Steve Dept grew up in South Africa, Belgium, and Germany and received his education in Dutch, English, French, and German. He studied classical antiquity (life, languages, and philosophy), and modern languages. After 12 years of professional experience in translation, copywriting, and proofreading, he founded cApStAn with Andrea Ferrari. From the outset, he focuses on the theoretical and practical aspects of standardised validation of translations with a view to specializing in LQC auditing for multilingual projects. He organised the verification of national versions of OECD/PISA2000, 2003 and 2006, IEA/TIMSS2003, IEA/PIRLS 2006 and is currently working on IEA/TIMSS2007 and OECD/PISA2009. Steve Dept is a Senior Associate and the General Manager.

Andrea Ferrari was exposed to a multicultural environment from an early age, living and studying in Canada, Italy, Australia, and Greece. He earned his degree in business engineering from the Solvay Business School, Free University of Brussels. He then pursued a career in marketing management with Procter & Gamble. He started working as a professional freelance translator in 1987. In 1998/99, he participated in the first cycle of the OECD/PISA project as a language expert for the Italian version. In 2000, he joined Steve Dept and has since co-directed linguistic quality control assignments. He is a Senior Associate and the company’s R&D Manager.

Ben Meessen was born in Senegal and spent his childhood years in the US. He graduated as a translator from the University of Mons-Hainaut in 1989. He subsequently took a post-graduate degree in Business Administration at the Université Catholique de Louvain. After working as a translator for the Spanish Delegation to NATO, he was appointed Secretary General of the International Christian Union of Business Executives (UNIAPAC) and later became Secretary General of the British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium. He joined cApStAn in August 2004. He is a Junior Associate and the company’s Marketing & Communications Manager.