Key Players at JLS

Some clients know exactly what they require and can define it clearly. Some clients need patient explanations of the path needed to get their material from one language to another. Both can expect the personalized service that the account managers at JLS provide. They bring to the table both years of professional work in the language field as well as a first-hand understanding of many of the industries that JLS serves.

Rikko Field

Rikko Field, President of JLS Language Corporation, is one of the most dynamic figures in high–tech language services today. By positioning JLS in the Silicon Valley where cutting edge technologies emerge, Rikko has assured that JLS will remain at the forefront of new developments in engineering, semiconductors, business, computers, medicine, and law. Rikko has taken JLS beyond the traditional notions of simple document translation. When clients need their products to be localized, internationalized, and even globalized, not only in print, but online and in multimedia format—JLS is ready to serve them.

Rikko founded JLS in 1977 one year after receiving her master's degree in political science from California State University, San Francisco. She also holds a law degree from Tokyo Metropolitan University and did postgraduate work at the Sorbonne. She is fluent in Japanese and English, and is both a translator and a respected simultaneous and consecutive interpreter.

Kevin Lenzen

As Accounts Manager, Kevin Lenzen brings expertise to JLS in scientific and technical publishing and an insight in marketing in international business. Kevin spent 10 years in Germany working as a product and marketing manager at major scientific book and journal publishers. In addition, he has experience as a financial analyst at major international banks, and more recently was a brand strategy analyst for consumer product markets.

Kevin holds a BA in German from the University of Santa Clara, and was a California State (Graduate) Fellow at the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies. Because of his background in European languages, his focus is to fully serve European language accounts, especially for JLS's medical tech clients. He also oversees the company's technical documentation group.

Rounding out his professional life are a taste for good food and a talent for music, which he translates into performing with the San Francisco Symphony chorus.

Masataka “Masa” Ikeda

Masataka “Masa” Ikeda is the “man on the scene” at the JLS Tokyo office, which provides dedicated services to Japanese companies as well as to the subsidiaries of American and European firms in Japan. Masa's expertise in management and sales comes from his extensive experience in software and hardware sales, business marketing and planning, and systems development. His background includes a portfolio of services for clients that include major financial institutions, government agencies, high–tech companies, and industrial and manufacturing facilities.

Masa holds a B.S. in Physics from Gakushuin University, Tokyo, where his thesis was Computerized Genetic Analysis and the Study of Evolution. He developed an application program that can identify specific human genes and calculate their probability of mutation for a study at a major cancer research institute.