Who We Are
Company Background
Translation Agency Applied Language Solutions was founded in 2003 by Gavin Wheeldon (pictured right) who ran the business from his spare bedroom doing everything himself; sales, programming, project management, and even the general administration.
As the customer numbers began to increase it was clear that he needed more people to carry out the work, so in 2004 Gavin began to recruit an operations team in the UK. With the team in place the company was able to focus on obtaining key accreditations such as ISO9001, ISO14001, ISO18001, DIN and Investors in People, all of which helped move the company and its service standards to a new level.
As a result of impressive sales growth the office was soon filled with talented and enthusiastic staff, but to achieve steady international growth and provide a truly 24/7 service it was clear that the business needed to expand overseas. Offices were opened in the US, Bulgaria, India, Guatemala, France, Spain and Germany.
To help our translators and to ensure excellent project management from any Applied Language Solutions location, we designed and launched Talkbase.net. This dedicated web portal provides staff and customers with a secure way to keep track of the projects they are working on and, just as importantly, ensure that costs are accurately recorded, and our translators are paid on time.
A huge part of the company’s success is down to the 17,500 highly qualified translators we have based around the world.
The global growth of Applied Language Solutions, both in terms of an international customer base and employees around the world, was recognised in April 2010 with a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise. In the same year we also secured investment of £1.4million to fund our international expansion further.
This investment enabled the company to invest heavily in research, development and design of customized machine translation technology. A team was recruited from Dublin City University led by Professor Andy Way and the team has built solutions for some of the biggest brands in the world. In mid 2011 ALS launched the first version of SmartMATE, its self-serve machine translation solution.
The latest chapter of the ALS story was completed in December 2011, when the company was acquired by Capita Group Plc. ALS will continue to operate as a stand-alone Company within the Capita group, representing a new service offering for the corporation.
The hard work recognised
All the hard work from the team across all of our offices has been recognised times and time again. Since late 2005 the company has been awarded:
- The National Winner of the HSBC Startup Stars Award
- Exporter of the year from UKTI
- Credit Suisse ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ for the North East of England and with the Institute of Directors
- The website is an official Honoree in the Webby Awards
- Small to medium Business of the year with the National Business Awards
- Six awards from the British chambers of Commerce including Customer Service
- North West Business Insider 42 under 42
- Sunday Times Fast Track 100 – in 2009 and 2010
- Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2010: International Trade
The Expansion Continues
The company today employs 186 members of staff worldwide, provides language solutions to customers in over 90 countries, in at least 150 different languages – and all of it…with a smile!
The work doesn’t stop there. We have even more plans in the pipeline for expansion into Australasia and South America through a combination of owned offices and sales agents.
This will ensure that Applied Language Solutions will remain well placed to provide accurate, high-quality language solutions, regardless of your global location, time zone or language.
Applied Language Solutions was registered in the UK on 07 May 2004.
Company registration number: UK 5122429
Company Management
Gavin WheeldonChief Executive
Kenny HoldenHead of Technology
Richard StangroomSales Director
Stuart UmplebyCommercial Services Director
Simon PatrickSales Director
Anna SimpkinsHead of Marketing & PR
James StangroomService Director – Interpreting
Sarah WilsonHead of Operations
Diane PeartHead of Service Delivery
Andy WayDirector of Language Technology
Ryan ColoskyDirector of Sales – Americas |
People by departmentsWe’re not a faceless translation Agency. It’s nice to see who you’re talking to and maybe know a little bit more about them. |
UK staff
Manchester Head Office
The Applied Language Solutions UK head office moved to our current Oldham base in August 2008, relocating over the Pennine hills from Huddersfield to Greater Manchester. Situated in the picturesque village of Delph in the Saddleworth Hills the head office provides translation services in Manchester as well as covering the whole of the UK.
The head office is within easy reach of the national motorway network, only 5 miles from junction 21 of the M62, 5 miles from Oldham and 12 miles from Manchester city centre.
The Oldham office is also home to the UK staff including our Senior Management, Sales and Marketing and Service Delivery teams.
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Gavin WheeldonChief Executive
Jenny LynchExecutive Assistant SmartMate Sales Director
Richard StangroomSales Director Strategic Service Delivery
Stuart UmplebyCommercial Services Director
Mark UnittService Solutions Architect
Laura MurraySenior Content Analyst
Tom ShawService Delivery Manager
Lisa JacksonCommercial Services – Operations Manager
Mark BufferyService Solutions Architect
Katie LeakeService Delivery Manager
Clare PeartreeSenior Project Manager
Carmen SarmientoProject Manager
Jenni WeechProject Manager Finance
Rob HowardFinancial Controller
Alison DeanPurchase Ledger Controller
Gregoria GonzalezCredit Manager
Adam MajeedAssistant Accountant
Magnus HadleyAssistant Accountant Sales
Simon PatrickSales Director
Ben RainforthStrategic Account Director
Steve HigginsSales Manager
Steve MauleStrategic Account Manager
David WebbStrategic Account Director
Wendy SmithSenior Business Development Manager
Saqib MansoorBusiness Development Manager
Kris SmithStrategic Account Director
Daniel LawrenceBusiness Development Manager
Roy TellBusiness Development Manager Direct Dial : +44 (0) 844 854 8943
HR
Sarah WilsonHead of Operations
Grace ChattenStaff Champion Service Delivery
Diane PeartHead of Service Delivery
Patrick GardinerService Delivery Manager
Anna ChmielewskaProject Manager
Chiara RaimondoProject Manager
Lucia FuscoSenior Project Manager
Bonnie WatsonProject Manager
Alice TongeLinguist Relations Executive Interpreting
Karl JohnsonOperations Director – Interpreting
James StangroomHead of Service Delivery – Interpreting
Nick WeirSenior Service Delivery Manager
Laurie PhetheanService Delivery Interpreting Manager
Suzanne WhartonService Delivery Manager
Matthew GilmartinLinguist Relationship Executive
Kimberley SugdenSenior Service Delivery Coordinator
Bradley Wooding-TaylorService Delivery Coordinator
Ashley StandringService Delivery Coordinator
Halema KhanService Delivery Coordinator
Mohammed BasidService Delivery Coordinator
Nick CuffProject Manager
Liz PattersonCustomer Service Representative
Halima BegumCustomer Service Representative
Matine IftkharCustomer Service Representative
Jason DaviesCustomer Service Representative Relationship Managers
Nicola HunterRelationship Manager (Midlands)
Neal KellySouthern Area Relationship Manager Technology
Kenny HoldenHead of Technology
Lee BallInfrastructure Manager
Mark Hartigan-DaviesDevelopment Manager
Karl EvansOpen Source Developer
Karthik YegappanOpen Source Developer Language Technology
Andy WayDirector of Language Technology
Sergio PenkaleLanguage Technology Specialist
Jie JiangLanguage Technology Specialist Marketing
Anna SimpkinsHead of Marketing & PR
Emma BertoucheOnline Marketing Executive
Anthony WalkerMarketing Executive
Jessica FleetTenders Manager |
US staff
Chicago Office
Our Chicago office is home to the Mid-West team who provide Interpreting and translation services in Chicago and surrounding areas. The Mid-West team also look after customers across the whole of the Central time zone.
Los Angeles Office
Our West Coast office is based in La Habra, in the North West corner of Orange County, California. The Applied Language West Coast Sales Team provide Interpreters and Translators in Los Angeles as well as the entire West Coast, Pacific and Mountain Time Zones.
Service Delivery
Martha EscobarU.S Operations Manager
Andrea EscobarProject Manager Sales
Ryan ColoskyAmerican Sales Director
Lauren NemecBusiness Development Manager
Rich KurnickBusiness Development Manager |
Bulgarian staff
Sofia Office
Our Sofia office is situated in the very heart of the Bulgarian capital, five minutes walk from the main high street and within walking distance from virtually everywhere worth visiting in Sofia.
We are located on Tri Ushi Street which translated means “three ears” in Bulgarian and named after a hill near Sofia, where a historical battle once took place.
Sofia is home to our in-house software development team and a large team of translation project managers.
HR
Kremena ZhelevaOffice Assistant Technology
Yonka SapundzhievaSenior Software Developer
George Ivanov UshmanovSystem Administrator Team Leader
Iliya TonkovSoftware Developer
Ivan PetrovSoftware Developer Service Delivery
Michaela MichailovaProject Account Manager
Kami MilchevaService Delivery Manager
Georgi PetrovTechnical File Engineer
Georgi KotsevProject Manager
Lyubima KovachevaProject Manager Finance
Gergana NaydenovaCredit Controller Strategic Service Delivery
Maria AngelovaProject Support Assistant
Katya PopovaProject Manager
Diana VladimirovaProject Manager
Niya MateevaProject Support Assistant |
Indian staff
Chennai Office
Applied Language Solutions India is located in the coastal city of Chennai in India’s southernmost state Tamil Nadu. Formerly known as Madras, Chennai is the fourth largest city in India with an estimated population of around 8 million.
The Chennai office provides sales and project support to out US and UK offices and covers the Asian and Australian time zones.
HR
Severin NoronhaIndian Operations Manager Service Delivery
Sriram RenganathanService Delivery Manager
Rufus CarneiroService Delivery Coordinator
Donford CunninghamService Delivery Coordinator
Aswini BhoopalanService Delivery Coordinator
Mario RosairProject Account Manager
Bruce FenwickProject Account Manager
Lewis PetersProject Manager
Maria SmithProject Manager
Kishore NathProject Account Manager Strategic Service Delivery
Franklin MosesProject Manager
Roshan NairProject Manager Sales
Elizabeth JesudasanEnquiry Manager
Joshua MarksEnquiry Manager
Ayoub AdurSales Administrator
Sandrene DaughertyEnquiry Manager
Pramodh DavidEnquiry Manager Interpreting
Linda LawrenceInterpreting Project Administrator
Nichole BradfordInterpreting Project Administrator
Jessica JonesInterpreting Project Administrator
Karthik GopinathInterpreting Project Administrator
Natalia NicholasSenior Interpreting Project Administrator
Roselin CharlesInterpreting Project Administrator
Chandran JohnmaniInterpreting Projects Assistant Finance
Ankur RasiwasCredit Controller Language Technology
Rejwanul HaquePost-Doctoral Researcher Information Technology
Lejo JosephSystem Administrator
Vidya SaharSystem Administrator |
Our Translators
Working with a database of over 17,500 translators covering every industry, we’ll align translators to your specific technical requirements, who are subject matter experts in their field, whether it’s manufacturing, legal or marketing. As one of the world’s fastest growing translation agencies we receive applications from translators all over the world each week, who want to work with our customers. Each one is fully vetted and reference-checked before we assign any projects to them.
As a bare minimum all linguists must:
- Be a fully qualified translator with the appropriate qualifications (such as, IOL, ATA, ITI) and/or a degree in their target language which we verify
- Have a minimum of three years verifiable experience as a professional linguist
- Be a member of the relevant in country translation body
- Translate only into their mother tongue and be in-country (unless second generation translation is required)
- Be appropriately qualified in a specific technical area, for example IT/Telecoms, media or gaming services, with three years experience
- Have a minimum of two references from previous projects
We will always use translators who live in-country as language is an evolving entity and therefore any translator who has been out of the country for a reasonable length of time will be unsuitable to translate material for that target audience. The exception to this rule is where the material is aimed at communities living outside of that country. In these circumstances a translator from the target country will be used wherever possible.
Work with us
If you would like to become one of our translators, please send your CV to suppliersALS@appliedlanguage.com and a member of our team will be in touch to talk to you about full time or freelance opportunities.
Translators

Eva Gea Ferrer
In House translator

Sabine Tessier
In House translator
Direct Dial : +44 (0)870 172 0000

Denise Grossman
In House translator
Direct Dial : +44 (0)870 225 0277









































































































