A Women-Led Company

A note from cApStAn’s founder
For some years now, there has been a welcome buzz about women-owned companies, women in tech, and women’s leadership. I have seen many of them thrive, and one of the observable factors at play is a distinctive blend of purposefulness and empathy. While cApStAn is not a women-owned company, it is essentially a women-led company. From that vantage point, I can attest to the remarkable efficacy of our feminine brand of leadership and to the trust this generates with clients, colleagues and vendors alike.
– Steve Dept, Founder, cApStAn

The A-Team (and yes, every name ends in -A)

At cApStAn, all the team leads are women, each of them a different nationality, all with first names that end in -a. Our A-team. As Steve Dept says, cApStAn’s ladies generate dynamics that he has rarely seen in patriarchal set-ups. A sense of direction combined with empowerment. The Operations Lead (OPS), Laura Wäyrynen, from Finland, allocates projects and resources with unassuming resolve. The Business Development Lead (BIZDEV), Devasmita Ghosh, from India, coordinates the efforts that lead to revenue with intuition and determination. The Internal and External Human Resources (HR, E-HR) Lead, Roberta Lizzi, from Italy, masters the balancing act of fostering well-being and driving performance. The Tech and R&D Lead (TTT for translation technology team), Laura Casanellas Luri, from Spain, coordinates the work of our headstrong programmers and translation technologists with as much savvy as flair. And the Finance Lead (FNZ), Savita Gauchan, from Nepal, has the keys to the safe and manages the company’s resources as if they were her own.

Laura W.: Still waters run deep

Operations & Project Management Lead

Laura already had professional experience in translation when she began providing expert verification to cApStAn over two decades ago. She then quickly moved from purely linguistic tasks to taking responsibility in project management. She honed her project management skills quietly, with trial and error (more trial than error, to be honest), and developed a communication style—with clients as well as with linguists—that is not only clear, concise and well-structured, but also caring. Her leadership qualities may always have been hidden in plain sight, while her reserved demeanour conveyed a “still waters run deep” impression.  From managing individual projects, she stepped into managing a team of 11 project managers coming from as many countries and does this successfully because every single one has unconditional trust in her judgement and knows that what she writes or says can be taken at face value. More importantly, she has initiated short, regular, productive meetings across teams. The systematic cross-pollination between Operations, Business Development, HR, Tech Team and Finance works magic. All teams are aligned when implementing a strategy, and no-one feels left out of the conversation.

Devasmita: Her perseverance is legendary

Business Development and Marketing Lead

Devasmita had worked in different sectors before entering the language solutions industry, and she is uniquely gifted to differentiate principles and values that are or should be universal in nature from those that are specific to our sector, to our niche, to other verticals, or to a client’s culture. Her perseverance is legendary: once she has established rapport, she keeps conversations alive, even when the sales cycle spreads across months, if not years. Present and future clients who are in touch with Devasmita know it: she is always willing to help, and she always succeeds in making the people she talks to feel important. When you exchange with Devasmita, you know your concerns have been heard and understood. And whenever she doesn’t know the answer, she will reach out to the team member who knows, promptly retrieve the required information, and resume the conversation more knowledgeably. Devasmita has been and is instrumental in diversifying cApStAn’s client base while ensuring a coherent corporate identity with a very human touch.

Roberta was a freelance translator for many years and was cApStAn’s trusted Italian verifier when she showed interest in understanding what happens under the hood. So, she was already well acquainted with our processes and values when she came on board. After a decade as a project manager and senior project manager, Roberta knew exactly what to expect from colleagues, how to give feedback to freelance linguists, and how to recruit new freelance partners. Curiosity and rigour are Roberta’s first two qualities that come to mind, and both inform her daily quest for the Holy Grail of fairness. Treating everyone the same way can actually be unfair, and at the same time there are rules, criteria and agreements that apply to all. Roberta masterfully balances concerns for well-being at work, mutual respect, and compliance with policies. Roberta collects data to inform her decisions but also reads the room, which keep her aware of those thresholds beyond which anything can become an issue. She ensures that cohesion and cApStAn’s sense of belonging are nurtured, and leads by example.

Laura C. L.: Journalist by training, technologist by instinct

Technology and Research & Development Lead

Laura, who has a degree in journalism, entered the language industry through a side door and acquired a multifaceted understanding of the cogs and gears of our trade. She worked as a quality manager for a high-profile account at a large language service provider and as a product manager at a machine translation provider. Her extensive knowledge of translation quality management processes, machine translation solutions, A/B testing and benchmarking is precious, but she combines these with the soft skills that make it possible to coordinate a team of brilliant translation technologists and developers who all work in different locations. Under her leadership, there is alignment, and the pressure on the tech team is alleviated often enough to keep curiosity alive, so that novel systems and processes can be tested. Laura succeeds in federating versatile talent under the banner of cApStAn’s “excellence among friends” approach to design and optimise sophisticated workflows that solve problems with elegance.

Savita G.: We all know she has our back

Finance and Office Management Lead

Savita, who hails from Nepal, started as an office manager at cApStAn more than a decade ago, and her impressive organising skills, her need to comprehend and her unflinching self-discipline brought her where adds most value: in the driver’s seat. She has learned accounting principles, she has managed the logistics of our international meetings—with up to hundred participants, mind you, she makes sure all our bills are paid on time, managing invoices in several currencies and payments through multiple channels, it never stops. She has earned herself the respect of our linguist partners, of her colleagues, of the finance departments of our clients and of our accountants in Belgium and in the US. One might think that money transfers, flight tickets and reminders for outstanding invoices are mundane affairs. Not with Savita, whose warmth, aesthetic sense and probity add her recognisable touch to even the most pragmatic communication. She blends trustworthiness with emotional intelligence, stands her ground when it is needed, and we all know she has our back.