FEATURE
Sandra La Brasca
Director of technical and tools support at Acolad
Growing up, my family held regular Sunday gatherings, in which several participants simply could not understand one another — they just didn’t speak the same language. A few of us translated to ease the language barrier, but it led to quite a few misunderstandings that, in retrospect, are quite hilarious.
In this sense, language and translation have been common threads throughout my entire life. My brothers and I were among the first generation in the family to attend college. I studied law and literature and quickly became initiated into this industry. Thirty and some odd years later (I prefer not to count them all), I can safely say that most of my wrinkles were caused by incorrect leveraging, missed tags, and other such inevitable mishaps.
ACCOLADES
Sandra’s depth and breadth of knowledge of localization practices and tools is only eclipsed by her compassion and thoughtfulness both for customers and her colleagues.
Sandra is one of the most empathetic manager I’ve ever had the chance to work with.
She is an inspiration for her knowledge, tenacity, empathy and ambition. She is a fantastic manager who truly cares about her teams and their well being, while pushing them to learn and be the best employees they can be.
I have covered almost all of the traditional roles from translator to solutions architect with a few detours via project, product, and account management. These are all the reasons why this nomination means so much to me. I have arguably spent more time with some of my fellow nominees than I have with my own children, who may have also contributed to some of the aforementioned wrinkles. At the end of the day, for me, it’s all about the people I’ve met on this journey. I have met so many awe-inspiring people that naming all of them would take too long and not naming all of them would be unfair — you know who you are! Today, I have the privilege of leading a technical team, and I am humbled everyday by their dedication, hard work, and knowledge.
My interest in people bleeds into my personal life — anyone who has been to an industry event that I’ve attended will tell you that I am a passionate and fearless dancer. My best friends also joke a lot about the fact that walking with me is torture because I like to walk a lot. I also enjoy long-distance swimming. I have three children who are now fascinating adults and very different from one another, and I share my life — or what I can of it — with a fantastic pastry chef. Those of you who follow me on social media have seen the pictures and know I am not exaggerating.
I’m nominating Sandra for her immense empathy, support, human understanding — really, talk to her and you’ll see.
WEEKLY DIGEST
Subscribe to stay updated between magazine issues.
