Liz Elting founded one of America’s leading translation companies with her boyfriend from business school. But nearly 20 years after calling off their engagement, the ex-lovers are waging an ugly battle for control that’s landed them in corporate divorce court and may cost them what could be a billion-dollar baby.
For someone who has made a fortune trad-ing in words, Liz el ting can be remarkably tight-lipped. But the 50-yearold cofounder of TransPerfect, one of the world’s largest translation firms, is acting under lawyers’ orders. Her attorneys don’t want her saying much about the messy corporate divorce she’s been embroiled in with her coCeO and onetime fiancé, Phil Shawe. Nor do they want reporters at TransPerfect’s Park Avenue headquarters, where she shares a floor with Shawe, the day before she’s due to face him in a Delaware court over the future of their company.
That’s why, on a Tuesday morning in late April, elting is perched on a leather chair in her all-white living room on Manhattan’s upper east Side. A trim brunette in a navy-blue skirt suit, she has the energy of a slight, skittish bird. “TransPerfect is my brainchild, my baby,” she says. “I’d like to own this company and be part of its future.”
Elting and Shawe built the company from a dorm-room startup to a global leader with $505 million in sales. But tensions between them flared up five years ago, spilling into legal battles in two states with mortifying episodes of infighting. There was Shawe charging the petite elting with battery by high heel, his breaking into her office and stealing her confidential e-mails with attorneys, and f-bombs galore. Despite an astonishingly acrimonious relationship, the ex-lovers have thrived as business partners, and out of their dysfunction has grown a company that has, ironically, solved one of the world’s biggest problems— how to communicate better.
This story is from the July 2016 edition of Forbes Indonesia.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 2016 edition of Forbes Indonesia.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
BACK ON TRACK
Collective wealth gets a 21% boost to a record $162 billion amid an economic uptick.
Championing Locals
The wave of social commerce is enabling inclusive digital economies beyond urban areas.
Boys in the Bubble
Startups are supposed to specialize, but OPENSEA’s founders thrived by building a wide-open market for creating and trading all manner of NFTs, whether art, music or gaming. Now that they’re centimillionaires and poised to become billionaires, they have other worries: competitors, fraudsters and the next crypto crash.
Enduring Relations
The implementation of IA-CEPA amid the pandemic signifies the Indonesia-Australia’s commitment to recover and counter future challenges together.
Sweet Success
Steven Erwin envisions Unifam to become a major global player in the confectionery and F&B industry.
Marathon Man
Across America, scores of municipal pension funds remain scandalously underfunded. But not the pension fund of Tampa’s police and firemen, thanks in large part to JAY BOWEN, whose no-frills approach to stock picking has protected and served them for more than 45 years.
Gold Rallies on Inflation Fears
During September the price of gold rallied to $1,868 per ounce following the release of figures on US inflation by the Bureau of Labor Statistics which indicated that, as of September, CPI inflation had rocketed to 6.2%, above the 5.8% which economists had been predicting.
Set Off to A New Start
Bank Aladin has two main ingredients for success: establish trust and offer better customer experiences.
The Daily Intake
YOUVIT plans to invest further into marketing and grow into one of the leading vitamin brands in Indonesia.
THE CROESUS OF CRYPTO
FTX COFOUNDER SAM BANKMAN-FRIED BUILT A $22.5 BILLION FORTUNE BEFORE HIS 30TH BIRTHDAY BY PROFITING OFF THE CRYPTOCURRENCY FRENZY—BUT HE’S NOT A TRUE BELIEVER. HE JUST WANTS HIS WEALTH TO SURVIVE LONG ENOUGH TO GIVE IT ALL AWAY.
