Watch this video to see how you can become a mentor for a WCE student.
Beth Williams was raised in North Carolina, and attended East Carolina University. After college, she joined the water-skiing troupe at Cypress Gardens (Florida’s very first theme park). Beth performed with the acclaimed show-skiing group for a few years. She went on to work in banking before marrying and raising a family.
Her husband, a Marine test pilot and astronaut, was killed in a training flight crash in the 1960s. Widowed with two daughters, Beth returned to work, first as a real estate broker and later as Director of the New Initiatives Office at The Lunar Planetary Institute. Beth’s initiative and varied working experience proved invaluable when she turned to building her company in 1993.
Beth Williams co-founded TechTrans International in 1993, and she continues to serve as its President. TechTrans simplifies cross-cultural communication and enhances collaboration and understanding through world-class translation and interpretation, language instruction, logistics, and people.
TechTrans is headquartered in Houston, Texas and maintains a full-service office in Moscow. The company has grown from eight employees in 1993 to more than 150 employees in the United States and Russia.
The firm has garnered numerous awards including NASA’s 2002 Woman-Owned Business of the Year, 3 U.S. Small Business Administration Awards, recognition in many lists of top woman-owned and small businesses, and many NASA team excellence awards.
Beth herself has received many honors including being named a 2003 Top 10 Houston Woman on the Move by the Houston Chronicle and Texas Executive Women. Most recently, she was selected as the National Association of Women Business Owners Houston Area 2006 Woman Business Owner of the Year.
Beth sits on the Board of Directors of the American Pacific Corporation. She is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, the Greater Houston Partnership, the Astronaut Memorial Foundation, and the Grand National Waterfowl Association. She participates in Baker Institute Roundtable meetings. She’s a Charter member of the National Women's History Museum.
She sits on the Board of Directors for the Houston Chapter of the Texas Executive Women. She also serves as a mentor at the University of Houston School for Entrepreneurs.
Beth is a cancer survivor who has responded to her doctors’ call to help raise awareness and fight the disease. She sits on the Cancer Network Consulting Committee–Early Detection Research Network and the President's Associates of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
