Wolfestone Translation Team

Anna Bastek

Co-founder

Anna Bastek is the co-founder and Marketing Director of Wolfestone Translation Ltd. Anna was awarded the title of "Swansea Bay Woman of the Year 2009".

Anna has wide ranging management and strategic experience and impressive track record building start-up companies and accelerating revenue. Anna‘s career so far has included being a Marketing Manager for an Electronics Design Company, a Marketing Director and Business Development Director for a Carbon Offsetting Company, a Marketing Director for a Contract Cleaning Company and Director of a Media Production company.

Anna is an experienced marketing and communications professional and is responsible for the development and maintenance of marketing and business development strategies within Wolfestone.

Anna holds a Master‘s Degree in Marketing, an Engineering Degree in Production Systems Management, CMI Level 4 Award in Management and Leadership, ILM Certificate in Management and CIM e-Marketing Award and has lived in the UK since 2003.

To relax, Anna enjoys travelling, playing the keyboard, graphic design, scuba diving and is a talented photographer.

Roy Allkin

Co-founder

Roy Allkin is the co-founder and Operations Director of Wolfestone Translation Ltd. Roy studied History for his first class Honours Degree before going on to achieve a Masters Degree with distinction in Business. Roy holds CMI Level 4 Award in Management and Leadership.

Roy‘s career has seen him work as a General Bar and Restaurant Manager in London, an Enterprise Manager for a business development agency and as a National Business Development Director and interim CEO for a national charity.

Utilising his extensive experience in business development strategy his primary focus now is ensuring Wolfestone fulfils its huge potential. Roy sees a pivotal role for the company in raising standards in the industry and promoting the highest degree of professionalism possible.

In his spare time Roy travels extensively, is an advanced scuba diver, enjoys tennis, rock climbing and sailing and is passionate about reading. Roy is also a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon-do, has been British Champion, and has represented Wales internationally.

Robert Turner

Sales Manager

Rob Turner joined Wolfestone Translation in August 2011 as the Sales Manager.

Rob was born in Nottingham, England and moved to Dubai in the Middle East as a child aged nine with his family. Rob grew up in the United Arab Emirates and left to go travelling after finishing his studies. He has now settled in Wales where he lives with his family and children in Bridgend.

Rob's career to date has been predominately sales orientated.  He has worked on the front line of the sales process and at a managerial level for both blue-chip companies and SME's alike.

For the last six years, Rob has shown a consistent and exceptional track record of managing teams and sales forces to achieve and surpass targets and expectations, whilst maintaining a strict ethos of professionalism and customer focus.

Rob has the overall responsibility for the sales of Wolfestone. Using his extensive experience and knowledge of sales strategies and business development, Rob's role is to drive Wolfestone forward, increase productivity, develop new business and expand on the company's already considerable success.

In his spare time, Rob is an avid gym fanatic and has been bodybuilding for the past two years. To relax, Rob likes eating out, walks on the beach and spending time with his family.

Emma Roome

HR and Vendor Manager

Before her career at Wolfestone Translation, Emma completed a French and Spanish degree at Cardiff University. During the course of the degree Emma spent a year working and studying at the University of Limoges, France and the University of Extremadura, Spain, this consolidated her love of both languages and encouraged her to continue with her studies. Following this, Emma decided to concentrate on improving her translation skills and went on to do a Masters in Translation and Language Technology at Swansea University, where she also completed her SDL Trados level 1 certification.

Emma joined the company in 2008 as Senior Project Manager, with ultimate responsibility for all projects passing through the company as well as translating from French and Spanish into English. She then progressed to Operations Manager and has more recently also taken on the responsibility of HR and Vendor Manager.

During her time at the company Emma has gained a City and Guilds Level 4 Professional Development Award in Project Management, the Institute of Leadership and Management level 3 award in First Line Management, the Association of Project Management Introductory Certificate in Project Management and the CIPD Level 5 Certificate in Human Resource Management.

Helen Courtney

Sales Executive

Helen joined Wolfestone in November 2009 as Finance Manager.

In 2004 Helen received her Honours Degree in Accounting, having always been interested in finance and numbers, accounting seemed the obvious choice.

After a short spell spent in the sales department, Helen found that she really enjoyed the positive interaction with clients and moved to the sales department permanently. Helen is currently managing a number of important clients and actively promoting and developing NRG TRANS. A new company under the umbrella of Wolfestone Translation, which specialises in translation services for the Energy sector.

Helen is extremely interested in health and nutrition, and her hobbies include, boxing, swimming, running and more recently she has taken up kick boxing. As you can tell  she enjoys spending a lot of time at the gym!!

Once Helen has worked off the stresses of the day, some other, non-exercise related hobbies include reading. Her favorite author is Stephen King and her all time favorite film is The Shawshank Redemption which is actually based on a Stephen King short story.

Anna Stone

Senior Project Manager

Anna joined Wolfestone language school as ESOL tutor in 2008 and in July 2009 started work as  Junior Project Manager and  in-house translator. Anna is currently Senior Project Manager  with  responsibility for the project management department.

Anna completed her teaching degree at the University of Silesia in Poland in 2004. Having received the qualified teacher status, she continued her education and two years later graduated with a Master’s degree in English, specialising in American culture, poetry and gender studies. She then moved to Wales to complete her Master’s in Translation with Language Technology at the University of Wales Swansea.

While studying, Anna worked as a freelance interpreter and translator, collaborating mainly with local government organisations. Since joining the team she has achieved City & Guilds Professional Development Award Level 4 in Project Management , Association for Project Management Introductory Certificate in Project Management. Anna is currently working towards her Modern Skills Diploma in Management (Institute of Leadership and Management & NVQ Level 4) and Institute of Legal Executives Level 3 Certificate in Law and Practice.

Philip Thomas

Finance Manager

Philip was born in Port Talbot and moved to Briton Ferry in 1978 where he lives today.

Philip went to Coventry College of Art and Design where he studied fine art, but decided that teaching art was not for him so he moved into accounts where he has spent all of his working life. Philip started off work in the accounts department of an automotive company where he stayed for 22 years, he then moved to a butter packing company where he stayed for 7 years as the Works Accountant. His next appointment was as the Finance Manager of a company that produced building materials for the building renovation industry, he also stayed at this company for 7 years until the recent recession saw the building industry take a massive nosedive .

Philip joined Wolfestone Translation in July 2010 as an Accounts Executive, so continuing his accounts theme.

In his spare time, Philip has numerous hobbies including dog showing, he is also a Kennel Club Judge able to judge all the working and pastoral breeds. Philip has run weight training classes for 44 years to date and because of this he studied physiotherapy to help people who get injured in his gym, he now puts these skills to use at Briton Ferry Rugby Club where he has been the Treasurer for the last twelve years.

Marie-Ange West

Project Manager

Marie-Ange was born and raised in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the South of France. She came to Swansea in 2002 as an exchange student to complete a degree in Applied Language Studies. She studied Spanish, English and Italian as part of her degree course.

In 2005, she started teaching French conversation to AS and A Level students at Gorseinon College in Swansea, whilst pursuing a two-year PGCE course. After a number of years teaching, having concurrently developed her translation skills, she decided to sit the internationally recognised diploma in translation of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, which she passed in 2007. She then began in earnest to work as a freelance translator and French examiner for the Welsh Joint Education Committee and Edexcel. In May 2010, she joined Wolfestone Translation as Project Manager/Translator.

In addition to sharing in voluntary work within the local community, in her spare time Marie-Ange enjoys reading novels, visits to the gym, upland and coastal hiking and foreign travel. An advanced diver, her latest expedition was to the Egyptian Red Sea.

Jenny Green

Sales Executive

Jenny joined Wolfestone Translation in December 2011 after completing a 3 month translation internship within the company as part of her MA.

Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2010 with a BA in Pure Mathematics and French, Jenny moved to Swansea to develop her skills in translation and learn more about the industry. She is a registered student with the IOL and a student associate of the ITI and regularly attends their CPD events.

During her BA, Jenny spent a year studying at the University of Limoges, France. She subsequently spent a month studying an intensive Spanish course at Malaga University and in 2011 she completed a European MA in Translation and Language Technology at Swansea University in both languages. During her MA she also gained her SDL Trados Level 3 Certification.

In her spare time, Jenny enjoys playing music and dancing. She plays clarinet and saxophone in various local ensembles. In 2008 she co-organised the City of Cardiff Concert Band tour to Nantes and during her final year at Cardiff University, she was President of the Cardiff University Wind Band Society.

Linda Griff

Online Marketing Executive

Linda joined Wolfestone in April 2010 as International Manager for Germany, with overall management responsibilities for the Sales, Marketing, Finance and Project Management teams.

Linda completed her honours degree in Politics with Economics at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany). During her studies Linda gained valuable experience working for a Member of the German Parliament for a number of years, before deciding to develop her marketing skills and worked for an online event portal company. Since joining Wolfestone Translation Linda has gained a City and Guilds Level 4 Professional Development Award in Marketing and  the Association of Project Management Introductory Certificate in Project Management. In addition to working with German Account Customers, Linda is currently concentrating on her new role as Online Marketing Executive for Wolfestone Translation.

In her spare time Linda enjoys coastal walks in Pembrokeshire. Another interest is photography. After refusing for years to give in to the new trend of digital photography and clinging on to her traditional SLR, she has finally given in and purchased a Digital SLR to explore the Welsh Countryside.

David Jones

Business Development Manager 

After a successful career in London-based executive recruitment David pursued his interest in overseas travel, running a language training business in Russia and then setting up recruitment and training services in various eastern European locations.

After returning to his native South Wales David added to his technical knowledge with business development roles in the information technology sector, developing client contacts throughout the UK in a range of sectors including law, finance, engineering and pharmaceutical manufacturing. With more and more of these clients finding a common need for high quality professional translation services to enable them to break into lucrative overseas markets, David’s move to Wolfestone was a logical progression.  He looks forward to leading Wolfestone’s business development into many new markets.  

David’s hobbies include screenwriting – he’s had short pieces performed on TV - and he has an avid interest in English and American literature.  He is a fan of most sports and is a lifelong Swansea City supporter.  His ambition is to complete an iron man triathlon.

Jo Sheldon

Head of Multimedia

Jo joined Wolfestone Translation as a Project Manager in January 2011, after completing an internship with the company in the Translation/Project Management department. She has recently been promoted to Head of the Multimedia department, leading Wolfestone’s team of DTP specialists and sound engineers.

In 2009, Jo graduated from Swansea University with a BA in French and Spanish. Throughout her degree, she worked for the  Student’s Union as a Sales Assistant and also actively participated in the SU Sabbatical Elections as a campaign team member for the International Officer at the time.

During her time as a student, Jo spent a year studying French, Spanish and English at the Université d’Angers in France, where she reinforced her knowledge of French and discovered a passion for translation. Upon returning to Swansea, she went on to complete a Masters in Translation with Language Technology, improving her translation skills and knowledge of Computer-Assisted Translation tools, such as Trados and Déja Vu. She has since gained SDL Trados Level 1 Certification and is XTM certified.

In her spare time, Jo enjoys travelling around Europe and visiting new destinations. Her favourite places include Monaco, Rome and Vienna.  She also enjoys playing tennis, swimming and socialising.

Mari d‘Antonio

Senior Sales/ Project Manager

Mari was born and raised in Italy. In 2010 she completed a BA degree in Foreign Languages and Literature at the University of Milan, with English and French as main subjects. As part of her course she was able to spend eight months studying in Wales at Cardiff University, followed by another one-year period living and working in Cardiff, before returning to Milan to complete her degree. During her time as a student, Mari  gained valuable experience in translation, doing freelance work for numerous projects, and has also given private English tuition.

Mari permanently relocated to Wales in October 2010, and joined Wolfestone Translation as Sales/Admin Assistant. She now holds the position of Senior Sales/Project Manager, which combines her passion for sales and foreign languages. In this role Mari acts as head of Wolfestone’s Certificates Team, providing legalised translations.

Mari has a passion for literature and enjoys reading novels whenever she has some spare time. Her other interests include photography, travelling, cooking and writing.

Gerry Gilroy

Document Manager

Gerry was born in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland and moved to South Wales in 2001.

He completed a BTEC National Diploma in Media Studies during his time at the North West Regional College in Derry, Northern Ireland. Following this he decided to continue his studies at Swansea Metropolitan University, where he studied and excelled in both Multimedia and Computer & Information Systems.

Gerry is currently a Specialist DTP Technician for Wolfestone Translation. Previous jobs include a Managerial role with a well-known supermarket chain, where he attained and utilised exceptional customer service skills and also developed training manuals for company staff working throughout the United Kingdom. His most recent post was also as a DTP technician, designing publication and marketing material for a welding products company.

He is excited to be working for Wolfestone and is looking forward to developing the DTP and IT Department. He is keen to bring fresh ideas to the company and to help Wolfestone grow even further.

Bethan Aston

Sales/ Project Manager

Bethan joined Wolfestone’s Certified Translation Team in 2011 as a recent graduate from Cardiff University with a 2:1 BA degree in Spanish. She is currently working towards gaining her City and Guilds Level 4 Professional Development Award in Project Management. She is enjoying working in the vibrant and fast-paced translation industry, being able to utilise her studies as well as being immersed in a wide variety of cultures and languages along the way.

During her studies, Bethan spent a year living in Oviedo, Asturias (Spain) and working as an English Language Teaching Assistant in a secondary school, as well as being a private language tutor to a vast array of ages and abilities.

Bethan is a keen BSAC scuba diver, having dived in the Caribbean, Central American Islands, the Red Sea and closer to home throughout the UK. Bethan lives in Swansea and is a keen traveller, having travelled extensively throughout Eastern and Western Europe, being able to use her love of Spanish to travel around Central and South America, Brazil and Egypt, to name but a few.

Silke Lührmann

German Translator

Silke holds an M.A. in American Studies, English Language and Literature and Russian from Marburg University in Germany. She has also studied at Yale University, held research fellowships from the Free University of Berlin and the University of California at Irvine and attended Summer School classes at the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) at the University of East Anglia, where she worked with distinguished writers and literary translators.

Having already cycled through large parts of Western Europe, the UK and Ireland as a student, she crossed the seven seas on her surfboard, travelling extensively in Southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, South America and New Zealand with her partner, then decided to put her language skills to professional use as a freelance translator. She recently moved to Swansea to indulge her love of surfing while completing an M.A. in Literary Translation.

Silke originally joined Wolfestone as an intern to learn more about the business and project-management sides of the language industry – in her current position as an in-house translator, she has ample opportunity to do exactly that.

A keen athlete, she also likes swimming and long-distance running. After all, she reckons, the qualities which make her a successful marathon runner are quite useful for a translator as well: stamina, enthusiasm, commitment, the willingness to push herself to the limits.

Vania Petkova

Accounts Assistant

Vania was born and raised in Bulgaria and has been living in Swansea since 2004. She has always had a very strong interest in mathematics and her interest in accounting increased during her work in the UK.

She worked as a Sales Assistant for a few years, before completing her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance at Swansea University.  During her degree she worked as a Sales Supervisor where she enjoyed interacting with customers.  She also has extensive experience in bookkeeping and payroll preparation for small companies.

Vania joined Wolfestone as an Accounts Assistant in 2011 to further her career in Accounting and to utilise her skills.

Vania is interested in healthy eating and makes sure she gets her 5 a day. She is a keen cook and enjoys having friends over for dinner.  She also enjoys going to restaurants and exploring different cuisines. She is trying to keep fit by walking and running.

Gwenllian Jones

Sales/ Project Manager

Gwenllian joined Wolfestone Translation in August 2011 after gaining her French and Spanish BA at Cardiff University, where she realised her love of translation and decided to follow a career in the industry.

She works as part of the Certificates team selling and managing projects as well as utilising her translation and linguistic skills on a daily basis. She is enjoying learning about all aspects of running a translation business as well as widening her knowledge of translation skills.

As part of her year abroad during her degree, Gwenllian spent a year studying in both Santiago de Compostela, Spain and Chambery, France. This year spent studying in two foreign countries made her realise the importance of learning other languages and of immersing yourself in other cultures, and gave her the travel bug to see more of the world.

Gwenllian is a keen runner and recently completed her first half-marathon, with the hope of doing a full marathon in the next couple of years.  During her spare time she likes to read, exercise and socialise with friends. She would love to travel to South America, Eastern Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and has hopes of learning Italian and German to expand her linguistic skills. 

Sera Rabbett

Studio Engineer

Sera joined Wolfestone as an intern during her summer break from University in 2011. After three months setting up Wolfestone’s recording studios and starting voiceover projects, Sera was taken on as full-time member of the team in October of 2011. She is currently finishing her third year in Swansea Metropolitan University doing a BSc Hons in Music Technology.

Sera has been a freelance live sound engineer for several years for local festivals and Swansea music venue The Garage. She is eager to gain more experience and develop her skills in audio editing, as well as explore other media applications like video editing. Sera has previously been a self-employed events promoter running an Entertainment Promotion business subcontracted by the council.

Her life so far has been very focused on music production, promotion and performance. However, Sera is very keen to expand her experience with voiceover recordings and developing post production skills. In her spare time, Sera performs as a singer/songwriter in her band Sera and The Elements. She also loves sea kayaking, cycling, relaxing with friends and travelling.

Henry Adams

Project Manager

Henry joined Wolfestone Translation in October 2011, recruited to work as a Project Manager.   Henry holds a BA in Spanish, French and Politics from Southampton University (2003) and an MA in Translation and Interpreting with Language Technology from Swansea University (2006).  He is a certified ITI translator and holds industry respected qualifications in Project and Service Management; he is a PRINCE 2 Practitioner and an ITIL V2 Manager.  He also has an SC security clearance.

Henry’s management experience is extensive.  Having worked for 5 years managing delivery of IT outsourcing services to very large UK customers, Henry saw the opportunity to work with Wolfestone as the ideal way to combine his client-focussed and management experience with his love for language and passion for the translation industry, a very exciting prospect.

Henry has lived and worked in many parts of the world including time spent in Spain, France, China and Taiwan, and Australia. He loves to travel and has recently completed a 12,000-mile voyage down the Pan-American Highway from Canada to Peru.

Henry lives in Mumbles, near Swansea and is a keen surfer and sailor. He loves being by the sea, swimming, diving, reading and discovering new parts of the world to explore.

Michael Davies

Accounts Assistant

Mike joined the accounts department at Wolfestone in January 2012 after completing a short internship.

He gained electrical engineering qualifications at Gorseinon College before joining 3M in Gorseinon in 1983 where he worked in a manufacturing environment for just over 26 years. During his time at 3M Mike worked as a machine operator, trained new employees to operate machinery, commissioned machinery at home and overseas, worked as a process technician implementing training documents and process operating procedures and gained qualifications in mechanical engineering, IT and Payroll/Accounting before taking voluntary redundancy in 2009.

Over the last two years, Mike has trained in various disciplines in the watersports industry through React and Go Wales funding. He works summer weekends at Oxwich Bay with Swansea Watersports hiring out watersports equipment and has just completed his City and Guilds certificate in Watersports Business Administration.

Mike’s interests are reading, sports, scuba diving and watersports and he is a keen trekker, his travels have taken him to Banff – Canada, Everest Base Camp, Kilimanjaro and the Peruvian Andes including Machu Picchu.

Cristian Marcico

Studio Engineer

Cristian initially joined Wolfestone in 2011 on an Internship as a Studio Engineer to further develop his skills in the field of sound recording and multimedia. After successfully completing his internship he started working with Wolfestone on a permanent basis in February 2012.

Although Cristian is originally from Buenos Aires, he has lived in Wales for almost ten years. He has been a musician all his life and has always been interested in sound and the technical side of music. While completing a BSc Hons in Music Technology at University of Glamorgan with the latest technology at the Atrium in Cardiff, Cristian was also playing in various bands in venues around Cardiff, Bristol and London.

After graduating Cristian spent time in a recording studio which helped him gain a great deal of experience and gave him an opportunity to put his technical skills to use. As well as this he worked free-lance as a live sound engineer in the Cardiff area.

During his free time Cristian enjoys spending time with his family and experimenting with different audio and video equipment.

Arek Estall

Online Marketing Executive

Fluent Polish speaker Arek joined Wolfestone Translation in March 2012 in the newly created position of Online Marketing Executive.

Born in Swansea, Arek studied and lived in both Wales and Italy as a child.  While living in Italy Arek became fluent in Italian, and he has since studied German for GCSE and A Level, taking his number of languages to four.  After studying Business at Cardiff University he returned to Swansea, where he is now settled with his wife.  This multicultural and multilingual background makes him a natural “fit” at Wolfestone.

Since graduating Arek has gained excellent hands-on marketing experience across a range of sectors including telecommunications and management consultancy, and he’s also run his own marketing and design business.  Arek holds a Level 4 City and Guilds Award for Marketing and will soon complete his Professional Postgraduate Diploma, the highest qualification offered by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, which leads to Chartered Marketer status.

Arek is excited to join the team at Wolfestone, and his responsibility for strategic planning, online marketing and PR is central to Wolfestone’s expansion plans.  As the company builds on the achievements of recent years, Arek’s specialist knowledge promises to open new doors and spur even more exciting growth.

In his spare time Arek enjoys photography, watching football, and spending time with his family.  His top three favourite foods are Lebanese, Italian and Indian.