Languages at DSKI
PYP
English Programme
German Programme
French Programme
Move to Learn
School Board 2019/2020
Christoph Pantel
Nationality: German
Christoph holds two commercial degrees, a Bachelor in Economics from Italy and an MBA from Australia. He has worked in development and marketing, supply chain management, financial controlling, and SAP/IT project management in Germany, China and Japan. He is Director of a medical device company, responsible for global business development.
Christoph's two children are former students at DSKI.
Tala Fabic Noel
Born in 1977 in the Philippines, Tala graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering (University of the Philippines). After working briefly in Australia, Indonesia and Philippines, Tala moved to Japan in 2000. She is married and has 3 children – 2 of whom have studied at the school (David for 8 years and Ysa for 7 years) and Anika who is currently enrolled at the school. Tala is an operations manager at the research & development division of a multinational FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) company.
Dr. Anna Schrade
Gakko Houjin Chair of Board
Anna holds an MSc in Japanese Studies and a PhD in History, both from the University of Oxford (UK). She speaks Japanese fluently, having studied at the University of Tokyo as exchange student, and having lived in Japan for 9 years.
Anna is Associate Professor at the Institute for Industrial Research at Kwansei Gakuin University (KGU) in Nishinomiya. Before that, she was Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Economics at Kobe University. Her main fields are expertise are EU Integration, Labour Economics, and the Environment.
Board Secretary
Brad Quinn was born in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. He holds an MA in English from the University of Cincinnati. Before coming to Japan in 2001, Brad worked for a variety of weekly magazines. In Japan, he has worked as a writer and editor for The Daily Yomiuri and Kansai Time Out. He is currently an Associate Professor of English at Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts.
Jim Mansfield
Vice Secretary
Jim Mansfield is a resident of Kobe and a United States Military Veteran with a Master of Education in TESOL. He is a University Lecturer and also the Education Director of LTA Publishing Network which produces and supplies ESL related textbooks to Universities in the Kansai area. He enjoys being active in the Kobe community and volunteering his time to support several local groups.
Nicolas Brabeck
Nicolas was born in 1976 in Germany and graduated from high school in Germany before earning an academic engineering degree (Dipl. Ing.) in aeronautics at the University of Applied Science, Hamburg. His wife is from Venezuela and they have 2 children enrolled at DESK (Gr. 2 and 4). He has been living in Japan since October 2016 leading the Japanese aftersales service division of a German company.
Thomas Baumann
Vice Treasurer
Thomas was born in 1982 in Germany and was doing an apprenticeship in mechatronic and earned an academic engineering degree (Dipl. Ing.) at Technical University Munich. His wife is from China and they have 2 children at the age of 2 and 5. He has been living in Japan since 2018 heading a Japanese sales division of a German company. Before this time, since 2011, Thomas worked as a manager at the German Headquarter. Thomas speaks three languages and has lived in Germany and Australia before coming to Japan.
Jan Wolfstieg
Jan Wolfstieg is a German citizen and has lived in Kobe for a long time. Jan works in a Japanese engineering office where he manages technical documentation and is responsible for the company's ASME certification. In 2014 Jan came back and enrolled his older child into the Pre-KG class. Jan's hobbies are his family and sea kayaking. As a board member, Jan's effort is focused on ensuring the highly professional and dedicated work of the teaching staff is continued for the benefit of the students.
Takahiro Makino
Nationality: Japanese
Takahiro Makino was born in 1972 in Kanto area (Japan). He has one child in this school.
He has belonged to global company in last 15 years.
I'm very willing to contribute to this school, because education of children is most important in the world.