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National | Business

Straker Translations awarded Te Tupu-ā-Nuku for Business and Innovation

Straker Translations is the recipient of the Te Tupu-ā-Nuku Award for Business and Innovation which is special recognition of inspiring New Zealanders whose game-changing discoveries, research or innovations are a driving force in our society.

Grant Straker (Ngāti Raukawa) and his wife Merryn are the co-founders of the Auckland based company which is a cloud enabled translation service provider and is rated in the top 100 of more than 27,000 vendors globally.

Mr Straker is an award winning entrepreneur, engineer, paratrooper, ironman, volunteer fire fighter, musician and dad – Grant Straker wears many hats and has had an incredibly varied set of experiences over the past 30 years.

Straker Translations was the winner of the Excellence in Innovation award at the 2016 New Zealand International Business Awards run by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) in partnership with ANZ.

Grant Straker is a prominent advocate for Māori in technology and the business was founded on Kiwi values. His hope is that Straker’s success can motivate other Māori to choose technology as a valuable and rewarding career path.

The company offers an internship programme giving school leavers, students and graduates an opportunity to gain valuable experience in the technology sector. Straker started its Coding for Kids programme in 2014, helping Auckland schools teach the fundamentals of computer coding.

Straker is among the companies that New Zealand Trade and Enterprise works with to help grow internationally. Husband and wife Grant and Merryn aim to grow Straker into a $1 billion revenue company that is among the global top 20 language service providers.

Straker has major production centres in Auckland, Denver and Barcelona, Spain, where staff liaise with more than 5,000 translators worldwide to commission work from clients. It has sales offices in nine countries including a number in the USA and Canada (nine), Australia (four), Singapore, United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany.