Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Stability and Leadership
Lori Thicke, CEO and Co-Owner
Lori Thicke, a native of Canada, founded her first company when she was just 12 years old. She went on to found her next company at 17 and, as a result, appeared regularly in the local press. At 19 she sold her company to return to university. While earning her degrees she also worked part-time as a journalist and book editor.
In 1986, after receiving a Master’s Degree from the University of British Columbia, Lori moved to Paris and founded Eurotexte, later renamed Lexcelera. In 1993, Lori co-founded Traducteurs sans frontières in order to provide pro bono translations to humanitarian organizations. Lori is President of the U.S. based sister organization, Translators without Borders, which became a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation in 2011.
In 2000, Lori led the drive to earn ISO 9001:2000 certification, and not long afterwards became an early adopter of – and evangelist for – machine translation.
Lori is a frequent speaker on her two passions: translation technology innovations, and Translators without Borders. Lori has one son, Farrell, and lives near the Bastille in Paris.
Read some of Lori’s articles. See some of Lori’s speeches. Visit Lori’s blog.
Ros Smith-Thomas, Vendor Manager and Co-Owner
Ros, a native of Sevenoaks in the United Kingdom, moved to Paris in her early 20s. Before joining Eurotexte in 1991, Ros worked for 17 years in the language training business, first as a teacher and subsequently as Administrative Manager for a Parisian language school.
Ros joined Lexcelera in 1992 as General Manager, bringing considerable interpersonal and administrative skills, plus a fluency in English, French and Spanish.
In 1993, Ros co-founded Traducteurs sans frontières, and is currently the President of the French non-profit association, registered under the French 1901 law governing charities.
Ros is married with two children, and lives in an architectural wonder of a house in Paris’ 20th arrondissement.
Laurence Roguet, Operations Manager
As Lexcelera’s Chief Operations Officer, Laurence has a wide variety of responsibilities, including overseeing day to day operations, coordinating the sales and productions teams and making sure Lexcelera’s strategy is successfully deployed. Laurence entered the localization industry 12 years ago as a Senior Project Manager for one of the world’s largest localization companies. Successive promotions to Vendor Manager, Resource Manager (linguists and engineers) and Business Unit Manager gave Laurence an in-depth understanding of client needs as well as of the management of complex multilingual projects. This wide ranging experience means that Laurence is now able to wear a number of caps, from production to finance.
Laurence has a Master’s degree in Financial Management and Business Administration. She is fluent in both French and English.
Chris Fischer-Gissot, Sales Manager
Chris has over 15 years of production, sales and management experience in the translation and localization industry. A German native speaker whose international career has spanned France, the UK and Tunisia, Chris also speaks French, English and Spanish fluently.
Chris joined Lexcelera in 2001. In 2004, promoted to the position of Sales Manager, Chris became responsible for managing a team of sales executives, drawing up and implementing the company’s sales strategy. With a particular focus on VIP accounts, Chris negotiates framework agreements with some of the world’s largest companies. The majority of France’s largest corporations – the CAC 40 – are Lexcelera clients.
A certified tennis coach, Chris also received diplomas as a life coach (IFG CNOF) and sales manager (CEGOS).
