I studied German with subsidiary French at the University of St Andrews, graduating with an upper second with distinction in spoken German in 1977. I then spent a year teaching at the Ruhr-University Bochum, following this up with a postgraduate diploma in translation from the University of Kent, where I studied German, Dutch and Italian and received a distinction. I worked in Germany as a translator, interpreter and editor for ten years, gaining a wide base of experience with the optical and precision engineering company Carl Zeiss and subsequently with top management consultancy McKinsey & Company, Inc. I returned to the UK in 1989 to pursue a Master's degree in Business Administration at the Manchester Business School, graduating on the Director's List in 1991. I also hold a Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing and was upgraded in 2006 to Fellow of the Institute.

I have a strong professional affiliation with the Institute of Translation & Interpreting (ITI), of which I became a Fellow in 2007, having been a qualified member since 1993 (membership no. 1626). I have been a member of ITI Council twice and am the coordinator of Yorkshire Translators & Interpreters, a local professional group affiliated to the ITI.

My translation and editing work has included a number of book publications as well as individual articles, in many cases together with my in-house team and therefore involving extensive editing and project management. The most recently completed project of this nature was the translation of “The Puma Story", Rolf Peters. German-English, approx. 250 pages. German version published by Hanser 2007 and English published by Cyan Communications Limited. Copyright of English version Helen E Robertson Translations Limited.

I have also published a number of articles on the management side of translation in The Linguist and in the ITI bulletin.