Tag: about us

‘K’ as in EPIK, Know-how or… “Kali” aka Carlos

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Full name: Carlos Alberto Vaz de Amaral

Age: 49

Birthplace: Penalva do Castelo, Beira Alta

Academic degree: Degree in Social Communication, specialization in Journalism

In order to close the chapter of our biographical articles related to our managing partners, we will end talking, last but not least, about Carlos. Just give him a loft in New York, allow him to live the dream of a Transamerican coast-to-coast, take the handball team of Clube de Futebol de Sassoeiros to the First Portuguese Division or develop the cure for cancer and we have a happy man! Nothing too difficult, right?

He was born in Portugal, but he missed being born German by only six months, his age when his parents took him to live in Germany. Until 1990, when he decided to study in Lisbon, Carlos lived in Ludwigsburg, a beautiful historic city in Southern Germany. His plans were quite simple: he moved to Lisbon “only” to get his degree and return “home” immediately after that… as it seems though, his “home” moved to Lisbon instead.

He describes himself as being “Just a regular guy, like everybody else, but completely different”. Carlos is a funny person, forthcoming and helpful, always cracking a joke and keeping people upbeat at the office. The well-being of his team and his staff is extremely important for him. But it’s not all roses! Legend has it that Carlos has an evil, less sympathizing twin brother: Alberto. And sometimes, Alberto takes Carlos’s place at the office. Now we are talking about a pungent and somewhat caustic personality, with a very particular temper – to say the least – and not a good-humoured person. This twin says things like “it annoys me that people dare to think that they can be right… and me wrong”. Should you cross Carlos’s path and be curious about it, you can always ask him. Just be sure to check first if it’s really Carlos you’re talking to or Alberto!

But, at the end of the day, be it Carlos or Alberto, he is just like the other managing partners, just somebody that wants the best for the team and TETRAEPIK and gives his best, day in, day out!

“More than offering solely a (good) salary, I want TETRAEPIK to offer people the chance to look back one day and say that it was worth the while knocking on our door, because this is, in the end, the place where they were happy (professionally, of course, but not only that…).”

On an academic level, Carlos has no direct connection to the area of Translation. He actually got a degree in Journalism and this background gives him a clearer and more comprehensive view of other aspects of daily life and allows him to look at business in general and TETRAEPIK in particular in a completely different way, whenever that perspective is essential. It is mainly this analytical capacity, which allows him to detect and solve problems and, very importantly, to communicate and do so fluently in several languages, that keeps Carlos always at the forefront, namely in business development and in contact with international customers.

Besides acting as Business Director, he also heads the globalisation department, called Globalisation Solutions: https://tetraepik.com/globalisation-solutions/. His value is visible in every step of his work at TETRAEPIK, but also outside the office walls, and has been recognised on several fronts. He is TETRAEPIK’s main representative at SAP and that means being present at meetings, conferences and other initiatives of the German software powerhouse. Carlos has also been invited to be one of only a couple of representatives of almost two hundred translation agencies at SAP’s Supplier Advisory Board. He is proactive, dynamic and responsible for the connection between TETRAEPIK and everyone else involved in SAP’s translation environment. He is also one of the founders of ASAP Globalizers, an international company, with headquarters in Cologne, Germany, that integrates 11 agencies linked to the SAP world that offer a wide range of services in the areas of translation, localization and content creation – https://tetraepik.com/clientes-e-parcerias/.

He is highly communicative, open to the world and holds on to each project with tenacity and determination. He always gives his all in all endeavours he is involved in and invests a lot of his passion in each journey but also demands the same commitment from his team at TETRAEPIK in return.

For Carlos, creating this company was a window of opportunity one could not ignore. It was, in his opinion, a moment of perfect cosmic alignment: perfect timing, perfect people, coming together at the right spot and the right moment. “To be able to be on board of this ship, with these people, doing what we do and having the audacity of dreaming about doing it better for all the people involved” is something special. According to Carlos, “TETRAEPIK’s journey has been impressive – a totally unexpected emotional rollercoaster.”

TETRAEPIK: What distinguishes TETRAEPIK from other agencies?

Carlos: Obviously the people involved and the relationships we manage to develop.

TETRAEPIK: What do we do best?

Carlos: Anything done with conviction, passion and without hidden agendas is, in my opinion, well done.

To get to know him a little bit better, words won’t suffice, but knowing what he likes and his passions might help.

TETRAEPIK: What is your favourite artist or work:

Carlos: In music, it’s impossible to choose only a few, but if I had to, Prince, Metallica, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance and Breaking Benjamin are clearly my favourites; Literature – ‘Lord of the Rings’ by J. R. R. Tolkien, ‘Game of Thrones’ by George R. R. Martin and the entire works of Stephen King. Being an aficionado of Fantasy, Carlos could never disappoint when asked about his favourite quote. Without hesitation, he gave us this emblematic and enigmatic quote from the author of one of his favourite works: “I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve”. Why is this quote so special to Carlos? We wouldn’t dare to answer and leave the suspense in the air… Don’t miss out on the next episodes and neither will we.

‘I’ as in EPIK, Interactivity or… Isabel

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The article we have for you today is about a real music lover who cannot stay away from the radio even one single day, but also enjoys cooking, the sensory experiences associated with gastronomy, has a passion for driving, and obviously cars, and cannot resist the thrills of riding a motorcycle.

Languages showed up in her life at an early age and one at a time. First came Spanish, then French and then English, which she started learning with her father “with the support of a BBC course in instalments that she adored. Finally came German.

Datasheet:

Full name: Isabel Sofia Tomaz da Costa Reis

Age: 47

Birthplace: Lisbon

Academic degree: Degree in Modern Languages and Literatures, English and German Studies, Post-graduation in Translation, both at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon. Diploma of Spanish as a Foreign Language (DELE, Mastery)

Born in Lisbon, she lived a couple of years in Ponta Delgada, Azores, and spent her teenage years in Castelo Branco, close to the Spanish border. In those years, the quite limited offer available through Portuguese television forced her to look for a far more attractive broad array of entertainment offerings on the other side of the frontier: “I watched all the children’s TV series that marked the 80s, such as ‘The Smurfs’, ‘Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds’ and ‘The Flintstones’, with Spanish dubbing”. This solution for her entertainment shortage also turned out to be a passport to the world of languages, for which she began to develop an interest and fell in love with at an early age.

She considers herself a lucky person for having had a fulfilled childhood, full of valuable moments, enriching experiences and a priceless personal development. “Fortunately, I was lucky enough to have parents that could provide me with many social activities, trips, general culture, which helped me to acquire very clear interests.”

Her personality carries the mark of strong and diversified interests. Isabel has an exquisite taste for crafts and she is good at them, namely in matters of cake decorating. She is imbued with the spirit of art, the art of creating, and whenever she is creating, she can put a little bit of herself in every detail. She is passionate about children’s books and about the journeys they allow us to experience: “I could spend a whole day in a bookshop, reading children’s books with wonderful illustrations”. Given her eclecticism, her attention to detail, her delicacy and determination, one could say that she is an ancient soul in a young body.

That fretful and lovely dawn,

replete with every kind of ache,

so long as the world recalls heartbreak

I wish that hour forever known.

Aquela leda e triste madrugada translated by Landeg White, in The Collected Lyric Poems of Luís de Camões, Princeton University Press, 2008

As a lover of Camões’ works and being especially fond of the Portuguese word “saudade” (a kind of “yearning”), she loves to tell stories in verse. This passion and her ease in dealing with words are the perfect fit for the positions she holds in the company. Besides being a translator and proofreader, she is the Administrative Director and the person responsible for direct contact with clients. Her ability to communicate is the main reason why the word “interactivity” describes TETRAEPIK so well. All of these roles fit her like a glove — the former two being clearly a vocation and the latter one a skill that is extensively used at the agency.

TETRAEPIK: What is your opinion about TETRAEPIK’s journey thus far?

Isabel: 22 years is a really long time… It’s almost like celebrating a silver wedding anniversary! It seems as if TETRAEPIK has been around forever. We had our ups and downs, we grew a lot, we shrank a lot, almost to the point of vanishing, we fought back, survived, we overcame the crisis and grew even more than before.

According to Isabel, TETRAEPIK means, among many other things, “teamwork and an incredible complementarity”. Her current and only hobby, which she inherited from her mother and grandmother, is gardening. And thus, like a garden, where each plant contributes in a special way to the balance and well-being of all species, the company draws strength from each one of the elements who play their daily part in TETRAEPIK’s success.

Like Ricardo Reis, one of Fernando Pessoa’s heteronyms, Isabel is moved by “the desire to live the present without making big plans for the future, to live each day in the best way, so that each day counts”. It is crucial to give due importance to each event in our lives, so that we do not focus excessively on the events that hurt and let those that bring us small doses of happiness every day go unnoticed. This is, according to Isabel, the antidote we need on a daily basis.

‘P’ as in EPIK, Precision or… Paula

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We start this month by introducing someone who does not like to be in the spotlight. “I don’t like to draw attention to myself. I’d rather work in the background”, she says. It is in plain sight that we did not humour her. What is not in plain sight so far, but will be soon, is who this remarkable person we are talking about in this post actually is.

If we picture ourselves as parts or organs that make the TETRAEPIK-body move, then Paula is unquestionably the heart. Can you imagine how precise this heart needs to be to keep beating at the right pace and make TETRAEPIK wake up every day with the energy and strength needed to rise to the occasion?

Let’s find out…

Datasheet:

Full name: Paula da Silva Dias Lopes

Age: 48

Birthplace: Hamburg, Germany

Academic degree: Degree in Modern Languages and Literatures, English and German Studies, Post-graduation in Translation, at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon; Translation Traineeship at the European Parliament in Luxemburg

The poor living conditions her parents had to face in their homeland led them, as so many other Portuguese, to look elsewhere for a better life. They settled in Hamburg, Germany, where Paula was born and where she started to discover the world during the first 19 years of her life.

When Paula decided to move to Portugal, she felt a culture shock which made languages play a major role in her life. Discovering the world had always been a synonym of studying languages, reading books and interpreting people, in order “to have access to all the information I considered important, to fit in, to be understood”, she said.

There is one adventure Paula remembers with great emotion: the first time she saw a concert by her favourite artist, Bryan Adams, in Hamburg. Her passion for languages manifested itself even in the little things of everyday life, since, at the age of 15, she was “using a dictionary in order to understand every word of Bryan Adams’ lyrics!”.

Although considered the “emotional organ” of the company, she is ruthless as far as grammar is concerned, – so much so that she is called a “grammar Nazi”. “I love grammar and I like to shed some light on incorrect declensions and conjugations or other grammatical errors!”. It is common knowledge that Paula’s role is to share: share knowledge, share thoughts and ideas, share funny stories (usually involving Cookie, her dog, and her cats Fluffy and Speedy) and share loving and inspiring Skype messages with her team. All that just because, as she says, “the right word at the right moment can move mountains on a personal, spiritual and professional level”.

TETRAEPIK: – Tell us what you could not live without in your daily life.

Paula: Smiles and laughter. Humour is essential. Laughing at ourselves, with the help of others!

For Paula, languages are a “work in progress”: “as they are living, they are constantly changing, there are always new words, so I’m constantly learning!”. In Paula’s view, the same applies to human beings and their creations, and this is a certainty that led her to TETRAEPIK. Being a persistent self-made woman, who does not give up, Paula has had, since her teenage years, the desire to have her own professional endeavour. Thus, at the age of 26, TETRAEPIK came to life. Not giving up also means that she cannot stand the idea of “not reading a book (or watching a film) till the end”. In that sense, we hope to follow her example and stay tuned with excitement to find out what the next chapters of the story of TETRAEPIK have in store for us.

TETRAEPIK: How did TETRAEPIK come to life?

Paula: It seemed impossible at first, but we believed in it. We were very young and inexperienced, and lacked a lot of knowledge in most areas, but we were persistent and learned along the way. We never refused to take things in our own hands, no matter if it meant carrying desks, interviewing people, translating, reviewing, or interpreting. We still do what is needed, when it is needed. I often say that TETRAEPIK was my first child. I raised it with immense love, a great deal of dedication, many sleepless nights and lost holidays, a tremendous sense of responsibility, more than enough headaches, but above all this, a lot of pride.

Besides being a managing partner, Paula is also Operations Director, which actually means that she runs the team, controls dozens of projects with different deadlines and instructions, while chipping in hundreds of hours as translator, reviewer and trainer. “I don’t shy away from challenges, although sometimes it would make my life easier to do so”, she says. Paula always tries to bring into her daily life and tasks the affection she feels for her mother tongue, might it be a translation for a client located on the other side of the globe or a more personal and fulfilling on-site training session.

As a passionate advocate of harmony and averse to conflicts and quarrels, Paula believes that everything should be built on respect, achievement and an environment that suits all people involved, where everybody feels happy. “My team is made up of competent, effective, well-trained employees, and on top of all that, they also have a good heart, thrive as a team and love what they do. They are part of a smooth-running engine that keeps TETRAEPIK moving forward”. This is actually the reason why Paula feels at peace. The same pride she feels about her team extends to the other protagonists of her plot: “I’m very lucky to have managing partners who know how to handle things I don’t know”.

Paula truly believes that each of us has the duty to leave this world a little better than they found it. That is actually the reason why Paula tries to flood us every day with contagious good energy and smiles that fill our hearts. As her son usually says “you never know, but you can always feel it”.

‘E’ as in EPIK, Efficiency or… Elsa

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Let us start the New Year – and consequently our trip in content sharing – talking about who we are and those people who help to build TETRAEPIK’s DNA on a daily basis.

The first person we would like to talk about is Elsa, one of the four founding partners of the company. If Efficiency had a first name, it would probably be Elsa. But actually, Elsa Efficiency doesn’t sound that nice, does it? Believe us though, it makes perfect sense!

Datasheet:

Full name: Elsa Maria Pereira Gomes

Age: 46

Birthplace: Lisbon

Academic degree: Master’s Degree in Translation (ISLA)

She was born in Lisbon, into a small family, but with great human values.

Fan of a good detective novel, addicted to Criminal Minds and with a passion for Agatha Christie, Elsa loves the exhilarating rush of adrenaline of a great plot. Hadn’t she seized with both hands the opportunity of a lifetime and embarked on this voyage called TETRAEPIK, she would probably be trying to uncover difficult cases of criminal investigation.

She loves to dance and it is a well-known secret that Elsa doesn’t miss a chance, at the company’s anniversary parties, to jump to the dance floor as soon as the music starts playing.  At the age of 24 she decided to start a dance of her own, but not like the traditional “pas de deux” (literally a “step of two”), but in a “pas de quatre” (a dance for four) – she started, with three colleagues, what would become the project of a lifetime: the foundation of a language service provider that she had envisioned the moment she initiated her professional career in this field. For years, she got to experience other realities with other language agencies and soon became aware that not all companies dance to the same rhythm. Thus, she also knew exactly what tempo she would like to implement at her own company.

She considers herself stubborn, but she prefers to be considered resilient. Maybe that is one of the factors that allow her to bring values such as perseverance and spirit of sacrifice into the company, which were essential during what Elsa considers to have been the most difficult moment in TETRAEPIK’s life: the 2002 recession.

On the other hand, in her view, the best moment in TETRAEPIK’s history was being awarded an international prize in 2007 that actually represented a public recognition of TETRAEPIK’s daily work and aim: to put our best efforts and qualities into every project we accept.

She is a confident, self-assured and determined woman who states in a very affirmative way that she “can (almost) every time get to the right place, even if she occasionally gets lost along the way”. She has brought this energy on a daily basis to TETRAEPIK and feels really proud about having been able to turn an initiative marked for crashing and burning into something that has gone extraordinarily well.

TETRAEPIK: How is it like to be a founding partner and the Quality Director at TETRAEPIK and what are the main challenges you have to face daily?

Elsa: Being part of this company is easy. I had the luck and the privilege to find perfect partners. Being the Quality Director is far more difficult though. Quality is actually what defines us as a company and what allows us to be a successful player in our industry for more than 22 years now. It is a daily ongoing work and it is that ONE aspect that can never fail.

Looking to the past, analysing the present and imagining the future, Elsa considers that TETRAEPIK stands out from the pack due to the constant effort we put in to help our clients thrive. “Everything has to do with our clients and their interests”.

TETRAEPIK: What are we doing really well?

Elsa: A 100% dedication to all projects.

TETRAEPIK: And what are we not doing so well?

Elsa: We have had some difficulties in letting go of some old habits that might well benefit our clients’ needs and interests, but that actually prevent us from being competitive.

As an ending note, she states that her expectations for the future lie in the “solid and sustained growth of the company” and, leveraging her ability to communicate with others, she asked the genie in the bottle to make her wish come true and finally let TETRAEPIK show off its cha-cha-cha skills on international stages.

We tried through this post to present Elsa and let you get to know her a little, but we failed. Actually, defining her is not easy because what defines her is “the constant effort to have no definition at all”.