Business Studies & Economics Department

Joseph Gichana

Joseph launched his teaching career in a community-funded Kenyan school before joining an international school that followed the British National Curriculum in Nairobi. He spent eight years at the school serving as a valued member of the Business Studies department and as a discipline proctor. The lure of teaching abroad was irresistible when an opportunity to teach at a middle school in Xi’an, China beckoned. With his young family trailing, the desire to join a dynamic multi-cultural community grew and, after two years in Xi’an, he joined NAIS Pudong in August 2009. Joseph is convinced that the school’s excellent learning environment adequately prepares our students to face the challenges of an ever changing global economy.

Read full profile

Tamara Brunskill

After graduating from The British International School of Jakarta, Indonesia as an IB Diploma student, Tamara undertook a four-year BA (Hons) in Chinese and Management Studies from Durham University in the UK. During the second year of this degree, she participated in an exchange programme, spending a year studying Mandarin in Beijing at The People’s University of China. After graduating, she took a gap year, moved to Holland, her country of origin, to complete a Certificate in English Language Training (CELTA) in Amsterdam so that she could teach and travel around Asia. This is where her foray into teaching started; however, during her gap year she also applied to do a masters, thus finding herself heading back to the UK, this time to Manchester. There, she gained an MSc in International Business and Management from UMIST, now part of University of Manchester. This programme also involved a partner-university exchange, and given her affinity for Asia, she found herself on an MBA programme run by Kellogg, USA and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong. 

Read full profile

Parras Majithia

After graduating from the University of Leicester with a degree in Economics and Law, Parras trained as a teacher of Business Studies and Economics on the Graduate Teacher Programme.  He has worked in contrasting schools in the UK; after successfully completing his induction, he held whole-school responsibility for eLearning, Assistant Head of Year and then as a Head of Year at a high-performing 11-18 school.  In these roles, he was able to achieve recognition for the school on a national stage, and has worked extensively on BYOD/1-2-1 as well as transition points between Key Stages, through a period of significant curriculum and accountability change in the UK.  His last role in the UK was as an Assistant Principal in a challenging London school.  As a key member of the Leadership Team, he raised standards across Key Stages 3 and 5, as well as successfully leading key whole school change to implement sustainable systems.

Read full profile