Els Van Humbeeck has more than 20 years of experience in various management positions in the media, security and HR sectors.

After obtaining a master’s degree in History and a pedagogical diploma, she chose to undertake a Management course and to study for an MBA at the Solvay Business School. A long journey travelling through Central and South America sparked her interest in language and culture. She later learned the tricks of the HR profession while working at Hudson. And she gained additional policy experience as a member of the management team at DPG Media.

Els currently supports the Untranslate team as an HR coach and Operations Manager, and is developing a personnel policy there. For her it is crystal clear: the basis of success is putting the right person in the right place and ensuring the team is motivated. This mantra has helped her manage teams, empower people, and allow them to grow and develop throughout their career. In addition, she assists in the coordination of large and more complex projects.

In her spare time, Els likes to travel. And when she’s not travelling, she loves to cook, preferably with products she has grown as part of her other passion: gardening.

As far as she can remember, literature, languages and words have always been a passion for Elise Haja.  Her bilingual environment – French and Dutch – was undoubtedly of great influence. When she realised translation combined those three areas of expertise, she chose to make it her university major.  She challenged herself to learn new languages in addition to French, Dutch and English she already mastered, and started a curriculum in German and Russian at the École de Traduction et Interprétation ISTI – Cooremans in Brussels.

After obtaining a Master’s degree in Literary Translation, she decided to carry out a PhD research in Translation Studies applied to Russian Literature at the Université libre de Bruxelles. At the end of first professional experiences in Paris and London, she returned to the motherland and joined the Untranslate team in early 2020. She holds the position of French translator, and takes care of translating and revising a range of various types of texts.

In her free time, Elise likes to read, train her Thaï boxing, travel and broaden her knowledge about healthy lifestyle and nutrition.

Henk Malyster realized at an early age that language and communication are important. Reading and writing almost came naturally to him, but it was only after his studies Communication Management he developed a knack for writing. He learned the ropes of the trade at the editorial staff of television magazines in the mid-1990s. 

During the first internet boom around the millennium, a new world opened up thanks to the internet provider World Online. Writing for the web was not only about creating content, but also taking into account the number of hits and thinking about surfing behaviour. Another discovery: the wonderful language of HTML and XML. 

Two years later, he found a nice spot as a sub-chief editor in the office of Steps Magazine and De Zondag. Eventually, he decided to work freelance, delivering content for newspapers and magazines, and long copy for company magazines. With more than 25 years of experience in creative writing, Henk knows how to effectively get a message across to any audience. Turning complex subjects into easy-to-read and comprehensible texts is his forte. 

Leisure? On a bicycle, please. Preferably a recumbent trike with a comfy seat. Ideal for exploring the world. The farther, the better. And to end the day, playing guitar always resets the mind. Electric or acoustic doesn´t matter; just let it rock!

Kirsten followed her passion and studied a Master’s in language and literature at Ghent University. Because of her interest in the British, American and Spanish cultures, her choice for the language combination English-Spanish was soon made. To further prepare for the labour market, after her graduation Kirsten followed some additional courses in economics, communication and management. However, despite that sidetrack, language will always have a special place in her heart. This is testified by, among other things, the many language courses she has followed even after her studies.

After some initial work experience and a short adventure abroad, Kirsten joined our team in 2020. As an enthusiastic force behind the scenes, she always gives customers and freelancers the best service possible. Kirsten attaches great importance to clear communication and a positive team atmosphere. And that is precisely what Untranslate considers interesting qualities for a project manager.

In her spare time, you will find Kirsten in various cultural centres. She attends performances, dances herself, or provides them with organisational support. She also loves quality time with friends and family, and nature walks.

Maaike quickly realised that she wanted to do something with languages. No sooner said than done, she enrolled in the Bachelor’s Applied Linguistics at Ghent University. Of all the languages, English and Spanish made her corazón beat faster. To put her language skills into practice, she also went on Erasmus to the lively city of Seville during her studies. In the Master’s Multilingual Communication, she learned to communicate fluently in those different languages.

As icing on the cake, Maaike decided not to throw in the towel during the pandemic. She chose to acquire extra knowledge in the postgraduate Computer-Assisted Language Mediation. In that postgraduate, she was introduced to different language technology areas and tools. Now, she enjoys her internship at Untranslate to finalise the programme.

In her spare time, Maaike likes to watch all kinds of Netflix series preferably with a home-made dessert. She also enjoys going on trips with friends and family, of which she always makes a photo book afterwards.

In secondary school, Jarne always chose the subject which focused most on learning new languages. He was particularly interested in English and French. That is also why he chose to take the bachelor’s degree in Applied Linguistics, with English and French as foreign languages, followed by a Masters in Translation. During his studies, he discovered his love for culture and his interest in medical topics.

Currently, he is doing an internship at Untranslate to finalize the Postgraduate Programme in Specialised Translation, in which the focus is on the language technological possibilities in translation and revision.

In his spare time, Jarne enjoys to take a refreshing nature walk or to go geocaching. But he also tries to make time to read a good book, to watch an exciting series or to travel.

From a young age, languages have always interested Dilara Eryasar. This was mainly reflected in her reading one book after another. She grew up bilingual, namely with Dutch and Turkish and was soon introduced to English. The language lessons at school also went smoothly. In addition, identity and communication have always been important topics for her. This led to the decision to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Linguistics in Brussels with the language combination of English and Spanish. Afterwards, she followed up with a Master’s in Translation, in which her interests in language technology and culture were awakened.

In order to explore these areas further, she decided to pursue a Postgraduate in Computer Assisted Language Mediation (CALM) in Ghent. This is how she eventually ended up at Untranslate and joined our team as an intern.

In her free time, she likes to read a good book and she enjoys watching an exciting TV show or movie. She also likes to go hiking, traveling or working out at the gym.

Very much like her colleagues, Maud has had an interest in languages, both oral and written, from a young age. Her great-grandmother being Flemish and not understanding French, Maud always spoke with her in Dutch, and was therefore exposed to foreign languages at an early age.

But it was her studies that really familiarised Maud with linguistic practice. She did all her six years of high school in Dutch, picked English as a second language, and also studied Spanish during her last two years. University was an opportunity for her to deepen her knowledge of Spanish and to start studying Russian. After a bachelor’s degree in translation and a year of master’s degree in interpretation at the École de Traduction et Interprétation ISTI – Cooremans, she decided to get back to Dutch by enrolling in modern languages and letters at the Université libre de Bruxelles.

This is how, at the end of her first year of master’s degree with as study languages Dutch (main language), Russian (language of specialisation) and English (optional class), Maud decided to apply to Untranslate and got hired as a student to enrich her curriculum.

In her spare time, Maud enjoys horseback riding: no wonder, given that she has owned her own horse since the age of 14. She also enjoys relaxing with a film, delving headlong into exciting books, spending some time at the gym, and, of course, travelling.

Nathalie De Sutter can look back on more than 20 years of experience in the language sector. After successfully studying for a Master’s degree in Oriental Languages and Cultures at Ghent University, and topping that off with postgraduate studies in Multilingual Business Communication at the University of Antwerp, she became acquainted with Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing (NLP) for the first time. At Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (LHSP), she worked on the development of a Text-To-Speech system for Hindi and Urdu. Before she decided to set up her own partner company within the Cronos Group in 2015, she was employed in various roles as a key account manager and consultant, while at the same time she completed various studies, also at the Vlerick Business School.

All this expertise comes in handy at Untranslate. This is because the company not only provides professional translation services, but also advice about language technology (NLP, terminology management, semantic search, machine translation and process automation). She also acts as a guest lecturer at KU Leuven, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), UGent and Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB).

In her spare time, Nathalie likes to travel, but she also enjoys spending time in the squash court and on the piste.