Life Sciences Roundtable

Building and Growing Language Operations in Life Sciences

Building a translation function in any organization is no small feat, but it is particularly challenging in life sciences.

In this panel, the speakers will share their experience and tips for building a strong translation function, growing "localization maturity", and addressing frequent obstacles and opportunities. They will also discuss the best ways to serve internal customers, including those in product, regulatory, and marketing roles. The panel will cover education needs, where to go for information, finding and retaining talent for language operations, and changing perspectives on MT, NMT, and AI.

Opportunities for sharing experience in life sciences translations are rare, but the challenges are not unique. This panel brings together leading professionals in the field to provide others with ideas and inspiration for growing their own language operations.

 

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Kristina Cole

Senior Program Manager | Global Translation & Localization

Medtronic

Kristina is a Sr. Localization Program Manager at Medtronic. She is responsible for EU MDR–related localization strategy across Medtronic businesses and functions. She is also responsible for labeling / technical literature / software translation strategy for Cardiovascular and Medical Surgical portfolios. She has 20+ years of experience in localization (prior to Medtronic she was Director of Operations at United Language Group and Merrill Brink).

Kristina_Cole
 

Tara Baer

Consultant

Tara Baer is an experienced leader in Medical Device and Pharmaceutical labeling. She is currently supporting these industries as a consultant for labeling and quality. Tara most recently was the Head of Labeling for Takeda, before this she partnered with Takada to build the PRA Labeling Team (now ICON) providing labeling content and operational services to the Pharma and Device industry. She has also worked at such industry leaders as AbbVie, Boston Scientific, Wyeth and Intervet, where she developed a passion for End-to-End Labeling Management, from safety through distribution. An experienced manager, guide and motivator she has led diverse teams of professionals towards collaborative solutions. Tara has a proven track record of successfully delivering projects with aggressive timelines and budgets, with a focus on risk and quality management. She specializes in translation management, workflow, content development, automated tracking/process integration, and asset management.

Tara is a founder of Leaders in Labeling, a group of thought leaders in labeling for regulated products, pharmaceutical, biologics and medical devices.

Tara Baer
 

Sandrine Lardit

Senior Manager for Translation/Localization

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD)

Sandrine Lardit is the Senior Manager for Translation/Localization at Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD). Her experience in the L10N industry spans over 25 years, both on the vendor side as well as on the client side. At BD, Sandrine manages two teams of translation/localization specialists for the Life Sciences segment (BD Biosciences and BD Integrated Diagnostic Solutions business units). Her role involves localization strategy development and optimization; project planning, resourcing, and budgeting; tool implementation; process improvement; change management; quality management, and talent development. She also leads collaboration efforts with multicultural cross-functional teams in R&D, Marketing, Regulatory Affairs, and QA, and runs a monthly corporate-wide call to educate internal stakeholders on translation and localization concepts, processes, and best practices.

Sandrine
 

Nikole Gross 

Principal Localization Specialist

Stryker

Nikole’s career in localization began at Microsoft in the early ‘90s and spans 30 years. She has worked as a PM on both the client side and as the LSP. In 2018 it was time for a new challenge, so Nikole transitioned from IT over to Life Sciences to manage localization at Stryker Medical in Redmond. She manages localization of their defibrillation and monitoring devices, including software, voice prompts, data solutions\connectivity, product documentation, packaging and labeling. Nikole’s greatest challenge in her current role is growing awareness around l10n and i18n best practices across the organization and advocating for greater investment in technology and resources for workflow optimization to increase time and cost efficiencies while improving product quality and target user experience.

 

Nikole Gross
 

Nadège Young

Moderator

Nadège Young is VP of Customer Success at Argos Multilingual. She works with many clients in the Life Science space and knows their struggles and pain as localization leaders. She is a veteran in the Localization Industry and also took a stint on the client side managing the translation process at Boston Scientific. She will bring a first-hand perspective to her moderation.

Nadege_Young