FEATURE
Anne-Cécile Dousson-Lhéritier
Manager of content management at Amazon
It is an honor to be part of this list, alongside such talented women. I entered the localization industry by chance 17 years ago, after I relocated to Silicon Valley in 2006. I looked for a job using what I thought was my best skill at the time: French. Since then, I fell in love with the concept of enabling more people to connect to each other by adapting the language, the context, and the environment until it feels crafted specifically for the person receiving the message. I grew and evolved in this wonderful ecosystem where I learned so many skills and met so many people, including peers, mentors, and conference colleagues.
Being recognized now for my participation in the development of the localization industry is a wonderful step. It instills the sense I’m going in the right direction and should continue to learn and discover how to bring people closer together. It is an acknowledgement that my involvement in Women in Localization Germany was a positive one, that the time I spend mentoring and sharing my knowledge on my own time is the right thing to do. The journey would not have been the same without the support from Maria Kania, who trusted me to lead the Women in Localization Germany chapter, Catharina Pawella, and An Stuyven who created a safe environment for me to grow and trust my skills and creativity, Maria Jesús de Arriba Díaz for always having my back in all circumstances, Inger Larsen for being a wonderful empathetic mentor and the inspiring Véronique Özkaya, a role model who always found time to share her wisdom with me.
ACCOLADES
She relentlessly worked to enhance, evolve, and energize the language industry.
Anne-Cécile is a wonderful role model within the multilingual world. She is talented, and it’s quite exceptional to look at her feedback.
Having worked with and managed both Pia and Anne-Cécile at a linguistic service provider, I saw how they grew into their localization roles, coming from other industries, and successfully managing globally distributed teams of suppliers and vendors. They then joined large localization teams at major companies, increasing their impact immensely. Both have a lot of passion for their work, while inspiring others around them. On a personal level, both Pia and Anne-Cecile managed to balance their lives as amazing professionals and moms.
Being on this list has also a big place in my heart as a woman and mother, since I apply the same principles as at work: learn and then share in a simplified way to enable others to succeed and feel empowered. The localization industry gave me the keys to understand my strengths, and I am now also proud to be able to apply them to my private sphere, at home or in my paintings. I wish to continue my journey, staying my authentic self, and giving a helping hand to the ones who, like me 17 years ago, don’t trust their potential or skills.
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