. Prior to ETS Global, she was with NPD, a global marketing information company based in Paris, where her drive and motivation ensured the swift implementation of the financial reporting system so that business performance could be managed effectively.

In the companies that she has worked in, Fiona has successfully developed financial models for internal and external reporting.

Fiona is a Chartered Accountant (ACA) from KPMG, London. She has graduated with a BA (Hons) in Accounting, and Finance and Economics from Essex University.

Diana Cano

Chief Information Officer

Diana Cano's chief responsibilities at ETS Global, as its CIO, include:

• Providing technology vision, leadership and technical management in the development and implementation of technology solutions
• Providing strategic and tactical planning, development, evaluation, and coordination of the information and technology systems 
• Acting as a liasion between the different internal and external players invloved with the technology resources of the company
• Designing, implementing and evaluating the systems that support end users in the productive use of computer hardware and software
• Overseeing and evaluating system security

Prior to ETS Global, Diana was with EqualFooting and B2eMarkets, two B2B technology firms that specialised in procurement and supply chain management. She has also spent 10 years with Honeywell, GE and Parker-Hannifin, working in sales, field marketing and application engineering in the area of factory automation and control.  Diana has advised worldwide clients from the industrial, chemical and warehouse distribution industries on issues such as supply chain management, procurement, operations management, information technology and automation.

At ETS and elsewhere, Diana an impressive list of achievements to her credit. She:

• Integrated a full solution for a large custom assessment project in 2008 that involved many ETS as well as vendor systems
• Led the implementation team to integrate Prometric into the corporate structure on acquisition in 2007, including outsourcing to multiple vendors
• Was a panel member for the 2006 National Science Foundation SBIR Conference on the topic of corporate partnerships and the optimal use of intellectual property by entrepreneurs and large organisations
• Was responsible for the kick-off of “intrapreneurial” venture of ETS into the consumer market in 2005
• Led the team, outsourcing all warehouse and publishing operational activities in a 5-year agreement with Accenture in 2004
• Integrated a full solution for NBPTS certification involving ETS and testing services suppliers
• Has won annual corporate awards every year during first 10 years of career in factory automation

Diana has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University and a M.S. in Technology Management from the University of Pennsylvania / Wharton School, with elective work in both Public Policy and Intellectual Property.

Annette Pettman

Human Resources Director

Annette is responsible for developing the Human Resources function in ETS Global. With accountability for relatively small numbers of people that are geographically dispersed across Europe, Asia, Canada and the Middle East, Annette’s role is to put in place the people, policies and processes to support international expansion.

Prior to joining ETS, Annette was Group HR Director for Promethean Ltd, a global leader in interactive whiteboards and assessment technologies.  She has also worked as Group HR Manager for IKANO, a company related to IKEA, and was HR Manager for Coca-Cola GB and Colgate-Palmolive UK. Annette started her career representing employers at Employment Tribunals.

Annette is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and has a Higher National Diploma in Business.

Steven van Schalkwijk

General Counsel

Steven serves as ETS Global’s General Counsel. Joining ETS Global’s European division in September 2005, he was made responsible for  orgainsing a legal and a contracts department, alongside fulfilling his legal role.  He was soon appointed to the position of legal director for ETS Global’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) division, before subsequently being promoted to General Counsel of ETS Global in September 2007.

Steven is responsible for the legal support of all of ETS Global’s international development efforts. He has guided the company through significant lawsuits, and has been a member of local and international ETS Global negotiation teams in all parts of the world.

Prior to joining ETS Global, Steven was in private practice in the Netherlands, specialising in corporate and transactional law. He has also previously been  a professor with the legal faculty at the University of Amsterdam.

Steven is a certified mediator and holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of Amsterdam.