UK Training Industry Press Releases

university education facilitates international lifestyle led to successful language translation agency

Tom Bool, a former student of European Business at Anglia Ruskin University, has been selected as the winner of the 2009 Alumni Success in Business Award.

During his BA (Hons) European Business degree at Anglia Ruskin, which he completed in 2006, Tom Bool discovered a taste for an international lifestyle, and a passion for languages.  Spending close to two years in France between university in Clermont Ferrand and various work placements and jobs, Tom developed his French to near native fluency and immediately set about improving his Spanish too.  After qualifying as an English teacher in Spain, he cultivated his interest in languages further still.  Today, Tom is the Managing Director of his own language translation agency.

Commenting on his selection for the award, Tom said: ‘I'm absolutely delighted to have won this award, and I would like to thank the board for their kind judgment. Business ownership has allowed me grow as a person, to travel, to meet fascinating people and to achieve a whole host of my personal ambitions. I hope that this award will be a motivation to other graduating students to take chances, seize opportunities and not to be discouraged by the cold front of today's tough job market.'

Before setting up his own company, Tom, 29, worked in many different jobs, viewing each company as a learning experience.  He took note of their markets and the way they operated, seeing what worked, slowly developing his own model, and crystallising his idea of how we felt he would like to do business. It took him around six months to set up a group of contacts through which he could offer translations in 20 languages, it was at this point that he set up the business.