FRANCINE KUIPERS, CEO and OWNER
(francinek@accentonlanguages.com)
Native in French

Francine Kuipers was born in France and moved to California in 1978. She was the principal of the French American School until 1985. She taught French and Spanish at various schools in the US, France and the University in Peru.

Francine has founded 5 language companies since 1986: Linguatheque of Los Angeles, Access Language Services, Accent on Languages, Accent on Culture, and Berkeley Language Institute (which focuses on training translators and interpreters).

As a linguistic and cultural consultant, Francine has been involved in various cultural programs in France, Peru, China, Russia and the West Bank. She is passionate about languages and the promotion of cultural sensitivity. She participated to numerous Language and cultural Conferences and summits organized by the US Army. She developed language and cultural programs sold in schools throughout the world and used by the US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Francine is actively involved in the community and volunteers her time as a member of the Board at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley.

She believes that her busy life as business owner and a mother of three must be balanced with an involvement in the community and creativity throughout the arts such as stain-glass making, another passion of hers.

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Tram Dyck, Director of Translation Services
(tram@accentonlanguages.com)
Native in Vietnamese

Tram Dyck joined Accent on Languages in 2010 as Translation Production Manager and became Director of Translation Services in 2011. Tram has over 15 years of experience in the translation and localization industry. At DLC, a division of LionBridge, she served as Team Leader overseeing a team of Project Managers, Project Coordinators, and Project Assistants specializing in technical, marketing, and life science projects. After that, as an interactive media Producer at Wilson Learning, one of the top 20 leadership and sales training companies in the U.S, Tram had the opportunity to become a customer of localization services. Her experience as both a provider and a customer of language services enables her to understand and accomplish our clients’ translation and localization goals.

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Rie Kawachi, a native of Japan, is an Assistant Production Manager at Accent on Languages. She recently graduated from Texas Tech University in 2011 with a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics. Rie is also a certified Language Instructor for Japanese and English and has taught Japanese at the college level at the universities, Vanderbilt and Texas Tech. In addition, Rie has performed professional translation from English into Japanese, including an interpreting experience in which she served as Escort Interpreter for the Czech Ambassador at an international event. Rie enjoys planning community events, such as the Japan Earthquake Relief fundraiser in 2011, and has been playing softball and the piano for over 13 years.

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Lea Mendelovitz is a native of France. She studied at the Sorbonne and the School of the Louvres. She is an expert in Fine Art, History and Architecture. Ms Mendelovitz founded and run a construction company until 1994 and moved to California. Ms Mendelovitz became a Project Manager at Accent on Languages in 2006 and is now Executive Coordinator for interpreting services for all US Government contracts, as well as local organizations and commercial clients.

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Humberto Cuevas is a native of Cuba where he studied law at the University of Camagüey. Interpreter and translator in Spanish, Humberto joined Accent on Languages in 2010 as Human Resources and Production Assistant for administrative and cleric task as well as projects related to interpreting, translation, and linguistic assessment. He has also taught Spanish at Centro Latino in Berkeley, California.

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Edna Shipley joined Accent on Languages in 2010.  She is a Bay Area native and lifelong resident.  After graduating with Phi Beta Kappa honors in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, Edna spent 7 years in the securities industry enforcing SEC regulations for the National Association of Securities Dealers.  Following the birth of her second child, she took time off to raise her family and was active in her children’s schools and various community organizations.  Edna is a San Francisco Giants and Cal Basketball season ticket holder and enjoys glass fusing and mosaics in her spare time.

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Eduardo Puyol-Martinez, is a native of Barcelona, Spain, and he is a native speaker of Catalan and Spanish. Eduardo graduated in Textile Engineering with the Technical University of Catalonia, and also obtained a Master in Industrial Management before moving to the US in 2006. He has extensive experience working as a Project Manager for Spanish textile research institutes, and during that time he was able to work with multi-cultural engineering teams at the European level, performing translations of technical documents from and into Spanish, and conducting presentations and meetings in English for EU multi-national audiences. In addition, he has experience implementing procedures and methodologies for a variety of industries, including network management. Eduardo joined Accent on Languages in 2007 as a Project Manager, and was quickly promoted to Director of Operations in 2008.