Having worked for the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) for a period of five years, both at EC headquarters in Brussels and in the field as Head of a 30 million ecu aid programme, I have expert knowledge and experience of all types of non-profit operations, from emergency food and medical aid to more development-oriented intervention such as energy and public health programmes. This experience also provided me with a very good understanding of government and politics.

Having studied the first year of an LLB (Hons) in Law before switching to a BA (Hons) in French with Italian Subsidiary at London University, I have a solid grounding in the law which has been reinforced through specialization in legal translation at MA level and legal translation assignments.

As an MBA (specializations: finance, human resources and marketing) who has established and managed a small but successful chain of restaurants abroad (I have returned to the UK for personal reasons, but maintain an active interest in the company), I have both a theoretical and practical knowledge of all aspects of business, from marketing and e-commerce through to finance.

The restaurant business also allowed me to indulge my passion for food and wine. With no trained restaurant staff available in the country, I was also responsible for sourcing food and wine and creating recipes and menus. This, together with my experience working in hotels, has also given me an insight into tourism, and I have translated numerous texts in this field.

I have lived and worked in Italy, France, the CIS and Belgium, and being passionate about French, Russian and Italian literature, art and cinema, I specialized in subtitling during the course of my MA in Translation studies, completing several academic and professional assignments and have completed numerous translations in the domains of literature and art.

Due to my experience working for the European Commission, I have translated a significant body of European Commission documents since qualifying as a translator from strategy documents to Commission Decisions and ECJ case-law.

The very broad knowledge of a large number of areas that I gained working for ECHO in humanitarian aid and development gave me an insight into the fields of energy, the environment, agriculture and social sciences which I have expanded during my translation career. Other fields in which I have gained considerable translation experience include shipping and aviation.

For further information, please consult my CV.