Key Personnel

At the core of Language Connections is our team of experienced Project Managers and Account Managers. They are consummate professionals with a mission to deliver your projects on time and on budget. They strive to exceed your expectations on all levels, including cost, accuracy and timeliness.

A veteran translator and U.S. State Department interpreter with years of experience in international business, Leo founded Language Connections in 1993. Over the years the company grew into a multi-service translation and interpreting agency with capacity for handling large contracts involving all major languages of the world. Currently, Language Connections serves clients and their audiences in over 100 languages: it provides interpreters for conferences and high-level meetings in all parts of the globe, translates and localizes marketing, technical, medical and legal materials to help companies enter international markets, and collaborates with medical and charitable organizations both nationally and worldwide. Leo's experience, open attitude and sincerity have earned him a great reputation among the company's clients and professionals in the field. His multifaceted educational background in engineering, business administration and linguistics allows him to have a particularly good understanding of his clients' perspectives and requirements. Respected for his integrity, competence, and forthright business practices, Leo demands exceptional attention to clients' needs from his linguists and staff. Leo has been a member of the American Translators Association since 1996 and a Board Member of the US-Russia Chamber of Commerce of New England (www.usrccne.org) since 2005.

Frédérique joined Language Connections as a Project Manager in May 2006. She handles multilingual projects for clients in the pharmaceutical industry and time-sensitive materials for clients in the defense and health industries. Her extensive experience in translation and localization allows her to capably handle complex projects that involve over 20 languages. Frédérique's experience in Europe and the United States has provided her with a unique understanding of people and cultures. She studied finance and international trade in France , where she was born and raised. Although originally drawn to the import/export business, Frédérique's career took a different path shortly after she moved to the United States . Driven by her strong passion for languages, she accepted a full-time position with a leading advertising agency, where she was put in charge of localizing their entire suite of software packages and documentation for the French-speaking markets. Subsequently, she has worked as a French translator, Technical Writer, Software Localization Specialist, Localization Project Coordinator, and Quality Assurance Specialist both on the client and the agency side. Frédérique's strong track record shows her commitment to seeing a project through from beginning to end, making sure it is delivered on time and with the utmost quality. Frédérique lives in Cambridge , Massachusetts and enjoys spending time with her young son and cooking crêpe dinners for her friends. Her native language is French, she is fluent in English and has basic knowledge of Spanish, German and Italian.

Karen's unique background - one which combines expertise in biotechnology and life sciences with a keen interest in language and culture - makes her an invaluable member of the team at Language Connections. Born in the US and raised in Greece, Karen completed her undergraduate studies at Boston University, studying both biology and Spanish literature. She went on to complete an MS at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, where her research focused on vaccination against the dengue virus. While pursuing a career in microbiology, she remained active both in translation and language instruction, as well as distinguishing herself by means of her writing ability. Her years of work in the biological research, both as a student and as a professional, allowed her to develop an extensive set of skills, thanks to which she is a capable writer and presenter on an array of topics related to the life sciences. Combined with her experience as a translator and educator, she consistently assists the translators and project managers with whom she interacts by keeping them up-to-date on developments in biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry. The extensive knowledge she contributes has made Language Connections a top competitor when it comes to translation of clinical trials and pharmaceutical materials.

Anna joined Language Connections as a project manager in May 2010. Anna was born and raised in Germany, is a native speaker of German, speaks English fluently and has good reading skills in French and Spanish. Living, studying and working in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States has enabled her to gain a thorough understanding of people and cultures. Among other projects, she manages simultaneous and consecutive interpreting projects for multi-lingual conferences, training sessions, court cases, and other meetings, as well as American Sign Language projects. Working at Language Connections allows Anna to apply her comprehensive interest in human resource management and business with her passion for languages and other cultures, because managing interpreting projects often involves the challenge of assembling teams of interpreters for each project and managing in-house resources and external vendors efficiently and cost effectively. Anna has extensive prior experience as a project manager for global student organizations like SIFE (“Students in Free Enterprise”) and AIESEC (“Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales”) for which she worked during her studies. Anna holds a dual Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and International Management from Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, and Hochschule Bochum, Germany.

Rodrigo joined Language Connections as Project Manager for internal projects. Since mid-2008, he has been in charge of a major system development, implementing a variety of tools that will allow our project management team to be more streamlined and efficient. Additionally, he is in charge of maintaining the databases and assuring that all systems are integrated. Rodrigo has extensive experience with Project Management. He holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Universidad Javeriana (Bógota, Colombia), and an advanced degree in International Business and Finance from Capilano University (Vancouver, Canada). Rodrigo is currently pursuing his Master's in Management (Project Management) from Boston University as well as a PMP Certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI) in Boston, MA, USA. Rodrigo will strive to implement and integrate all systems at Language Connections. Following that, he will take up quality systems implementation, from benchmarking to creation of the necessary systems and monitoring, with the goal of leading Language Connections to ISO 9001 certification.

Kirill Grushko joined Language Connections in November 2010. A graduate of the Moscow State University for the Humanities, Kirill holds a degree in World Literature and History, his main interest lying in the field of literary and scientific translation. Coming from a family of literary translators, Kirill evolved as a professional English-Russian-English translator, editor and interpreter for various educational institutions, publishers and businesses. His extensive knowledge of world history and cultures along with excellent communication skills allowed Kirill to build on his experience, successfully manage translation/interpreting projects worldwide and find a new home in Boston, MA. Kirill believes that efficient and result-focused project management is key to building productive long-term business relationships with clients and brings a can-do attitude and customer focus to the Language Connections team. Kirill is a native Russian speaker, fluent in English, has basic knowledge of Spanish and working knowledge of Latin.