Native of North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Ernie Tadla's interpersonal skills were finely developed at an early age. It was the well meaning wish of Ernie's father for Ernie to enroll in dental school. However, Ernie's interest then as now lay in dealing with people. Recognizing pharmaceuticals or chemicals would offer the change and variety that excite him, Ernie elected to begin his career in the pharmaceuticals industry. It was important to Ernie that the products he was involved in were of direct benefit to the public.

Graduating from the University of Alberta with degrees in both Sciences and Commerce, Ernie joined Johnson & Johnson where he progressed steadily through three operating divisions, getting a firm grounding in the disciplines of management and marketing. In 1978, Ernie moved to Bristol-Myers Squibb, holding various senior management slots . In 1987, Ernie was recruited as Executive Vice President and General Manager of QLT Pharmaceuticals, a joint venture between Quadra Logic Technologies Vancouver, Lison Chemicals of Hong Kong, and Guangdong Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals of Guangzhou, a SEO (state-owned enterprise) in Guangdong Province. It was for QLT that Ernie made his first forays into the Asia Pacific area, doing business in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Korea and Taiwan.

In 1990, Ernie made the career and life-style choice to remain with his family on Canada's West Coast. Ernie founded Odyssey Consulting International Inc., to do for his own clients what he had been so successfully doing for his corporate employers. Ernie's Odyssey practice was built on providing training and coaching to the employees of prominent regional and national organizations. In 1999, Odyssey received a two - year management contract for Ernie to work with an American film production company in Shanghai, mentoring and training the company's management and employee teams.

China has always held a special allure to Ernie as he has studied, observed and learned about Chinese history, traditions, culture, values, and the uniquely Chinese way of doing business. Ernie was a quick study on the ways of doing business in China, and his initial assignment stretched into 5½ years, with Ernie completing the assignment as Group General Manager for three US - based marketing communications companies, all doing business in China.

Ernie's time in China as an operational general manager, and his activities on behalf of the American Chamber of Commerce - Shanghai brought him into contact with a wide variety of senior foreign and Chinese managers. An astute observer of the human side of business, Ernie recognized the main source of difficulty for foreign firms in China was the lack of understanding, accepting and adapting to the Chinese business culture. His talent for imparting the depth of his experience and wisdom became widely sought after in China, and lead to the opening of the Odyssey Consulting/ China bureau.

With some 40 years of diverse and eclectic experience, Ernie is now at the pinnacle of a career spanning continents, industries, cultures and generations. Ernie's unique qualifications as a veteran international corporate manager and business leadership skills trainer coupled with his in-depth knowledge and appreciation for the important nuances of Chinese business culture give immediate and continuing impetus to Odyssey's position as the "go-to" intermediary - the builder of bridges for North American companies wanting to do profitable and sustainable business in China.