Isabella van Rooij never imagined she would end up working at her mother’s company. After all, she was studying at drama school. In 1994, the current AVB director came along to ‘help out’ for a couple of weeks. However, she enjoyed her time here so much, she never left! At drama school, she learned to really put herself in the place of others, a skill that serves her well to this day.

“I’m not a translator myself, but I know the business. If I close my eyes I can still see my mother working at the kitchen table, armed with a pen and a bottle of Tipp-Ex. My strength is building a bridge between translators and clients.” Under her guidance, the agency has not only expanded, it has also became more customer-oriented. “Everything we do for our clients is tailor-made, and every quote is different.” This prevents boredom (“the worst thing in the world”) from setting in.

She attributes her success partly to having appointed the right people to assist her: “intelligent people with lots of talent and no pretensions. And preferably people who don’t yet realise how talented they are.” One of the lessons she learned over the years was to accept that not everyone is as ambitious as she is. “I always want to get the best out of myself. And out of others too.”