Date and place of birth? May 24, 1963 in Seligenstadt am Main, Germany.

Greatest professional success? Making Translator’s Workbench the industry standard translation memory program.

Greatest professional mistake? It wasn’t long enough ago to be disclosed here.

Most embarrassing professional moment? Holding a huge training class with a far too early version of our product.

Most likely to say? Energie! (The German translation of Commander Kirk’s “Engage”).

Least likely to say? You’d be fools to ignore the boolean anti-binary-least-square approach.

What do you like most about the business? It’s per se international, you meet many interesting and well educated people, the technological problems are very challenging, and the potential is tremendous.

What do you like least about the business? It has been very hard to make money in the industry.

Who do you most admire, and why? Nelson Mandela, for demonstrating what a single person can achieve when you stay honest to yourself and your ideas, when you stay in close contact with real life and avoid cynism and vanity.

What keeps you awake at night? My girlfriend.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out? Trust your common sense and instincts, work hard, don’t give up to quickly, and be stubborn when everybody around wants to pull you in a different direction, but also learn to listen to the right people and avoid being dogmatic.

What is your favorite industry fantasy? Translators discover that the use of technology raises their professional image and status and start to invest into themselves instead of waiting until technology is pushed onto them.

Where will the industry be in five years time? In spite of all difficulties the Internet will by then have integrated the different members of the supply chain into a huge, global virtual work group directly linked up with the clients. The workload will be huge and growing. The global character of the business will also allow providers in developing countries to earn a good income. Our industry could even provide technology and serve as a blueprint for other industries still to be globalized.

If I had my time over again, I would make other mistakes.

How would you like to be remembered? The way I am.