Graham Timmins started translation work while still at Cambridge University studying Italian and German. Graham was a schoolteacher and a bookshop owner in England before he learnt Norwegian and then Swedish and began language correction and translation work in Scandinavia. The Right Word was founded as a company registered in Ireland in 2004 and was re-registered in Sweden after he moved there in 2006.

The Right Word is a one-person company, but Graham draws on a wide range of associates and contacts in many countries for specialist support as needed.