ABOUT US
Producing the highest quality German ↔︎ English translations for over 40 years
Founded in 1979, GLS provides translation 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. Specializing in only one language pair 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 and ISO 17100.
Meet Our Team
US TEAM
Senior TRANSLATOR | 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.
HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT | NYC OFFICE
jim@germanlanguageservices.com
After a stint working for publishers in Boston and New York, including Oxford University Press, Jim has worked in the translation industry for nearly two decades. He started out on the agency side before moving to the client side at Credit Suisse, one of Switzerland’s two major banks. Following his time at the Swiss bank he decided to start his own business translating and editing German and Spanish documents for financial and legal clients before joining GLS in 2022. Jim studied German literature, history and philosophy at Heidelberg University and then completed a master’s degree in German literature at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where he also taught undergraduate courses. He has also taught German translation at New York University, where he obtained a certificate in Spanish translation. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.
Operations Manager
noelle@germanlanguageservices.com
Noelle worked as a translator at GLS for many years before transitioning into the role of operations manager and lead internal auditor. Her experience with the translation world goes back to 1997. She earned a bachelor’s degree in German studies at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and a master’s degree in German to English translation from MIIS (Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey) in California. Her time in Germany included a junior year abroad in Munich, a period of working and studying in Munich after college, and extended stays in Mainz and Darmstadt while working as a translator.
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.
TRANSLATOR
elena@germanlanguageservices.com
Elena grew up bilingual (German and Italian) near Frankfurt, Germany. Following two internships at GLS in Cologne and Seattle, she joined the Seattle office as a translator. She holds a bachelor’s degree in translation studies from Leipzig University in Germany and earned her master’s degree in translation studies at the University of Portsmouth (UK). Her studies included a year abroad at the University of Salamanca, Spain, where she worked as a language assistant. She also spent semesters abroad in Italy and in Argentina. Elena is also a qualified medical interpreter and teaches German language courses at a local university.
TRANSLATOR
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 Translator
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
bulat@germanlanguageservices.com
Born in the former USSR and having lived in three different countries by the age of 5, Bulat was raised in a multicultural setting before growing up in Germany from 1990 onward. He attended musical and modern language high schools in Regensburg and Hamburg and received his BA in Slavic studies after attending the University of Munich and the University of Potsdam. He later earned an MA in East-West Studies at the University of Regensburg. His love for travel and a personal interest in languages and cultures led him via detours to the Australian Outback, where he worked at a state-funded communal institution, sparking further interest in indigenous cultures and linguistic minorities of the world. Bulat joined the GLS team in January 2022 as a project manager.
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
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.
TRANSLATOR
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.