Julien’s Path
From academic theory to hard-learnt experience
Boarding school — where teaching began (unknowingly)
At boarding school I started giving remedial English lessons to my classmates, and German lessons too. I was picking up teaching skills without any idea that’s what I was doing — the very first thread of everything that came after.
2000–2004 — Brussels: theory, and a quiet second education
Four years at ICHEC Management School earned me an undergraduate business diploma — and left me bombarded with academic theory I simply couldn’t picture translating into real work. I stopped my studies there and moved to the UK. But something else was quietly happening: I’d become the first-line help for English and German, and my student accommodation turned into a hub for late-night revision and exam prep — refining teaching skills I still didn’t know I had.
2005 — CELTA: the click
A CELTA teaching course clicked immediately. Without realising it, I’d been trained in facilitated learning rather than lecturing — and in language-skills training that sits remarkably close to soft-skills and communication training. The method that defines my work today started right here.
2005–2012 — Al-Khair Institute, Yemen: managing without noticing
Teaching English at Al-Khair, I drifted into admin and management without even realising it — I just did what seemed normal. Organising, running, fixing: it turned out I’d been managing long before I had a word for it.
~2008 — My first business: the gap gets real
I opened my first company with two of my own English students. Here the theory-to-practice gap became painfully obvious, and I struggled to close it. I devoured management and self-development books — Getting Things Done (David Allen), What Management Is (Joan Magretta) and Winning (Jack Welch) stood out most. The most brutal lesson was sales: in B2B, a nice website was never going to cut it. I had to knock on doors and overcome a wall of phobias, so I devoured sales books and courses until I finally broke through and started selling.
2013 — The Open University: theory that finally connected
Studying for my management degree with the OU was a revelation. Unlike ICHEC, almost everything was problem-based and built for implementation — theory I could actually use.
2013 — Muscat, Oman: my first seminar
I delivered my first official training seminar — on leadership, in Muscat — with material I designed entirely myself, in Arabic, and delivered in Arabic. It was a real success, and the confidence it gave me set the direction for everything after.
Late 2014 — Yemen: building an ecodome by hand
On a development project in Yemen, I built a superadobe ecodome house from the ground up — design, planning, sourcing tools and materials, managing the crew, and getting my own hands dirty in the construction. My first major project-management experience, start to finish.
2015–2019 — Ibn Sina National College, Jeddah: leading a department
As Head of Department and course coordinator, I led a team of about a dozen instructors through MOE and NCAAA accreditation, and in 2017 was appointed Chairman of the Languages and Islamic Studies Department.
2016 & 2020 — Aquaponics: theory to rooftop
I took an aquaponics design course and earned an A+ on the final design, then in 2020 built my first experimental system on a Jeddah rooftop — theory turned into something living and working.
2019–2023 — Princeton English Academy, Jeddah: training under pressure
I delivered English and professional training in Jeddah, alongside accreditation and curriculum projects.
2023–present — Freelance corporate trainer
Everything since has come together as freelance corporate training: practical sessions for corporate and government teams across Saudi Arabia and online, for clients including Flynas, Renfe and Sulzer. Relevant theory, brought to application.