“I met Bernie on my first business trip to Hong Kong when I had just taken over as Worldwide Corporate Security Director of a well-known luxury multinational corporation and Bernie was already acting as Senior Counsel and right-hand woman to the Asia Pacific General Counsel. I approached her to understand the operational and environmental complexities of my role in that part of the world. My first impression of Bernie was that she was technically very knowledgeable and had a dynamic and fluid view of business activities. She was able to provide an authentic interpretation (which I needed at that time) of how to read some of the facts and the unwritten with an eye that was not my own, and she did so very naturally and politely despite it being the first time we spoke. Over the years I got to know her better and also appreciated her joie de vivre and humour very well mixed with a thoughtfulness and depth that on many other people would have been out of tune. Bernie is like that, a big heart, a quick, sharp and thirsty mind that she knows how to use to the best of her ability by adapting it to every situation. Another aspect that I immediately appreciated about Bernie is her self-awareness; you understand that she is aware of her qualities and talents but she never abuses this awareness; all she has to do is make her interlocutor understand that she is present to herself, always, even under stress. It’s amazing how she manages to guide and control her powerful vital energy without fumbling; she knows how to dose and channel it when and where it’s needed. Over time our relationship has been strengthened through mutual respect and esteem; yes, because Bernie is not seduced by the role and power attached to the role of whoever is in front of her, but only by the heart and mind with which she is interacting. In other words, she manages to be herself in every situation without having to betray her values or renounce, even for a moment, her grace and her sunny kindness. It is this skilful mixture, this balance that is impossible for many and unstable for others, that makes Bernie a truly special person; not only she is aware of her moral and emotional heritage but she knows how to exploit it and use it without waste and without excess.”