Anne Dean joined Living Abroad LLC in 2002 as employee 001. While at Living Abroad, Anne developed and maintained reports on destinations throughout the globe, working with a global network of in-country contacts. In addition to her regular duties, she has published dozens of articles on doing business abroad and destination information in trade publications such as Global HR News and ERC’s Mobility Magazine. Anne served on the Global Editorial Advisory Board for Worldwide ERC for six years, and has been the recipient of a Meritorious and a Two-Time Distinguished Service Award from them for her contributions to the organization. Graduating from the University of Connecticut, she held a degree in Business and Communications.
Anne’s global career began as a Corporate Travel Manager in 1981 with CIBA-GEIGY Corporation, and then in 1987 continued in a similar, but much broader position with Fortune Brands, Inc. She joined the Global Mobility profession in 2000 with Craighead Publishing, and became Living Abroad LLC’s first employee in 2002.
What you probably didn’t know about Anne:
1. Anne was a great supporter of T.A.I.L.E.S and ended up on their board. In fact, it seems as if she took the pets most needing homes to her home.
2. Despite being a self-described “tech-not”, she was a consummate joiner and leader. As her son approached his freshman year of college in Chicago a few years ago, Anne created a Facebook page for his class at the Roosevelt University Musical Theater program. She used it as a forum for getting to know people and trading information about the various first-time freshman processes. Several of the parents she met on that page became fast friends.
3. Anne and a committee recently worked for 2 years planning their 45th high school reunion. By all accounts it was a huge success, and Anne got to reconnect with old friends in mid-April.
4. Before joining the relocation industry, Anne worked with autistic children in the Redding, CT school system. Long after that job ended, she continued her contact with some of her students, regularly babysitting for one of them.
Send any comments or stories about Anne to us at 3la@livingabroad.com.
We surely will miss her.
Thank you to all that have written in with such wonderful comments and sweet memories of Anne. We would like to share a few of these kind words.
Anne was pure energy and excellence.
She was truly one of the most guileless, genuine people it was my good fortune to have met.
I saw today the saddening news on Anne passing away. What a shock to hear that someone that is part of the ‘mobility family’ is taken away so unexpectedly. We will definitively miss nice chats at the conferences and are in our thoughts with those that are close to her as they will have to miss her forever. I want to wish you and everyone that is close to her all the strength they need to carry this loss.
My thoughts go back to my father who passed away late 2010. It gave me a lot of strength when I found out how proud he has been on what I did with my live – he was not the person to tell me directly, but it did me good to hear from his friends. Anne spoke to me repeatedly on her son that was going to school in Chicago, and how proud she was on him doing what he did. When you get the chance, please let him know how proud his mother was on him – I am sure this will give him a little extra help in these difficult days.
I do know that our organization truly embraces and values the relationship with Living Abroad and always speaks very highly of Anne. When great people part, they will never be forgotten…Their spirit will always live within our memory and our journey throughout life.
She was a lovely lady and a great writer.
Michael – I thought your acknowledgment of Anne was moving, and I genuinely
am sorry to hear the news. I always enjoyed talking with her at FEM
events. She was a very warm and kind person with a good sense of humor. I
didn’t know of her professional accomplishments so it was nice you
mentioned them.
She was such a wonderful human being and was so generous and kind. I had worked with her on one of her articles regarding STAs. I do remember her smile…. Anne will now get to travel to all those countries that she wrote about and travel for free. She will be missed.
She was held in very high regard for her enthusiasm, graciousness, professionalism and involvement. People like Anne are the ones who make our work so remarkable, and our lives so much more meaningful.
Your blog post caught my eye today, and I just wanted to drop you a note and say that I’m sorry for the loss of your colleague and friend, Anne. I read the post and she sounds like a wonderful person. I think it is wonderful that you remember her with such fondness.
I will truly miss her bright shining face and hugs each year as one of my favorite ‘booth mates’.
I was delighted to see the beautiful testimonial you published about Anne Dean. I learned much more about her. I knew that Anne was special when she contacted me seeking to smooth her son’s transition to Chicago where he would study performance. She’d learned from my sister that my daughter owned a catering company there and, “what aspiring actor doesn’t do a stint as a server?” she declared. Sure enough, Ryan did his stint and Anne and I connected. Clearly she was a force, making a difference wherever she put her attention.
Always a warm hello from her and I know she was an important part of Living Abroad. I can still picture her with a big smile on her face, welcoming all of us as we check in at FEM NY meetings and her articles and presentations, filled with interesting information.
Anne always had a warm smile and helping hand. It was fun serving with her on the Global Editorial Advisory Committee. Anne’s passion came through in her educational articles and genuine enjoyment in helping others.
Baby Hoover
We had a wonderful thing happen last night, and I now think that Anne is already working some magic from heaven.
Mike’s aunt is a dog breeder in Mansfield, OH. She had advised and helped me 14 years ago when I wanted to get a basset hound for Mike. Enter Britty, the love of our lives for 13.5 years.
When we lost Britty last Christmas, Aunt Sue was almost as devastated as we were.
Since then, she’s been keeping an eye out – in her dog circuit – for basset puppies. (The CT people we got Britty from no longer breed bassets.)
Aunt Sue called last night to tell us that her friend and fellow dog breeder ran into a woman with 2 basset puppies at the vet this week. Turns out, the woman’s dogs just had 2 litters, and she actually has 12 basset puppies in total. So Sue suggested Mike call her and see if any were for sale.
Mike called Mount Gilead, OH and spoke to this woman for nearly an hour, during which time Ida sent pictures of 6 dogs for us to look at. She sent the pictures by phone, so we were all hunched over Chris’s iPhone, oohing and aahing, and eventually discussed and picked a dog that will be our new family member at the end of the month.
It wasn’t until this morning when I looked at the pictures on the larger screen of my computer that I noticed the woman in the picture (holding the puppies) looks a bit like Anne. Last night we were so busy looking at the puppies, and not the woman, that I didn’t notice the resemblance. But this morning it really struck me.
Just thought you’d all be interested to hear that Anne – as she’d offered me these past few months – did indeed, it seems, help us find a new dog to love.
