Experts in the Industry: Richard Gray, CEO of CLS Communication Ltd

Richard Gray is CEO of CLS Communication Ltd, the UK subsidiary of one of the world’s largest language service providers CLS Communication AG. He has a degree in French and Philosophy from Bristol University and lived in Madrid for 7 years, where he translated Spanish into English for investment banks on a freelance basis before founding Richard Gray Financial Translations (RGFT) in 1996. With offices in London, Paris and Madrid, RGFT was acquired by CLS Communication in 2004. He is currently the corporate representative on the ITI Council, and on Sunday 17th will speak about setting up a conciliation service within the ITI.

Check out the rest of the ITI conference programme here.

1. In two sentences, please describe what you’ll be talking about at the conference, and what translation and interpreting (T&I) professionals will gain from hearing it.

I’ll be talking about setting up a conciliation service for the ITI. Hopefully professionals will think it’s a good idea and will use the service once it’s in place.

2. If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing to make your workplace more sustainable, what would you do?

Allow our clients to get inside our brains and see how difficult translating is and how much we can offer them if only they let us.

3. Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?

Tony Benn – he always has a compelling and honest answer to every question and he drinks a lot of tea.

4. To what degree do you feel involved in and supported by your professional community, and why?

Yes, quite a lot – 8 out of 10, it’s kept me off the streets for the last 21 years.

5. Freeform – here’s where you are free to riff on anyone or anything, good or bad, or just share a pearl of wisdom.

If this has to be profession-related, I saw a very funny translator on You Tube doing a song called 5,000 words that was very funny. And why oh why is the government giving motorists £300m of our taxpayers money to buy new cars (what happens to the old ones?) when cycling (the most sustainable form of transport on the planet) gets relative peanuts?!?!?

Thanks for your time Richard, and hope you enjoy the conference!

This is the third in a series of short interviews run in the lead-up to the ITI International Conference on 16th – 17th May.