ABOUT US
Producing the highest quality translations for over 40 years
Founded in 1979, GLS provides premium translations and interpreting services for clients throughout the United States and Europe from our offices in Seattle and Cologne. Having offices on two continents means that we can help clients on their time, while also being able to extend our working day nearly around the clock. Over the years, we have honed our translation expertise in a wide range of industries and areas, including life sciences and pharmaceuticals, corporate communications, manufacturing, and more.
We have built our reputation on our commitment to quality and on our accurate, well-written translations. Our boutique, specialized service sets us apart from other multilingual agencies, and allows us to offer the highest quality translations in almost any subject matter. With our in-house teams in Seattle and Cologne, we can personally guarantee the quality of each translation we handle. GLS is certified to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 17100:2015.
Meet Our Team
U.S. TEAM
Senior LANGUAGE SPECIALIST | production lead DE>EN
mandy@germanlanguageservices.com
Mandy came to GLS in 2010 after completing her certificate in German to English translation from the Translation and Interpretation Institute at Bellevue College. Originally from Wyoming, Mandy attended Pacific Lutheran University and earned her bachelor’s degree in German, Anthropology and Publishing & Printing Arts. She spent her junior year abroad in Freiburg, Germany and taught English in Salzburg, Austria for two years as part of the Fulbright program. Mandy has been a certified member of the American Translators Association (ATA) since 2014 and served as a grader for the ATA German to English certification exam. She has over 10 years of experience translating texts for the life sciences industry and was the 2017 recipient of Gutekunst Prize of the Friends of Goethe New York.
TERMINOLOGIST | production lead EN>DE
karolin@germanlanguageservices.com
Karolin grew up outside of Berlin. She earned a BA in International Technical Translation from the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences. She spent a year abroad in France and later an Erasmus year at the University of Chester (UK). After graduation, she did two internships at GLS in Seattle, totaling eighteen months, before joining GLS as a terminologist in the Cologne office while she completed her MA in Terminology and Language Technology from the TH Köln. She relocated permanently to Seattle in 2018. Karolin’s expertise extends beyond terminology to include project management, translation and editing technical documents.
LANGUAGE SPECIALIST
mary@germanlanguageservices.com
Mary was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and attended the University of Washington in Seattle, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Spanish, with additional coursework in German. She participated in a semester-long independent study at the University of Tübingen, and went on to complete her master’s degree in translation studies at Heidelberg University in 2018. After returning to Seattle, Mary joined GLS in the spring of 2019 as an intern before starting as a full-time translator.
IT and Translation Tools Consultant
jamie@germanlanguageservices.com
Jamie is a translation tools expert who started out as a French to English translator. After receiving his master’s degree in translation from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in 2001, he worked as an in-house translator and translation tools administrator in Quebec City, Canada. He has served as GLS’s IT and translation tool specialist since 2006.
Europe Team
Senior Language Specialist
richard@germanlanguageservices.com
Richard grew up in England and studied German, French, and Swedish at the University of Sheffield. After completing an MA in Interpreting and Translating at the University of Bradford and a six-month internship at the European Parliament in Luxembourg, he began his first job as an in-house translator at an agency in Cologne in 1995. With many years’ experience as an in-house translator and project manager in both the pharmaceutical (Boehringer Ingelheim) and legal sectors (Linklaters, Noerr), Richard is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists. He joined GLS in 2015 and is based in the Cologne office.
Project Manager | Editor
agathe@germanlanguageservices.com
Agathe was born in Poland and raised in Cologne, where she completed a BA in English and Slavic Studies at the University of Cologne. She then studied conference interpreting in the department of Translation, Language, and Culture at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, earning an MA, which she put to use as a freelance translator and interpreter in Essen. Agathe came onboard with the GLS team in Cologne in 2020.
Project Manager | Language Specialist
mascha@germanlanguageservices.com
Mascha grew up in Cologne. During high school she spent a year as an exchange student in the US, where she discovered a love for the English language. She studied Linguistics and American Studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin before deciding to pursue a more hands-on approach to language. She then completed a BA in Translation and Cultural Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Mascha joined the GLS team as a project manager in March 2022.
Language Specialist
melanie@germanlanguageservices.com
Melanie grew up in Chicago and attended the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has been working as a German to English translator since 2003 and completed her professional certificate in German to English translation at the Translation and Interpretation Institute at Bellevue College. She spent several years living and working in Switzerland, including an internship as an in-house translator for Swiss Federal Railways in Bern. Melanie started at GLS in 2002 and moved to Cologne in 2009, where she worked as a full-time in-house translator with Deutsche Post DHL in Bonn, before returning to GLS in 2013.
Bookkeeping and Administration
doris@germanlanguageservices.com
Doris studied Social Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, which also included psychology, administration, organization, and a basic grounding in law. After graduating as a certified social worker, she co-founded and spent six years running a non-profit association. In the years that followed, Doris worked both as a freelancer and as an employee and gained extensive experience in networking, customer service, human resources, and administration, as well as in accounting and finance. She has been part of the GLS team since 2017 and is responsible for bookkeeping, accounting for the European side of the company, office organization, and human resources in the Cologne office.