A graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington (College of Business Administration), Steven S. Bammel worked in Seoul for nearly five years as an employee within the LG Group of South Korea. During that time, he learned about Korean business practices from the inside as the only non-Korean member of a team handling international trade support work for LG International, Corp. Steven also promoted overseas sales for several Korean companies and edited/translated hundreds of documents.
Steven returned to the US in 1999 and founded Korean Consulting & Translation Service, Inc. in mid-2000. During the first several years of building the business, Steven, his wife Myunghee and two children Treasure and Cauvery, shared their time between Irving, Texas and the company’s corporate apartment near Seoul, Korea. Thanks to a perfectionist mindset and deep understanding of the requirements of translation clients, not to mention high-level Korean skills, Steven and his team have successfully handled thousands of Korean translation projects, mainly for US-based companies and agencies, but also for individuals and companies around the world.
In early 2008, the Bammels returned to Korean indefinitely so that Steven could study at the Graduate School of Business Administration at Hanyang University to further develop his unique Korean business perspective and to improve his language skills in an immersive Korean learning environment. In February 2011, he was awarded a master in science degree with a major in strategy.
Steven is an official GyeongGi Province Foreign Direct Investment Advisor, as well as an advisor to the GyeongGi Association of Foreign-Invested Companies. He is also the founder and head administrator of Korea Business Central, an online community focused on business in Korea, and the author of the Korean business weblog, Nojeok Hill: My View from the Top.
Hongil
Kim Project Management and Translation
Hongil Kim attended Hallym University in Chooncheon,
Korea, earning a B.A. in Korean Literature, which he
then supplemented with extensive travels throughout East
Asia and to North America. Working his way up from an
entry-level in-house translator job for a translation
agency in Seoul, he later managed computer and Internet-related
projects for clients throughout Korea and around the
world.
Almost since moving into his current position in 1998, Hongil
has worked closely with Steven to oversee one of the most
professional translation teams in Korea, with expertise in
diverse areas. Over 5,000 translation projects of Korean
Consulting & Translation Service, Inc. have been handled
directly under Hongil’s careful supervision.
Dong-Hyeok
Kim Project Management and Translation
A true world traveler and English-language scholar,
Dong-Hyeok Kim holds a B.A. in English Education from
the prestigious Korea Foreign Language University in
Seoul. Throughout the 1980s, Mr. Kim worked in the Middle
East for Daewoo Corp. in their Overseas Business Department,
returning to Korea only in 1990. He was employed for
four years in Seoul at Litton Korea Corp. (a subsidiary
of Litton Industries of the USA, later acquired by Raytheon)
in their legal department and then a couple more years
in international trading with Yeong-Sang Trading, also
in Seoul.
Since entering the translation field in 1997, Dong-Hyeok
Kim has positioned his team at the technical end of the
market, delivering impeccable translations of the most
difficult types of documents, including legal, scientific,
engineering and financial, including translations of documents
between Korean and languages other than English. Furthermore,
he regularly handles patents to be directly submitted to
the Korea Intellectual Property Office and the US Patent
Office.
With his diverse background, incredible work ethic and
unbelievable technical resources, he ensures that every
project he manages is delivered on-time with the highest
quality.
Jinho Park Business Consultant
After graduating in 1995 from Hanyang University in Ansan, Korea,
Jinho spent two years in the Overseas Business Part of Daesung
Industries Co, Ltd, a subsidiary of one of Korea’s large
business groups. Following this, his decade in management at
Dongsan Church (the largest church in Ansan City with current
weekly attendance of 15,000 people) eventually saw him overseeing
the day-to-day operations of the entire church and as a result,
he enjoys wide contacts and relationships deep within the Korean
Christian community, as well as the business world.
Currently finishing up his doctoral degree in the Graduate School
of Business Administration at Hanyang University, Jinho has been
consulting on a variety of projects, including work in missions,
marketing, education, publishing and large event planning. He
is also a director of GHT, a new concept in service, tourism
and medical care.
A long-time associate of Steven Bammel, Jinho's passions include
leadership, vision networking, social organizations and holistic
healing.
Zeng Xiang-Wen
A desktop publishing and translation process expert with over
six years’ experience in a multinational localization agency
and another seven years working independently and with us, Zeng
Xiang-Wen and his team in Shenzhen, China have produced successful
localization products for some of the most reputed companies
worldwide, including HP, Dell, Compaq, Nokia, GE and many others.
His comprehensive computer application knowledge, combined with
proven problem-solving skills, ensure that professionally-prepared
client documents come out perfectly at the printer even when
working with less-than-ideal source files. You can’t go
wrong with Xiang’s workmanship and attention to detail.
Harada Toshihiko
Our man in Japan, Toshihiiko Harada, knows his stuff… both
in Japanese and Korean! This is clear from the amazing feedback
we’ve gotten from clients ordering the hundreds of business
cards and other translations he’s handled for us over the
years. He graduated from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies,
where he became fluent in English and Korean. And he lived right
next door to us in Fort Worth, Texas – as well as in Minnesota – several
years ago, giving him a special international perspective for
business.
Joseph Chen
Through most of our work is in Korean, we often handle translations
for our clients in Chinese too, and when we do, Joseph is our
go-to guy. His experiences living and studying abroad (M.S. University
of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA) make him uniquely suited
to handling the nuances of business translation. Currently based
out of Shenzhen, his team includes Simplified and Traditional
Chinese linguists in China and Taiwan specializing in technical
documents in various fields, as well as marketing materials.
We are fortunate to work with such a resource.
