Background
Beatrice Otto was born on the 25th of February, 1963 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Beatrice Otto
Woodhouse, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
Beatrice Otto studied at the University of Leeds from 1981 to 1985, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in Modern Chinese and Mongolian.
220 Handan Rd, Wu Jiao Chang, Yangpu District, Shanghai, China
Beatrice Otto did a postgraduate study at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, in 1985-1986.
Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, United Kingdom
Beatrice Otto attended the University of Edinburgh in 1989-1994, where she did a postgraduate research.
Woodhouse, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
Beatrice Otto studied at the University of Leeds from 1981 to 1985, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in Modern Chinese and Mongolian.
220 Handan Rd, Wu Jiao Chang, Yangpu District, Shanghai, China
Beatrice Otto did a postgraduate study at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, in 1985-1986.
Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, United Kingdom
Beatrice Otto attended the University of Edinburgh in 1989-1994, where she did a postgraduate research.
(In this lively work, Beatrice K. Otto takes her readers o...)
In this lively work, Beatrice K. Otto takes her readers on a journey around the world in search of one of the most colorful characters in history, the court jester. Though not always clad in cap and bells, these witty, quirky characters crop people everywhere, from the courts of ancient China and the Mogul emperors of India to those of medieval Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas.
https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Are-Everywhere-Jester-around/dp/0226640922
2001
editor consultant translator author
Beatrice Otto was born on the 25th of February, 1963 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Beatrice Otto studied at the University of Leeds from 1981 to 1985, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in Modern Chinese and Mongolian. After that, for one year, she did a postgraduate study at Fudan University in Shanghai, China. Also, she attended the University of Edinburgh in 1989-1994, where she did a postgraduate research.
While Beatrice Otto studied Chinese, she worked in Taiwan from 1986 to 1989. During those years, she worked at the Institute of International Relations, where she edited international conference papers and speeches for Prime Minister and others to foster diplomatic relations. At The Hsueh's Enterprise, she helped establish the import branch of a Taiwanese trading company, operating in a Chinese language context. She served at the Commercial Trademark Services, where she wrote reports on investigations into copyright infringements for use as evidence in court. Also, she worked at Sinorama and Tri-Services Hospital, where she translated articles for Sinorama, a Taiwan international showcase, and medical research papers.
From 1995 to 2005, Otto was an independent consultant working on sustainable business, with a strong focus on design and innovation in products, services, buildings and business models in London, United Kingdom. Besides, she developed a sustainability strategy for the United Kingdom's Design Council under the Department of Trade and Industry, ran a range of related projects and led industry capacity building in the EU's biggest environmental program in China.
Between 2003 and 2005, Beatrice worked for the EU-China Environmental Management Cooperation Programme in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chengdu. During that time, she piloted a sustainable business network for senior Chinese executives, designed and delivered Sustainable Business Seminars for senior executives, developed the program's recommendations to the EU in terms of capacity building in China on sustainable business issues and created an online roadmap to a sustainable business for Chinese companies to access global resources.
Beatrice was member relations director for World Business Council for Sustainable Development from 2006 to 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland. She managed the relationships with hundreds of companies from 20+ sectors and over 35 countries, recruiting new members, and developing and delivering the member retention and recruitment strategy. She spent 8 years helping hundreds of global companies make full use of their membership to advance on sustainability. Since 2015, she has been an independent consultant and writer.
Beatrice K. Otto's book, Fools Are Everywhere: The Court Jester around the World, came out in 2001. It is a history of the court jester across the globe, including in China, Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and India. In Fools Are Everywhere, Otto traces the history and universality of the fool, including an appendix of 334 specific jesters known to have existed. Moreover, she is a contributor to periodicals and the author of various reports on sustainability and other business topics for the Design Council, British Department of Trade and Industry, and others.
Beatrice Otto is a well-known consultant, whose experience of working on sustainable business issues includes more than twenty years. During her career, she worked to integrate sustainability into Chinese business management for a major EU-China government cooperation program, bringing sustainable business concepts to life. Also, she designed and delivered seminars for senior executives in Chinese. Beatrice developed an online roadmap to sustainable business in order to help managers find resources, filtered for quality, clarity and accessibility and mapped to the business process.
Moreover, Otto is an outstanding editor and translator, as well as the author of Fools Are Everywhere. Her book was warmly received by many critics, including Merle Rubin, who said in a review in Christian Science Monitor, "A pleasure to read, this book was clearly a labor of love: engagingly written, assiduously documented, finely illustrated,and handsomely designed." Besides, Fools Are Everywhere won the American Association of Publishers' Award for outstanding book of the year in its class in 2001.
Otto gave presentations and interviews to the Australian National Radio, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, Appledore Book Festival, Hanken School of Economics, and others.
(In this lively work, Beatrice K. Otto takes her readers o...)
2001
Quotations:
"Potential fulfilled, that's what drives me - working with creative, questing people, projects and organizations with a laser-like focus on solutions for a flourishing and slightly saner world, inspiring more sustainable business models, products and services."
"I write to capture and share things that delight or thrill me (intellectually and/or emotionally) and to convey something of that pleasure in a clear and sparkling way. I also hope, in some writing contexts, to open up vistas of possibility."
"I write by reading voraciously - starting with general books on a subject and working up to more specialist or obscure ones as I go, following up every lead I can. One of the first things I do when I find an interesting book is to pick out all the other books or articles I'd like to read afterward from the bibliography. I also install a mental radar which guides me to look in places I wouldn't rationally think of looking. That's how I ended up compiling the most comprehensive bibliography on fools and jesters."
"I'm influenced by things I see around me, people I meet, the books I read. In writing Fools Are Everywhere, I was greatly encouraged by Lee Siegel's writing. It strengthened my conviction that a scholarly book can be a lively and engaging read in which it isn't a crime for the author to reveal personality, passion and humor."
"The only advice I could give to aspiring writers is to be both playful and passionate about the subject as much as about the business of writing. I worry when people write a book without really having much they want to say, or because it'll be good for their career or some such. To be a better writer? I'll probably get hammered for this, but I'd say go easy on writing courses. Instead, just read broadly within your subject, but also outside it as there can be treasures hidden in less obvious places. Don't only follow the clearly defined routes."
Beatrice Otto is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce (RSA).
