Liz Elting and Phil Shawe met at New York University Stern School of Business in 1991. Having spent several years working in the translation industry, Ms. Elting felt there was a need for a service - minded enterprise that could deliver complex projects quickly and accurately. In 1992, Elting and Shawe founded TransPerfect to fill that gap. Their mission: to provide the highest quality language services to leading businesses worldwide. With no external financing, TransPerfect grew from its beginnings as a two - person company operating out of a dorm room into one of the world's most reputable language and business services companies.