Past Localization Program Presenters

Workshop Presenters

Suneeta Aggarwal

Suneeta Aggarwal is the Director of Technical Publications and Localization at TIBCO Software. She has been in the field of technical writing for eighteen years and localization for the last six years. Suneeta has undergraduate degrees in business management and computer science and worked as a software engineer before actively seeking a career in technical writing. Suneeta manages a global team of writers distributed across the globe including locations in India and China.

Elham Attarpour

Elham Attarpour Elham Attarpour is the Operations Manager of the Language Technology Center INC.(LTC), in Washington DC. As a business development specialist, Elham has expertise in technologies, processes and workflows in the language industry and consults companies on process automation and optimization. She is a certified ISO Auditor (Loyds Registry Quality Assurance) and has a Master's degree in Translation from the University of Saarbruecken, Germany. Elham has worked as a freelance translator as well as a court translator, interpreter and language instructor before working as a project manager in one of the industry's leading companies for several years.

Dr. Boris Bartikowski

Boris BartikowskiDr. Boris Bartikowski is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Euromed Marseille Ecole de Management since 2003. He holds a doctoral degree from the I.A.E. d'Aix-en-Provence in France and the University of Augsburg in Germany. He is a Visiting Professor at the Kansai University Osaka/Japan. Dr. Boris Bartikowski is a Program Advisory Board Member of the Localization Certification Program and has helped implement the Program in Europe. His industry and consultancy experience includes internet services, financial services, marketing research services and marketing planning. His research is related to consumer behavior in cross-cultural settings, with focus on (a) effects of cultural adaptation of website design and (b) the issue of cross-cultural equivalence of marketing studies and measures. His articles have appeared in a variety of international marketing journals and conferences.

Dain Bedford

Dain BedfordDain Bedford is the Sales and Training Executive at The Language Technology Centre (LTC) in Kingston-upon-Thames, England. He recently joined LTC after several years' experience as a trainer in hardware and software products for a large IT company.

 

 

Kathleen Bostick

Kathleen BostickKathleen Bostick is the VP of Global Business at Lionbridge. With more than thirteen years' experience in the multilingual services, Kathleen was Vice President of North America for SDL International for 9 years prior to joining Lionbridge in 2005. Often instrumental in helping companies accelerate time-to-market and increase global market share, Kathleen has expertise in a range of vertical markets, including IT, Life Sciences, consumer, e-commerce, education and government.

 

M. Katherine (Kit) Brown

Kit BrownM. Katherine (Kit) Brown is an award-winning writer and consultant with a background in the life sciences and 16+ years of experience in the technical communication field. She is currently the Principal for Comgenesis, LLC, which provides consulting services and training to clients on internationalizing and improving the usability of their documentation, developing a coherent documentation strategy and content model, as well as more traditional technical writing and editing services.

During her career, Kit has worked with technical experts to successfully develop information and training materials for a variety of audiences, ranging from government agencies to technicians, physicians, and software end-users. Kit holds a Master of Science degree in Technical Communication and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology, both from Colorado State University.

In addition to writing and editing web content, manuals, online help, and technical information sheets, Kit has designed the functionality and interface for internal software tools, has designed and developed intranet web sites, has designed and conducted several surveys, and has developed usability tests.

Kit is an Associate Fellow for the Society for Technical Communication (STC), has spoken about various technical communication topics at many conferences in the United States and internationally. She recently coauthored (with Brenda Huettner and Char James-Tanny) Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools. In addition, she is the editor of IEEE-PCS News and a frequent contributor to Multilingual.

Daniel Carter

Daniel CarterAfter earning his undergraduate degree in Computer Science in 1983, Daniel worked as a Systems Engineer, QA Testing Manager, Localization Group Manager, and helped establish and support Microsoft's European Offices in the UK, Benelux and Scandinavia. He studied for his MBA at the University of Washington in Seattle. Daniel founded a software localization company, International Software Products (iSP), in 1989 and was CEO until 2001. Since 2001 he has been active in the formation of a number of new companies. He is currently an advisor and consultant, often involved in facilitating mergers between translation and localization companies. And he is an active investor in translation and technology companies.

Daniel was one of the founding Board members of the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) and serves on the Advisory Board for the California State University Localization Certification Program. He has been a guest speaker covering a range of industry topics and published numerous articles. In 1992, as part of the Macintosh Inside Out series, he published one of the first books on localization: Writing Localizable Software for the Apple Macintosh .

Karen Combe

As Vice President of Localization at PTC, the Karen Combeproduct development company, Karen is responsible for product localization support for Global Services, Technical Support, and Marketing. She was previously the president of Combe Consulting, LLC, offering consulting services in the fields of internationalization and localization.

Prior to establishing her consulting practice, Karen worked for nearly ten years for one of the foremost localization companies in the field, International Language Engineering, Inc. While at ILE , she led the development of each of the company's production departments during its years of intensive growth from 12 people to a staff of over 125. As Senior Vice President, she managed both the Client Services and Sales and Marketing departments, and served on the Executive Committee.

Karen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Linguistics from the University of California at Berkeley and a post-graduate degree in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University. She spent two years in the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa, and two years with International Voluntary Services in Algeria.

Other work experience includes 2 years in the financial services industry and 8 years working as a cowboy on a ranch in northwestern Colorado.

 

Muntsa Cuchi-Robinson

Munsta Cuchi-RobinsonMuntsa Cuchí-Robinson has 16 years experience in the translation and interpreting industry. A qualified translator and interpreter, she developed her professional career in the U.K., where she founded the translation and interpreting department at Birmingham City Hall, and managed it for eight years. She then worked at Comtec Translations a translation company based in the UK's West Midlands. Muntsa collaborated with the British Olympics Association, organising international events and during the 1992 Olympic Games was the official interpreter for the Princess Royal. She returned to Spain in 2003 to join STAR group's Barcelona office as Production Director. Muntsa began work for CPSL in 2005 as Director of CPSL Events and CPSL Consultancy as well as Director of Spanish Sales Dept. for Language Solutions.

Donald A. DePalma

Donald DePalmaDonald A. DePalma is the president and founder of Common Sense Advisory, Inc., is an industry analyst, author and corporate strategist with expertise in the business-and marketing-focused application of technology. His practical approach to global business issues, as laid out in his book Business Without Borders: A Strategic Guide to Global Marketing, set the stage for Common Sense Advisory, a research and consulting firm committed to improving the quality of international business and the efficiency of the online and offline operations that support it.

 

Bob Donaldson

Bob DonaldsonBob Donaldson is the VP of Strategy at McElroy Translation.  He has over 25 years of executive experience in software development, international business development, project management and technology strategy consulting.  One of his specialties has been "Project Rescue Operations" … turning around "problem projects" that are late, over budget and off course, which has given him broad exposure to the many ways in which projects can fail.  An academic background in Slavic Linguistics and early career work as a Russian translator give him insights into technology challenges arising in the language services environment.

Bastian Enners

Bastian Enners is the Director of Marketing and Sales at Plunet Berlin. Enners has a degree in Business Management from the University of Würzburg, Germany. He has more than 10 years experience in successful enterprise software marketing and consults companies on process automation and optimization. Enners gives regularly lectures at the Humboldt University Berlin – Germany and is also a well-known guest lecturer at the Universities of Cologne and Flensburg, Germany. 

Bert Esselink

Bert EsselinkBert Esselink has been active in multilingual publishing and localization projects for more than 15 years. He worked for several years as a localization specialist for International Software Products and ALPNET. His book, A Practical Guide to Localization , was published in 2000 and is used widely throughout the localization industry. The same year he joined Lionbridge as Global Engagement Consultant and today still works in Amsterdam for Lionbridge as Account Manager.

 

Tracey Feick

Tracey FeickTracey Feick is the Vice President of Operations, Americas at Lionbridge. With more than eighteen years' experience in localization, Tracey currently manages Lionbridge's client services and production organization in North and South America. In this role, she focuses on her passion for customer satisfaction, change management and team building, and expertise in working within global organizations. Prior to joining Lionbridge, Tracey held a variety of positions within the localization industry. Most recently she served as Managing Director for Bowne Translation Services, where she led sales, operations and finance. Before entering the localization field, Tracey lived and worked in Taipei , Taiwan for five years. She has a degree in Asian Studies and is fluent in Chinese.

 

 

Hans Fenstermacher

Han Fenstermacher is the President and Founder of ArchiText, a division of language service provider Translations.com (part of the TransPerfect Global Group). ArchiText provides comprehensive translation, localization, and content globalization services to Global 2000 companies. Born in Germany, Hans speaks six languages fluently and holds degrees from Princeton University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

His 25-year career in the language and writing industries led him to create ArchiText's ABREVE® process (patent pending), a proprietary English content globalization system. Hans is an Associate Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication, as well as past president of the STC Boston Chapter. In 2002 Hans co-founded the Globalization And Localization Association (GALA) and served as its first Chairman until 2006. Hans now serves as the Chairman of the GALA Advisory Council.

Linda Gaus

Linda L. Gaus, the proprietor of MadDocs LLC, has a Ph.D. in German from the University of California-Berkeley and over 15 years' German-English translation experience. Over the years she has taught many different subjects, from German language to general humanities courses to computer courses, and she has taught herself four different CAT tools from scratch. In her current incarnation as a freelance translator, her specialties are technical and marketing translations, but she greatly enjoys breaking things up a bit by translating other kinds of texts (touristic materials, historic documents, and whatever else comes her way) when she can.

Martin A. Guttinger

Martin A. GuttingerMartin A. Guttinger has been Manager of Translation and Localization for Cisco System's Unified Communications Business Unit for the past five years. Prior to that, he was Globalization Manager for Active Voice Corporation. In his current role, he's responsible for the localization of several of Cisco's Enterprise Voice and Unified Communication applications.

 

Maria Kania-Tasak

Maria Kania-TasakMaria Kania-Tasak has over 7 years of experience in the translation industry in sales. She obtained a degree in Humanities from University of Waterloo, Canada, with Honours in Business English with specialization in Rhetoric and Professional Writing. She started her professional career as a technical writer for companies such as Marconi (telecommunications) and Discreet Logic (special effects software), both based in Montreal, Canada. In 2000 she moved to Krakow, Poland where she managed the Sales & Marketing Department for a fast-growing translation company - Argos Company Ltd. She joined CPSL in 2005 as Sales Director for the international market.

Carsten A. Kneip

Carsten KneipCarsten A. Kneip, PMP, is an International Release Program Manager at Microsoft.  Carsten is part of Microsoft's Developer Division and is currently driving the Localization of the next version of Visual Studio and all of its components. He holds a Master's Degree in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science and received a Certification in Project Management from the University of Washington prior to successfully earning his PMP designation in February 2005.  He has also presented at several Localization World events and served on the Localization World Board. He is a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and actively participates in local chapter events.

Debbie Lambert

Debbie LambertDebbie Lambert is a program manager for Hewlett Packard's (HP) Translation and Localization (T&L) team. She is currently involved in the testing and analysis of a new Translation Management System. She has 26+ years experience at HP and has spent the past few years working extensively with various content management systems, translation and localization and vendor management.

Inger Larsen

Inger LarsenInger Larsen is the founder of Larsen Globalisation recruitment, which has provided recruitment services to the localization industry worldwide since 2000, with offices in London, Dublin, Paris, Stockholm, and Boston. Before this, Inger worked internationally in localisation for 15 years on both the production and sales side, for IBM, Microsoft and Xerox. She is also pursuing a degree in Human Resource Management, with special emphasis on selection methods and international HRM.

 

Rosilene Martins

Rosilene MartinsRosilene Martins is a senior globalization program manager at Yahoo!. She drives strategic initiatives to support localization and internationalization best practices and standards compliance. Rosilene spearheaded the qualification and selection of Yahoo!'s preferred suppliers of localization services, and is the point person for localization vendor management in the organization. Rosilene holds a Master's degree in Computer Science with emphasis in Compiler Design, and has over 10 years of experience in Internet product management and globalization. Prior to Yahoo!, Rosilene held International product and program management positions at Palm, AOL and Netscape.

Patricia McKenna

Patricia McKennaPatricia McKenna completed a BSc. in Applied Computational Linguistics at Dublin City University. She worked for several years for Localization Service Providers where she specialised in the area of applying Computer Aided Translation tools to the localisation process. She has held the position of QA Manager in Alchemy Software for the past six years and provides training, support and consultancy services to users (PMs, Engineers, Translators) of Alchemy Catalyst as part of this role.

Nic McMahon

Nic McMahon is the VP GM US for Jonckers and was previously the VP Global Solutions for SDL. In his 11 years in the industry, Nic has had the fortune to be involved in many of the major acquisitions and technology developments that have helped to shape the overall industry.

 

Gary Muddyman

Gary Muddyman is Managing Director and CEO of Conversis . Established in 2003, Conversis is a U.K.-based leading provider of Globalization, Internationalization, Localization and Translation (GILT) services. Muddyman, together with a team that brings more than 60 years to the Globalization, Internationalization, Localization and Translation market, founded Conversis with the idea of advancing the understanding and use of localization and translation as a strategic business tool. As managing director and CEO, Muddyman leads the company's strategic business development. Conversis is now one of the world's fastest growing GILT businesses. Prior to joining Conversis , Muddyman served as director of operations for K International Plc. In this position, he was responsible for all the development and implementation of business strategies, which included positioning K International within the top ten foreign language services companies in the United Kingdom . Earlier, Muddyman spent 16 years working for London-based HSBC Asset Finance U.K. Ltd., one of the largest banking and financial services organizations in the world. During his tenure there he led various product, commercial and business development divisions. In particular, he helped create the Metropolitan Collection Services, the debt management arm of HSBC.

Muddyman received his master's degree in business administration from Warwick University .

Andre Pellet

André Pellet has been in the translation and localization industry for over 20 years, having served as President of a mid-sized translation company - M2 Enterprises/M2 Limited, and then as Vice President at Welocalize - a leading mid-sized LSP. He has an engineering degree with a specialization in computer science, and has been active with the American Translators Association and its Washington chapter, NCATA, ALC, GALA, Localization World, and Multilingual Computing leading discussions on M&A and technology within the language industry.

He currently is the COO at ProZ.com, leading the development of the industry's workplace.

Klaus-Dirk Schmitz

Klaus-Dirk Schmitz is Full Professor of Terminology Studies at Cologne University of Applied Sciences in Germany. His teaching and research activities focus on terminology theory and terminology management as wells as on software localization and computer tools for translators. Numerous articles and books where he acts as author, co-author and editor show his excellent expertise in these fields. Prof. Schmitz has also taken a leadership role in national and international forums e.g. as president of the International Information Centre for Terminology (Infoterm), Vice-President of the Germen Terminology Society (DTT), and chairman of the German Standards Committee on Computer Applications in Terminology.

Richard Sikes

Richard SikesRichard Sikes has been immersed in localization since 1989, having held senior localization management positions at several industry-leading software publishers. He now works as a freelance globalization management consultant and trainer. As well as his ongoing association with The Localization Institute, Richard is a Certified PASSOLO Trainer, a Localization Technology Evangelist for across Systems and was, until recently, Director of Sales and Marketing for KCSL Inc., a web search and localization technology provider.

Richard holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of California, Irvine, Diplom Betriebswirt (FH) from the Volkshochschule Heidelberg, and an MBA from the University of Toronto. He has presented frequently on a wide variety of topics at Localization World conferences and the Gilbane Conference, and his articles appear with regularity in MultiLingual magazine.

Leif Sonstenes

Leif SonstenesLeif Sonstenes has been active in global business for more than twenty-five years in Europe and North America as a software developer, trainer, translator, interpreter, editor, author, consultant and translation business owner, and as a global account manager for major localization companies. Winner of numerous corporate and customer service awards, he specializes in creating intense learning experiences where participants gain real tools to tackle real issues. His areas of expertise include translatability training, content development and marketing consulting for companies involved in international business. He joined Locatech GmbH as Marketing Manager in January 2007.

Willem Stoeller

Willem StoellerWillem Stoeller, currently is responsible for the enterprise applications and Media & Telecom practices at Welocalize. Since 1974 he has worked full time in IT and the software industry. Since 1992 his sole focus has been in localization and internationalization. He has received certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP) and is a former board member of the Project Management Institute, Silicon Valley Chapter. Willem is a former visiting professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies where he taught software localization for two years. He is a Director of Workshops for the Project Management Institute Portland Chapter and a frequent presenter at Localization World.

Stephane Vinuesa

Stephane VinuesaStephane Vinuesa works at Lionbridge Technologies, Inc as a technical project manager with over 10 years experience in applications development and project management in the Global Technology group. His experience includes financial and information technology services. In his current role, Stephane is leading development teams to design, implement and deliver cost-effective workflow solutions to support the localization business needs. His current focus is on facilitating the deployment of these solutions in a controlled environment to increase operational efficiency, while he is participating in different initiatives and researches on future workflow implementation.

John Yunker

John YunkerFounder of Byte Level Research ( www.bytelevel.com ), John Yunker consults with many of the world's leading multinational companies, providing Web globalization training and benchmarking services. One-third of the Fortune 100 companies are current or past Byte Level clients.

Since 2000, he has authored a number of landmark reports on Web globalization, including The Art of the Global Gateway and The Web Globalization Report Card , now in its 5 th edition

In 2002, John authored the first book devoted to Web globalization, Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies . Widely acclaimed, the book is now used in a number of university and corporate training programs.

John authors the Global by Design blog at www.globalbydesign.com and is a 2008 Fellow of The Society for New Communications Research ( www.sncr.org ). John has a bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and an MS from Boston University.

Angelika Zerfass

Angelika ZerfassAngelika Zerfass holds a degree in translation (Chinese, Japanese and Computational Linguistics) from the University of Bonn, Germany. After her studies she worked for the Japanese Embassy in Bonn and then joined TRADOS Germany in 1997. Until 2000 she was a TRADOS training and support specialist for Microsoft projects in Japan, Ireland and the US. In October 2000 she went freelance and is now working internationally as an independant trainer and consultant on translation tools technology. For the last 6 years she has also been lecturing at the University of Bonn and frequently gives speeches at localization-related conferences.

Daniel Zielinski

Daniel ZielinskiDaniel Zielinski holds a degree in translation (German, Italian, French) from Saarland University, Germany. Today, he works as a lecturer and research assistant for translation and localization technologies at Saarland University. Apart from his university job, he also works as an independent trainer and consultant for translation and localization tools.

 

 

2007 Workshop Presenters

Elham Attarpour

Elham Attarpour Elham Attarpour is the Operations Manager of the Language Technology Center INC. (LTC), in Washington DC. As a business development specialist, Elham has expertise in technologies, processes and workflows in the language industry and consults companies on process automation and optimization. She is a certified ISO Auditor (Loyds Registry Quality Assurance) and has a Master’s degree in Translation from the University of Saarbruecken, Germany, majoring in European and International Law, as well as Localization, Machine Translation and Terminology Management. Elham knows all facets of the language industry, as she worked in the translation and localization business as a freelance translator as well as a court translator, interpreter and language instructor before working as a project manager in one of the industry’s leading companies for several years. Elham is fluent in German, English, French and Farsi and has professional experience in the USA, Germany, France and the UK.

Boris Bartikowski

Boris Bartikowski

Dr. Boris Bartikowski is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Euromed Marseille Ecole de Management since 2003. He holds a doctoral degree from the I.A.E. d’Aix-en-Provence in France and the University of Augsburg in Germany. He is Visiting Professor at the Kansai University Osaka/ Japan. Dr. Boris Bartikowski is Program Advisory Board Member of the Localization Certification Program and has helped implementing the Program in Europe. His industry and consultancy experience includes internet services, financial services, marketing research services and marketing planning. His research is related to consumer behavior in cross-cultural settings, with focus on (a) effects of cultural adaptation of website design and (b) the issue of cross-cultural equivalence of marketing studies and measures. His articles have appeared in a variety of international marketing journals and conferences.

Steve Billings

Steve Billings

Steve Billings is a senior solutions engineer at Idiom Technologies with a dozen years experience in localization-related roles in product development, marketing, and sales. He has been responsible for the globalization of products sold in over 40 countries around the world. In his role at Idiom, Mr. Billings works closely with Idiom's LSP partners to help them utilize Idiom’s technology to increase operational efficiency, increase competitiveness, and offer higher-value solutions to clients.

Kevin Bolen

Kevin Bolen

Mr. Bolen leads the global marketing function responsible for setting market direction, solutions management, competitive positioning, and brand promotion for Lionbridge Technologies, Inc a $420M publicly traded provider of language, content, and off-shore solutions. Mr. Bolen joined Lionbridge in 2005 through the acquisition of Bowne Global Solutions where he had served as the VP of Sales and Marketing since joining in early 2002. Prior to Bowne, he led the marketing function at LexiQuest, Inc. an enterprise software developer after spending six years with IBM Global Services where he held a variety roles spanning consulting, corporate development, and marketing. Mr. Bolen holds a BBA in International Business from Pace University and an MBA in Marketing and Management from NYU.


Kit Brown

Kit BrownM. Katherine (Kit) Brown is an award-winning writer and consultant with a background in the life sciences and 16+ years of experience in the technical communication field. She is currently the Principal for Comgenesis, LLC, which provides consulting services and training to clients on internationalizing and improving the usability of their documentation, developing a coherent documentation strategy and content model, as well as more traditional technical writing and editing services.

During her career, Kit has worked with technical experts to successfully develop information and training materials for a variety of audiences, ranging from government agencies to technicians, physicians, and software end-users. Kit holds a Master of Science degree in Technical Communication and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology, both from Colorado State University.

In addition to writing and editing web content, manuals, online help, and technical information sheets, Kit has designed the functionality and interface for internal software tools, has designed and developed intranet web sites, has designed and conducted several surveys, and has developed usability tests.

Kit is an Associate Fellow for the Society for Technical Communication (STC), has spoken about various technical communication topics at many conferences in the United States and internationally. She recently coauthored (with Brenda Huettner and Char James-Tanny) Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools. In addition, she is the editor of IEEE-PCS News and a frequent contributor to Multilingual.

 

Daniel Carter

Daniel Carter

After earning his undergraduate degree in Computer Science in 1983, Daniel worked as a Systems Engineer, QA Testing Manager, Localization Group Manager, and helped establish and support Microsoft’s European Offices in the UK, Benelux and Scandinavia. He studied for his MBA at the University of Washington in Seattle. Daniel founded a software localization company, International Software Products (iSP), in 1989 and was CEO until 2001. Since 2001 he has been active in the formation of a number of new companies, most recently MedCom (Medical Communication International, www.medcomintl.com). He has over 20 years experience in the translation and localization industry. He is currently an advisor and consultant, often involved in facilitating mergers between translation and localization companies. He is an active investor in translation and technology companies. Daniel was one of the founding Board members of the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) and serves on the Advisory Board for the California State University Localization Certification Program. He has been a guest speaker covering a range of industry topics and published numerous articles. In 1992, as part of the Macintosh Inside Out series, he published one of the first books on localization: Writing Localizable Software for the Apple Macintosh.

Karen Combe

Karen CombeAs Vice President of Localization at PTC, Karen is responsible for product localization as well as localization support for global services, technical support and marketing. During the past five years she has implemented a complete localization solution for PTC, including an internationalization program, development of localization tools for emerging technologies, effective outsourcing partnerships and creation of a globally distributed localization testing team. She manages a localization group of 60 people located in the US, India, China, and Japan.

 


Joseph Dengler

Joseph Dengler is Solutions Director at LinguaNet AG, a globally active language management company based in Austria with offices in Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Poland.

Joseph started his career in 1974, when he joined Interlingua Translations in Vienna as a project manager and translator. His first software localization project dates back to 1984 when he localized the first version of Lotus 1-2-3 and Altos computers manuals.

He participated in the development of PC-based systems for Russian and Arabic typesetting in the early 80’s and integrated distributed localization teams in data net-based environments as early as 1987.

Joseph has designed multiple QA systems (Global Converter, RC tester), productivity tools (QARater, KeyStone, QueryStone) and customer-specific solutions for companies like Sybase, Toshiba TEC, IBM, Damgaard/Navision, and Validio. He is also a lecturer at universities for translation project management courses at the master’s level.

Joseph studied law and social anthropology at the University of Vienna and speaks English, French, German and Italian fluently.

 

Bob Donaldson

Mr. Donaldson is the VP of Strategy at McElroy Translation. He has 25 years of executive experience in software development, project management and technology strategy consulting. One of his specialties has been “Project Rescue Operations” … turning around “problem projects” that are late, over budget and off course. An academic background in Slavic Linguistics and early career work as a Russian translator give him insights into technology challenges arising in the language services environment.


Hans Fenstermacher

Hans is President and founder of ArchiText, a division of language service provider Translations.com (part of the TransPerfect Global Group). ArchiText provides comprehensive translation, localization, and content globalization services to Global 2000 companies. Born in Germany, Hans speaks six languages fluently and holds degrees from Princeton University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

His 25-year career in the language and writing industries led him to create ArchiText's ABREVE® process (patent pending), a proprietary English content globalization system, designed to reduce content volume, enhance content usability, and maximize content efficiency. Hans is an Associate Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication, as well as past president of the Boston Chapter. In 2002 Hans co-founded the Globalization And Localization Association (GALA) and served as its first Chairman.

Michael Goldrich

Michael Goldrich Michael leads the Globalization Operations Program for Starwood Hotels’ web group, Global Web Services. In terms of Globalization, he manages the enhancements and development of the branded consumer websites for Sheraton, Westin, Le Méridien, W Hotels, Four Points by Sheraton, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Aloft, Element and Starwood Preferred Guest. These sites across (all languages) generate over $1.3B in annual revenue. Globalization is an important part of Starwood’s web group. Currently, the branded websites are available in five languages: English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. Michael and his team are planning to launch additional languages in 2007 and 2008.

 

Martin A. Guttinger

Martin A. GuttingerMartin A Guttinger has been Manager of Translation and Localization for Cisco System's Unified Communications Business Unit for the past five years. Prior to that, he was Globalization Manager for Active Voice Corporation. In his current role, he's responsible for the localization of several of Cisco's Enterprise Voice and Unified Communication applications.

Bill Hall

Bill Hall is a relative late-in-life arrival to the computer world. Today, Bill is a globalization consultant and internationalization specialist within consulting services at eTranslate, a web globalization company. Prior to this, Bill was Internationalization Director at SimulTrans, a leading software localization company in Mountain View, California. In previous lives, he was a military and civilian aviator, university professor in mathematics, and an associate editor of Mathematical Reviews. In the latter position, he became interested in small computing machines, and began to develop CP/M software for some of the reviewing tasks that were part of his job.

 


Carsten Kneip

Carsten KneipCarsten A Kneip, PMP, is an International Release Program Manager at Microsoft.  Carsten is part of Microsoft's Developer Division and is currently driving the Localization of the next version of Visual Studio and all of its components.  He holds a Master's Degree in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science and received a Certification in Project Management from the University of Washington prior to successfully earning his PMP designation in February 2005.  He has also presented at several Localization World events and served on the Localization World Board.  He is a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and actively participates in local chapter events.

 

Irene Koppenaal

Irene Koppenaal has been involved in the localization industry since 1986. After graduating with an M.A. in English language and literature from Leiden University in the Netherlands she worked as a translator/journalist for a Dutch quality newspaper before moving on to project management. Before joining WhP in 1997, Irene worked at the International Localization Center of Digital Equipment ISE in the Netherlands and in Sophia Antipolis, France. At WhP she was responsible for major WhP industry partners, as well as training, new procedures and communication. Her background as a project manager both on the supplier and on the provider side in this industry gives her an excellent insight in the various issues all players face. She has a strong interest in terminology management and related services.

Inger Larsen

Inger Larsen

Inger Larsen is the founder and MD of Larsen Globalisation recruitment, which has provided recruitment services to the localization industry worldwide since 2000, with offices in London, Dublin, Paris and Boston. Before this, Inger worked internationally in localisation for 15 years. She started out as a localiser and project manager with IBM in Norway, then taught localisation at Surrey University, went to Dublin and Microsoft to do more project and then programme management, had a career blip at a privately owned company in London, moved into account management and, to her surprise, sales with Xerox GKLS in the UK and loved it, then had another short-lived career blip.

Patricia McKenna

Patricia McKenna

After completing a BSc. In Applied Computational Linguistics in Dublin City University, Patricia worked for several years for Localization Service Providers where she specialised in the area of applying Computer Aided Translation tools to the localisation process. She has held the position of QA Manager in Alchemy Software for the past six years and provides training, support and consultancy services to users (PMs, Engineers, Translators) of Alchemy Catalyst as part of this role.

Nic McMahon

Nic McMahon is the VP GM US for Jonckers and was previously the VP Global Solutions for SDL. In his 11 years in the industry, Nic has had the fortune to be involved in many of the major acquisitions and technology developments that have helped to shape the overall industry.

 

Daniel Nackovski

Daniel NackovskiDaniel Nackovski is a Swedish national. He studied International Business at the University of Kristianstad and attained a master´s degree in Strategic Management from the University of Lund. As National Manager USA of across Systems, he advises companies on the practical application of language technology. He is also responsible for the operative management of the US partner network.



Ultan Ó Broin

Ultan O Broin

Ultan Ó Broin of Oracle Corporation is responsible for development of global content standards for Oracle's E-Business Suite Fusion applications. With Oracle since 1996, his current focus is the global content standardization of database message and embedded help content derived from an XML database environment for deployment in 35 languages. A former member of Oracle Applications Technology Group in Silicon Valley, he now works from home in Dublin, Ireland. Previously he was localization manager with Microsoft’s Windows and Development and Database Tools divisions. Ultan is a member of the Multilingual Computing and Technology Magazine editorial board, contributes regularly to industry magazines and books on localization and internationalization issues, has served on Localization Institute conference and roundtable advisory boards, and tries to find time for his Trinity College Dublin dissertation on social and organizational impacts of information technology.

Darrin Odell

Darrin Odell has been in the recruiting field for the last 10 years, specializing in high tech and international recruiting. For the last 3 years, Darrin has headed up recruiting for Lionbridge in North America and also helps teams in other parts of the world with recruiting strategy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in International Business from Seattle University and lives in Snoqualmie, WA with his wife and two children.

Francois Richard

Francois Richard

François Richard is a Translation and Localization manager at HP, specialized in architecture, internationalization and technical aspects of Translation & Localization tools and processes. After a master in EE and first experiences as software developer, he entered the “Globalization, Internationalization and Localization” space at Xerox, responsible for Machine Translation tool suite and then internationalization architect for printing devices. In HP, he is engaged in the deployment of an Enterprise Translation Memory tool suite and its integrations with other components such as Terminology, Quality Assurance or Content Management Systems.

Leif Sonstenes

Leif Sonstenes

Leif Sonstenes, B Math, has been active in global business for more than twenty-five years in Europe and North America as a software developer, trainer, translator, interpreter, editor, author, consultant and translation business owner, and as a global account manager for major localization companies. Winner of numerous corporate and customer service awards, he specializes in creating intense learning experiences where participants gain real tools to tackle real issues. His areas of expertise include translatability training, content development and marketing consulting for companies involved in international business. He joined Locatech GmbH as Marketing Manager in January 2007.

Timothy Spence

Timothy Spence

Timothy leads Product Development for Starwood Hotels’ web program, Global Web Services. He oversees the development and maintenance of the branded consumer websites for Sheraton, Westin, Le Méridien, W Hotels, Four Points by Sheraton, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Aloft, Element and Starwood Preferred Guest. These sites generate over $1.3B in annual revenue. Timothy is responsible for advance planning, project delivery, globalization, quality assurance and operations. Globalization is an important part of Starwood’s web program. Currently, the branded websites are available in five languages: English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. Timothy and his team are planning to launch additional languages in 2007 and 2008.

Willem Stoeller

Willem StoellerWillem Stoeller has been involved full-time in software localization since 1992. He has been directly or indirectly involved in project management his entire career. Willem's project management "boot camp" consisted of ten years of IT projects through Andersen Consulting followed by senior software development management positions with several US software publishers. He is a certified project management professional and a board member of the Project Management Institute, Silicon Valley Chapter. He teaches localization principles at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Kirsten Sutton

Kirsten Sutton

Kirsten Sutton has worked on both the vendor and the client side of the localization industry for 12+years. Her last 9 years have been spent at Business Objects managing the company’s localization effort. All translations at Business Objects are centralized through Kirsten’s team making her responsible for managing corporate-wide terminology along with all departmental translation needs. Her degrees are in Linguistics and French cooking and she finds that her chef certification often comes in handy at translation department meetings.

Alison Toon

Alison ToonTranslation and Localization Manager, Content and Product Data Management, Global Operations, Hewlett-Packard. Alison Toon has worked for Hewlett-Packard since 1991, originally as a usability engineer and technical author with localization responsibilities. After several years in this role, Alison moved on to creating, designing and introducing services such as web-based distribution of documentation and software to HP's support engineers.

Fred Tuinstra

Fred TuinstraFred Tuinstra is Process Architect at Lionbridge Technologies. He's responsible for evaluation and standardization of the localization processes deployed within the company. His current focus is on developing requirements that allow the implementation of these localization processes in automated workflow systems.




Francis Tsang

As the Director of Globalization at Adobe Systems, Francis Tsang is responsible for anything and everything that is “not English” at Adobe, including products, content, technologies, and related geo expansion strategy.  Francis managed to stay employed in the last 20+ years by creating/solving the same problems many times under different disguises, i.e., customization, “japanization”, internationalization, localization, culturalization, etc.  His education background is in computing and business.

Kirti Vashee

Kirti VasheeVP of Sales and Marketing, directs worldwide marketing and sales strategy for Language Weaver. Vashee has more than 25 years experience in successful enterprise software marketing and product development, including background with small entrepreneurial as well as larger technology companies such as EMC, Dow Jones and Legato. Language Weaver is a pioneer in developing the technology of statistically based automated translation which is widely used today in the National & Homeland Security efforts. LW has developed a variety of text and speech based language translation solutions for mission critical enterprise applications.

Michael Wetzel

Michael Wetzel, masters in German linguistics, French linguistics and computational linguistics, is product manager at SDL International. In 2000, he became the product manager for terminology management, looking after applications such as MultiTerm and MultiTerm Extract. With the corporate merger of SDL and TRADOS in 2005, Michael is now responsible for the SDL Terminology product portfolio.

Angelika Zerfass

Angelika ZerfassAngelika holds a degree in translation (Chinese, Japanese and Computational Linguistics) from the University of Bonn, Germany. After her studies she worked for the Japanese Embassy in Bonn and then joined TRADOS Germany in 1997. Until 2000 she was a TRADOS training and support specialist for Microsoft projects in Japan, Ireland and the US. In October 2000 she went freelance and is now working internationally as an independant trainer and consultant on translation tools technology. For the last 5 years she has also been lecturing at the University of Bonn and frequently gives speeches at localization-related conferences.


2006 Certification Presenters

Suneeta Aggarwal

Suneeta AggarwalSuneeta Aggarwal is the Director of Technical Publications and Localization at TIBCO Software. She has been in the field of technical writing for sixteen years and localization for the last five years. Suneeta has undergraduate degrees in business management and computer science and worked as a software engineer for a couple of years after finishing college but never enjoyed coding very much. As she had always enjoyed writing, she actively sought a career in technical writing as it would keep her close to technology without having to write code. Suneeta manages a team of writers distributed across the globe including locations in India and China.

 

Donald A. DePalma

Donald A. DePalmaDonald A. DePalma, president and founder of Common Sense Advisory, Inc., is an industry analyst, author and corporate strategist with expertise in the business- and marketing-focused application of technology. His practical approach to global business issues, as laid out in his book Business Without Borders: A Strategic Guide to Global Marketing, set the stage for Common Sense Advisory, a research and consulting firm committed to improving the quality of international business and the efficiency of the online and offline operations that support it.

Adam Freed

Adam FreedAdam Freed has been Google's director of international product management since January 2004. Adam manages the teams principally responsible for localization and the development of Google's international products. Some recent highlights of Google's global products are Gmail in 28 languages and AdWords in 41 languages and 58 currencies.


Marek Konecny

Marek KonecnyMr. Konecny works as a Customer Solutions Engineer at Alchemy Software Development. He is responsible for identifying and expanding business opportunities in North America , and also providing Alchemy's clients with online trainings and basic technical support. He gained localization industry experience at Moravia Worldwide starting with test lead position, working as project manager on multilingual projects, business development manager, account manager and finally sales enginner, bridging production and sales.

Richard Sikes

Richard SikesRichard Sikes has been immersed in localization since 1989. He has held positions as Technical Director for Central Europe for Micrografx, Director of International Development for Delrina Corporation, Director of Development Services for MGI Software Corp and, most recently, Director of Globalization for Peregrine Systems where he oversaw localization teams at three company sites and spearheaded company globalization initiatives. Richard also founded the Toronto office of GECAP, which later became part of Bowne Global Solutions.

 

 

Organizing Partners

California State University, Chico, Continuing Education

Gala Logo - The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA)
The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA)

The Localization Institute Logo
The Localization Institute