Born in Hungary, Gabe Bokor has an engineering and an MBA degree from Brazil. He held various executive positions with three multinational companies before he settled in the USA and, with his wife Cathy, established Accurapid Translation Services in 1978.

Gabe joined ATA in the same year. He was the first Administrator of ATA's Science & Technology Division, Desktop Publisher and later Editor-in-Chief of its Newsletter, which he upgraded to Sci-Tech Translation Journal. He served two terms on ATA's Board of Directors between 1986 and 1992, having been re-elected after his first term with the largest number of votes in a field of nine candidates. He has also served as Chair of the Ethics Committee, and member of several ATA committees, including Honors & Awards, Voting Rights, and Certification, as an assistant system operator (sysop) of CompuServe's Foreign Language Forum (FLEFO), of which he had been a founding member, and as head of a Task Force to computerize ATA's certification program. Gabe is ATA-certified in three language combinations and has served as an English-to-Portuguese grader for 25 years. In the year 2000 Gabe was awarded ATA's Gode Medal for distinguished service to the profession.

Gabe has always been concerned with the business relationship between translation buyers and translation providers. The Code of Professional Conduct and Business Practices, also known as the "Ethics Code", which addresses this issue, was drafted at his initiative and adopted during his term as Ethics Chair. He has written extensively in the ATA Chronicle and the Sci-Tech Translation Journal on technical and business-related subjects. His article commenting on ATA's policy pertaining to the enforcement of the Ethics Code, especially in the case of non-paying or late-paying buyers, appeared in the January 2005 issue of ATA Chronicle. He will moderate a panel discussion on Business Practices at the New Orleans Conference.

Gabe is a strong supporter of those measures that are intended to strengthen ATA's Certification program and to make it the universally recognized credential of excellence in translation. He intends to continue the work to bring it into the 21^st century. He supports the Continuing Education initiative because he believes that bringing the requirements of the Certification program in line with those of other professional organizations more than compensates for the cost and inconvenience involved. However, he believes that the CE point system can and should be simplified.

He is in favor of translation standards (ISO, ASTM, CEN) that, instead of promoting the ongoing concentration of power in our industry, will safeguard the individual translator's interests. He is against standards that encourage translation buyers to impose quality certification requirements that are unaffordable to individuals and small translation companies without ensuring translation quality.

Gabe's 28 years of uninterrupted service in different positions in ATA while working as a full-time translator makes him uniquely qualified to serve on the Board. As an engineer, he's a problem-solver. As an MBA, he has experience in setting priorities and allocating resources. He will put his vision, experience, integrity, and dedication to the service of ATA and its members in these critical times for our profession. He will listen to your concerns and will be available to discuss issues of interest to ATA and its members. He will work with his fellow Board members, ATA Headquarters and the different groups within ATA to provide members with the services and support they want and need.

In these days of global competition and increasing share of large multinational companies in the translation market at the expense of individual translators and small translation companies, the decisions we make during the next few years will determine the course of our industry for decades to come. Select your representatives thoughtfully. Vote for Gabe Bokor for the Board of ATA.

For more information, contact Gabe at gbokor@accurapid.com.

Gabe's full bio is available at http://accurapid.com/gabe.html.

Update

In the elections held at the New Orleans Conference of the American Translators Association on November 2, 2006, Gabe was elected with the largest number of votes of the six candidates who ran.

Thank you, ATA members. I promise I won't disappoint you.
Gabe

 
See also Gabe's interview with Verónica Albin.