About Englobe Inc.
As a unique organization bridging the realms of social science, information technology and creative arts, Englobe Inc.'s primary mission is to maximize the geographic distribution extent of your products and services while minimizing the potential geopolitical and cultural impact to the local market. Englobe is a consulting and advisory enterprise initially started in 1991 to provide strategic geopolitical and cartographic consultation services to businesses of all varieties.
Relaunched in 2005 and building on over 15 years of its principal consultant's experience, Englobe exists to provide subject-matter expertise in the area of geocultural content consultation for globalization and localization endeavors across any business field and locale, with specialties in content-intensive products such as video games, web services, reference information and cartographic content. Englobe applies its expertise to everything from top-level corporate strategy to hands-on content development, design and testing.
Englobe’s secondary mission is to promote the importance of geoliteracy in global business by providing training and consultation to help global workers be more geoculturally aware and to help companies produce and deploy products and services that meet the local market consumer expectations.
About Kate Edwards - Founder & Principal Consultant
Kate Edwards is a unique hybrid of an academic geographer, writer, educator and geocultural content strategist, coexisting with a passion for geography, cultures and technology. She is a known thought leader in the geocultural dimension of digital content risk and represents extensive, business-proven experience. Beyond her interest in helping companies maximize the value of geopolitical and cultural subject-matter expertise, Kate is passionate about improving geocultural literacy in the U.S. and beyond.
- B.A and M.A. degrees in Geography, Certificate in Cartography, Ph.D Candidate in Geography (University of Washington, Seattle).
- 19 years experience as a private sector Geographer, Cartographer, Geopolitical & Cultural Strategist (Corporate level and Content-specific), Consultant and Instructor.
- 13 years with Microsoft as a Geographer and its Senior Geopolitical Strategist, a new type of position within the unique Geopolitical Strategy team she created and managed.
- Architect of the Geopolitical Quality Review process for Microsoft and its implementation in Microsoft Game Studios, Windows, Office, MSN and many other Microsoft groups. Kate provided content review and consultation on a wide range of business issues: business productivity and consumer products, marketing and PR issues, legal and corporate diversity, government engagement; includes scores of hands-on content reviews across all products - including almost every Microsoft 1st, 2nd and 3rd party PC and Xbox game between 1995 and 2005.
- Awarded Chartered Geographer status (CGeog) by the Royal Geographical Society (UK) in 2004.
- Speaker and participation in conferences: AAG, BRIT, DiGRA, E3, GDC, IBRU, RGS-IBG, TGS; also a frequent speaker at local universities and venues.
- Senior Advisory Council member for Business for Diplomatic Action 2005-2010 (the BDA was discontinued in 2010).
- Regular columnist for MultiLingual Computing magazine since 2005.
- Founder and Chair of the Game Localization Special Interest Group within the IGDA since June 2007.
- Advisory Board Member for the AAG's EDGE Project since 2010.
- Awarded the 2011 MVP Award from the International Game Developers Association in March 2011.
Professional Memberships:
- Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences - AIAS
- Association of American Geographers - AAG
- American Geographical Society - AGS
- Association of Pacific Coast Geographers - APCG
- Association of Washington Geographers - AWG
- Digital Games Research Association - DiGRA
- International Cartographic Association - ICA
- International Game Developers Association - IGDA
- North American Simulation and Gaming Association - NASAGA
- National Council for Geography Education - NCGE
- Royal Geographical Society (UK) - RGS
Do you use LinkedIn? Click here to view Kate's profile and make a LinkedIn connection.
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