Meet the 2006 GALA Board

GALA welcomes new board members Christiane Bernier, Matthias Caesar and Stephen Ryan. The GALA Board is composed of five volunteer members who are elected by the GALA membership to serve for two-year terms.

Aki Ito, Chair
Vice President at TOIN Corporation, USA/Japan
A native of Japan, Aki Ito has been involved in the localization industry for ten years in many different aspects of localization activities such as sales management, operations management, project management, Japanese language management and consulting, and translation memory tool management at different companies, including Prisma International, Lionbridge Technologies, and DDS Global Media. Prior to the localization industry, he was an account executive at Dell Computer in the U.S. and Japan, selling personal computers and networking solutions to multinational companies for their worldwide implementations. Aki has an MBA in International Marketing and a BA in International Relations. Aki likes playing basketball and baseball. He had his dream job in 2000 when he was hired as the official Japanese interpreter for the Colorado Rockies Baseball Club, traveling all over the U.S. with major league players. He and his wife Jennifer have three children: Miya (8), Ayana (7), and Jeffrey (4). The family likes to go camping on the beautiful lakes of Minnesota (in the summer, of course).

Arancha Caballero, vice Chair
Co-founder and COO of TSG (Servicios de Traducción GLOTAS), Spain
Arancha Caballero is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of TSG. She is responsible for the overall operations of TSG in both Europe and the United States. Ms. Caballero received her Translation and Interpreting Degree from the University of Granada and her MBA in Strategic Management from the University of Madrid. She started her career as an in-house Spanish translator for ITP (Bray, Ireland), one of the historic names in the localization industry. She is recognized as an authority on Spanish within the industry and is frequently asked to submit presentations and articles on the topic of localization. As TSG continues to grow in size and reach, Ms. Caballero is committed to making sure that all TSG clients continue to receive the personal touch that she is so proud TSG has been able to maintain. Arancha notes, “As a Mediterranean, I like to enjoy good chats with friends and family over a nice meal, but also enjoy traveling and meeting people from other cultures, something that this industry easily allows!”

Christiane Bernier, Treasurer
Country Manager, Lionbridge Technologies, Canada
Christiane Bernier has worked in the localization industry for over 12 years. She has held various Operations Management roles at Lionbridge and previously at Merrill Brink, International Communications, DLC and Prisma International, as well as project management and French language lead roles at Creo International. She has worked at very small boutique-like firms, fast-growing start-ups and larger, maturing public and private companies during periods of industry consolidation, economic growth and market downturns. Christiane is a native of Montreal, Canada and regularly travels to Spain to visit family and friends. Languages are a part of her family life, too, as her husband is a translator, and they are working to raise their 3-year-old daughter trilingual.

Stephen Ryan, Secretary
Marketing Director for Moravia Worldwide, Czech Republic
Stephen has worked in the translation and localization industry since 1995 and has held positions in project management, sales and marketing, and operations management with International Translation and Publishing (ITP) Ltd., ALPNET Inc. and SDL International. He has an engineering degree from Virginia Tech and an MBA from University College Dublin (Ireland). A frequent participant and speaker at industry events, Stephen was a member of the Advisory Board for the Localization World 2005 conference in Bonn, Germany. Stephen is also an avid football (soccer!) fan, and he eagerly follows the English Premier League.

Matthias Caesar
Managing Director, Locatech GmbH
Matthias studied Mathematics and Computer Science at University Dortmund and University College Dublin and joined the localization industry in 1994. In those ten years he has been acting as a tools and process trainer, project manager and since 1999 Managing Director of Locatech GmbH in Germany. Additional mandates include the position as a board member and General Manager of LCJ EEIG, a group of four localization companies in Europe which, according to Common Sense Advisory, ranks as the 12th largest LSP world-wide. Locatech is a founding member of LCJ (founded in 1999). He has also served as a board member of TILP (The Institute of Localisation Professionals, Dublin) and as Deputy President and International Officer of JCI Dortmund (Junior Chamber International) between 2000 and 2004. Matthias likes spending his spare time traveling to nice hideaways with his wife and working out at their local sports club.