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.

Tim Arata has over 18 years of hands-on localization management experience. His expertise spans the entire global content workflow and the technologies that support it. Tim has a passion for building holistic localization strategies and international teams. Prior to cofounding Locale Solutions, he was at Apple where he helped pioneer and manage Apple’s localization processes, technologies, and quality assurance programs. Other experience includes WhatsApp (1 1/2 years where he grew and managed the content and localization teams); Localize Technologies (multilanguage vendor); and Idiom Technologies (the original enterprise translation management system). Tim has long been curious about the ubiquitous us/them aspect of the localization sales process.

Andrea Ballista has been working in the game industry for more than 25 years. Starting from his passion of music, songwriting, and singing, he holds a degree in computer music. Since cofounding Binari Sonori in 1994, Andrea has been the audio director for Keywords Studios from 2015 until the end of 2019. In 2020 he  cofounded Voiseed to proceed into research and development of deep learning-based emotional virtual voices.

Rachel Barakat is a 19-year veteran in localization, driven by a passion for languages and cross-cultural communication. Fluent in French, German, and Arabic basics, she breaks language barriers and fosters global understanding. As a leader, she manages a team of 16, nurturing their growth through mentorship and empowerment. Rachel champions continuous learning, encouraging her team to embrace challenges and grow. Beyond work, she advocates for diversity and inclusion, promoting gender equality and cultural understanding. In her free time, she explores cuisines, immerses in art and literature, and travels widely. Rachel’s journey embodies the power of languages, cultural sensitivity, and leadership in global connection.

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.

Caleb has over 25 years of experience with Adobe, working primarily in the Digital Media group. For the past five years, he and his team have focused on cross-product initiatives — driving efforts that address how multiple technologies like AI, search, and text/typography are supported internationally across Creative Cloud applications and services.

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.

Localization visionary and professional contrarian, Renato Beninatto has done it all – freelance translation, vendor management, sales and marketing, CEO, and everything in between. He has a passion for passing on his extensive industry knowledge to others and helping companies grow. Renato is a co-author of  The General Theory of the Translation Company, an adjunct professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey (MIIS), and a co-founder of Nimdzi Insights, a market research and advisory firm specializing in the language industry, and co-owner of MultiLingual Media, publisher of MultiLingual magazine.

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.

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).

Adam Bittlingmayer is co-founder and CEO of ModelFront. ModelFront is accelerating translation safely, by providing private custom LLMs for automatic post-editing and quality prediction. High-volume, high-quality buyers use AI from ModelFront to fully automate millions of words at human quality.

Adam was previously an engineer at Google Translate within Google Research, and also has experience building products like Android and Adobe Creative Suite. He also founded the Machine Translate Foundation – open information and community to make machine translation more accessible.

Simone Bohnenberger, PhD, leads the development of Phrase’s leading cloud-based localization technology as chief product officer. Simone brings over a decade of experience at the forefront of data technology and product oversight in leadership roles in the AI products and solutions space. She is known for her ability to unravel insights from complex information, her tenacity, and also her endearing love for her London-based family.

Wayne Bourland is recognized as an agent for change, driving innovation and process efficiencies across global organizations. He is currently responsible for translation of Dell.com and marketing collateral for more than 100 organizations across Dell. With no background in linguistics, he approaches the industry with a different perspective, focusing on end value and customer acceptance versus traditional industry key performance indicators. Wayne is a member of the TAUS advisory board and has been published in MultiLingual magazine, The Economist, Brand Quarterly and numerous industry blogs.

Tom Bridges is the CEO and founder of CaptionHub, the platform for multimedia localization at scale. Prior to CaptionHub, he founded and led multiple post-production and motion graphics studios in London.

Allie Browne is a Los Angeles-based localization nerd, foodie, futbolista, grammar geek, and professional Snapchatter. She’s passionate about all things automation, streamlining the most complex of processes, and improving end-to-end workflows for all parties involved.

Charles Campbell is the founder, president and sole owner of tbo. and tbotalent, a leading provider of talent, translation, and localization services with offices in Argentina, Peru, Ukraine, and Vietnam. Originally from New Zealand, Charles has traveled widely over four continents and has lived for the last 26 years in South America. he has been a frequent speaker at public events and conferences, having made presentations in Berlin, Buenos Aires, Las Vegas, Lima, London, New York, Portland, Rhode Island, San Antonio, San Francisco, Wiesbaden, and Córdoba (Argentina), among other locations. Charles has a BA in Spanish from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he graduated top of his class in 1997. Charles has also completed postgraduate courses at Harvard University and Universidad Austral (Buenos Aires). Charles is married to Heliana Rossini and has a son named Caetano Campbell and three daughters, Indiana, Nina, and recent arrival Amanda.

Matthew Carulli has worked in the localization industry for 12 years, specifically in the clinical trial space and Electronic Clinical Outcome Assessments (eCOA), with experience on both the eCOA provider and LSP sides. His work at Medable has focused on reforming and maintaining the product locale support and optimizing processes with the product and engineering teams.

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.

Allen Che has a wealth of experience in the field of software globalization and localization and is currently serving as a senior technical program manager at VMware. With over 15 years of experience, he is very familiar with the various challenges and opportunities associated with localizing software for different markets and languages. In addition, his technical background gives him a unique perspective on how to optimize localization workflows and leverage data analytics to improve localization quality and efficiency.

Koni Chen is a localization advocate who champions the integration of best practices into product design for a global reach. She holds an MA in translation and localization management from Middlebury Institute of International Studies, completed in May 2022. Before her transition to localization, Koni worked as a litigation paralegal, where her language-related responsibilities exceeded her paralegal duties. Her passion for languages, technology, and her vision of facilitating international connections led her to shift her career into the localization industry. Today, she is dedicated to bridging language and culture gaps for a diverse global audience.

Sung Cho leads the localization operations at Amazon Seller Support group to enable Amazon global sellers to effectively process their business globally. Sung started his localization career as an internationalization engineer at Symantec and has been working in the localization industry for over twenty years. He has experiences both from the client side (Symantec, Microsoft, Amazon), and also from the vendor side (Lionbridge, Welocalize) throughout his career across multiple continents and countries.

Gaëtan Chrétiennot is the founder and CEO of Six Continents, a boutique LSC based in France. He leads a team of highly skilled translation and localization professionals, delivering innovative solutions to contemporary challenges. Gaëtan values the importance of strong relationships and long-term collaborations. In addition to his role at Six Continents, Gaëtan serves as a senior consultant and shares his expertise with masters students at the University. Gaëtan is a well-respected member of the language industry who loves to bring a French touch around the globe.

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.

Jamie Cox is a localization manager with ten years’ experience, starting out at LSPs like Gengo, Welocalize, and ULG, and then transitioning to the client side. Jamie previously worked as a localization producer at Blizzard Entertainment and currently holds the position of localization program manager at BetterUp, where he manages localization into seven languages. Jamie has extensive work history managing projects and programs for marketing and creative translation, as well as multimedia localization.

Genevieve D’Acquisto is a global program manager at RWS with 15+ years in localization. She manages a global project management team and partners with account sales directors, leveraging deep functional and account knowledge to drive forward internal and client strategies as aligned with global business objectives. Genevieve is a native Spanish speaker, loves art and music, and is happiest when she’s in the mountains with her husband and daughter.

Named a “Mover and Shaker” in workplace wellbeing, Laura is a skilled mental health educator working with companies and organizations throughout the globe through her company LDC Wellbeing. She built the wellbeing program for Expedia Group from a grassroots level and now consults with companies that value the importance of a holistic wellbeing strategy.

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.

Rodrigo Demetrio is head of marketing at Bureau Works, and believes that marketing is about conversation and bringing people together.

Francesca Di Marco spearheads Pinterest’s internationalization and global development program, where she fuels her passion for crafting multinational organizations from the ground up. Dedicated to implementing scalable globalization and localization strategies, Francesca excels at connecting teams across functions and regional offices. A lifelong language enthusiast and former lecturer on the history of modern Japan, Francesca channels her curiosity into documentary filmmaking during her downtime.

Karina Drosenos is a seasoned localization program manager with a remarkable journey in the industry. Hailing from Peru and armed with a degree from Kent State University, Karina began her career as a localization project manager for LSPs.
Her expertise grew as she served as an in-house scientific translator at the United States Pharmacopeia and later led software localization at GoPro. Committed to giving back, Karina served as coaching program manager for Women in Localization. Currently, she is a localization program manager at Salesforce, driving localization efforts for Platform and Commerce Cloud into 34 languages. In her spare time, she actively supports the Los Angeles Latin community and volunteers with No Us Without You, bringing food to Latin families in need.

Zach Duncan is head of localization at Stripe and has over a decade of experience in the localization industry, with previous roles including Uber, Lionbridge, and thebigword. He has worn many hats in localization and no matter what role he’s held, Zach has always been diligent at seeking out and mastering the latest localization technology offerings that can add value to his localization program. At Stripe, he took the reins of the localization effort in 2022 and inherited a nascent MT program, which he continues to expand based on Stripe’s (and Zach’s) aggressive stance on AI adoption.

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.

Founder and CEO of Bureau Works, Gabriel Fairman is the father of three and a technologist at heart. Raised in a family that spoke three languages and having picked up another three over the course of his life, he has always been fascinated with the role language plays in identity and the creation of meaning. Gabriel loves to cook, play the guitar, tennis, soccer, and ski. As far as work goes, he enjoys being at the forefront of innovation and mobilizing people and teams together toward a mission.

Catarina Farinha is an AI research manager at Unbabel and a product lead at Center for Responsible AI. Catarina has a master’s in biomedical engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico and a Ph.D. in computational psychiatry from Universidade de Lisboa. Since joining Unbabel in 2019, she worked on the evaluation of machine translation, being a co-author of the state-of-the-art metric COMET. Recently, Catarina has been bridging research with product.

Suzanne Frank is the vice president of global enablement at Vistatec. She works across the Vistatec global sales team to make sure that the sales team is trained on the chosen sales methodologies and has the tools necessary for success. Suzanne also works with the larger account programs within the Vistatec account portfolio.

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.

Darin Goble is the head of solutions for Welocalize and has a 25-year leadership history in the localization and global content space managing production, engineering, and solutions organizations. He has a passion for embracing change and advancements within the industry grounded on positive impact for customers through effective collaboration, vision, and execution to ensure measurable outcomes.

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.

Ludmila Golovine is the driving force behind MasterWord, a world-ranked Top 100 company that delivers customized language solutions in over 400 languages. She made a lifetime commitment to quality, innovation, doing business with heart and connecting people across language and culture. Ludmila is the Texas chapter manager for Women in Localization, Translation Commons adviser and professors group chair, and is a member of several professional organizations. She is an advocate of social justice and is a nationally and internationally recognized speaker. Her work has been recognized by numerous awards.

Spence Green is Lilt’s co-founder and CEO. Prior to founding Lilt, Spence was a graduate student at Stanford University. He received a PhD and MS in computer science from Stanford and a BS from the University of Virginia. He has published papers on machine translation, language parsing, and mixed-initiative systems and given talks on translator productivity.

Kristin Gutierrez is a highly respected localization industry expert in leadership development, growth, and strategy, a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and sought-after consultant. With over two decades of international experience, Kristin has excelled as a leader in the localization industry including various roles for Women In Localization, and won a Stevie Award for “Best Use of Thought Leadership in Complex Sales” for her innovation framework. Having demonstrated a consistent record of driving business growth and goal achievement, Kristin is a trusted partner for organizations seeking to thrive. Her expertise translates into valuable insights and actionable strategies that can be readily implemented to foster transformation within teams and companies. Through her engaging and transformative workshops, Kristin passionately advocates for creating positive and productive work environments, leaving a lasting impact on individuals and organizations alike.

Lucio Gutierrez is a seasoned globalization and localization engineering professional. He has led engineering teams to build state-of-the-art globalization and localization technology to support product and content development teams to be launched globally. Most recently at Workday, he led engineering teams to build the next generation of technology to support Workday’s global journey via platforms, teams, and content systems. He achieved this by bridging the gap between legacy and modern technologies with SaaS and platform strategies. His globalization experience spans the software development lifecycle in support of design, implementation, testing, deployment, and delivery. He’s currently working as a G11n & I18n consultant and looking for the next opportunity in his career.

Aki Hayashi is a senior manager of Globalization Program Management Office (PMO) at Dell Technologies with twenty plus years of experience in the localization industry. In this role, Aki leads a team of project and program managers and oversees both localization and event globalization programs. She is passionate about learning new things for the future, elevating the role of PMO, and leading the team with a vision of building the Globalization Center of Excellence. Aki holds a master of science degree in international affairs from Northeastern University in Boston, where she resides with her family and two cats.

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.

Bruno Herrmann has more than 25 years of experience in international product, content, and customer experience leadership within large organizations and startups, and in various industries such as technology, market research, business intelligence, and life sciences. Until early June 2022, he was the director of localization operations at IQVIA, creating and leading an international team of more than 150 hub-based project managers, content design experts, vendor managers, and internal linguists in the US, LATAM, EMEA, Greater China and APAC. From 2003 to 2019 Bruno had roles of increasing responsibility in marketing, business operations, and product leadership at The Nielsen Company, including digital globalization leader between 2008-2019 where he was responsible for global content creation, localization, testing, certification, and delivery, product management, and international customer experiences. Before joining Nielsen, he managed online globalization programs at HP and content operations including localization at Compaq and Digital Equipment Corporation. Prior to joining Digital Equipment Corporation, Bruno worked in marketing communication and localization startups, taking part in major international projects for high-profile technology clients. He has been a practitioner, change agent, thought leader, and strategist in data-driven and client-first information, transformation, and product management, both in the offline and online world. Bruno is a regular speaker, panelist, moderator, and workshop leader during conferences and events around the world.

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.

Natalia Horbachevska is a co-founder and CEO of the Task Force translation company, established in 2011 and proudly originating from Ukraine. While Ukraine is at war, Natalia’s team is working and translating for global clients. Today the team translates more than 100 language pairs with a primary focus on Eastern European languages. Task Force, with its main focus on legal, pharmaceutical, and healthcare, as well as IT and cybersecurity, is ISO 17100 certified, ranked in the top three Ukrainian translation companies, and included in the international index of Slator.com for translation companies as a boutique.

Jochen Hummel is cofounder and CEO of Coreon GmbH. He also heads ESTeam AB, a leading language operations company. As founder of TRADOS, Jochen established computer-assisted translation as a product category, with Semiox he is reinventing multilingual again. He is an internationally known software executive, business angel, and serial entrepreneur.

Marina Ilari is an ATA-certified translator and CEO of Terra Localizations. She has two decades of experience in the translation industry, specializing in video game localization. Her leadership has propelled Terra to receive accolades like the 2017 Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s Rising Star Award and the 2020 Enterprising Women of the Year Award. In 2023, Terra was listed by Inc. Magazine among America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies. Passionate about gaming and languages, Marina also co-hosts the translation podcast, En Pantuflas.

Sheriff Issaka is a PhD student at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he conducts state-of-the-art research at the Misinformation, AI & Responsible Society (MARS) Lab. His work focuses on critical areas in Natural Language Processing (NLP), including bias and fairness, low-resource languages, and multimodal models for enhanced language understanding.

As founder and lead researcher of the African Languages Lab (All Lab), Sheriff spearheads a global collaborative project that is revolutionizing NLP for African languages. This initiative creates comprehensive roadmaps, innovative methodologies, and open-source resources to democratize AI for underrepresented languages, addressing a critical gap in current language technologies.

Tucker Johnson is the author of The General Theory of the Translation Company and cofounder of Nimdzi Insights, which are both joint projects with his partner, Renato Beninatto. As a coauthor and a cofounder, he takes Renato’s crazy ideas and puts them into action. Specialized in vendor-side operations, global team management, large program outsourcing and supply chain governance, Tucker eagerly shares his operational experience, whether it is through writing, speaking, teaching or consulting clients.

Eric Jones has spent his entire twenty-year career in the language industry. His current role is managing an 11-person team of strategic account directors across North America and Europe for RWS. The team supports RWS’ most sophisticated customers by providing a wide range of software and services across the spectrum of language, AI, and Content.

Marleen Julien is the owner and operator of Creole Solutions, a company dedicated to elevating the standing of the Haitian Creole language. She has a background in international development and came to the translation industry driven by her passion for language and community development. Giving native speakers of Haitian Creole access to a wide range of authentic materials in their own language has been her highest priority. Marleen firmly believes in leveraging technology and innovative translation approaches to improve the lives of people and bridge linguistic barriers. She is also a plain language advocate, based on her belief in the role of language in diversity and inclusion. She published a children’s book Nan Jaden Amoni in 2022.

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.

Donna Kay has a decade of experience creating training content for global audiences. She has learned a few things about writing for a global audience, localization, and translation in this pursuit. In her role at Columbia Sportswear, she has taken on the task of researching the needs for and creating a Translation Center of Excellence, with a few tiny missteps, and some big wins along the way.

Mike Kim is a veteran in the gaming industry, boasting nearly twenty years of gaming development localization experience and over a decade in localization management. His journey spans from startups to corporate giants, encompassing AAA titles and mobile games. Recognized as a guru in game localization, Mike blends cultural adaptation with technical precision. As a trusted leader, he has guided numerous projects to success. Beyond his professional achievements, Mike is a passionate advocate for global gaming communities, bridging cultural gaps to create immersive gaming experiences that transcend borders. (Written by ChatGPT)

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.

Jocelyn Kwong is a 2023 Middlebury Institute of International Studies graduate with an MA in translation and localization management. Her path to MIIS started from her studies in Nanjing, China, through the Chinese Language Flagship Program. Upon returning to San Francisco, she continued in her field of interest, working at a Mandarin immersion school. Now, at Square (Block Inc.), Jocelyn works as a localization project coordinator, connecting businesses and customers globally, while continuing her journey of language and cultural bridge-building.

Alon Lavie is vice president of AI research at Phrase. He has been at the leading edge of AI research in language technology for many years. He has just concluded a tenure as VP of language technologies at Unbabel, where he led the company’s U.S. AI lab based in Pittsburgh, and provided strategic leadership for the company’s broader AI R&D teams. Prior to this, Alon headed up the Amazon Machine Translation R&D group in Pittsburgh. Notably, earlier in his career, he co-founded and led a machine translation technology start-up, Safaba Translation Solutions, ultimately serving the company as president and chairman of the board, until its acquisition by Amazon in 2015. Additionally, Alon has been at the forefront of academic research in machine translation. His impressive academic credentials include 20 years of serving as research professor at Carnegie Mellon’s Language Technology Institute (LTI) where he is now consulting professor. His primary research has focused on machine translation and translation evaluation as well as related areas such as MT adaptation approaches with and without human feedback, quality estimation, and methods for multi-engine MT system combinations.

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.

Arle Lommel is a senior analyst with independent market research firm Common Sense Advisory (CSA Research). He is a recognized expert in quality processes and interoperability standards. Arle’s research focuses on technology, quality assessment and interoperability.

A passionate gamer since childhood, Federica began working in the videogames industry when she moved to London in 2011 to study for an MA in audiovisual translation. After a brief time as a language tester for SEGA and translating her first game for Codemasters as a freelancer, she worked at Pole To Win as an in-house translator and team supervisor. Federica joined Square Enix in 2016 and currently works as a senior translator/editor for Italian. Her work encompasses translation for games and marketing campaigns, and she has translated games such as Life is Strange: True Colors, Life is Strange 2, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the FINAL FANTASY Trading Card Game, and Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

Paul Mangell has a lot of experience at the cutting-edge of localization. His career has spanned all aspects of the localization industry, and he has been at the forefront of both the creation of agile processes and creative content management. Paul is passionate about localization, cultural adaptation and language transformation for product marketing, brand management, campaigns (TV, film and web) and advertising.

Penny Mao works as a senior program manager in Selling Partner Support group at Amazon, based in Seattle. She is leading to deliver a machine translation (MT) solution to provide a seamless language support experience and remove language barriers for selling partners to sell on Amazon and leverage non-Amazon services. Penny has a passion for customer experience solutions and the large scale of global product management.

Jason Mars is at the intersection of science, technology, and entrepreneurship, aiming for global impact. As a computer science professor at the University of Michigan, he leads the Clarity Lab, a top AI and computing research hub. Mars developed Jaseci, a groundbreaking tech stack, and Jac, a programming language that revolutions sophisticated software creation for the Generative AI era and is utilized by-products like Myca.ai, Tobu Life, and ZeroShotBot.  Mars is also a serial entrepreneur, founding multiple companies that have delivered trend-setting AI solutions to over 20 million users across diverse sectors. His accolades include raising $62 million in capital, building $200 million-valued businesses, and awards like Crain Business’s 40 under 40, Bank Innovations’ Most Innovative CEO, and the CARAH Award. He also wrote the Amazon bestseller Breaking Bots: Inventing A New Voice In The AI Revolution. Before Michigan, Mars taught at UCSD and worked with Google and Intel. He has a PhD in Computer Science from UVA.

Patrick McLoughlin manages localization at Verily Life Sciences. Prior to Verily, Patrick spent ten years at Eventbrite where he founded and managed the localization function, and five years at Yahoo! as a localization project manager and terminology manager. Patrick has also held positions as a lexicographer, adjunct professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, translator, multilingual researcher, and writer. He holds a variety of certifications and degrees from universities in Italy, the UK, and California.

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.

Bryan Murphy is the CEO of Smartling, a translation and localization software company servicing hundreds of global companies. He was formerly the vice president of vertical markets at eBay, and CEO and Cofounder of WHI, a software-as-a-service company, acquired by eBay in 2012. Bryan has also served as CEO of Breather and president of digital for Serta Simmons. He serves as a director for JEGS.com and Playpower. Bryan is also an advisor for Starboard Capital Partners and is a former director of Neighborly and PartsSource.

Jessy Nguyen is an adaptable, self-motivated worker who is passionate about efficiency, accessibility, and tying things to the big picture. Through his various leadership experiences and multi-cultural background, Jessy has brought teams together and worked toward a shared objective while maintaining good rapport and synergistic relationships with coworkers and stakeholders. After living in Japan, Jessy developed his passion for connecting cultures and alongside his interest in business and technology and decided on a career in the globalization/localization industry. As an avid learner, after completing his master’s in translation and localization management at MIIS, Jessy has been diving into localization data infrastructure, operational strategy, and team building as focus areas for continued learning. At LinkedIn, he continues to apply his expertise towards the localization of the LinkedIn ecosystem.

Linh Nguyen graduated in 2023 from Middlebury Institute of International Studies with a master’s degree in translation and localization management. She currently works as a localization program manager at a fintech company. Her passions lie in language learning, localizing across cultures, and understanding new technologies. She hosts the Localize the World podcasts, where she brings knowledge from localization professionals to newbies in the field.

Minette Norman is an author, speaker, and consultant who previously spent decades leading global teams in the software industry. She believes that when groups embrace diversity in all its forms, innovation accelerates. Her most recent position before starting her own consultancy was as vice president of engineering practice at Autodesk. Minette is a keynote speaker on topics of inclusive leadership, psychological safety, and empathy. She is the author of The Boldly Inclusive Leader and the co-author of The Psychological Safety Playbook. Minette holds degrees in drama and French from Tufts University and studied at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris.

Véronique Özkya has established herself as a prominent figure in the localization industry, demonstrating expertise and leadership across various professional roles. At Lionbridge and Moravia, she helped scale the businesses to become among the largest content services players in the industry. Post-Moravia, Véronique became CEO at Xplanation, and then at Argos Multilingual, where she played a pivotal role in shaping organizational strategies and fostering growth across sectors such as technology, life sciences, finance, and retail. She is a frequent public speaker on leadership, growth hacking, diversity, and inclusion. Véronique is a former GALA board chair.

Martyna Pakula was born and raised in Poland, however, her fascination with foreign cultures and languages quickly made her explore other countries. She studied translation, interpretation, and Spanish literature in Spain, then finished her MA degree in Dutch studies in Belgium where she started her career in localization. After six years of Belgian chocolates, fries, and rain, she decided to make one of her dreams come true and move to sunny California. Silicon Valley turned out to be a vibrant localization hub, so she cannot imagine a better place for her. Over the years, she transformed from a passionate linguist to a thought leader managing teams across the globe and helping clients achieve their goals.

With over 20 years in the industry, Patricia Paladini Adell is a leading globalization consultant specializing in designing and building scalable and agile localization programs. Patricia is the Founder and CEO of Paladini Global. The firm expertise in continuous localization and systems integration makes Paladini Global a key parent to accompany companies to efficiently adapt their offerings for international markets. Proficient in translation technologies such as translation management systems, machine translation, large language models (LLMs), and terminology management, Paladini Global ensures high-quality, culturally relevant content delivery. Paladini Global excels in change and stakeholder management, guiding organizations through complex transitions and securing support at all levels. The firm’s advocacy for Agile methodology fosters collaboration, flexibility, and rapid iteration, accelerating time-to-market and enhancing global operations. Dedicated to helping corporations.

Jose Palomares is the director of localization at Coupa, a world-leading business spend management firm headquartered in San Mateo, California. Born and raised in Barcelona, Spain, his trajectory in the localization industry spans more than 20 years as a translator, technologist, executive, and entrepreneur. Jose brings his combined experience from the vendor and buyer sides, a lifelong interest in technology, and an outspoken attitude toward how to empower the globalization community. When he is not with his team localizing enterprise assets into 70+ locales, he relishes learning new things, photography, cooking, and not taking life too seriously.

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.

Manoli Pena-Lopez, a veteran in the field of localization, has been serving as a localization technical program manager at Shopify since 2021. Her role involves spearheading unique projects such as the implementation of a terminology management system and a request management system with integration, automation, and collaboration tools. Prior to this, she occupied various localization technical positions at Cisco. With a deep-rooted passion for languages and technology, Manoli found her perfect fit in the realm of localization. Originally from Spain, Manoli has spent many years residing in the United States.

Cecilia Piaggio has 26 years of experience in the localization industry on the supplier and buyer side in a range of positions from quality assurance manager, project manager, director of production, general manager, SLV owner, and vendor manager with a focus on underrepresented languages in internet at Meta.

Silvio Picinini is a staff machine translation language specialist at eBay. He focuses on creating processes for measuring and improving translation quality, whether from a machine or a human. Silvio has been working with translation quality and as a translator for over 20 years.

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.

Emily Randall has 18 years of expertise in localization, with a focus in product UI and marketing content types. She has a specialization in UX design and content design, having embedded herself in these teams at multiple organizations. Emily is committed to bringing design and globalization organizations together in collaboration, everywhere she can. She is known for revolutionizing processes and content systems for world-renowned organizations like Uber, eBay, PayPal, and Apple. She is currently a Senior Localization PgM at Uber. She is an English and German speaker, a Spanish learner, and is powered by chocolate and optimism.

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.

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.

Kristy Sakai is CEO of Supertext USA, Inc, a company that takes a creative approach to localization by focusing on how to drive impact with multilingual copy. After a decade of working as a copywriter and transcreator in the UK, Japan, and Germany, Kristy joined Supertext as a language manager. In 2016, she spearheaded Supertext’s expansion to the US, coming full circle to sunny Santa Monica, California. Supertext USA has since helped unicorn startups and multinationals reach global audiences with streamlined strategies and effective copy. Kristy is passionate about writing, multiculturalism, and food.

Tumi Samuel-Ipaye is a Data Engineer at the All Lab, specializing in transforming raw data from low-resourced languages into machine-ready formats for AI model development. Her expertise lies in developing efficient methods such as transfer learning-based data augmentation, multilingual embedding alignment, and unsupervised morphological segmentation to clean, ingest, and structure linguistic data. Tumi’s work is crucial in enabling the development of text-to-text translation, speech recognition, and chatbot systems for underrepresented African languages. She is passionate about overcoming the unique challenges of low-resource languages and bridging the gap between raw linguistic data and AI applications.

Hajnalka Sarvari has worked in the field of internationalization throughout her entire career. She has worked on both vendor and client side and has worn many hats. She started her career as a translator and language specialist, worked in project and program management, and is currently leading the Internationalization Team at Meta.

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.

Isha Sharma is head of localization at Nas Daily, a social media channel with 60 million cross-platform followers across ten languages globally. With over 15 years in the localization industry, Isha has worked closely with numerous brands to achieve their globalization goals, with a special focus on EMEA and Asian markets. Her competencies include localization program management, international growth, process implementation, organic content management, and training.

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.

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.

Mathijs Sonnemans is a software engineer, product strategist, writer, and musician with a background in theoretical computer science and philosophy. One of his personal slogans is that mixing language and technology is asking for trouble. Luckily, solving troublesome and complex problems is his hobby!

As part of the Phrase Marketing team, Francesca leads the localization program and the Loc Leaders community program. Francesca has been in localization for over 13 years in both client and vendor roles and she continues to be passionate about languages, curious about technology, and committed to implementing efficient processes.

Andrea Tabacchi is the chief customer officer at Phrase where he utilizes his extensive experience in building customer-centric language technology solutions for multinational corporations and global translation companies. He and his teams work with clients to develop solutions to address their translation technology needs, including innovative ways to optimize the Phrase platform and liaise between clients and internal teams to suggest platform improvements. 

Francesca Tantussi is an Italian localization project manager in love with media, localization, volleyball, and sustainability. After graduating as a translator and getting further specialized in the audiovisual localization field, her academic and professional path lead her to Spain, Australia, Argentina, Ireland, and UK. She ended up in California to attend a “Localization Management Program” at MIIS (Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Monterey, California), which exposed her to the technical aspects she felt she was missing. Always striving to become a better professional, Francesca currently works as title manager at Deluxe Media in the subtitling division, accelerating the new era of entertainment.

Giselle Tran advocates for content’s pivotal role in the relationship between global businesses and their customers. From technical writer to content ops and localization expert, her scope spans the full content lifecycle, including infrastructure, design, management, localization, delivery, and measurement. She focuses on crafting customer-centric experiences at scale, blending people, processes, and technology to break down barriers between source and localized content and draw strengths from all teams.

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.

Pascale Tremblay is a seasoned globalization leader with an extensive track record, boasting expertise in orchestrating a multitude of successful localization initiatives throughout her career. She now advises and develops language capabilities initiatives for growing companies, including organizational development, strategy, and technologies. Her most recent role as the director of localization at Gap Inc.,exemplifies her achievement in this field. She is deeply passionate about injecting fresh ideas that catalyze transformative change and foster innovation, thereby facilitating sustained growth within organizations. Pascale is based in the Seattle area.

Ágnes Varga is the CTO at memoQ, leading the production department where memoQ TMS is created. She has been with memoQ for more than ten years where first she worked on memoQ as a software developer, and after seven years she went to the product side to be a product manager for translation memories. Before memoQ, she worked at the Széchenyi University in Györ and finished her PhD on the quality of machine translation.

Rachel Varnergardner manages localization and internationalization at Remitly, a global digital remittance company. Prior to Remitly, Rachel spent six years at Amazon, building and managing translation programs across the Customer Service organization. She began her career working at both mid-sized and large LSPs, where she developed her passion for expanding language access for users worldwide. Within the industry in the Pacific Northwest, Rachel has served on the leadership committees for SLUG and Women in Localization.

Kirti Vashee is a language technology evangelist at Translated who was formerly an independent consultant focusing on machine translation (MT) and translation technology. He has been associated with several MT developers including Language Weaver, SDL, Systran, and Asia Online. Kirti has long-term experience in the MT technology arena and several software companies including Lotus, OTG, Legato, and EMC. He is the moderator of the LinkedIn Automated Language Translation (MT) group with over 8,000 members, and is also a former board member of American Machine Translation Association. Kirti is active on Twitter and is the editor and chief contributor to a respected blog that focuses on MT, AI and translation automation, and industry-related issues.

Jorgelina “Lina” Venturi,  is talent solutions manager at tbotalent. Originally from Cordoba, Argentina, but with a touch of California in her heart from a five-year stay in 2006. She started off in software engineering at Cordoba’s University of Technology, but her love for languages pulled her in a different direction. With over ten years in the localization industry, Lina has tried everything from coordinating projects to managing them, and she’s even climbed the ladder to senior business leadership. With her extensive background, experience, and passion for clients, Lina is all about crafting custom solutions to make sure every experience is totally unique and special. She is a loving wife and mom to three girls, a swimming enthusiast, and lover of the outdoors.

Erik drives innovation at Argos Multilingual by nurturing strategic growth and fusing customer needs with robust technology solutions. By fostering scalability and seamless integrations, solutions meet customer demands and elevate team performance and company growth.

Erik’s passionate about crafting solutions, grounded in a comprehensive understanding of business realities and finding practical applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Translation. The mission is to develop business models that are viable and deeply embedded in a core value proposition that resonates with global markets.

Darrin Wittwer has 25+ years of experience in language services and related industries, serving in numerous customer-facing roles with respected firms, brands, and enterprises worldwide. Specialties include international expansion, enterprise localization and interpretation, regulatory compliance, eLearning / talent development, and gaming. He lives in Bend, Oregon where he is passionate about snow skiing, search and rescue, and flyfishing.

Adam Wooten is an experienced localization industry executive and associate professor in the Translation & Localization Management graduate program at MIIS, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He has previously headed up translation operations for various companies in California and Utah, including AccuLing, which he co-founded in 2013. Adam has been a columnist for MultiLingual magazine, a frequent speaker on localization topics, and a consultant for companies that want to “level up” in translation technology and AI.

Yan Yu established Spartan Software in 2008 with a vision to create a customer-centric technology company. Prior to Spartan, he was with Idiom Technologies, building and implementing WorldServer for customers. Yan is passionate about helping customers to achieve their goals.

Wei Zhang serves as a VP in localization technology at Centific. He has over two decades of experience in internationalization. Prior to Centific, he led localization teams at Microsoft, Amazon, and Hopin, excelling in production, platforms, and pioneering tech. Wei has a passion for diverse cultures and international user experiences.

Silke Zschweigert is a passionate, authentic, and driven leader in our language industry. Before becoming CEO at Jonckers, she spent almost 20 years at SDL where she held several commercial and operational management roles. She was their chief delivery officer and was responsible for leading their global Language Services business. Silke has transformed Jonckers to become a true AI-driven company, where both machine and human play a critical role in helping customers go global faster, at the best price and optimal quality levels.