As Interpro Translation Solutions celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2025, we look back at the remarkable journey of founder Ralph Strozza and his leading translation company—a story spanning six decades of language, culture, and innovation in translation services.
As Interpro reflects on this journey, we are deeply grateful to you – our valued clients, whose trust and collaboration have made our dreams come true, and to our dedicated employees, whose expertise and commitment drive our success.
Cheers to the first 30 years – and Salute, Prost, and Santé to the next 30!
1960s: The Spark of Language
Mid-1960s, Forest Park, IL
A young Ralph Strozza becomes fascinated by language as his Italian grandfather, Luca, and great-uncle, Rocco, move into the family’s basement apartment in the Chicago suburbs. Watching his mother effortlessly switch between Italian and English—a form of natural, everyday interpreting—Ralph develops a passion for languages that will shape his entire life.
“I was in awe of my mother and the way she would carry on a conversation in Italian with her father and uncle, only to effortlessly revert to English to remind my brothers and me to get our homework done before we could go out to play with our friends.”
Ralph’s journey begins with Italian lessons in the basement, laying the foundation for what would become a lifetime of learning and appreciating communication across languages—the earliest seeds of what would grow into professional translation services.
“They bought me books like ‘See It and Say It in Italian’, as well as pocket dictionaries so that I could look up words, and I spent countless hours in their basement apartment attempting to learn the Italian language.”
1970s: Formal Education
High School Years
Disappointed that Italian isn’t offered in high school, Ralph enrolls in Spanish 101, falling in love with the beauty of the spoken words, the grammar, and Spanish culture and history. He advances through multiple levels, not knowing that years later his company would be providing specialized Spanish translation services to global businesses.
“I loved everything about it. The beauty of the spoken words. The grammar. Spanish culture and history. And of course, the cuisine!”
Despite warnings about the difficulty of studying two foreign languages simultaneously, Ralph adds French to his studies his senior year, drawn by the beauty of the language overheard from the neighboring classroom—a language that would later be in high demand for French translation services in the business world.
“I hesitated because of all the warnings about how hard it was to study 2 foreign languages, how confusing it would be, how I would mix Spanish words with French words, etc. However, this was my senior year, and what did I have to lose?”
Interpro couldn’t have happened without the moral support of our 4-legged loved ones.
Mid-1970s/Early 1980s: College and Career Beginnings
College Years
Ralph pursues a double major in French (emphasis in Business and Translation) and Marketing, with Spanish as a minor—building the expertise that would later support software localization and document translation services for international businesses.
“By my sophomore year, the die was cast: I would double major in French and Marketing, and Spanish would take up the rear as my minor.”
Ralph then spends Spring semester of his junior year studying in Avignon, France, at the Institut Américain and the Faculté des Lettres, living with a French family, and taking courses taught entirely in French. He achieves fluency through total immersion, developing the cultural sensitivity that would later influence the certified translation services offered by his company.
“Thinking in French, writing in French, taking tests in French, and then coming home to French dinner conversation was exhausting. I never slept better or more soundly than I did during my French study abroad.”
Graduate School and Post-Graduation
After college, Ralph works at Air Canada for one year before accepting a Graduate Assistantship at Northwestern University to pursue a Master’s in French—opportunities that expanded his understanding of French language and literature, as well as business communication across languages.
“One door closes, and another one opens, right? I accepted the position, reasoning that there were worse things than having Northwestern pay me to spend two years getting an MA in French.”
1982: Entry into Translation Technology
WCC, Chicago
Ralph secures a part-time position as a French, Italian, and Spanish lexicographer for WCC, a leading developer of Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) software (now called MT or Machine Translation). This first exposure to using computers to translate between languages proves fascinating and influential—an early glimpse of the technology that would revolutionize translation services and eventually lead to capabilities like JSON translation and XML translation.
“This was my introduction to computers and the utterly fascinating world of using them to translate from one language to another.”
Mid-1980s: European Experience
Toulouse, France
When WCC partners with a company in Toulouse, Ralph jumps at the opportunity to help set up their European operations. He spends two years establishing their translation service bureau, hiring and training staff, and selling CAT systems across Europe—gaining invaluable experience in document translation services and the emerging field of software localization.
“Spending 2 years doing this allowed me to check off one of the items in my fledgling bucket list: to live and work in Europe at some point in my career.”
Personal Milestone
Ralph then meets the love of his life, Beatrice, and marries her in Bari, Italy before returning to the United States to continue career advancement in the growing field of global translation services.
Interpro’s Founder and former CEO traveling with friends and family
Late 1980s: Corporate Translation Experience
WCC, Chicago (Again)
Ralph returns to WCC and is promoted to VP of Marketing and Sales, selling MT systems and translation services, including early versions of what would later evolve into eCommerce Localization and Online Help Localization.
Intergraph Corporation
After WCC is acquired and shut down by a Japanese company, Ralph joins Intergraph Corporation to manage their in-house Translation Department. He successfully builds a team localizing CAD-CAM software and translating documentation into French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish—developing expertise that would later support technical translation services and localization services at Interpro.
“With a wife and two-year-old son, I needed to find a job very quickly, and Intergraph obliged by hiring me just as soon as WCC folded, giving me the responsibility of managing their Translation Department.”
Late 1980s-Early 1990s: Expansion into Enterprise Software
System Software Associates (SSA), Chicago
Ralph is recruited by SSA—the world’s leading developer of ERP software for the IBM AS/400 midrange computer—to build and lead their translation department, where he gains in-depth experience with business translation services, complex software localization, and technical documentation translation.
Growth at SSA
Over five years, Ralph expanded the department to 52 staff members, translating products into ten languages: Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (for Brazil), Spanish, and Swedish. This multilingual team handled complex software localization and document translation projects, including Excel translation, PowerPoint translation, and PPTX translation for international business clients.
Market Gap Identified
With over 60% of SSA’s sales coming from overseas, clients frequently ask Ralph about translation services for their custom modifications. Ralph discovers a significant market need with few viable solutions available, especially for AS/400 software localization and professional translation services for technical documentation.
“When I explained that my job was to get National Language Versions of SSA’s software, help text and documentation out the door, and there was no bandwidth for anything more, their follow-up question was always ‘Who can you recommend to do this?'”
“Only IBM’s Translation Center in Copenhagen had the experienced staff and equipment to localize AS/400 software. But they were slow. And they were expensive. This was a market niche that needed to be filled.”
Excerpt from a 2002 edition of Interpro’s newsletter: Interprospectives
Fun Fact: Beshar and Larry have been part of our team for over 25 years, playing a key role in building Interpro into what it is today. We’re grateful for their dedication and loyalty!
1994-1995: Interpro is Born
October 1994
Ralph Strozza founded Interpro Translation Solutions, a specialized translation agency, with a vision to fill the market gap identified through years of industry experience, focusing on software localization and document translation services.
“This is how Interpro Translation Solutions came to be founded in October 1994, with actual operations beginning in March 1995. My experience over the previous ten years in the industry dictated how I wanted to approach this.”
Ralph’s vision for a translation company that put people and quality first came to life over the following 30 years.
Some images of Interpro over the past 30 years. To all who have contributed to Interpro’s success: we thank you.
March 1995
Official operations begin with Ralph’s clear set of foundational principles:
- In-country translators who live and breathe their language daily for accurate, idiomatic translations and other language-based service offerings
- Team-based approach using established language companies rather than freelancers to ensure uninterrupted quality translation services
- State-of-the-art technology for consistency, efficiency, and faster turnaround, particularly for PDF translation and other document translation services
- In-house localization engineers for software processing, specializing in Agile Localization methodologies before they became an industry standard
- Partner-based, consultative, solutions-oriented approach to language translation services
- Quality-focused “Nordstrom, not Walmart” pricing philosophy for professional translation services
“First, the professional translators, revisers, and proofreaders needed to be based in-country where they spoke and lived their language day in, day out. This was the fundamental ingredient needed to produce a quality product, in my opinion.”
“Our approach was going to be partner-based, consultative, and solutions-oriented. The objective was to cultivate long-term relationships by providing a transparent, scalable, and cost-effective quality service.”
“When prospects would inquire about pricing, my response was always – and remains to this day – that we will rarely be their lowest price option out of the gate. However, Interpro would prove to be a cost-effective long-term solution. Think Nordstrom, not Walmart, is an analogy I would often make.”
1995-2025: Three Decades of Growth and Evolution
Late 1990s
As the internet transforms global business, Ralph’s company expands to offer website localization, online translation services, and the first generation of eCommerce localization services.
Early 2000s
He develops capabilities in multimedia translation, including voice over translation and early forms of video translation services as digital media becomes more prevalent in business communication.
2010s
Ralph then moves to mobile and cloud technologies, adding specialized services for multimedia and video translation, like subtitle translation, SRT translation, and WebVTT translation for the growing video market. He then expands Interpro’s eLearning localization services as corporate training goes digital, offering specialized Captivate translation, Storyline translation, and Rise translation solutions.
Early 2020s
Ralph guides the company to obtain ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management) and ISO 17100:2015 (Translation Services) certifications, ensuring rigorous quality management and translation standards. These certifications allow the organization to provide ATC-certified translations, giving clients confidence of always receiving the highest level of quality and service.
Technology Transformation
From the early days of dial-up internet (when only one person could be online at a time), fax machines, floppy disks, and revolutionary Adobe Acrobat, Ralph witnesses and adapts to the complete digital transformation of the translation industry. He introduces new interpreting services, including webinar interpreting and translation, as well as remote simultaneous interpreting (RSI), to meet evolving client needs.
“During the past thirty years, much has changed. Dial-up access to the ‘worldwide web’ (for those of us who remember it), meant having only one person being able to access the internet at a time. Faxes were considered high-tech. Translated product was delivered on floppy disks, or on CDs for the technically advanced.”
Business Philosophy Maintained
Despite massive technological changes, the core principles established at Interpro’s founding remain the foundation of the organization, proving as relevant in 2025 as they were in 1995. Ralph’s commitment to quality in legal translation services, healthcare and medical translation services, and certified translations services never wavers.
Client Relationships
Ralph’s initial vision of cultivating hundreds of long-term clients working with Interpro for decades, rather than thousands of one-time projects is achieved.
Many clients rely on Interpro for desktop publishing services like complex multilingual desktop publishing and InDesign translation, as well as document translation, including survey translation, and Agile translation methodologies for fast-moving projects.
“Rather than having thousands of clients and one-and-done projects, we would have hundreds of clients working with us for decades, referring us to colleagues, other contacts, or their new employer if they moved on to a new position.”
Interpro clients and partners have contributed to Interpro’s success
2025: 30th Anniversary Milestone
Looking Back and Forward
Ralph celebrates 30 years of Interpro Translation Solutions and reflects on the 60-year journey that began in a Chicago area basement. His story is a testament to how a childhood fascination with language can grow into a successful global business, offering translation services online and beyond.
Service Portfolio
Interpro Translation Solutions now offers a comprehensive suite of services including:
- Document translation service for all file formats
- Software localization for global product launches
- Event interpreting and corporate communication
- Translation services and support for 128+ language pairs
Founder’s Reflection
“My love of languages—ignited in a basement sixty years ago—and fascination with translation technology have not waned over the years. If anything, they were enhanced by the Interpro experience. Many people say that to work at what you love is the dream. I suppose, then, that I’m living mine. Despite the many challenges inherent in founding and building an organization over a thirty-year span (and counting), Interpro has been, and continues to be, my dream job.”
“As I look at how I approached what I wanted the Company to become, I am very happy to see that the cornerstones of our operating model, established at Interpro’s infancy, continue to be the foundation of our organization, and are as relevant in 2025 as they were in 1995.”
Current Interpro Team members today
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