Entrepreneurial Linguist photo shoot, in the desert surrounding Las Vegas, 2009. Photo by Ulf Buchholz.
Judy and Dagmar Jenner are identical twins with a multinational, multicultural, and multilingual background who together run a successful boutique translation and interpreting business, aptly named Twin Translations. They were born in Austria and grew up in a trilingual household in Mexico City. Judy has lived in Las Vegas since she was a teenager. She came to the U.S. after being recruited to take tennis scholarships to many universities. She chose Vegas and has never regretted it. Judy received her MBA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in 2001. She’s active in her community and served on the board of directors of CLASS, a bilingual newspaper for high school students, for more than 10 years. She’s the current president of the Nevada Interpreters and Translators Association. A veteran of Spanish-language online media, Judy was in charge of the launch of the nation’s first fully localized Spanish travel website, www.espanol.vegas.com (not responsible for current content!), where she served as Content Manager and spearheaded all of its operations, including translation, localization, content strategy, software testing, site design, categorization, etc. for more than five years. As a writer and copywriter, she’s contributed to many national and international print and online media outlets. Judy is a master-level court-certified Spanish interpreter (Supreme Court of Nevada) and the only court-registered German court interpreter in Nevada. She frequently interprets at international trade shows. She lives by the Red Rock mountains in Las Vegas, NV, and spends time working and traveling in Europe at least once a year.
Dagmar received the equivalent of a master’s degree in French and Communications from the University of Salzburg in 2000 and also holds a master’s degree in Spanish and French conference interpreting as well as an undergraduate degree in translation from the University of Vienna. Dagmar is an accredited freelance conference interpreter for the institutions of the European Union, where she works in the German booth (Spanish, English and French into German). She lived and studied in Tours, France, where she perfected her French language skills, and frequently returns to France to hone her French accent. Since 2001, Dagmar has successfully run the European side of Twin Translations out of Vienna, Austria. She’s pioneered many of the strategies Twin Translations uses today, including the five-step quality assurance process. She was the driving force behind establishing the company and winning its first clients, which include Sony Net Services, Red Bull, Austrian Post, Roche Diagnostics, etc. Dagmar is the secretary general of UNIVERSITAS Austria, the Austrian Interpreters’ and Translators’ Association and the editor of its print newsletter. She’s an expert on the new German spelling reform and frequently gives workshops and presentations on this complex subject. Dagmar lives in Vienna, Austria, but spends at least one month a year in her second home: Las Vegas.
