Hameed Afssari is a multi-disciplinary globalization veteran with a long history of leadership in the localization industry. His focus is on improving the localization process and tooling to provide service to millions of users worldwide in their own language. Hameed currently serves as head of globalization at Uber and has also led effective teams of onsite and remote engineers in raising the quality bar of internationalization and localization at Microsoft for over 100 languages. Hameed not only defines software product requirements globally but also educates and empowers teams through training and tools while measuring progress via metrics to empower data-driven decision-making.

Sara Basile recently joined XTM International as a product manager following almost ten years of experience in the localization industry on the buyer side. After graduating in technical translation and conference interpreting at the University of Trieste, Italy, she worked for big enterprises in different roles and responsibilities such as translation and proofreading, project management, program management and training. Sara’s passion for translation technology and customer-oriented approach finally led her to XTM, where she is now mainly responsible for the development roadmap and operational excellence.

Jeff Beatty is passionate about creating products that fully engage people in their preferred language, as well as personalizing products to what’s culturally relevant to their users worldwide. His 15-year career has spanned many different roles in localization. Jeff currently serves as executive director of product globalization with The Walt Disney Company, and previously served as head of localization at Disney Streaming, Stripe, and Mozilla. In addition to his role as a localization leader, Jeff teaches and mentors the next generation of localizers at New York University, and previously at Brigham Young University, teaching translation technology and machine translation topics.

Edith Bendermacher is the director of globalization strategy and localization operations at NetApp, based in San Jose, California. Her team oversees localization at NetApp under a center of excellence and is responsible for the strategic planning of globalization across all departments, including delivery, innovation, uptake, and return of the globalization investments. Edith is a regular speaker on globalization in panels and globalization industry events. She became program director of the Women in Localization marketing program in 2022. Since the beginning of 2023, she is a GALA Board Member and was awarded “Language Industry Person of the Year” by Global Think Forum. Additionally, Edith’s passion is developing and mentoring rising localization professionals through programs such as MIIS/NetApp Professional Coordinated Studies.

Olga Beregovaya has over twenty years of experience in language technology, natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML), global content transformation, and AI data development and is passionate about growing businesses through driving change and innovation. She started her career in language technology building lexicons and rules for rule-based machine translation, gradually expanding her expertise into other broader applications of NLP and ML to enterprise translation workflows. Olga has served as president of AMTA, currently serves as a vice president and technology program sponsor for Women in Localization, and as an advisor for Engineering Leadership at California State University, Chico. She received her MA in linguistics/Germanic studies at UC- Berkeley and MA/BA in linguistics from St. Petersburg State University.

Alex Bernet is the co-producer of LocWorld’s Process Innovation Challenge and previously served as the exhibits manager for LocWorld. Currently, he manages the Master Class Program and online educational offerings for The Localization Institute. Alex graduated with a BA in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007 and joined both LocWorld and the Localization Institute in 2012. He lives in Denver, Colorado, where he loves to hike and spend as much time as possible in the great outdoors.

Anna Berns is proud to work with a community of international volunteers and nonprofit organizations who translate and localize educational content to accelerate Khan Academy’s mission of a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Prior to joining Khan Academy, she held various localization, product, program, and operations roles in the human rights, environmental, and global literacy programs at Benetech, and software consulting and data analysis roles at Manugistics. Anna received a BA in mathematics, and a master’s degree in operations research and industrial engineering, both from Cornell University.

Melissa Biggs is a cofounder and consultant with Locale Solutions, providing localization strategy consulting for companies in technology. Previously at Sun Microsystems/Oracle, she held senior management positions, managing both program managers and globalization strategies. Melissa expanded into marketing localization management and initiatives at Informatica and Check Point Systems. She has served on globalization industry-wide boards including TAUS, the Localization Institute, and is a member of the GILT Leaders Forum. Melissa is active in nonprofits, including the US State Department TechWomen program, and as a board member of the Global Lives Project.

Alessandra Binazzi is a leading expert in globalization strategy, tech stack definition and implementation, process automation and change management for global companies looking to expand reach and maximize revenues. Proficient in all major European languages, Alessandra has dedicated her professional life to advocating for international users and to create, market, and support products and services that engage customers in all continents. She is the principal consultant of Global Sights Consulting, member of the Board of Advisors of the Process Innovation Challenge, a former Board Member of the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA).

Inge Boonen is the chief growth officer at Nimdzi Insights, a research and consultancy firm for the language services industry.

Louise Callcott-Stevens is cofounder and CEO of EarCandy, the world’s leading media and entertainment localization provider for Africa. Louise is an African mother-tongue advocate and was voted one of the top 100 most influential people in content localization in 2021. Her passion for her continent motivates her to contribute toward shaping a positive African narrative and making media accessible to African audiences in their own language. Louise is an international speaker, has a qualification in women’s leadership from the University of Stellenbosch Business School, and is currently the chairperson of the Entertainment Globalization Association Education Committee.

Zhenhui Chao began as a localization tools developer in 1998 with Lucent Technologies and then moved into globalization QE and management.  Zhen is very interested in new technology trends and is focused on the deployment of those new technologies, including, but not limited to MT, ML, and NLP into current workflow and productions. Innovation and optimization are the two themes for his team.

Colin Coleman prides himself on being more than a lawyer. He is a trusted business advisor who sweats the details so his clients can rest easier. Colin serves as general counsel to a wide variety of businesses where he offers comprehensive, practical advice on such matters as contracts, employment, tax, mergers and acquisitions, dispute resolution, business planning, and exit strategies. When advising language translation companies in mergers and acquisitions, he structures deals to meet the objectives of both buyers and sellers. Colin’s clients often compliment him as a “deal doer” for providing practical advice and solving/preventing problems to enable smooth transactions.

Anne-Marie Colliander Lind is a recognized force in the global language industry landscape. She has spent almost 30 years helping multinational organizations solve their language issues, serving in executive sales and management positions at leading service, technology and market research companies. She is the CEO of Inkrease, a management consulting company based in Sweden that assists companies in their growth and development strategies. Anne-Marie is a sought-after speaker and is engaged part-time as marketing director for LocWorld. She is also the co-organizer of the Nordic Translation & Interpretation Forum (NTIF).

Karen Combe recently retired from her position as vice president of localization at PTC, where she was responsible for product localization as well as for localization support for PTC University, technical support, and marketing. Since its inception, she has been a member of the GILT Leaders Forum, a community of peers in the localization industry. Previously, Karen was senior vice president at International Language Engineering, where she managed client services, sales, and marketing. She holds a BA in linguistics from the University of California at Berkeley and a post-graduate degree in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge. Karen served in the Peace Corps in Senegal and in International Voluntary Services in Algeria. In addition, she worked for eight years on a ranch in northwestern Colorado training horses and looking after a large herd of cattle.

Ben is an esteemed global business leader with over thirty years of experience in international operations, content design, globalization, localization, and leadership in diverse business contexts. Specializing in global business and communications, he offers innovative solutions in process, organization, and technology to foster growth and enable effective global communication. With a rich background in technology, global business management, and process optimization, Ben’s work focuses on driving efficiency and growth in global settings, making him a visionary leader in the international business landscape.

Lara Daly leads the revenue generating teams at Akorbi, the largest US-based, woman-owned, and diverse language services provider. She has been in the language industry 20+ years, working on global growth with clients in technology, life sciences, ecommerce, retail, manufacturing, and healthcare. Lara’s team and colleagues at Akotbi are dedicated to building innovative strategies and teams that broaden inclusion, accelerate growth, and promote truly global brands.

Chris Dell is a multilingual tech enthusiast and has been building technical solutions for over twenty years. Most recently, Chris founded Locale to help language service providers and language teams supercharge their localization workflows.

Ivy Diaz serves as a program manager III in the health equity department at Health Net, California. She oversees the plan’s language assistance program (LAP), which provides culturally and linguistically appropriate interpretation and translation services for 2.8 million members across all California lines of business. In addition to the LAP, Ivy conducts workgroups and trainings on topics including the LAP, gender neutral language, video remote interpretation, and provider resources. She received a BA in human biology, with a concentration in medical ethics from Stanford University, and a master’s degree in public health from UCLA.

As Zendesk’s senior director of product globalization, Yoko Drain drives globalization for the entire Zendesk product line along with various business partner needs. Since she joined Zendesk in 2012, Yoko has built the product globalization practice from the ground up, and she continues expanding her influence and building agile localization pipelines across organizations. Yoko started as an internationalization quality engineer, and she pursues delivering high-quality, end-to-end software experiences to global users.

Emily Du is a lead localization program manager at Meta, where she leads internationalization and localization efforts for Meta’s monetization products. She seeks to drive a localization strategy informed by a deep understanding of the user journey that enables a truly local experience for millions of international users and businesses. Previously, Emily managed localization efforts at Salesforce. She holds an MA in translation and localization management from Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a BA in English and Spanish from Shanghai International Studies University.

Georg Ell is the CEO of Phrase, a global leader in localization technology with over 300 employees and prestigious clients such as Uber, Shopify, Zendesk, and Deliveroo. Backed by The Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm, Phrase thrives under Georg’s extensive experience in the tech industry. With over 17 years of leadership experience, Georg has held significant roles, including CEO of Smoothwall, an education safety-tech business that gained recognition as a Top 100 UK employer under his tenure. He also served as Director for Western Europe at Tesla, leading a team of over 330 people to promote sustainable energy adoption.

Jordan Evans is CEO of Language Network and a board member of the Association of Language Companies. Prior to working in the translation industry, Jordan’s experience was in leadership roles at hyper-growth companies as director of North America at Booking.com and VP of sales and marketing at Skilljar. He is focused on building an enduring company by taking the long view. Jordan is a strategic acquirer of language companies and has acquired four translation companies since 2018. As an operator in the industry, he has developed an appreciation for the challenges of growth, and a passion for creating a great place to work.

Tomas Franc is a lead sales solutions architect at Lokalise, where he designs tailored localization processes. He has over 22 years of experience in the localization industry and has designed and implemented truly agile, state of the art localization processes for the biggest technology brands. Tomas was the LocWorld Process Innovator of the Year USA 2017 and is an occasional LocWorld conference speaker.

A linguist by training, Diana Georgieva has been active in the localization industry since 2011 with operational roles both from the vendor and the client side. Currently, she leads content localization at Pleo, a Danish financial technology company, working at the intersection of product, engineering, marketing, and commercial teams to deliver native experiences across multiple locales. Diana is a true language nerd, fluent in four languages and actively learning her fifth.

Salvatore “Salvo” Giammarresi is head of localization at Airbnb. Previously he held leadership roles at several technology companies in Silicon Valley including PayPal and Yahoo. Salvo holds a PhD in applied linguistics from the University of Palermo (Italy), where he later was a visiting professor, teaching localization. He is a published author on the topics of globalization, localization project management, international product management, formulaic sequences, translation studies, and translation memory systems. Salvo enjoys giving back and he currently does this as an executive board member at CLEAR Global, as an advisor to a few startups, and speaking at conferences. He started his professional career as an Italian-English-Italian freelance translator.

Lennart Gijsen is VP marketing and sales at Lokalise. He is a strategist/leader/hacker focused on cracking complex issues and bringing growth to businesses. Lennart has served in senior commercial roles in everything from large enterprise-size tech companies, like booking.com, to high-growth startups like Speakap and Virtuagym.

Daniel Goldschmidt is a speaker and educator with software internationalization and localization expertise. He also teaches computer science and physics to middle and high school students, driven by his belief that investing in the next generation is vital for humanity’s future.

Previously, Daniel was a senior internationalization project manager at Microsoft, leading the internationalization team in the Cloud and Enterprise Division. Before that, he co-founded RIGI Localization Solutions, a venture focused on visual localization, and served as a senior software engineer on Google’s internationalization team. He is Vice-Chair of the LocWorld Program Committee and has been a member of the Internationalization and Unicode Conference review committee. Daniel frequently presents at international events and leads workshops and roundtables. He holds a BS in computer science and mathematics (cum laude) and an MS in computes cience from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Since January 2021, Siobhan Hanna has been responsible for strategy and customer solutions at TELUS International AI (TIAI), formerly Lionbridge AI and part of TELUS International. TIAI provides high-quality training data at scale, helping their customers build world class AI.

Rolf Hecken joined the team at the Translation Bureau of Canada in 2019, after holding various positions within small and large organizations in the language industry. His areas of specialization include artificial intelligence, business processes, and neural machine translation. He is currently leading the human in the loop AI strategy.

Melanie Heighway leads product localization at Atlassian, managing localization of Atlassian’s range of products including Jira and Confluence. She is a passionate advocate of international customers and enjoys evangelizing localization within organizations. Prior to joining Atlassian in 2019, Melanie managed localization of all content as a one-person team at an Australian startup, Invoice2go. Over the past 15 years, she has worked on both client and language vendor sides in Australia and the UK. Melanie has managed a diverse range of language tasks, including speech and language technology projects, mobilization and management of face-to-face speech and sign language interpreters, and medical device document localization at companies such as Cochlear, Appen, SDL and LanguageLine.

Ulrich Henes is the founder and president of The Localization Institute, a Madison, Wisconsin-based consulting and event organizing company. Already in his early years, Ulrich was fascinated by language, cultural differences, and global business. He spent the first decade of his career organizing international campaigns against the arms race and apartheid; and promoting global social justice. For the past 25 years Ulrich has channeled his passion for all things global into promoting awareness and respect for differences among people, countries, and languages in the international business community.

Belinda Hilbert is a seasoned localization professional with a decade of experience in operations, program building, and a recent focus on AI and neural technologies for localization.

Mimi Hills is a localization industry veteran. She teaches the Localization Teams Master Class for the Localization Institute. Mimi is the former director, global information experience at VMware, Inc., and has also led globalization teams at BlackBerry and Sun Microsystems. She comes from the software world with a background in project and engineering management. Mimi is active in the localization industry and in diversity and inclusion circles. In her spare time, she’s involved in the TechWomen program and plays guitar and bass, and runs a nonprofit music camp for adults.

Tuyen Ho leads corporate development and legal operations for Welocalize. She drives Welocalize’s mergers and acquisitions roadmap to align with the company’s overall growth strategy, from deal sourcing and target evaluation to transaction execution and integration planning. Prior to Welocalize, Tuyen held leadership roles in sales and operations at enterprise software companies.

Paula Hunter is a dynamic localization leader fueled by connecting, developing, and empowering people. Over the last ten years at Motorola Solutions, Paula built a high-performing, enterprise-wide localization team from the ground up; a revenue accelerating globalization strategy; and a scalable localization operations program. As a recognized leader and effective change agent, she was promoted into a Director of Business Operations and Chief of Staff role to scale and drive alignment across the growing video security organization. Paula now works as a globalization consultant for Nimdzi, volunteers as a mentor, and is an active speaker in the localization and tech leader communities.

Katell Jentreau has 20+ years of experience in localization, both on the vendor and client sides. She led the globalization effort at Box from 2012 to late 2015, before joining Netflix’s Globalization team as the company was getting ready to launch globally. From 2013 to 2015, she was also on the board of Women in Localization.

Krzysztof Jozefowicz has worked in the localization field for 24 years. He started as an localization engineer for a major software company and later joined SAS where he first worked as a localization and internationalization tech support consultant, localization project manager, and technology manager, eventually becoming the director of the SAS European Localization Center in 2012. Krzysztof and his team of 24 are based in Copenhagen, Denmark where they are responsible for translating SAS software and documentation into 23 European, Middle Eastern, and Latin American languages. In his spare time he enjoys cycling, swimming, fishing, and reading.

Ricky Kalu has worked in media and localization for the past 15 years and is currently the managing director at Kalu Media, a media localization company. He is passionate about Africa and has a great vision of creating access to professional localization services for major and minor African dialects. Ricky continues to work as a creative in his world and manages two other sister companies, Mother Tongue Communications, a digital localization company, and Freq’ncy Audio, a commercial audio company.

Georg Kirchner leads the machine translation program at Dell Technologies. Before focusing on automated translation and related machine learning capabilities, he managed translation management systems. Early on in his career, Georg spent 17 years on the production side as a staff translator, project manager, and project management office lead.

Eva Klaudinyova has been working in the localization industry since 2000, first managing localization programs at Medialocate, then leading localization teams and implementing new globalization, quality, and vendor management strategies for companies such as VeriSign, VMware, and Apple. She is a cofounder and advisory board member of Women in Localization. Eva is currently the program chair of the Translation and Localization Management (TLM) program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, imparting her knowledge and longstanding localization and leadership experience to graduate students of localization management. She is from Slovakia, is multilingual, and holds MAs in foreign language teaching and translation.

Michael Klinger has 25 years of experience in the globalization industry, starting as an interpreter and translation project manager. He is conversant in six languages. Michael established and grew the globalization staffing and localization outsourcing businesses at Winter Wyman Contracts which later became COMSYS. He helped find sellers for COMSYS in the language field. Michael then started Anzu Global and Language Transactions where he grew the language brokerage services business. His current wish is to leverage his business network to support his social venture and charitable work bringing computers and technology to Niger, Africa. Visit www.bokai.org for more information.

Yuka Kurihara is the senior director of globalization services at Scaled Agile, Inc., where she leads international expansion and localization. Passionate about bringing products to global markets, Yuka has successfully navigated the complexities of localizing software, hardware, and diverse content in numerous languages. Since joining Scaled Agile in 2020, she has been instrumental in expanding the company’s global reach and defining its localization strategies. With multiple SAFe certifications, including SAFe® Practice Consultant and Agile Product Manager, Yuka thrives in both the localization and agile worlds.

Since 2013, Taki Kurisawa has been the executive officer of Crestec, a Japan-based language service provider that employs over 1,500 staff in 12 countries. He started as a sales representative and account manager in Japan then took positions as the managing director of Europe in Amsterdam, the managing director of the Tokyo office, and now he is the managing director of USA in Long Beach, California. Since finishing his Japanese education and college degree in San Jose, Taki has been a bridge connecting USA, Europe, and Asia. He has tackled and overcome many cultural challenges. Taki enjoys surfing every week at the world’s best surfing spot, Huntington Beach, California.

Hinde Lamrani has over a decade of experience helping organizations achieve online visibility on a global scale. She helped many of the world’s best-known brands define and execute content strategies that succeed across languages and locales for accelerated international growth. Hinde has more than 15 years of experience working in various search engine optimization (SEO) and digital marketing operations roles at some of the world’s largest language service providers such as Acolad, RWS, and Lionbridge. She currently heads up Acolad’s digital marketing services operation and oversees teams providing in-country content creation, SEO and content strategy services. Hinde earned a master’s degree from University de Franche-Comte in ecommerce and online marketing in 2007 and has diplomas in international search training and global trade and ebusiness.

Rain Lau is an experienced global localization manager with APAC expertise. She joined Workday in 2021 to develop and oversee the Tier 2/3 language program where she is responsible for creating a scalable solution for localization. Rain has been in the localization industry for over 18 years, with more than 12 years in leadership positions, both on the client and service provider sides. She has been in different roles from managing language quality to overseeing global language services for 70+ languages managing over 100 people. Rain has experience in product management, system migration, establishing/refining and running localization operations, and strategic account management working with some of the biggest clients in the IT and media/entertainment industries.

Gary Lefman is a chartered engineer, internationalization evangelist and educator, passionate about software globalization. He is a Fellow and chair of the British Computer Society, the Chartered Institute for IT, with nearly two decades of authority and leadership in software localization. Gary gained his master of science in multilingual computing and localization from the Localisation Research Centre (University of Limerick), where he is now a visiting lecturer. He is a STEM ambassador and Code Club leader, enthusing children across England in the subjects of science, engineering and computational thinking. Talk to Gary about internationalization and continuous localization.

Yanming Li works as a senior manager of localization at Amazon, based in New York City and New Jersey. In her current role, she is leading a localization team and a technical writing team supporting the organization’s machine learning objectives, delivering English and localized content to 5000+ team members across global sites. Yanming is certified as a ZH-EN conference interpreter by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, and her past roles include director of linguistic quality assurance at Morningside.

Olivier Libouban is a French-born software developer and manager with over 30 years experience in four countries. He is currently the vice president of product development at Lingoport, a company that drives innovation around software internationalization and localization. Olivier has a diplôme d’Ingénieur from the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Rennes, France, and an MS in computer science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

As vice president, globalization and localization, Teresa Marshall drives globalization and localization-related efforts across Salesforce, including internationalization, localization management and development of features designed to enable global Salesforce deployment. In 2009 she joined Salesforce as senior localization manager and led all product localization through a period of intensive growth. Since 2015 Teresa has led both globalization and localization for Salesforce. Teresa started her career as a German linguist and has been working in localization for over 15 years. She has held program and operational management positions at a number of Silicon Valley companies, including leading the Google localization team. From 2010 to 2014 Teresa was an adjunct member of the faculty at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) and taught in the translation and localization management program of the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation and Language.

Peiying Mo has been involved with diverse localization projects, ranging from mobile devices to intellectual property, from the Olympics to enterprise software. Currently at Mozilla, a not-for-profit organization, Peiying and her teammates work closely with thousands of community volunteers around the globe to localize Mozilla products, web content, and advocate for Mozilla’s mission of keeping the internet open and accessible for all. She is an avid traveler and favors taking less-beaten paths to experience local cultures. Prior to getting into the localization field, Peiying worked in broadcasting at NPR and NBC affiliates.

Mimi Moore is a freelance global content marketing and editorial manager with 20+ years in the localization industry. Her background includes experience at several localization companies as a project manager, account manager, and recruiter. Most recently Mimi has been a content marketing manager for RWS, CoreMedia and Women in Localization. In her free time, Mimi can be found traveling and studying history.

Gabriela Morales is the founder of Rosario Traducciones y Servicios S.A., an innovative localization company based in Rosario, Argentina, specializing in Latin American languages. In 1995, Gabriela was in charge of deploying the Lazoski, Beninatto & Associados branch in Argentina — the first translation company in the region. After a series of mergers and acquisitions, she managed the South American Spanish operations of LMI and Berlitz in Argentina and Chile. Gabriela served on the GALA Board from 2008 to 2009, and as an active member, she has represented the association at different events around Latin America. She is also a founding member and first President of Translated in Argentina, the leading non-profit association of language service companies. Gabriela has been in charge of the Program Committee of CLINT, TinA’s flagship event, now planning its fourth edition.

Julian Muller leads the localization team at Meta, helping to connect people and build community in over 100 languages across the Meta family of products and services. After joining the company in 2009 with a background as a German translator and a music degree, he has since helped scale Meta’s localization operations and strategy across a broad range of products that reach billions of people around the world. Julian has also taught at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, focusing on how to use data in localization.

As a lead customer success manager at Lokalise, Alesia Nikalaichyk helps customers set up best practices for continuous localization workflows. She works with customers and partners, reaching the fourth and fifth level of localization maturity, discussing their requirements and potential solutions, as well as, brainstorming and sharing knowledge across internal and external teams. Alesia works remotely, based mostly in Riga, Latvia.

David Orban is a lead localization program manager at Meta, where he drives localization strategy for Meta’s business marketing programs. He helped to scale localization of marketing content and digital experiences to worldwide audiences. Previously, David drove localization operations at Microsoft. He is originally from Budapest, Hungary where he obtained degrees in computer science and mathematics at Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest.

Donna Parrish is co-organizer of the LocWorld conferences. She was publisher of the magazine MultiLingual for 18 years. Prior to her work at MultiLingual Computing, Inc., she was a computer programmer for 25 years. Donna holds a degree in mathematics from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. She is presently the secretary of CLEAR Global (Translators without Borders) and CLEAR Tech.

Sabine Peng is the senior localization program manager at VMware. She has over ten years of experience in the localization and globalization industry, serving both language service providers and buyer-side organizations, mainly focusing on project/program management. Sabine is interested in different use cases of machine translation, industry trends, and how to better serve business requirements from the localization perspective.

Mariette Pepping created and manages the ServiceNow marketing localization team, which is responsible for the translation and adaptation of marketing content and digital experiences to worldwide audiences. Since January 1, 2024, Mariette has relocated to Costa Rica, where ServiceNow opened a new office. Next to her marketing localization responsibilities she now also manages the Marketing Center of Excellence in Costa Rica. She has over ten years of experience in global digital marketing including designing and executing connected programs across the globe.

Luz Pineda is a localization professional currently working as technical project manager, localization for Motorola Solutions. Her introduction to localization was working as localization tester of video games. This experience enabled Luz to understand the importance and need for localization quality across all languages and allowed her to view her own native language under a different light. She spent over nine years in different software testing roles only to go back to her real passion, localization.

Oleksandr Pysaryuk is a localization leader with experience in building and growing successful teams and disciplines focused on internationalization, software development, localization and internationalization technical program management, and global product management at the enterprise scale – in sports technology, telecommunications, human capital management, e-commerce and engineering organizations.

Antoine Rey, senior vice president, customer development at Argos Multilingual, started his career in localization in 1997 and has held various technical, sales, and management roles in the industry. His main area of focus is to consult, develop, and implement mature operational and business globalization models with clients across various industries. Antoine is a French native and holds a MS in information technology and a BA in international business and communications. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Vera Richards has spent over 20 years in various positions within the localization industry. With a passion for removing language and cultural barriers, she has worked on the client side and for the past 11 years on the language service provider side, always keeping the target global audiences at the forefront of her mind. Vera embraces the constant evolution of the localization process and sees it as an enriching and exciting challenge. In her current role as a vice president of localization at Akorbi, she focuses on matching talented individuals with new technologies fulfilling the growing global market needs.

Dave Ruane started his 25-year localization industry journey in technology and solutions roles, followed by operations management, consultancy, and then designed globalization business solutions for enterprises. He is a regular moderator and speaker at industry events, and runs the Process Innovation Challenge at LocWorld. He is a self-confessed techie, based in coastal Spain and more often than not can be found near fly fishing water.

Iti Sahai has over 15 years of combined experience in international business and localization, delivering international growth through product-led localization strategy and best practices that fully engage targeted international audiences. Iti champions localization transformation into a strategic function and has been recognized for her ingenuity in identifying solutions that allow organizations to have a global mindset.

Carolina Salazar has experience in many facets of localization, including text, images, video subtitles/dubbing/recreation, and quality assurance, for both small and large companies. She started her career as a translator at Nickelodeon Games, moving into project management and localization, and later improved the localization process at Toastmasters International and created an in-country reviewer program. At Kaiser Permanente, Carolina was in charge of marketing and communications translation quality, setting a quality framework for their websites and printed communications. She now works at Khan Academy supporting their nonprofit mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

Sarah Sanders is passionate about providing users and customers located outside of her home market of the United States with the best possible, localized experiences. She is currently the international business strategist at TechSmith and has been helping them grow globally for the past 11 years.

After receiving a PhD in 2008, Konstantin Savenkov led research and development efforts for online content services, then worked as CTO at Zvooq and as a chief operating officer at Bookmate. In 2016, he contributed his experience in artificial intelligence (AI), technology, and operations to found Intento, Inc., where they build tools to source, evaluate, and use machine translation and other cognitive AI services.

Commonly referred to as “the guy in the pink shirt”, Scott Schwalbach has been in the localization and globalization business for 45+ years, working for and with some of the largest companies and governments in the world. He has worked with sales, solutions, and operations divisions of service companies ensuring that they delivered solutions that drove customers to success.

Scott worked on the original localization pilot team at Microsoft and stayed for 18 years. In addition, he has worked on Google localization for 7 years, Amazon for 4 years, and spent 10 years with the U.S. Government.

Scott teaches various courses in communications and customer expectations, group dynamics as well as advises start-ups and VC’s on globalization best practices. Scott’s free time involves taking care of his mini orchard, adventuring with his Sheltie, Cody, trying out new recipes and other adventures around the world.

William Schwartz has over 30 years of international business management experience in software, technology, supply chain, sales, and operations. His expertise is in business management, development, strategic supply chain, account management, international operations, and manufacturing. William has extensive experience in building, directing, and leading high-performance international strategic and tactical teams. As director of Alpha CRC’s North America business, he builds on his relationships globally to deliver the best experience for Alpha’s clients. William has a BS in industrial technology and operations management from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. He joined Alpha CRC in 2010.

Loy Searle has been a globalization and content industry leader for over 20 years. In the enterprise resource planning industry, her teams pioneered single-sourcing content strategies and built extraordinary integrated global content management systems and terminology solutions. At Google, Loy led global production and language services. Her focus was speed-at-scale — turning language quality around while shortening time-to-market. At Intuit, Loy’s team built a scalable globalization and innovative content foundation to support market expansion. At Deluxe, her team transformed their practice to support the entertainment industry’s digital transformation. As current president of Women in Localization, Loy is committed to the localization industry and the advancement of women within it.  At her side gig — the Global Guild — she builds curated industry peer networks, strengthening leaders and their globalization practices. Today at Workday, Loy’s team is building a localization and content center of excellence to scale and support the company’s expansion goals.

Hongmei Shi is the senior localization program manager at VMware. She has master of engineering in detective technology and automation devices coupled with 17 years of globalization and localization industry experiences and more than 15 years of project and program management experiences. Hongmei is well acquainted with the life cycle of software products and documentation globalization, and software localization requirements. She is interested in various new technologies and trends in globalization.

Jun Shim is a passionate international product manager who has shipped several products which are used and loved by millions of users, worldwide. She has an influential role at Adobe, enhancing international users’ productivity and creativity in their professional and personal endeavors. Jun advocates for deep culturalization of products and services to increase user engagement and retention.

LocWorld48 is Eric Silberstein’s first LocWorld experience and he couldn’t be more delighted to be a part of it. As Lokalise’s US sales engineer, his day-to-day role is revealing the value that localization can contribute to his customer’s business goals. Before joining Lokalise, Eric worked in localization project management and freelance translation. His journey in localization started after his service with the US Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic, where he fell in love with the island and his wife. Eric enjoys backpacking, snowboarding, scuba diving, and playing soccer.

Brian Solis is a world-renowned digital anthropologist, futurist, eight-time best-selling author, international keynote speaker, and serves as vice president, global innovation at Salesforce. He has consistently been recognized as one of the world’s leading voices in innovation, business transformation, and leadership for over two decades. Over the past 20 years, Brian has studied the impact of Digital Darwinism on businesses, markets, and society. In his work, he explores creative innovation, digital transformation, experience design, Web3, AI and the cognitive enterprise, and technology’s effects on human behavior. Brian has published over 60 research papers and actively shares his work in industry-leading publications including Forbes, ZDNet, CIO, Fast Company, and Adweek. His insights on the state and future of digital trends have made him a go-to resource among leading brands, media, and celebrities. As a keynote speaker, Brian has traveled the world to help audiences embrace change, learn what’s coming next and why, and to take a leading role in shaping the future they want to see. He has a unique gift of humanizing these trends to make change and innovation purposeful and inspiring to help leaders reimagine the future.

Lyena Solomon is director of globalization and accessibility at ServiceNow where she is an internationalization product owner responsible for product roadmap and globalization go-to-market strategy. She converts customer challenges into localization capabilities to make ServiceNow products easier to use and available to all. Lyena works with multiple business groups to align globalization with strategic, operational, and local market priorities. She practices a data-driven approach to shaping smart digital experiences in languages other than English and defines measurement framework for globalization impact on company and customer success. She has a strong background in analytics, usability and user experience, web development, digital technologies, and strategy.

Jeannette Stewart is a cofounder of Translation Commons, an online volunteer-based public charity aiming to offer and share tools and resources and to facilitate community initiatives. She is the former CEO of CommuniCare, a life-sciences translation company with offices in London, Paris, Athens, Budapest and Los Angeles. Jeannette has been involved in high-profile projects such as the Genome Project and prototyping the online Unified Submission Process for the European Medicine Agency. She writes a column in MultiLingual on community initiatives. Jeannette has founded, served on the board of directors, moderated and volunteered in various educational and health charities.

Daniel Sullivan is a veteran in the localization industry, having led translation technology and international content teams at four companies and across a diverse set of business verticals. His most recent roles have focused on making localization more of a strategic part of business from a performance perspective, and bridging the gap between straight translation and more nuanced copywriting and transcreative endeavors. Daniel is currently a senior leader in the growth organization at Shopify and oversees a high-impact team that includes programs, enablement, R&D, and analytics, which supports a broad spectrum of teams spearheading international expansion across the entire company.

Since 2011, Akira Takabayashi has been the president of Crestec, a Japan-based language service provider that employs over 1,500 staff in 12 countries. He started as a sales representative and account manager in Japan then took positions as the managing director of Europe in Amsterdam, the managing director of China, and the senior vice president. Prior to Crestec, Akira was a traditional Japanese doll maker, creating Ichimatsu dolls. From sharing the culture of Japan through doll making to his current role in localization, Akira has always felt it is important to help the world properly understand the culture of Japan. He is also an avid tennis player and has been playing for 40 years.

After earning an MChem in Chemistry with French from the University of Manchester, UK, and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge, UK, Karen Tkaczyk’s early career was as a development chemist in Ireland and then the US. Later she established and ran McMillan Translation Inc. where she was a practitioner from 2005 to 2021. Karen now leads MasterWord’s activity for pharmaceutical, chemical, and energy clients. She is also an adviser for the MasterWord Institute, having extensive training experience. Karen gives back; among other roles she served as the secretary of the board of the American Translators Association from 2017 to 2021.

Ana has dedicated over two decades to the language industry, initially as an interpreter and translator before transitioning into project and program management. For the past 15 years, Ana has been making her mark in the US retail sector, all while championing language inclusion and women’s empowerment.

Jorrit van der Moolen is a member of the product localization team at Atlassian, where he looks after a range of Atlassian products and expansive localization initiatives. Before joining Atlassian in early 2020, Jorrit worked for over seven years in Berlin, Germany as a product manager for various web and mobile applications for start-ups and global media brands, with a strong focus on internationalization and globalization. He is from the Netherlands and currently resides in Sydney, Australia.

Erji Wang is the senior localization program manager at VMware. His main focuses are on new product localization planning, customer feedback, and operation data analytics. Erji joined VMware in 2014, moved to the US in 2016, and loves hiking and cooking.

Jack Welde is a technology early-adopter, serial entrepreneur, software patent-holder, product evangelist and combat-decorated Air Force pilot. Before founding Smartling, he served as senior vice president of product at eMusic and COO/CTO at SheSpeaks and RunTime Technologies. Jack also cofounded Trio Development, a software company that created the first personal information manager, which was acquired by Apple in 1993. He holds a BS in computer engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, where he also studied linguistics and interned with Professor William Labov, and an MBA from Cameron University in Germany.

Magdalena Wójcik is an AI expert with 11 years of development experience, and six years of focus on machine learning. With her data science team at Argos Multilingual, Magdalena is developing novel solutions to make linguists’ lives easier and ensure the highest quality of translations.