Who are we?
In the vicinity of the Palace of Justice
A translation agency you can trust
Paul Janssens: a love of language
As a graduate in Germanic Philology (English, German and Dutch) and Political Sciences (specialising in diplomacy), started his career as a language teacher in high school and as a university lecturer in Belgium and abroad, in such institutions as the Centre Propédeutique de Lovanium (Bukavu, Congo), Bedford College (University of London, England), the Faculty of Law in the Facultés Notre Dame de la Paix (Namur) and postgraduate Legal Translating in a Belgian context (Erasmus High School, Free University of Brussels).
An all-round agency
After being sworn in as a translator-interpreter for French, Dutch, English, German and Spanish at the Court of First Instance in 1988, he received increasing numbers of assignments in the legal domain and beyond. Setting up the translation agency was consequently the next logical step. On the basis of technical, medical and financial expertise in legal cases, the Paul Janssens Translation Agency was also asked from the outset in the 1990s to undertake impeccable and trustworthy translations in these fields. These achieved great success, in addition to the legal translations. The resulting enormous volume of business in these and other fields speaks for itself. The agency grew at an extraordinary pace right from the outset.
Development and expansion
The agency moved house several times in Brussels to make more room for the expanding team.
Until 1989 the agency was located at Rue Thérésienne1, B-1000 Brussels, just behind the Palace of Justice, then it moved to the more spacious and more practically equipped offices at Avenue de la Toison d’Or 79, B-1060 Brussels. On 30 December 1993 the limited liability company Paul Janssens Ltd was founded under a deed drawn up before Notary Eric THIBAUT de MAISIERES in Saint-Gilles, published in the appendices to the Belgian Official Gazette on 27 January 1994, with its head office at Avenue de la Toison d’Or 79, B-1060 Brussels. In 1995, the agency purchased prestigious premises at Avenue Louise 146, B-1050 Brussels, where it remains today. On 19 March 2002, the company capital was increased and Paul Janssens Ltd was converted into a Plc. under a deed drawn up before Notary Gerard Indekeu of B-1050 Brussels, published in the appendices to the Belgian Official Gazette on 1 May 2002.
A wide selection of freelance translators
From its inception, the Translation Agency Paul Janssens opted to work with freelance translators. The agency was able to select outstanding freelancers from the large number of candidates, with wide experience in specific professional fields. These are professional translators who specialised in the course of time in one professional field or another, or professionals with a ready pen, such as engineers, doctors, chemists, legal experts, and so on. This offered the best guarantee of exceptional quality – and long experience has confirmed this.
A versatile team
The internal staff of Translation Agency Paul Janssens ensure that translation assignments proceed smoothly and correctly and that the translations are accurate and delivered on time. They do this on the basis of their individual specialist knowledge and their specific language combinations. They thus ensure that the translation projects are completed to the customer’s satisfaction, even when it comes to unusual language combinations, specialist subjects or urgent assignments.
Paul Janssens
Founder and Managing Director of Paul Janssens Plc.
He runs the agency and constantly keeps a watchful eye on quality, in particular ensuring that the translations are outsourced to the most appropriate translator. Mr Janssens translates himself, almost exclusively into Dutch, preferably from English (company law, Articles of Association) for cases destined for the Court of Commerce.
As a court-certified translator, he regularly revises and certifies translations made by professional translators under his supervision.
He works full-time in the office.
Marisol Jiménez Barsallo
Commercial executive for price-setting, personnel department and for the Spanish section.
Of Belgian/Ecuadorian nationality, born in Loja (Ecuador) on 19 June 1965, in service since July 2001 and a director of Paul Janssens NV since 2003.
She fulfills various administrative tasks and is responsible for general reception at the office. She undertakes and checks translations into Spanish. She works as Project Manager, dispatching translations together with Clothilde Courouble (accepting orders, contacting translators and ensuring follow-up until delivery) and in consultation with Mr. Janssens.
She speaks and writes fluent Spanish and French and has a passive knowledge of Dutch and English.
Annelies Geeraerts
Management secretary and responsible for bookkeeping.
Of Belgian nationality, born in Herentals (Belgium) on 17 October 1986, in service since November 2010.
She is the first person to answer the phone – in Dutch, French and English.
She is responsible for daily secretarial tasks, in consultation with Mr. Janssens. She is responsible for the internal bookkeeping: drawing up and sending out the invoices and following up the incoming invoices. In addition, she is responsible for setting up internal classifications and data files.
Given the ever-increasing number of assignments, she regularly jumps in to help with dispatching (taking orders and outsourcing to translators/interpreters, in consultation with Mr. Janssens
Kim Hennuy
Translator-proof reader and general secretary.
Of Belgian nationality, born on 11 May 1991 in Charleroi, joined Paul Janssens Plc in January 2017.
Kim undertakes translations and proof reading of English, Dutch and Spanish into French. She is also responsible for ensuring that any text in French, whether a translation or any other document, correspondence, e-mail, and so on which leaves the office is in perfect French.
In consultation with Mr Janssens, she also performs certain general secretarial functions, French-speaking executive secretariat, managing and monitoring trainees, to whom she acts as tutor, as well as office advertising.
Rowald Pruijn
Translator – proof-reader
Of Dutch origin but Belgian nationality, Rowald was born in Dordrecht (NL) on 28 October 1980, and has been with Paul Janssens NV since 2 May 2019.
His perfect command of standard Dutch and his familiarity with the peculiarities of Belgian Dutch make him a perfect translator, even of the most difficult texts, which he succeeds in translating in a fluent style with the greatest determination and accuracy. He also ensures the quality of the translations into Dutch completed by our freelance translators, as well as of any other document written in Dutch by the office. For him, perfection is hardly enough.
He has a mastery and uses the most powerful version of Trados better than anyone else and, thanks to his computer skills, has automated a large part of the office’s administrative and commercial procedures in a particularly efficient way, thus bringing a breath of technological freshness to the office’s operation, which had hardly changed in thirty years.
And many more…
Practice makes perfect
Over the years the agency has developed excellent coordination and perfected working methods for the translation of large dossiers in a multiplicity of languages, such as all the languages of the European Union.