Britta Aagaard is chief business officer at Semantix and is responsible for the total business within localization and advanced language solutions. With an academic background in philosophy and the science of language, coupled with an entrepreneurial mindset, Britta joined the language industry in 2004. Today she is enjoying the privilege of providing executive leadership to her organization and thought leadership to the language community. Britta serves on the board of directors of GALA and LT-Innovate and is part of the LIND Expert Group of the European Commission, with the ambition to position the language industry in the intersection of humanity and AI. Britta has a clear vision and commitment to creating a scalable business platform through sustainable integrations of people, technology, and solutions for a prosperous and democratic digital future.

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.

Belén Agulló García is a multimedia localization professional with over a decade of experience in the localization industry in various roles in multiple companies, mainly language service providers, research and consultancy firms, and technology service providers. In her professional career, she has touched upon almost every role in the industry, including linguist, project manager, quality program manager, language technology deployment manager, researcher, educator, customer success manager, and vendor relationship manager, among others. This unique mix of experiences gave her a unique and deep understanding of the industry, which she is developing further at Deluxe as AI strategy director. In her current role, Belén’s focuses on leading teams in devising and implementing long-term AI strategies, fostering strategic partnerships, and defining go-to-market strategies for AI services across key verticals. She earned a Ph.D. with a dissertation entitled “Subtitling in immersive media: A user-centered study.”

Aimee Ansari has over 20 years of experience in leadership positions in large humanitarian and development organizations. She has worked in several humanitarian crises from the Tajik civil war to the earthquake in Haiti, the conflicts in the Balkans to the Syrian refugee crisis and the conflict in South Sudan. Prior to joining Translators without Borders in 2016, Aimee worked with Care, Oxfam, Save the Children and the United Nations.

Technology and innovation enthusiast Cristina Anselmi has worked in the video game industry for nearly 15 years, with several different roles all related to project and program management. She has taken care of the localization of several AAA titles to make sure to deliver the best player experience possible. Her focus for the last five years has been implementing AI technologies to automate workflows, acting as a program manager and product owner for several developments around machine translation and AI. Her goal is to pave the way for AI and technology to be welcome and used in daily life and be seen as an aid rather than an enemy, a powerful tool that can enhance productivity without ever jeopardizing quality and creativity.

Luciano Arruda is an experienced professional focusing on scaling platforms and globalization initiatives to support international growth. His technical expertise spans various roles, including direct interaction and/or management of Internationalization Engineering Teams at prominent companies such as Adobe, Google, Uber, and Automation Anywhere. Currently, he is leading efforts in applying Generative AI and Automation to globalization workflows, contributing to an exciting era of innovation in our industry. It’s a thrilling time to be at the forefront of this transformative technology.

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.

Diego Bartolome is the founder of sintetic.ai, a start-up that helps companies achieve more with Generative AI.

Kelly Beaver is the chief executive of Ipsos in the UK and Ireland, one of the largest and most innovative research organizations in the UK. With over 2,000 specialist research, operational, and advisory employees across 12 offices, Ipsos delivers reliable information and a true understanding of society, markets, and people. Kelly has been with Ipsos for over a decade. Previously, she was managing director of Ipsos’s UK Public Affairs division, which supports government clients in monitoring and understanding public opinion, behaviors, and societal trends, designing public services and policies, and determining what works in achieving social and economic policy objectives. In addition to her role at Ipsos, she also holds several honorary positions external to Ipsos in academia and charities. Kelly is a regular commentator in the national press and broadcast media. She is experienced at presenting to senior audiences on public and business leader opinions, as well as societal and consumer trends across a range of topics including trust, gender equality, employee engagement, leadership, and many others. She was awarded an MBE in June 2022 as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to academia, research, and the COVID-19 response, and was named in the Female FTSE Board Report – 100 Women to Watch 2022.

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.

With over a decade of experience in the language and localization industry, Viviana Bertinetto has led diverse teams and managed programs to bridge linguistic and cultural divides. As the chief customer officer at Language I/O, Viviana is responsible for driving customer success, enterprise growth, and engagement. She also possesses a strong background in managing localization programs and accounts, having served as a director of customer success and a localization program and account manager. Viviana’s career journey has been enriched by roles in which she managed vendors and quality assurance, as well as pioneered innovation and technology in localization.

Sharon Biggar is the head of marketing at Happy Scribe, an AI-powered transcription, subtitling, and translation platform. With an extensive background in tech marketing, Sharon has previously held significant roles, including VP of Marketing at TestGorilla and Hotjar, and Chief Analytics Officer at Social Point. Sharon’s expertise lies in machine learning, data-driven marketing, and growth strategy. She holds an MBA from MIT and a Master of Economics. At Happy Scribe, Sharon’s strategic vision is pivotal in expanding the company’s reach within the language and localization services industry.

Budapest-born, raised globally, and now a neonative Torontonian, Bruno Bitter considers himself a builder, strategist, technologist, and investor. He started Blackbird.io in 2021 to build an integration platform as a service (iPaaS) that can serve as a workflow and decision automation platform for the language industry. Blackbird’s foundations were inspired by Bruno’s experience as CEO of Next Wave Europe, a successful digital agency, and his tenure at memoQ, where he held various roles including chief marketing officer and chief operating officer.

Adam Bittlingmayer is CEO and co-founder of ModelFront – AI for accelerating human-quality translation which provides private custom models for automatic post-editing and machine translation quality prediction. Adam brings engineering experience from Google Translate as well as other products such as Android and Adobe Creative Suite. He founded the Machine Translate Foundation – open information and community to make machine translation more accessible.

Adam Blair has spent over a decade leading go-to-market teams at high-growth startups and scaleups and currently serves as vice president of sales, EMEA at DeepL. Since joining in 2022, Adam has delivered significant growth at DeepL, where he is able to combine his passion for building and scaling high-performing teams with his interest in both languages and technology.

Born in Brazil, Henrique Cabral works with bits and bytes, and fortunate enough to do so with joy and passion along with people who are invested in the same ideas and projects. In real life, you will find him traveling with his family, taking pictures with film cameras, using mechanical watches, and driving manual cars. The bridge between analog and digital is the one Henrique used to bring life to work. His first paid job was translating an article in a magazine for his mother’s colleague when he was eight. Henrique recently became a skier and an avid tennis player.

Sheila Castilho is an Assistant Professor in the School of Applied Language & Intercultural Studies (SALIS) at Dublin City University. She worked as an Irish Research Council Research Fellow at the Adapt Centre on the DELA Project, on context-aware machine translation evaluation. Her research output includes over 50 publications, covering topics on translation technology, evaluation, and translators’ perception of MT. She has co-edited the book Translation Quality Assessment: From Principles to Practice, and special issues on “Human factors In NMT”, “Translation Automation and Sustainability” and “The Role of Context in MT and Its Evaluation”. Her research interests revolve around context-aware MT, machine and human translation evaluation, usability, translation technologies, and LLM for translation.

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.

Rodrigo Cristina has been loving localization since 2005. With a background in business administration and a limitless passion for all things localization, he is a customer experience champion who believes that technology is, more than ever, shaping our industry, and that a value-driven approach is focused on the localization outcome, not just on the delivery.

As a localization manager specialized in scale-up environments, Adelina Cristovão focuses on developing a framework to centralize, systematize, templatize, and reutilize differentiation for the multi-channel user journey and product usability and performance. This will help international product development by making the necessary adaptation easily executable by product, UX, marketing, legal, and brand teams. She has learned how to do this as a one-woman team. Born and raised as a bilingual and bicultural individual between Portugal and Germany, she knows how cultural differences can impact the experience or understanding of something. The same is true for a digital experience. If the experience isn’t properly adapted to meet user expectations or needs, their onboarding flow or decision-making process will be disrupted. Including regional details is therefore key to enabling continuous in-country adoption and driving business further. The “why” is clear. What she does is figure out the “how” for each particular environment.

Caroline Crushell is a senior technical program manager leading localization engineering efforts at Warner Bros Discovery. Her special areas of interest include automation of workflows and working cross functionally with teams to ensure quality from source. Caroline is also an advocate for the Irish language, writing articles frequently about what is being done and what can be done to keep it as a living language.

Esther Curiel is a global content and localization expert. Her mission is to help brands achieve international growth objectives by integrating localization, content strategy, and global user experience. She is currently the globalization manager at Zoetis, an animal health company operating in over 100 countries.

During her 25 years in the localization industry, María Jesús de Arriba Díaz has held multiple positions supporting the international growth of global companies of all sizes and industries. Her localization journey started as a translator and interpreter, then leading translation teams and championing quality. From there, I took on leadership roles in both program management and vendor management. Subsequently, I stepped up to leading strategic language service operations and developing customized customer localization programs. She is currently senior global language services manager at Workday, where she leads a team of innovators providing excellent language experiences to customers by combining the best of technology with expert human input. Passionate about the globalization and localization industry, she plays an active role in driving the industry into the future through her volunteer roles as Women in Localization board member, and former chair of the board of the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA). In addition, she is an active mentor and an advocate for knowledge sharing within the industry.

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.

After starting as a linguist, working in software localization and consulting, Anne Ertle has been helping companies implement centralized, cross-supplier translation processes. In her roles, she has led teams of top pharma customers to in-house management of translation assets across suppliers and in-house groups. She will be presenting her insights from this experience.

Ian Evans serves as the CEO of XTM International. Based in the UK, Ian has thirty years of experience within the software industry, covering security, governance, data privacy, mobility, and CRM technology. In his role, he supports global growth programs across all functions. Most recently, Ian served as managing director of EMEA at OneTrust from 2017 to 2022, and before that as vice president and managing director for EMEA at AirWatch from 2011 to 2017.

Wada’a Fahel is a seasoned professional with over twenty years of expertise in international business, GTM, global content, global sourcing, digital transformation, and localization. Wada’a currently owns and drives global engagement – localization strategy and ops for Zendesk. With centers of operations excellence strategically positioned in the U.S., London, and Singapore, Wada’a spearheads a team dedicated to delivering the “last mile” of hyper-local content seamlessly across the entire customer journey on a global scale. Prior to Zendesk, Wada’a’s impact was particularly pronounced during her eight-year tenure with Harley-Davidson. Notably, she spearheaded the establishment of the globalization division, earning prestigious awards along the way. Wada’a’s journey is a testament to her ability to turn challenges into opportunities and drive transformative success on a global stage.

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.

Jane Faraola, engineering program management at Cisco, is a versatile leader who seamlessly integrates creativity with technical expertise, flourishing in dynamic environments. Having grown up in Central and South America and sub-Saharan Africa, she deeply understands the significance of language in comprehending diverse cultures. Jane’s passion lies in amalgamating language and technology to elevate enterprise-scale translation processes. Serving as an influencer/advisor, she motivates teams to action, ensuring seamless localization integration throughout product development.

Carrie Fischer is the globalization services manager at Subway, headquartered in Milford, CT, and Miami, FL. She is responsible for all globalization-related strategies for the company. She has over 30 years of localization experience and has held previous localization positions at Bodybuilding.com, Hyperion/Oracle, and Transparent Language as the managing editor. She owns her own consulting company, Carrie Fischer Consulting, LLC which helps businesses with their localization needs. She is also the 2023 President of Women in Localization and a mentor.

Juan Manuel Ruiz García is chief technology officer at Agencia EFE, the world’s premier Spanish-language news agency, leading the development of cutting-edge technical solutions tailored to empower its journalists and drive innovation across the entire organization. EFE’s primary objective is to harness the power of technology to enhance its content contribution, production, and distribution systems, ensuring that it remains at the forefront of the rapidly evolving media landscape.

Russ Garcia is the global content lead for Indeed’s Career Guide — a career advice platform with +130K articles to help job seekers be successful in their job search and throughout their career. In this role, Russ leads a team of editors and content marketers to publish high-quality articles across 21 international Career Guide sites. He’s a key driver of Career Guide’s shift to using generative AI for content creation and works closely with Indeed’s localization partner, Chillistore, and cross-functional marketing and engineering teams at Indeed. Russ lives in Austin, TX, and enjoys riding his bicycle and playing pickleball.

Alexis Goes serves as the systems manager for Transcreation and Global Ops at Zendesk. With 15 years of experience in the localization industry, she is focused on optimizing the use of technology and streamlining processes through automation. Alexis holds a master’s degree in foreign language and literature from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a master’s in business administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Hannah Goodman operates as a product owner for Sky/Comcast streaming platforms, specializing in customer management and service technology. Facilitated by a background in translation and IT project management, she has paved the way to a pioneering global customer service strategy through the successful launch of translation tools.

Ruth Granados Garcia is a passionate advocate for gaming localization. With extensive experience in the industry, she has contributed to numerous high-profile titles, including The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield. Ruth’s expertise extends beyond translation; she champions the integration of localization into game development, enhancing quality and efficiency.

Lucía Guerrero is machine translation manager at Expedia Group and also part of the collaborative teaching staff at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. In the translation industry since 1998, she has previously been machine translation specialist, translation project manager, and translator of children’s and art books. She is co-founder of the GALA MTPE Training Special Interest Group.

Olga Gulla-Kowalik is an experienced localization professional who has honed her skills while leading multilingual teams and also in linguistic quality management and localization management positions both on the provider’s and buyer’s sides of the industry. She is currently responsible for linguistic data annotation and NLP data management at TrollWall AI, an AI-powered startup dedicated to combating hate speech and toxicity in the online environment. Olga is owner of Loc & co., and is active in the industry as a localization mentor and consultant.

Dylan J Hartmann is the co-founder of AcudocX, specializing in cutting-edge process optimization and automation. With over a decade of experience in the language services industry as a NAATI-certified Thai-to-English translator, he has used his knowledge to enhance operational efficiency and streamline manual workflows. Dylan brings his deep expertise and passion for innovation to the Process Innovation Challenge, where he will share insights and strategies to drive transformative change to the global immigration process by automating certified translations for language service providers.

According to Elin Hauge, understanding the basics of artificial intelligence should be as compulsory for any leader in 2024 as having a computer. She claims that knowledge and competence are the only viable path for sustainable and profitable decision-making in the era of artificial intelligence. Elin has built bridges between data-fuelled technologies and business value for more than 20 years, with AI as her main area of expertise. Through her work with business leaders and tech entrepreneurs, she has developed an exceptional ability to connect the dots between business strategy and the application of AI. She brings new perspectives to known challenges, relentlessly demystifying jargon and buzzwords, and is always three steps ahead with her perspectives on sustainability, responsibility, regulation, and disruption.

Elin Hauge holds an MEng in biophysics and medical technology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and an MSc in management science and operational research from Warwick Business School. Recently, she has also embarked upon law studies to further strengthen her ability to address the challenges between responsible and accountable business practices and regulation. Her strong academic background in mathematics and physics, combined with broad business experience, provides a rock-solid foundation for her perspectives on the revolutionary opportunities and complex challenges with and around artificial intelligence.

Amanda Hawthorne (she/her) is the inclusive language lead at Electronic Arts. Her background is in language and inclusion related to training and materials development. Amanda has nearly twenty years experience in the area of diversity, specializing in race and LGBT+ awareness. Currently based in Madrid, she works full time in localization in the tech industry as well as volunteering with anti-racism organizations and being the founding director of The Bechdel Film Club Madrid. She is also an award-winning researcher and has contributed to publications including the book, “How To Write Inclusive Materials” by Tyson Seburn.

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.

Manuel Herranz has combined linguistics and engineering backgrounds from Manchester University and Oldham College of Technology. He has served as a mechanical engineer, quality assurance, and technical trainer at Ford’s Valencia plant, Giddings & Lewis/ThyssenKrupp in Liverpool, and Rolls Royce Industrial and Marine in Spain and Argentina, as well as a voiceover artist for the BBC and Granada TV. Manuel’s consultancy firm merged with the BI Corporation Japan in 1997, and he became a partner and technical director at the European subsidiary BI Europe in 2000. He revamped the European brand in 2005 as Pangeanic after a friendly buy-out. As a firm believer in language automation, Manuel became one of the TAUS founding members in Europe. He directed ISO qualification and rule-based and statistical machine translation implementation for patent work, winning a post-editing contract for the EU in 2007. Since 2009, Manuel has directed research and development for self-learning machine translation (the first “DIY”!), neural machine translation (Deep Adaptive), and now GenAI applied to translation workflows. His vision is that any language service provider, localization department, or translation client should be able to afford the technologies to change how our industry provides services.

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.

James Jameson runs CaptionHub’s GTM team. CaptionHub is a team, product, and brand he is hugely proud of. He has been leading growth and positioning for what is now a world-leading enterprise multimedia localization platform since 2017, serving clients in every industry. Clients include TED, Ford, GSK, Flo Health, Pokémon, Amazon, and Stripe. Their ecosystem-first commercial approach delivers value to clients, partners, and the localization industry.

Ralph Jung grew up in the Netherlands and now lives in Dublin, Ireland. He started his career as a Dutch localization specialist at EA Games in Germany then moved to Dublin to join the team of in-house software localization engineers at Microsoft, where he played a key role in localizing the Windows XP operating system into Dutch. Following his departure from Microsoft, Ralph spent some time working as a freelance translator before joining Yahoo! as a cross-market lead editor for multilingual search engine advertising campaigns. After a brief stint at eBay, he became an account manager for a local search engine in Berlin. Back in Dublin, Ralph has been with Dell Technologies for the past 11 years, where he established the video localization program for product launches on Dell.com, which has since been extended and adapted to fit the needs of many other teams. He is also the named inventor on a Dell-owned video localization-related patent.

Tim Jung is the founder and CEO of XL8, which specializes in AI for media and entertainment content. Prior to XL8, Tim was a tech lead and manager at Google, leading and managing software engineers and ML researchers, successfully launching multiple NLP-based (Natural Language Processing) search features including events search, events data in knowledge graph, and personal search. At Samsung Electronics, he has led the UI framework team, successfully launching Tizen, a Linux-based platform for mobile devices. At Columbia University where he earned his PhD in computer science, he studied optimizing distributions of computations across heterogeneous devices to offer a testbed for AI applications.

Mary Kazamias is a graduate of Concordia University’s BA in translation and the McGill-HEC Montréal Executive MBA program. A sales, marketing, and client service specialist, she spent her early career at Alpnet (later SDL, now RWS), working first as a translator, then as a project manager, and later as assistant operations manager. She joined TRSB in 2005, rising through the ranks from business development manager to CEO. Over her nearly twenty years at the company, Mary’s active hand in business development and strong focus on performance and long-term success have helped propel TRSB to the very top of the industry in Canada.

Charlie Keating is a global leader in localization and digital marketing with extensive experience managing international websites. As director of localization at Pega, Charlie established a Localization Center of Excellence, built a global team, and optimized the localization process and outcomes for marketing and training content in six languages. Prior roles include leading global digital capabilities for American Express, where Charlie significantly enhanced B2B websites across key markets, boosting lead generation and projected charge volume. Charlie’s expertise also includes project management, digital product development, and communications in diverse, geographically dispersed environments

Dominick Kelly has a true love for gaming testing and localization with over twenty years of hands-on experience. As a qualified software engineer, he leads teams implementing CMS, TMS, CAT, and Loc Portals to create automated and agile workflow solutions often integrating GIT, Perforce, PIM, web CMS, and AI Custom NMT elements. Dominick uses creative and design thinking approaches in his work to ensure the core of any challenge is resolved, not just resolving the symptoms that are at the surface.

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.

Denys Krasnikov is co-founder and responsible for business development at Vidby.  He earned a Ph.D., and is an executive member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, a member of the Hollywood Professional Association, and has twenty years of experience in corporate and government relations and ten-plus years in innovations and international economic cooperation. After graduating from the Innovations in Economic Development Program at Harvard University, Denys has invested his time and money in developing breakthrough life-changing technologies. He is a Google Cloud Innovator, Y Combinator School ’19 Alumni, vice president at the Ukrainian League of Industrialists & Entrepreneurs, Harvard Innovation program alumnus, and a United Nations Individual Contractor.

Conchita Laguardia is a localization specialist with over 20 years of experience in the industry. She started her career as a technical linguist in software localization before upskilling with computer science and math studies and then moving to localization engineering and technical project management. She focuses on automation and language tech integration in localization and content creation workflows. She enjoys researching, hands-on prototyping, and leading the implementation of creative solutions to integration, interoperability, and automation challenges.

Vanessa Lecomte is the Localization Operations Manager at BBC Studios, where she leads a team dedicated to adapting and delivering a wide array of content for audiences on multiple global platforms. Originally from France, Vanessa began her career at ESPN’s London office, where she gained valuable experience in subtitling and voiceover for sports programming, documentaries, and short-form content across Europe. She later refined her dubbing skills at Turner, overseeing the adaptation of children’s programming for Cartoon Network in numerous languages. With extensive experience across all types of media, Vanessa brings a nuanced understanding of the editorial, operational, and technical complexities involved in adapting content for diverse cultural contexts. Her commitment to high standards and innovation supports BBC Studios in presenting engaging, culturally relevant content to international audiences, ensuring each project resonates with viewers worldwide.

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.

Johan Lourens’s educational journey started off with a BS degree in computer systems from the University of Heriot-Watt. He began as a release engineer but his career took an unexpected turn when during a company restructure he became a localization engineer. It was during this time that Johan stumbled upon his true calling – the fascinating world of localization. Three years into his career, Johan made a deliberate and transformative decision to fully commit himself to the realm of localization. His dedication and expertise eventually led to his appointment as the sole translations coordinator for the rapidly growing global company. Today, he oversees a flourishing team, which comprises both an operations division and a development team and that delivers translations and localization services to over 40+ studios.

Maria Emilia Maisterrena, or “Emi,” is a dynamic professional dedicated to empowering people and transforming organizations. Starting her career in sustainability and tech, Emi embraced a mindset that questions structures for impactful business outcomes. With versatile experience in the translation industry encompassing sales, business, and project management roles, she now serves as Keylingo’s vice president of sales and marketing, leading the way in enhancing organizational architecture, elevating brand identity, and realizing the company’s purpose. Originally from Córdoba, Argentina, Emi embarked on an emigration journey in 2023. This new scenario leads her to expand her global vision and continually enrich her knowledge.

Oscar is the CEO of Loc & Capture, a leading video and media production company specializing in the video game industry. With a passion for innovation, Oscar and his team collaborate with language service providers to integrate translations into final products, handling projects involving thousands of localized videos and images. His nearly eight-year journey has been shaped by challenges such as delivering complex campaigns for titles like League of Legends, FIFA 22, Star Wars Battlefront, Valorant, and more, with meticulous attention to detail. Additionally, he has been leading the creation of groundbreaking tools such as fly.qc, Ledroom, among other innovations in the field of DTP automation.

Gráinne Maycock is the chief revenue officer of Acolad, a renowned sales leader, and revenue enabler in the language and content services industry. Working with Acolad since 2013, the Irish-born leader has 25+ years of experience driving revenue and go-to-market strategies, focusing on removing language and technology barriers for successful international growth for Acolad’s customers worldwide. With a remit that covers revenue, marketing, solutions, pre-sales, sales ops, sales academy, and sales enablement her focus is on AI transformation strategies for group and client success.

Rose leads the Localization Operations team at Spotify. This team localizes content into 70+ languages for 190+ markets – this includes product, marketing, and other content types. Until early 2024, she led the marketing localization team at Spotify, collaborating closely with local teams to produce multi-market marketing assets and campaigns. Previously, she worked at Amazon in localization and Human Resources roles for close to 10 years, gaining a variety of experience across different business areas.

Claudia Francesca Mueller has over 15 years of experience in content, localization, and translation. She started as a journalist before branching out into various content roles such as content writer, copywriter, content editor, content strategist, managing editor, and transcreator. Claudia’s passion for language, culture, shapes, colors, and design led her to content design, where she can combine all her interests in research, information design, and product development. She currently works as principal content design and localization at Trusted Shops, promoting a strong collaboration between the two disciplines, as she believes they are interconnected.

Aoife Murphy is no stranger to localization, with more years than she cares to remember working in project management, account management, and business development roles across several LSPs. With an academic background in international marketing and languages, Aoife has wandered back to her roots in recent years, leading Think Global Forum events in Europe and revenue marketing activities. She is a big fan of insightful, meaningful content.

As a localization test manager at ServiceNow, Riccardo Natoli leverages ten years of QA and localization experience, having led and coordinated testing efforts for a wide array of digital products including software, tooling, online sites, and videogames.

Maziar Nodehi is a dynamic entrepreneur and Forbes 30 under 30 honoree, renowned for his innovative contributions to sales, marketing, and translation technology. As the co-founder and CEO of Venizum, Maziar has pioneered the Translation Management Connector (TMC), revolutionizing how businesses approach localization within Salesforce. Venizum has been recognized as Salesforce’s Emerging Technology of the Year, showcasing its commitment to integrating cutting-edge localization solutions within the Salesforce ecosystem.

Kevin O’Donnell is the fractional leader and advisor for international expansion and revenue growth at Global10x. He help B2B SaaS companies expand internationally, grow their international revenue and modernize their localization processes. He has 20+ years in product and international leadership roles at Microsoft, Dropbox, and Nitro.

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.

Born into a multicultural family of scientists, Marina Pantcheva paired her multilingual background with an eccentric childhood dream that led her to mastering 11 languages…and still counting. After working as translator, educator, consultant, and founding her own language school, she turned to exploring the elementary particles of language in her PhD research on nanosyntax. In 2014, Marina exchanged academic life for the high-paced world of localization, and currently leads a multifaceted crowd localization project. In her spare time, she reads about science and engages in research inspired by the vast amount of data she encounters in her daily work.

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.

Fabienne Perrin is an experienced localization industry professional who helps customers build, scale, and sustain their localization programs. As a program manager at Chillistore, she improves existing processes by recommending best practices and leaning on new tools. She helps clients develop localization strategies via different quality-building and monitoring strategies.

Mario Pluzny has nearly ten years of experience in the localization and content industry. He has successfully delivered localization solutions for various well-known technology companies and start-ups, including Memrise, Twitter, Tenable, and Personio, impacting millions of users and customers worldwide. Mario is also a career and life coach, guiding people to find their purpose and improve their lives, happiness, and confidence.

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.

Peter Reynolds is co-CEO at memoQ and has previously worked at Idiom, Berlitz GlobalNet, Bowne Global Solutions, and Lionbridge. Peter has been actively involved in the development and promotion of standards for over a decade – he is the convener of the ISO working group which deals with translation (ISO TC 37 SC 5 WG1), an Irish expert to ISO/CEN, the liaison representative of OASIS to TC 37, and Deputy Chair of the Irish ISO TC 37 Mirror Committee. He holds BSc and MBA degrees from Open University and is a localization and translation industry veteran.

Phil Ritchie directs research, development, and process innovation activities at Vistatec. His technical expertise covers software development, commercial enterprise workflow and content management systems, AI, machine translation, and collaboration portals. Phil is a recognized industry expert and often a speaker at international events.

For more than 20 years Jon Ritzdorf has been immersed in localization; starting as a translator, transitioning into engineering, and ultimately moving into strategy where he has remained for over a decade. As a former senior solutions architect, he currently crafts globalization strategies for companies ranging from Fortune 100 to start-ups and unicorns. Outside of his full-time job, Jon is also an adjunct professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and the University of Maryland where he strives to uplift the next generation of professionals in language technology, solutions development, and the business side of the translation industry. In 2012, he received an award in “Teaching Excellence.”

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.

Florian Sachse is chief evangelist of memoQ Ltd. where he advocates for memoQ, its strategy, and positioning in the localization industry. He has worked for memoQ since 2013 and previously worked as a C++ developer, developer team lead, head of development, and CTO. One of his first development projects dating more than 40 years back was to get the German umlaut into an English word processor application. In 1998, Florian started working with language technology when PASS Engineering introduced the leading software localization solution PASSOLO to the market. As managing director of PASS Engineering, his initial focus was the development of mission critical software for clinical analyzers.

With over thirty years of experience in the localization industry, Roberto Sastre has played key roles in major language service providers, including EMEA vice president of sales and managing director. Hailing from the picturesque island of Jersey and raised in the vibrant culture of Mallorca, Roberto is now based in Dublin. He joined Translated in 2021; as part of the enterprise account management team, he focuses on creating world-class localization programs that combine the sensitivity of translators with the speed and capacity of machine translation. Trained in computer science, Roberto’s expertise lies in connecting global brands with diverse audiences around the world, bridging language and cultural divides.

Agnes Schöndorni-Schönner graduated in library informatics and after a few years of academic work, she parachuted into the localization industry. There she has been all around the localization cycle as a translator, reviewer, and project manager on multiple levels both on the vendor as well as on the buyer side. Working for a global IT company for 10+ years, she relocated from Hungary to Germany in 2018. She is now a staff localization project manager and owner of marketing localization and customer-centricity. Believing that change is possible, she takes “response-ability” in order to help transcend experiences for the benefit of all.

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.

Rucha L.  Sheth has a career spanning 17 years within the localization industry. Her journey through various roles in the ecosystem has equipped her with a deep understanding of enterprise globalization programs across diverse markets. As a customer success manager with Nimdzi Insights, her expertise is pivotal in supporting B2B and B2C enterprises and language service providers in navigating the complexities of globalization and international expansion. She is responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with enterprise customers to ensure optimum customer experience. She develops customer success plans and custom solutions to deliver actionable insights that drive global growth and guarantee customer success.

Vira Slyvinska is a seasoned marketing and creator economy expert focusing on audience growth and monetization on YouTube. She has been integral to the AIR Media-Tech team’s collaboration with some of the world’s TOP YouTube creators and businesses, such as Kids Diana Show, Ninja Kids, Hola Amigos, and others. As the Head of Impact and Global Business Development, Vira is responsible for forging partnerships for AIR and its creators worldwide, empowering growth and new market entry. Additionally, Vira serves as an advisor to creator economy startups and media companies, offering strategic guidance.

Margarida Soares is the senior localization manager at ClassPass, with over 14 years of experience in linguistic program and project management within various vendor and buyer settings. Throughout her career, she has consistently enhanced customer experience and streamlined the international product delivery process by implementing effective operational strategies. Margarida is committed to advocating for language and cultural diversity, as well as promoting inclusivity, as she leads localization efforts across multiple markets to tailor content for international audiences.

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.

Johan Sporre is an engineering manager for digital global language services and a leader with great passion for languages, people, and technology. His team provides localization solutions to IKEA to simplify multilanguage communication for their customers and coworkers at a faster rate and a smaller price tag.

Agnieszka Szarkowska is an audiovisual translation researcher and media localization trainer. She works as a university professor at the University of Warsaw, where she is also the head of the AVT Lab research group. She is also an honorary research associate at University College London. Drawing on her passion for teaching, Agnieszka has co-founded AVT Masterclass, an online platform for professional audiovisual translation education.

Joanna Tarasiewicz uses her background in localization project management and leadership skills to lead ATL toward their client’s global success. Outside of work, she enjoys volunteering for Women in Localization as a global community mentoring lead, is a conference speaker and a lecturer, and enjoys cooking and baking for her two daughters, traveling, and stand-up paddle boarding.

Giulia Tarditi is a localization professional with 15 years of experience setting up localization programs and teams on the client-side. She is a regular speaker for localization webinars, panels, talks, and social network debates. Giulia is known for her innovative approach and out-of-the-box ideas, and is highly praised for implementing data-first and highly customized operating models.

Mette Tingey is a seasoned localization professional with a demonstrated history of working in the translation and localization industry across different verticals.

Alison Toon has over 25 years of experience in the translation and localization industry with an emphasis in management of translation and localization tools, processes, architecture and operation for content management, and ebusiness services across enterprises. Her experience in these research areas and key projects help CSA Research’s clients gain key insights into the technologies, pricing and business processes key to executive buy-in.

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.

With over a decade of experience as a translation project manager and translation operations manager, Vanessa Vander Tuff now heads up the translation and documentation team at Domino and is the company localization expert.

Jennifer Vela-Valido is a localization strategist with over ten years of experience in various roles in the localization industry. She has recently completed a PhD in localization quality management and she collaborates with several universities as a researcher and guest lecturer specializing in localization strategies, vendor management, and linguistic quality management. Jennifer is a member of ASTM International’s  Subcommittee F43.03 on language translation and the ISO/TC 37/SC 5/WG 1 translation working group.

As the chief sales 0fficer at Vistatec, Unn Villius draws inspiration from the passion she has always had for language in all its forms. She is an avid reader, movie watcher, and radio listener. She sees working in the language industry for well over thirty years as a gift that keeps on giving. Her passion for sales grew out of onsite work with clients. Experiencing localization challenges from the client’s perspective made her fully understand the power of bringing practical solutions that address complex business problems. She deeply enjoys working with her team to solve the puzzle that each opportunity presents, and delighting clients with the customized programs that they build.

Naomi Voet is spearheading the localization efforts at hospitality tech platform Mews, where she has been crafting a strategy and implementing new tools for the past two years. One of her favorite and closest collaborations at Mews is with the content design team, with the shared goal of making localization part of the design, not an afterthought. Naomi has been working in the localization industry for ten years, seven of which as a manager. Before Mews, she led a large translation team at an e-commerce company. Beyond work, she’s an avid traveler and backpacker, and she loves hiking the hills of Yorkshire in the UK, where she is based. LocWorld marks her first speaking engagement, where she’s eager to share her insights with peers.

Peng Wang has been teaching, researching and practicing localization on three continents. She is the convener for EDUinLOC, a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa, and a freelance conference interpreter with the Translation Bureau of the Canadian government. Peng began conducting corpus-based translation studies at the University of Liverpool and later she worked in the Corpus Research Lab at Northern Arizona University. She is an expert in approaching technology in the context of culture and humanities. Peng’s current research interests include human learning vs. machine learning, machine translation risk management, terminology and multilingual data analysis.

Dominic Wellington is an enterprise architect at SnapLogic, with over two decades of enterprise IT experience. His experience spans data platforms, AI for IT Operations (AIOps), and observability, and he has had a pioneering role in the transition from data center automation to cloud computing. Today he works on enabling seamless access to business value across data, apps, and APIs for large enterprises, including with Generative AI.

Colin Willis is a solutions architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he digitally empowers media and entertainment businesses at scale in EMEA. He specializes in cost reduction and resilient solutions.

Alex Yoffee is the product manager of OOONA Tools, a web-based localization platform for media content. Alex studied industrial engineering and management at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology. He has previously worked in media content management, IT, and built video transcoding solutions. He also tried his hand at subtitling in a past life and afterwards served as CTO of Trans Titles, Israel’s largest subtitling agency. Alex enjoys new technology and is thrilled to be traveling to new and familiar places, and meeting with OOONA’s clients around the world.