Birmingham school adopts automatic translation system for its multilingual pupil population

Robert Bally - Account Manager

Robert Bally has been working for The Translation People since 1988 and is an Account Manager. Originally working in the retail trade, he started work on a temporary basis and is still here today. He has a fantastic memory for facts and figures and is often asked for advice on translators and to sort out formatting problems. As well as looking after his clients, he is also responsible for the office computers and accounts. Robert also knows loads of absolutely useless pieces of trivia, so if you need to know anything, he is the man to call.

In his spare time he likes the cinema, music, mostly of the heavy rock variety and quizzes.

Stephanie Beckwith - Account Manager

Stephanie has been interested in languages for as long as she can remember, and took part in various school exchanges and art trips to France and Spain from a young age. It seemed inevitable she would go on to study languages at University, and has a joint honours degree in French and Spanish from the University of Manchester. During her time at university, she spent a semester at the Université de Bourgogne in Dijon, France followed by a second semester at the Universitat Autònoma in Barcelona, picking up some Catalan along the way.

In her spare time, Stephanie is a music enthusiast and attends many gigs and festivals. Since almost being swept away by the rain at the last English festival she attended, Stephanie now prefers to attend music festivals in sunnier parts of Europe, and puts her language skills to good practice in the process.

Sam Bennett - Branch Manager

Sam Bennett, Branch Manager, can spot a misplaced comma at fifty paces which makes her ideal for a job where attention to detail is paramount.

Sam's love of languages began at an early age during exchange visits organised through school and her local swimming club, but after spending her year abroad teaching English to French teenagers in Bordeaux, Sam realised that a career in Education was not for her and began thinking of an alternative way to use her language skills in the workplace. On completing an MA in Modern Languages from the University of St Andrews, Sam moved back West and joined the translation world as Translation Coordinator for a major UK agency. Sam moved swiftly up the promotion ladder and now manages the highly successful Glasgow Team.

In her free-time (toddler son allowing), Sam loves to spend her time in the kitchen, experimenting with new recipes and ingredients.

Gilles Comnène - Sales Manager

Gilles has been working in the translation industry for 23 years. After graduating in Russian Language and Literature at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, Gilles joined ALPNET in their Croydon office working as an Account Manager. There, he worked for the engineering team working on large technical accounts such as Rolls Royce.

Gilles continued in his role as Account Manager after Roevin Management Service's bought a number of ALPNET offices. He then switched roles to become Sales Manager, a role he has filled for the last seven years and continues to fill in the company's new incarnation as The Translation People.

Gilles uses his experience in the translation industry to bring new customers from all over the United Kingdom. These have been from a wide range of industries and include some now significant and long-standing clients.

Gilles lives in Edinburgh with his partner and four children.

Peter Hansen - Senior Production Specialist

Peter Hansen has been working for The Translation People since 1988 and heads up the European Desktop Publishing team. Originally from Denmark, Peter has been living and working in the UK for 21 years. He holds an MA degree in English translation and interpreting and a BA degree in German from the University of Aarhus, speaks Swedish and also has knowledge of Norwegian, French and Russian. An expert in Mac packages, including QuarkXPress, Illustrator, InDesign, FreeHand and Photoshop, it is Peter's responsibility to make sure that foreign language artwork matches the English layout exactly.

Steve Holden - Financial Controller

Steve joined the support function here at The Translation people in May 2008. With over 10 years of experience in finance roles, previously as a Financial Controller in the Hotel and Leisure industry, he has a keen interest in IT and has been responsible for the implementation of many new systems and controls to ensure the smooth processing of all financial information and reporting.

Steve has recently embarked on studying for the CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) qualification. He is also an integral part of the senior management team.

Louisa Matthews - Accounts Assistant

Having completed a degree in Hispanic Studies, Louisa spent her first post-graduate year as an optical assistant in her local independent opticians, as she had done alongside her studies throughout her university career. Although she formed some lasting friendships there, she decided that her talents and interests lay elsewhere. Louisa decided to follow up a year spent in Barcelona whilst at university with a stint in Valencia. On her return, she applied for a temporary role with The Translation People and was soon offered a full-time position. Although initially her time was split between project management and assisting the Financial Controller, when the opportunity to work permanently in accounts arose, she soon came to realise that an A-level in statistics and head for figures would fare her well.

Fiona McGhee - Account Manager

After 5 years at university studying French with Hispanic Studies, Fiona worked for a well-known local Whisky Distillery as a multi-lingual tour guide giving daily tours to visitors. This experience has helped her no end when handling The Translation People's many whisky clients. She has intimate knowledge of the intricate workings of a distillery and understands the importance of ensuring everything is just right!

In her spare time Fiona loves nothing more than going for a walk (she walked the West Highland Way in July 2009 in aid of Motor Neurone's Disease) or hitting a few balls on the golf course and would love to play some courses throughout France and Spain, putting her language skills to good use!

Tim Mowl - Technical Illustrator

Prior to joining Roevin Tim was a Design Draughtsman producing plant layouts of new and existing flour mills, hence his fondness for a crusty cob! A change of direction saw him retrain as a Technical Illustrator and after a few different contracts, including time living in Hamburg and Amsterdam with his family, he joined Roevin in 1996. At the time Roevin was a busy publications department employing 7-8 illustrators and 2 in-house technical authors. As time went by the emphasis of the business changed towards translation services and eventually became The Translation People. As the other illustrators left Tim hung in there, and is still an important part of the DTP team.

A couple of his illustration clients still remain and Tim has also had to develop his key skills to include foreign language DTP, Flash animation and Dreamweaver.

Gail Owen - Branch Manager

Gail joined The Translation People in April 2006, firstly as a Marketing Officer, she then became an Account Manager before being promoted to her current role of Branch Manager. She is responsible for a number of key accounts and also manages the development and update of The Translation People's website. Gail is passionate about Italy and all things Italian. She studied Italian and Spanish at Royal Holloway, London and has a BA Joint Honours Degree in Italian and Spanish. During her time at university Gail spent 6 months studying in Cuba and a year and a half studying, working and travelling in Italy.

In her spare time Gail enjoys running, cycling and triathlon and hopes to become fit enough to complete an IronMan Triathlon in the not too distant future.

Jasmin Schneider - Operations Manager

Before graduating with an MA in Translation and Interpreting from the University of Heidelberg Jasmin spent 9 months in Belgium and worked as a translator in Lisbon. With the degree in her pocket she moved to Frankfurt and earned her first serious work experience as a Project Manager for a large translation agency where she stayed for several years before jumping at the opportunity to switch to their branch in Paris. Finally, Jasmin decided that it was time to brush up her neglected English a bit and therefore moved to the UK where she joined The Translation People in 2005 as an Account Manager before being promoted to Branch Manager in 2007 and Operations Manager in 2010. Although the original plan was to move back to Paris after a year or two, she is now too much in love with the British countryside to actually consider leaving!

Eric Van Looy - Account Manager

After he graduated with a Masters degree in Translation from Lessius College in Antwerp, Eric moved to the United Kingdom to join a well-known toy company in Slough. A brief stay at a multimedia software company followed, but an opportunity to join translation company Alden Translations in Oxfordshire marked the beginning of Eric's career in the translation industry. The company, however, entered administration in December 2008. Luckily, the assets of Alden Translations were recovered by The Translation people and Eric was chosen to follow up the business at the company's Uxbridge office. Eric speaks Dutch, French, Italian and English.

He is a talented table tennis player and represents Berkshire at the sport. Further hobbies include korfball - a Dutch variant on basketball and netball - reading and going to the cinema.

Alan White - Business Development Manager

After graduating from the University of the West of England in 1995, Alan spent a number of years working abroad in France and Spain, latterly as a translator for a Barcelona based translation agency. On returning to the UK, Alan first worked as a freelance translator before joining The Translation People (or Roevin as it was then) in 2001. As the Manchester branch was the most recent office to open and started from very humble beginnings, Alan has dealt with the majority of the Manchester office's clients at one point or another.

In his spare time, Alan plays 6 a side football on a regular basis and golf when he can, as well as looking after his 6 year old son (whose football team he also coaches), playing guitar and taking a keen interest in photography and cookery!

Dave Williams - Production Specialist

Dave is a long standing member of the company, he joined in 1996 to assist in a large project converting hard copy multi-language manuals into electronic format at the start of the electronic media and World Wide Web boom. As a Production Specialist working with multi-language documents, new software, procedures and especially translation tools, which have flourished in this particular market, he has a broad experience of the translation production industry. Dave's experience gives him a cost effective and efficient advantage to completing multi-language typesetting. He is analytical and has an eye for detail which is advantageous with some uncommon languages where font problems or incompatibility can arise. Dave enjoys learning new technology and building upon his knowledge.

Natasha Williams - Account Manager

After graduating in 2005 with a degree in German Studies and having a year spent studying literature and linguistics in Vienna, Natasha returned to Austria to work for a leading German holiday company located in Tyrol, where she spent every minute out of the office on skis. Leaving the mountains behind her, she then spent six months backpacking in South America before returning to academia and completing a postgraduate course in translation. Natasha took advantage of a work placement offered by The Translation People as part of the course and enjoyed it so much that she joined the team on a full-time basis in 2008.

She is currently working on her MA dissertation on translation technology in her spare time.