Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Greto.
Hi Mike, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been passionate about cross-cultural encounters and understanding the ‘why’ behind people’s behavior. Studying, living, and working outside of the United States truly opened my eyes. After studying Foreign Affairs and Italian at the University of Virginia, I started my career as an Executive Assistant to the former Italian Ambassador to the U.S. at a large law firm in Washington, D.C., helping navigate Italian/American client relationships. This opportunity led to an internship at the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican in Rome, Italy, where I served as a political intern, reporting on Italian and Vatican City news that had an impact on U.S. foreign policy. In addition to meeting my wife of 22 years, I also fell in love with the concept of diplomacy as a means for good, and brought this passion to the private sector when my internship ended. As a founding executive team member of Global Experiences, Inc., an international education exchange company, we placed U.S. students in internships at foreign companies, helping to open their eyes to a whole new generation of college students. After pursuing an MBA, I was thrilled to learn about my current company, Aperian, where I now serve as President. Aperian is a cross-cultural training firm that serves multinational corporations and higher education institutions.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
For any small business, especially one that has operated in multiple countries for 35 years, there are going to be ups and downs! Alongside our clients, we’ve endured market uncertainty, global crises, mergers and acquisitions, and more. But going through these trials with an incredibly talented and dedicated team has helped us build empathy with our client base and resilience as an organization.
As you know, we’re big fans of Aperian. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
At Aperian, we help take the “shock” out of culture shock for our global clients. For more than 35 years, we’ve been helping people and teams around the world turn cultural differences into strengths that spark connection, innovation, and growth.
We started as a small two-person operation with a big idea: that understanding culture could completely change the way people work together. Today, that idea has taken us across more than 60 countries and 32 languages. We’re proud to partner with over half of the Fortune Global 100, and to have reached more than three million learners who are bridging boundaries to create higher-performing teams every day.
What sets us apart is our mix of technology and human touch. We’ve spent decades researching how diverse teams succeed, and we’ve built tools and learning experiences that make those insights practical, engaging, and scalable. Our learning platform combines self-assessments, interactive digital learning, and live training to help individuals and teams work better across cultures and differences.
Our main assessment, the GlobeSmart® Profile, helps people understand their work style and the work styles of others in order to gain confidence to collaborate more effectively across cultures. What we’re most proud of is staying true to our mission. Everything we do is rooted in the belief that understanding ourselves and others—through the lens of culture—unlocks potential.
What does success mean to you?
At Aperian, we define success by helping individuals, teams, and organizations bridge boundaries through a deeper understanding of themselves and others. In practice, for an individual, success might look like an expatriate who is able to “hit the ground running” and build swift trust with her new team on a new international assignment. For a client company, success might mean having higher engagement scores and increased productivity or innovation. Another important success metric for us is that we have a 90% renewal rate of our Aperian learning platform, which tells us that our clients derive value from our products and services.
Internally, we are extremely proud of our recent #11 ranking (out of 100) on Newsweek’s Global Most Loved Workplaces!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://aperian.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AperianGlobalInc
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/aperian
- Twitter: https://x.com/AperianGlobal
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAperianEffect
- Other: https://aperian.navattic.com/az50l2s
