Date and place of birth? Buenos Aires, Argentina-Feb 23, 1957.

Greatest professional success? Having foreseen the emergence of the localization industry, and stick-ing with it in spite of the painful, slow start. In 1981, when I started pushing in this arena, many software companies were shipping English code and docs and felt that no localization would ever be needed.

Greatest professional mistake? Not establishing the Localization "Bar" Association, which would have self-regulated the practice of our profession. There is still too much room for amateurs in our business and clients sometimes cannot tell who can be trusted.

Most embarrassing professional moment? In the early days of multimedia I put together an ani-mated presentation for a large audience. It was cool technology, but it was slow and annoying. I was almost tossed out of the meeting room after the first ten slow slides with sound effects. I was not invited to speak at that event again.

Most likely to say? OUTSOURCE! I am still work-ing on convincing our customers that they should not be in the localization business. When they focus on their core issues, and allow localization professionals to address cultural, language and engineering issues that affect the use of their product, they get better results for less money.

Least likely to say? We can rest on our accomplish-ments. I am always pushing for change and new ways of looking at the industry, the business opportunities and my personal balance. If we don't grow, life is boring.

What do you like most about the business? I enjoy the multicultural aspect of our communication, the sense that we are all connected and somehow understand each other. I love seeing the products we have localized sitting on retail shelves. I enjoy the relationships with my team at BGS and with my clients. I should not forget the frequent flyer miles!

What do you like least about the business? I find that our business remains too unpredictable. We have not learned to establish clear parameters in our business relationships that adequately com-pensate us for downtime, slips, and scope increases. I also hate the endless amounts of chicken I must eat at industry gatherings!

Who do you most admire in the business, and why? This may seem surprising. The person I admire the most is Robert Addis, the owner of AD-EX, a translation company in Menlo Park. Robert gave me work-I was a freelance Spanish translator - almost twenty years ago and up front, without my asking, increased my word rate by 50%. He told me that he knew he would get his money's worth, and I gave him everything I could. I hope he feels he made a good investment.

What advice would you give to someone just start-ing out? If you know where you want to go, don't just keep your eyes on the destination. Study the road ahead and plan your path. At times, I paid a high price for poor planning.

What is your favorite industry fantasy? Machine translation works and we can focus on the real business opportunities. We are in the business of lowering cultural barriers for our customers, and language is only one of the elements involved.

Where will the industry be in five years time? There will be more consolidation. A significant portion of our business will be conducted on the Web and involve content creation, not just translation. Embedded systems and appliances will be every-where and they will not only be localized but they will communicate among themselves and with their users in multiple languages. LISA will not have four meetings a year.

If I had my time over again I would... When I was three years old I wanted to be a garbage collector. There are days when I feel that I have achieved that goal. Kidding aside, I am very happy with my life, and I would do it over again. No regrets.

How would you like to be remembered? I would like to be remembered as a person who tried to bal-ance business, family, friendship and personal development and did not fail miserably in any of the categories. From a localization industry point of view, I hope to leave behind a set of profes-sional behaviors, rules and processes that will put us at a level comparable with accountants, attor-neys and other professionals.