Startaruga

Communication · Community · Connection

I'm Stella, an international marketing and communications consultant, and I help mission-driven organisations, businesses and the language industry shape their multilingual communication strategy, reach people across languages, cultures and borders, and bring together the people, processes and technology that make it all work.

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How I can help

Language access and effective multilingual communication

Communicating with communities, for NGOs, institutions and public services

Understanding who you need to reach, which languages, formats and channels work for them, and how to say it clearly, from audience research and plain language to multilingual communication strategy, so vital information reaches everyone, including affected populations.

Global marketing and communication

For language service providers, multinationals and businesses reaching new markets

Marketing strategy, positioning and brand, multilingual content and social media management, events and conferences, plus localization, internationalization and globalization, so your message travels well and still sounds like you in every market.

Community and partnerships

For networks, nonprofits, LSPs and language technology projects

Building and growing linguist, volunteer and member communities, from strategy and platforms to engagement, and the partnerships around them, from account management to partnership frameworks and agreements. Plus community-powered language data for language AI, especially in low-resource languages.

Language services and training

For companies, NGOs, institutions and individuals

Marketing and business translation, consecutive interpreting and business English, plus training for organisations that want to communicate more effectively, whether through plain language, stronger presentation skills or intercultural communication.

Stella Hodkin

About me

I'm Stella Hodkin, British and based in Italy, and I've spent 10+ years at senior and executive level in language services and nonprofits, including on the leadership team at CLEAR Global and the executive management team at Arancho Doc. More or less every role I've had has involved building something from scratch and turning a good idea into something that works.

Most recently I was Chief Language Services Officer at CLEAR Global (formerly Translators without Borders), where I led language services, community and language technology. Before that I was Marketing Director at Arancho Doc (later Acolad), where I built the brand and marketing function from the ground up. Earlier still, I worked in marketing and international sales at TAS, and on the operations team of a UK language services company working with hospitals, the police and other public services.

I'm also on the leadership team of the Italian chapter of Women in Localization, and I've spoken at the Translating Europe Forum (European Commission), JIAMCATT, ELIA Together, CIOL Translators Day and RWS Elevate. Some of those talks are listed under Stella Paris.

I work in English and Italian, with clients wherever they happen to be.

Why Startaruga? Star for Stella, start for new beginnings, and tartaruga, the Italian for turtle, because turtles are some of the best travelled animals around, and I've always enjoyed crossing borders myself: geographical, linguistic and cultural.

Let's talk

If you're working on something that has to work across languages or cultures, I'd love to hear about it. Just send me a few lines below and I'll get back to you with some ideas, or a quote if you need one.

I'll only use your details to reply to your message, and I won't add you to any mailing list.

Or email me directly at stella@startaruga.com