What is Tomlex?
Tomlex Translation is the trading name for Esther Hay’s English and Dutch language services, based in the UK. Esther was born as Esther Banis in Krimpen aan den IJssel in The Netherlands. After graduating from secondary school she went to live in Iowa City, Iowa, USA for a year as an exchange student. She attended West High School and graduated with the Class of ’90.
After this adventure in the Midwest, Esther trained to become a teacher of English at the Hogeschool Rotterdam & Omstreken in The Netherlands. Upon graduation she went back to the USA, this time as an au-pair. She spent one year in San Jose, CA and another year in Redwood City, CA. Back in The Netherlands in 1996, Esther taught at a Rotterdam high school but at the end of the school year she decided to go back to university and study translation, and Maastricht was the place to do it. It was a four year course but Esther managed to finish in three years, and in the summer of 2000 she was asked to come work for Voice & Script International in London. The plan of staying for a year or so changed quite a bit as Esther was promoted to Head of the Dutch Department and stayed on with VSI for seven years. She is now married with two children.
In 2007, Esther decided to leave VSI and become a freelance translator, in order to better combine her professional life with her role as a mother.

The name Tomlex is a combination of Esther’s sons’ names: Thomas and Alexander. They were the reason for going solo and setting up the company.

Experience in source and target languages countries
Born, raised and educated in The Netherlands
Total of 11 years in English speaking countries

Translation experience
In her seven years at VSI, Esther worked as a translator and subtitler. In the early days the focus was on subtitling but over the years there was a shift towards regular translations so Esther is very experienced and skilled in both crafts. In her role as Head of the Dutch Department at VSI, Esther was also responsible for quality control of all Dutch work produced.
Esther’s links with VSI are still strong today but she has quickly developed relationships with other agencies and clients as well.

For a more detailed list of Esther's expertise and experience, please see here.

Reference letters available upon request. Please use the contact form.

If you are an outsourcer interested in using Tomlex's services, contact details can be found here.