Michael Sank, Vice President of Corporate Strategy of TransPerfect / Translations.com, joined the company as a salesperson in 1997 when he opened TransPerfect's Los Angeles office. He subsequently led the company's international expansion as Vice President of International Operations, during which time he lived in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Brussels, and Hong Kong. In this role, in addition to managing sales and project management staff, he oversaw fulfillment of legal, accounting, and banking requirements in the respective countries. Now relocated back to the US, in his current role he manages M&A — including the company's mergers with Crimson, ArchiText, and iSP — as well as partnerships, and other strategic ventures.

Dear GALA Members,

This month marks my tenth anniversary in the localization industry. While this may be a shorter time than many of you have been in the business, personally I am struck by the extent to which awareness of our industry has grown over the past decade, and I wonder how much higher, and different, a profile our industry will have two years, five years, and ten years from now.

GALA, as the localization industry's leading association, is perhaps the most effective medium through which we can work to raise and shape this profile.

We can and should continue to gain more exposure in the press and in academia through active PR and cooperation with universities to help develop practical language-related curricula, as well as more exposure throughout the business community through such activities as cross-industry promotion. We can and should continue to ensure that our services occupy a more prominent place in the minds of all who may write about, invest in, buy from, or wish to work in our industry.

Internally, we at GALA should continue to reach out to organizations such as Localization World, ALC, and (I know this may be controversial for some) LISA to — at the very least — try to coordinate our activities and events a bit more, as I believe this will only help to enhance our external profile.

To be able to contribute my efforts toward achieving our goals at the level of GALA Board member would be an honor and a responsibility that I would fulfill with great pride and diligence. Having been in the industry for ten years and having managed sales, operations, and strategic development, as well as having lived and worked in a number of countries, I hope that I am able to bring to all activities the perspective of a varied background, and the spirit of inclusion that GALA has exhibited so effectively in its relatively short history.

I respectfully submit my candidacy for GALA Board member. Please contact me any time at msank@translations.com if you have any questions, or indeed any suggestions as to what you think I can do to better serve GALA, if elected.

Thank you,

Michael