Under Emilio’s leadership, Atril made a number of major advances in the state of the art of translation memory. Déjà Vu, Atril’s translation memory product, first released in 1993, was the first CAT tool to interface directly with Microsoft Word, the first 32-bit TM tool for Windows, and the first TM tool to implement fuzzy matching.

Emilio was born in Viallarino de los Aires, Salamanca province, Spain. He later attended high school in Salamanca, an unusual step for a village youth at that time. While in school Emilio distinguished himself as an exceptional student. He went on to study telecommunications engineering in college. In the early 1970’s he started a company that imported college text books written in the U.S., engaged Spanish university professors translate them into Spanish, and released them for use in Spanish and Latin American universities. His experience with this venture led him to focus on translation since he was forced to revise many of the translations he received.

After leaving the academic publishing business in the 1980’s, Emilio started a translation company that localized computer manuals for the Spanish market. The companies he had worked for fell victim to an influx of cheap Taiwanese PCs, so he was forced to temporarily leave the translation business. Instead he developed the first PC-based accounting software in Spain. From accounting software, he moved into distributing development tools. In order to distribute these tools, he had to localize their manuals, and he realized that the manuals were highly repetitive and that translation could be automated. He and his son, Daniel, tried using MT to facilitate localization, but found it did not suit their needs, and that existing CAT tools did not either. Emilio then wrote a basic TM engine in a weekend, and in a few more weeks had created an interface for it within Microsoft Word, and so Déjà Vu was born. Now in its fourth major release, Déjà Vu has expanded and amplified Emilio’s original vision and has grown in popularity.

By all accounts, Emilio was a true Renaissance man. A gifted writer, he published poetry, magazine articles, and even a text book (still used in Spanish universities) on electromagnetic fields. He taught himself to program computers (his first programming experience was as a child on a kntting machine), and he was an expert in many fields. He was a devoted music fan and a true gourmand—he taught his wife to cook so that he could have a reliable source of excellent meals. It seems that there was nothing which could not capture Emilio’s curiosity and intelligence.

He is survived by his wife Cathy, daughter Elena, and sons Daniel and Lorenzo. Our condolences to the family.

Our special thanks to Daniel Benito, who provided us with information about Emilio’s life and accomplishments.