Gavin Wheeldon, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Applied Language Solutions

In just over three years, Gavin has driven his highly successful translation and interpretation business into an international operation with sales of £3.7 million, despite not being able to speak any foreign tongues. What was once a one-man business operating in his back bedroom is now an award-winning company, having been short listed for the NatWest Startups Awards in 2006 amongst other prestigious accolades. The company now boasts 70 staff and 8 offices worldwide, including Huddersfield, California, Barcelona, Paris, Bulgaria and Guatemala, and are proud to serve big named brands, such as Robbie Williams, United Nations and Nike.

Applied Language translate all kinds of documents into over 150 languages, birth certificates, simple letters to large technical documents, including whole websites and printed catalogues. The company is the first ever translation company to offer an online tattoo translation service, and has just recently launched an Instant Telephone Interpreting service that is low-cost and can be accessed by anyone, at any time in the world.