Margaret Deelman

Margaret Deelman and her husband, Harry, have been a team for more than 50 years. Together, they founded and built what is now Search’s January fair in London, growing it over time into a fair known for connecting schools with strong IB educators. Margaret has worked alongside Harry at Search Associates’ Chiang Mai office since 1996, keeping much of its day-to-day work moving for the educators and schools who rely on it.

Margaret was born and raised in Peru, attending a bilingual international school herself as what would today be called a Third Culture Kid. She holds a B.A. and M.A. from Cambridge University and a PGCE from the University of Bristol and built her own career in international education as a teacher, then a Project Director opening new schools, and eventually a Head of School, including as the founding Head of Lanna International School in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Today, Margaret’s work at Search is largely behind the scenes. She helps educators navigate the Search platform and its tools, is often the one they turn to when they need hands-on help getting set up and has managed the activation of new and returning educators’ accounts since 2021. She has also long been part of the team advising attendees at the London fair itself, a role that goes back to the years when it was still held in Oxford rather than London, and she still takes on a share of the preparation work for Search’s Bangkok fair each year.

Margaret and Harry are now based together in Chiang Mai, sharing the office with two much-loved cats who mostly answer to her. That same firsthand experience, as a Third Culture Kid, an international educator, and now half of the team keeping this Search office running, is what she brings to every educator she works with today.