Clare Suttie

Here’s the Tea

Clare Suttie, Director here at Atlas Translations, leads her exceptional team from the front. She is still as involved in the day-to-day work at Atlas Translations as she was when she founded the company in 1991. Her ethos is to always offer a personal, quality-oriented service to each client while also building strong relationships with the translators and interpreters working with Atlas.

Clare has a knack for finding the right people with the right skills at the right time. It’s one of the many reasons Atlas Translations has become such a success. Clare’s team of talented translators, linguists, and project managers bridges the language divide; from Afrikaans to Zhuang, they make communication happen.

In addition to running Atlas Translations, Clare runs a family, which she would argue is far more demanding. Based in Devon, Clare’s family includes one husband, three children, four chickens, and a generous number of cats.

Clare has never knowingly turned down a cup of tea and certainly does her shift in tea-making duties for all the staff.

Clare’s passion for her work is heard in her comments:

“Can you afford translation? Can you afford not to attract more customers from other countries? Import, export, service, legal, websites, contracts… right down to the labels telling you how to wash your clothes. Language is everywhere and if you don’t look to overseas markets you are missing out. And it’s not just the written word – interpreters will smooth the way at meetings, and voice-overs and subtitles can help with opening existing videos on your website to a whole new market.

We work with a massive variety of clients, built up over the last 30 years. Large and small, all with different stories to tell in many languages. I’m sure we can help you.”

Lucky for us all here at Atlas, Clare is a strong believer in having a good work/life balance. In July 2019, she introduced a four-day working week for all staff, and it’s been an absolute hit!

More tea, please!

Clare set up the St Albans Polar Bear Plunge in 2016 and ran it four times, raising over £25,000 for local charities. In 2020, she handed it over to one of her favourite charities, EarthWorks St Albans.

Click on the logo to watch the BBC News video about the Polar Bear Plunge

Clare then decided on a (slightly) warmer fundraising project—yarnbombing the postboxes of St Albans and the surrounding area. You can find out about her incredible team and the £100,000 they’ve raised so far for local charities at www.stalbanspostboxes.org.uk.

In October 2021, the postboxes of East Devon joined in on the fun. You can read more about them at www.mailtrail.org.uk.

Did someone mention tea?

Clare was the Corporate Representative on the Board of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) from 2013 to 2020. She invests her time and expertise in promoting the translation and interpreting profession with talks, webinars and training courses.

You can find the latest issue and more about this fantastic membership organisation for every stage of a professional translator and interpreter career here: www.iti.org.uk.

An avid poster on LinkedIn and Instagram, Clare offers advice and help to translators and interpreters at all stages of their careers.

Clare has also teamed up with Olivia Morton, MA MITI MCIL CL DipTrans, a freelance translator, to form Team OC, which offers bespoke training and consultancy for translators.