photograph © Julia Scher 2008
U.S. English Services founder, Michael A. Tighe was born in Trenton, NJ, USA in 1961. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Hartford with his Bachelor's degree in 1984. He left New York City to increase his cross-cultural experience and to study communications and languages at the University of Cologne, Germany. He has been based in Europe ever since.
Michael gained a wealth of pragmatic experience teaching international communications with a concentration on Business English skills and cross-cultural communications for a wide variety of institutions and business clients. In 1986, he synthesized the best elements encountered in his experience to create U.S. English Services.
For over 20 years, he has offered the insight gained through comprehensive experience in effective international communications and Business English training to a variety of corporate clients, language academies, public institutions and major publishers. U.S. English Services now works in conjunction a network of dependable specialists to help clients with a variety of innovative solutions related to cross-cultural communication, virtual teams and effective Blended Learning design and implementation.
In 2001, Michael took part in one of the most successful and largest Hybrid Learning training programs in Germany. His involvement in this award-winning, teacher-trainer program convinced him of the incomparable benefits Blended Learning offers and ignited his avid interest in virtual teamwork. He has since incorporated Hybrid Learning and virtual teamwork as a central elements in programs designed for all of his clients in international business, education, teacher training and beyond.
The hands-on expertise he has gained through executing several full-scale, multi-level, Hybrid Learning programs in virtuality has made him mentor to both select individuals, as well as to international business clients, fellow trainers and multicultural virtual team members. He is active in imparting his knowledge to other educators and practitioners who wish to acquire the skills needed to effectively employ state-of-the art technologies in learning communities and intercultural virtual teams today.
His in-depth knowledge in the Blended Learning area and his constant development of appropriate teaching methods for deployment in Hybrid Learning scenarios enable him to contribute to international certification criteria for live online language training programs and international programs for best practice in Blended Learning and virtual teamwork. His activities in the Business English/Hybrid Learning fields have given him the opportunity to travel widely and to work with specialists in the field all over the world. He has reaped a wealth of intercultural experience which directly benefits his Hybrid Learning strategies for communicative competency and virtual leadership training programs.
Michael has acquired extensive experience working hands-on with many different types of virtual teams since the very beginnings of virtual environments. He has had the chance to develop training programs to increase efficiency and effectiveness of international virtual teams by concentrating on raising awareness of cross-cultural issues and trust-building in virtuality within a corporate context. The exciting programs he has been involved with worldwide have yielded a wealth of practical knowledge concerning virtual intercultural communicative effectiveness in these new and fascinating environments.