RCIIS-SCHOOL TORONTO: OUR TEAM

Our Teachers:

Laura

Laura Vekemans has had many years of experience in business as well as education. She attended Sheridan College’s Business Management Program and The University of Toronto’s General Arts program in the early 80’s. After completing, she worked in the women’s fashion retail industry.

Laura started her career as a District Sales Manager for a Montreal based retailer and held various positions including Regional Training and Development Manager for 42 locations, Regional Merchandising Manager for Eastern Canada as well as Regional Visual and Display Manager for Ontario, Western Canada, and The Atlantic Region with 67 locations.

In 1995, Laura then moved on to work for Club Monaco, a recognized Canadian fashion leader. She was the Toronto District Manager accountable for sales in excess of $10 million. While at Club Monaco, Laura was also the Ontario Regional Management Training and Development Facilitator. In this position, she designed, planned, organized and facilitated training programs for Management. This included motivational and informative seasonal fashion product roll outs.

In 2000 Laura made a decision to become an ESL Teacher. She went back to school to receive her TESL and TEFL certificate. Laura then worked as an ESL teacher and International Marketing Co-coordinator for an academic private language school where she received outstanding performance feedback from The Ministry of Education Inspectors. Laura taught, designed and developed English Academic syllabus for international students. Her students have always enjoyed her classes because of her enthusiasm, energy and creativity. During the summer months, she also travelled to China, Vietnam, Cambodia and India to promote, market and recruit students. In addition, Laura has received recognition for mentoring student teachers.

Since 2006, Laura has taught at the University of Toronto’s International Summer Program and in December of 2008, she joined the team at RCIIS.

Albert

Business English teacher for 7 years and Economics Teacher (Department Head) for 3 years, Albert holds a Masters of Arts Degree (Economics) from the University of British Columbia and a BA from the University of Toronto.
For the past several years, he has worked as an award-winning music producer and most recently has started selling background music online to clients around the globe. In 2001, he received a TESL certificate and has since been actively engaged in teaching Business English.

Jim

Business English Instructor for more than 5 years.
Market Research experience for more than 7 years.
Experience as Associate Project Director for 2 years.

Jim strongly believes that knowledge is the most important tool in the modern economy. Therefore Jim seeks to facilitate, encourage, and motivate students to improve their skills, not only in matters relating to business English, but to general education as well.

Jim believes that critical analysis and independent thought are crucial, fundamental skills that every individual should possess. Therefore he strives to cultivate and foster these skills in all his students. Moreover, he seeks to improve each student's ability to express themselves in a manner that is thoughtful, clear, and insightful.
Jim has a TESL certificate and two B.A. degrees (Political Science and Psychology, respectively) from York University.

Josef

Josef Addleman has been a teacher with RCIIS since August, 2007. In his hometown of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Josef pursued a degree in psychology and drama production. He then spent two years as a teacher in Tokushima, Japan, during which time he developed his love of teaching and a great interest in Asian cultures.

Since returning to Canada, Josef moved to the city of Toronto to further study education in various subjects, including English, business, and drama performance. In his free time, Josef enjoys performing improvisational comedy, and playing with Arashido Taiko, a Toronto-based Japanese drumming group.