Meet the team: Drew MacFadyen
Thread poster: Andrew Morris
Andrew Morris
Andrew Morris
Local time: 19:18
ProZ.com team
Apr 13, 2020

It was quite by accident that Drew MacFadyen entered the language industry. His relationship with sales, however, goes back a long way. He started out in a publisher’s representative firm, which advertised other companies, usually associations, and whose clients included Reader’s Digest.

As a newbie, however, he wasn’t given such big fish to fry – his first client was The Chronicle, the monthly magazine of the American Translators Association. A natural, Drew took to workin
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It was quite by accident that Drew MacFadyen entered the language industry. His relationship with sales, however, goes back a long way. He started out in a publisher’s representative firm, which advertised other companies, usually associations, and whose clients included Reader’s Digest.

As a newbie, however, he wasn’t given such big fish to fry – his first client was The Chronicle, the monthly magazine of the American Translators Association. A natural, Drew took to working the phones, and made a sale right away.

Over the years, his remit expanded to include mountain biking and scuba diving magazines, but the relationship with the ATA continued, until one day that connection led Drew to meet Henry… and the rest, as they say, is prozstory.

This was around 2006, and Drew’s been busy ever since, starting out in advertising, but quickly adding conferences to his eclectic skillset. Technologically savvy, he got into SEO, branched into virtual events with the ProZ TV broadcast, and eventually became VP of Sales, in which his role is to build out and develop the training platform.

His aim these days, in tune with ProZ.com’s mission, is to provide accessible, industry-recognised, skills training to support language professionals in achieving their business objectives and reaching their full potential.

What gets him out of bed each morning is the feedback he receives from all freelance translators about how virtual events have helped them reach their goals. And that’s what makes Drew tick: doing good in the world and adding value.

He cites one particularly poignant example: for years on the office wall at ProZ.com, there was a picture sent in by a translator from the Philippines, with the legend: “This is the house that ProZ.com built”. And yes, it was meant literally. The opportunities the translator had acquired through the site over the years had changed his life. And similar feedback emerges at just about every conference Drew ever attends.

In the US, you need a licence to cut hair, but not to translate. And so Drew’s vision is not just to create a body of training that sets standards and delivers certification – but beyond that to help people carve out a living as translators, from mainstream languages to more unusual combinations – facilitating communication and reducing barriers.

But what does Drew get up to when he’s not selling or preparing training? Born into a musical family, he was initially jealous of his gifted siblings, describing himself back then as being “unable to carry a tune in a bucket”. Not to be outdone, he decided one day to step into the music store he passed every day on the way to grad school in Michigan, and buy himself a harmonica.

A long-term blues fan, he taught himself to play while driving with one hand, on the 90-minute journey. (Editor’s note: don’t try this at home).

And so was born the stellar career of Drew “Sweet Lips” MacFadyen – and you can check that on YouTube! ProZ.com is not without its hidden surprises…

2 Drew
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Meet the team: Drew MacFadyen







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