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Isabel R. Pratt, Lic.
director

  Isabel is a native of central México and holds a degree in Business Administration focused upon tourism and customer service from Autonomous University of the City of Juárez, Chihuahua, México (Universidad Autónoma de Cd. Juárez). She has extensive experience in Texas public school business administration as well as in a variety of other businesses.
  In the 1980's Isabel worked as a professional sales representative for an educational-book publisher in México followed by work as the administrative secretary to the president of a consumer marketing company.
  While attending University, Isabel returned to her entrepreneurial roots deciding that being self-employed was far better than working for others. And while self-employment is not as common in México as it is in the U.S., she found success in establishing herself as a leading instructor of advanced Spanish for executives and managers of multi-national corporations operating in the City of Juárez.
  It was during her last year in University that Isabel and Robert met while Robert was expanding his firm into Chihuahua, México. The two were married in 1995 and made Lubbock, Texas their base of operations in the U.S. and Zumpango, Estado de México (just North of México City) their base of operations in México.
  Isabel performs vendor relationship and research management for small businesses in the U.S. doing business with Mexican companies. Her areas of expertise include document translation, cultural adaptation consulting,  and on-site interpretation while in México.
  Because Isabel is a Mexican citizen and holds the title of Licenciada in México, IRP is able, through Isabel, to bind contracts on behalf of IRP's U.S. contracts with Mexican companies. A U.S. business person will find any contract with a Mexican company to be invalid in Mexican courts if the business person did not have a proper business visa in effect when any agreement was executed. As with any paperwork, this can be a problem as any defect could be cause for rendering a contract invalid.
  With IRP, we can act as the agent for any U.S. company and bind any contract on their behalf without the worry of whether their paperwork will hold up in a court of law. Additionally, there is great cultural benefit in having a Mexican citizen acting as your agent, and for all practical purposes as a part of your firm, should a dispute arise.
  Another important asset which Isabel brings to clients of IRP is in the area of translations of advertising and marketing materials. Since coming to Texas, Isabel has found that much of the advertising produced by local and regional agencies is rife with grammatical and usage errors.
  Some local Spanish speakers have dismissed criticism of language usage as being unimportant which simply demonstrates their ignorance of an extremely important part of Mexican and Central and South American culture.
  In most Spanish speaking cultures, and certainly in México, language usage is the primary divider used to denote the various strata of society. In other words, those with an education will be offended if low-level Spanish is used to communicate with them. And more importantly, it is not simply a matter of "proper Spanish" but more a matter of appropriate Spanish given the context of the communication.
  Companies wishing to reach Spanish speaking consumers in the U.S. or in México, will find great value in having IRP international review and edit all ad copy produced for their firm.
  Isabel and Robert also share an independent history of political involvement. In the 1980's, Isabel was an active campaigner in the National Action Party's (PAN) first major victory in México. This was the winning of the Presidency (Mayor) of the City of Juárez, México's 4th largest city. This was the first major victory of any opposition party in the country's modern history.