Randy Weekes has been working with Graybridge Malkam as a trainer and facilitator since 1990 and he has been contributing to the field of international development for over 30 years as a cooperant, administrator, and intercultural effectiveness trainer.

Randy designs and facilitates courses in the areas of cross-cultural communication, adaptation, and professional effectiveness for Canadians relocating abroad. Similarly, he implements a range of effectiveness training seminars for professionals doing business in Canada. He has been involved in hundreds of overseas effectiveness-training programs with over 50 countries throughout all parts of the world. His focus ranges from individuals engaged in short term missions on behalf of small non-governmental groups to multi-year, multi-national private and public sector concerns for global organizations.

Randy has direct experience working in an overseas environment. He taught and managed programs in Thailand from 1969 to 1973 and in Lesotho from 1978 to 1981. He continues to undertake training and project assignments throughout Asia, Africa and the Americas. In 2001 Randy worked with Canadian police officers in Kosovo as part of a study on adaptation and overseas effectiveness. The results of the study were used to test and improve ongoing training programs for Canadian peacekeeping personnel. In 2003 he supported a trilateral (Japanese/Bosnian/Canadian) team establishing rehabilitation clinics for war victims in Republika Srpska. In 2004 he worked with Canadian and Brazilian partners in the natural gas sector in Brazil.

Randy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Sociology from Queen's University. He studied Conflict Management, History and Development at Carleton and St. Francis Xavier Universities. He undertook a Trainer Specialization in Gender and Development at the Canadian International Development Agency. Randy also holds Certificates in Financial Planning from the Canadian Institute of Financial Planning and in Adult Education, from St. Francis Xavier University.

On a more personal note, Randy lives in the Lanark Highlands with his wife and two children, where they carry on a stubborn struggle to protect their gardens from nice looking but ruthless deer and racoons. To console himself, Randy plays celtic-style fiddle and searches for answers to the question of why his family left Ireland to come to Canada in the 1830s, when they should have been able to guess that it would join the EU and that better times were ahead.