LocWorld53 Malmö

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.

Dr. Belén Agulló García is a strategic localization professional with 15 years of experience in the localization industry in various roles at multiple companies and organizations, including LSPs, consultancy firms, TMS providers, and universities. In her professional career, she has worn multiple hats and gained all-hands experience in the operationalization of complex workflows, the development and implementation of advanced language technology, and business strategy. She knows her deal about NMT, synthetic voices, and, more recently, she is learning about LLMs. In her current role as Executive Consultant of Innovation at Terra, she supports customers in devising the best workflows and implementing technology to achieve their business goals while keeping human creativity at the heart of everything. She’s also an animal lover, yogi, French learner, poetry enthusiast, and a believer that being kind matters more than anything!

Tom Alwood has thirty years’ experience working in multilingual communications, both in translation project management, operations and technology management roles. He has worked for several LSPs and corporate translation departments and as a consultant in addition to teaching translation technologies and project management courses. Tom’s areas of specialization include technology development, implementation, and integration for business management systems, workflow tools, CAT and Machine Translation tools and interactive client solutions.

Cristina Anselmi is a video game localization expert with 15 years of experience. She has covered many roles in the industry, starting by translating video games, to managing complete localization cycles of several AAA titles and managing teams of localization specialists. For the past 8 years she has specialized in AI implementation in localization workflows, building a team and a strategy from the ground up, and successfully implementing machine translation at Electronic Arts.
She’s also very active in the industry, sharing her knowledge and expertise at conferences and organizing workshops and events to connect people and talk about localization technologies. Her current focus is on helping companies integrate AI technologies in the localization workflows, with clear and well structured plans, to make the most out of this technology without jeopardizing quality and keep sharing insights and knowledge in the industry.

Based in Paris, Michal Antczak is the head of localization technology for PayPal’s World Ready Team. In his previous roles on the client side, he managed VMware’s localization operations for Asia-Pacific-Japan out of Singapore, led enterprise product localization engineering and quality assurance, as well as tool development teams at Symantec in Poland. Michal also held various positions with major language service providers.

Hilary Atkisson Normanha is a senior product manager specializing in product globalization and localization strategy. With over a decade of experience across fintech, B2B, social media, and music streaming, she has successfully built and scaled localization programs and products in companies of all sizes. Driven by the mission of making technology borderless, Hilary leverages her expertise in localization and internationalization to create globally accessible products that adapt seamlessly to local markets.

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.

Marjolein has over 10 years of experience in the localization technology industry and is part of the Intento team of solutions experts guiding Intento customers on the best way to solve their localization challenges. She specializes in practical applications of best-fit solutions, analyzing existing translation processes and identifying opportunities for workflow optimization and automation.

Kerstin Berns has been working as an expert and strategist along the translation process chain for 25 years. In 2005 she founded berns language consulting GmbH. Kerstin and her team help customers efficiently use terminology, ontologies, and knowledge networks, train machine translation systems, and introduce terminology and translation management tools.

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 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.

Tijmen Brommet is a senior engineer at CaptionHub and the product owner for CaptionHub Live.

Sebastian is a seasoned content designer with a background in technical writing and journalism. With several years in the industry, he expertly blends UX design with content writing, combining his deep love for words and keen aptitude for solving puzzles. His experience and passion enable him to craft clear, engaging, and accessible content that concisely solves complex communication challenges, ensuring usability for all audiences.

María Caravaca Gomez is a Global Experience Strategist and Localization Lead at Asana, with a BA in Translations and Interpreting. She began her career on the vendor side of localization, where curiosity about her clients’ needs led her to join Asana as a Project Manager, launching new languages. Four years later, she now leads the Global Experience team, delighting international users through impactful experiences supported by streamlined, scalable processes.

Veronica Carioni leads the Product localization program at Skyscanner, where she drives strategies to enhance the language experience in over 35 locales. Over the past year, she has driven the Localization Quality Program, exploring AI-powered solutions to ensure quality at scale and boost productivity. Previously, she led localization efforts at Vistaprint, focusing on process optimization and technology.

With over a decade of experience in the localization industry on both the vendor and buyer sides, Julia has built a strong track record in project and program management, process optimization, and stakeholder alignment. Since 2020, she has been spearheading Localization Program Management at Coupa, the global leader in total spend management software, where she orchestrates cross-functional teams, supports software-related localization needs, and ensures cost-efficient localization strategies. Passionate about fostering collaboration and industry growth, Julia is an active member of Women in Localization and serves as a moderator for the Client Special Interest Group at GALA.

As Chief Technology Officer at Lionbridge, Marcus Casal oversees technology strategy and language-focused innovation. He manages the localization platform and workflow tools. Joining Lionbridge in 2001, Marcus held key leadership roles, including VP of Product Management and Technology Strategy. In 2019, he became SVP at Amplexor, developing their Language Technology and Content Service platforms. He returned to Lionbridge to lead development and technology transformation. Marcus has served on the TAUS board and frequently presents at GALA and LocWorld events. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Spanish from Duke University and a master’s in Educational Technology from the University of Florida.

Marta is the Innovation Manager at Creative Words, focusing on integrating technological advancements with human language. With a background in Interpreting and Translation, she began her AI journey as a Computational Linguist, specializing in NLP, data annotation, and internationalization.

Since 2022, she has led research initiatives and driven the “Human-Approved” program, promoting responsible AI in language services. In addition, she advises the PhD program in Digital Humanities at the University of Genoa, mentoring interdisciplinary research. Her goal is to foster a future where AI and language coexist in a way that enhances human expression.

Verónica is a philologist with over 15 years of experience in language and localization. She manages the Globalization team at Taskrabbit, where she has led market expansion and localization efforts since 2019. Verónica is passionate about fostering cross-functional collaboration to develop global strategies and local experiences, as well as exploring new technologies to enhance the international user journey and business efficiency.

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.

Based in Berlin, Virginia works as an International Experience Manager at Notion, where she has helped shape how the company thinks about localization from the early days. She is passionate about creating authentic experiences for global users, and is proud to have helped transform traditional localization work into what is now called “International Experience” – making the team’s impact much broader across the company. She combines a builder’s mindset and creative thinking to solve problems, crafting innovative solutions using available technology and resources.

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.

With over 25 years in the software industry and a decade in data and applied science, Agustín Da Fieno Delucchi​ excels in transforming complex data into strategic business solutions. He leverages machine learning and AI to drive innovation and evidence-based decision-making. Leading global, cross-functional teams, he ensures alignment with business goals, data integrity, governance, and compliance. His leadership in AI has been pivotal in internationalization and localization efforts, spearheading innovation in software development. As a polyglot, he creates accessible, culturally relevant technology experiences, driven by curiosity and a commitment to excellence in the evolving tech landscape.

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.

Eda Erdem is a seasoned Localization Program Manager at Adyen, where she leads the company’s localization initiatives. In her role, she is responsible for developing comprehensive company-wide localization programs and scaling operations and workflows to support Adyen’s global reach. Eda’s expertise lies in bridging cultures and leading diverse teams, ensuring that Adyen’s products and services resonate with customers worldwide.

Jane Faraola is an accomplished Senior Program Manager leading Localization Engineering for cloud and on-prem collaboration products at Cisco. She is a creative, strategic leader with a talent for building and motivating highly technical cross-functional teams and inspiring diverse stakeholders to succeed. Jane is keenly interested in how language and technology can unite to elevate enterprise-scale translation processes.

Daniela Fleck is a terminologist at Philips. She is dedicated to ensuring clear, consistent terminology that strengthens connections, reinforces trust, and enhances content clarity. With expertise in localization, content quality, and knowledge management, she integrates terminology into workflows to streamline global communication. She is passionate about shifting left and advocates for embedding terminology early in content creation to make information easier to understand and use. Her work ensures cohesive communication across content touchpoints, providing support to customers at every stage of their journey. She also explores the intersection of terminology, taxonomy, and knowledge management to support evolving content needs.

Klaus is a terminology aficionado who helps global companies harmonize and control their multilingual data and content. His company Kaleidoscope provides the collaborative workflow platform Quickterm, which manages, distributes and enforces corporate terminology. Quickterm is integrated into all major translation management systems, MT engines and more recently GenAI platforms, making it the central enterprise terminology hub.

Myriam is the Operations Manager and Tech Lead at Kobalt Languages, where she drives innovation through automation, AI integration, and workflow optimization. With over 12 years in the language services industry, she specializes in developing scalable processes and digital solutions that enhance efficiency and quality. She volunteers with Women in Localization as the Catalunya Chapter Manager, where she fosters community, mentorship, and professional development for women in the industry. With a background in Translation and two Master’s degrees, she is currently expanding her expertise in Product Management to bridge the gap between language, technology, and user-centered solutions.

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.

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.

Katharina Herbst is a certified Agile Project Manager with extensive expertise in content production, AI-driven automation, and process optimization, enhancing efficiency and quality across multilingual projects. Before joining Peloton Interactive, she worked as a localization consultant for leading fitness, fashion, and e-commerce brands, leveraging her proficiency in international content curation and quality assessment to support companies in achieving their growth objectives in the German market.

Vicky specializes in LLM localization, AI multimedia, NLP, speech technologies, and GenAI platforms, helping millions of users worldwide experience AI-driven solutions in their own language and market. She collaborates with the top seven foundational AI providers and leading enterprise AI companies to develop AI-infused localization solutions that enhance workflow efficiency and scalability. With a strong focus on human-in-the-loop fine-tuning, she bridges AI and localization to drive industry transformation. Passionate about innovation, Vicky leverages cutting-edge AI to optimize multilingual experiences, ensuring seamless integration of technology across global markets.

An experienced speaker and localization expert, Denis Ivanov built and led the localization framework at Belka Games, transforming processes from the ground up. He established a dedicated localization department, assembling and mentoring a high-performing team to ensure seamless execution. With a strong background in AI-driven solutions, he designs scalable workflows that enhance efficiency and localization quality. Passionate about culturalization, he ensures content resonates authentically across diverse markets while preserving creative intent. His expertise in AI, workflow optimization, and team leadership makes him a valuable contributor to industry discussions on the future of localization.

Marcus has extensive experience working with localization and translation processes at Volvo Cars. This experience has further honed his skills in managing complex translation workflows and ensuring high-quality localized content.

Erika Jeffries is the co-producer of LocWorld’s Process Innovation Challenge and manages online content for LocWorld.  Erika graduated with a B.S. in Art Education in 1999 and M.S. in Adult, Organizational Learning and Leadership in 2014 both from the from the University of Idaho. Erika joined LocWorld in 2024, she lives in Idaho and loves travel, live music, and the outdoors.

Brian Klaas is an associate professor in global politics at University College London, an affiliate researcher at the University of Oxford, and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He was recently named one of the 25 “Top Thinkers” globally by Prospect Magazine. He is the author of five books, including Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters (2024) and Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us (2021). He writes the popular The Garden of Forking Paths Substack and created the award-winning Power Corrupts podcast, which has been downloaded over three million times. Brian is an expert on democracy, authoritarianism, American politics, political violence, elections, and the nature of power. Additionally, his research interests include contingency, chaos theory, evolutionary biology, the philosophy of science and social science, and complex systems.

Brian grew up in Minnesota and remains a “statriotic” Minnesotan, even as he now holds dual US/UK nationality. He received his DPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford (New College), an MPhil in Comparative Government from the University of Oxford (St. Antony’s), and a Bachelor of Arts (Summa Cum Laude; Phi Beta Kappa) from Carleton College.

Gabor has over 15 years of experience in IT and software, 6 years of experience in Translation Technology. With his sound knowledge in IT, Gabor understands thoroughly the frequently felt pains of professional translators and developers, hence simplifying complex concepts, bridging the gap, and offering the right solution for both technical and non-technical audiences.

Ina Krakowian is a bilingual and bicultural localization professional with expertise in translation, language quality, and AI-powered workflows. She earned her degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Warsaw, Poland, and began her career as a freelance translator before transitioning into more specialized global linguistic roles, quickly building a deep expertise in localization strategy.

In 2024, she joined TransPerfect as an AI & MT Consultant, and soon became a trusted advisor on AI-driven translation solutions. Passionate about innovation, she combines a deep understanding of linguistic quality with a data-driven approach, helping organizations navigate the evolving AI landscape and implement AI strategies and solutions tailored to their business goals. Her ability to bridge the gap between cutting-edge technology and localization needs makes her a key thought leader in AI for translation. Ina is also an active member of Women in Localization.

Based in Liverpool, UK, Tim Kraus is a Localization Technical Product Manager in PayPal’s GPS World Ready Team, leading the adoption of Generative AI to drive quality and efficiency improvements in localization workflows . Tim previously worked as PayPal’s UK Language Manager and Vendor Manager and has held various roles working for language service providers.

Mercedes Krimme (she/her) is the Head of International Experience at Notion, where she leads international strategy and localization efforts across Notion’s global offices. She previously led the product localization teams at Spotify and Facebook (Meta), bringing over a decade of experience in solving tough technical and operational problems in the world of translation. An industry leader in transforming localization into a product, she is most proud of the user research she conducted in Brazil and India to adapt tone frameworks for voting during national elections. Currently based in NYC, she’s an avid traveler and language and culture nerd who recently completed her goal of visiting all seven continents.

Henrik Kühnemann is an experienced leader in the language services industry, specializing in process automation, process development and implementation on new technologies. As IT and Production Manager at Translator Scandinavia, a leading translation firm in Sweden, Henrik is in charge of navigating the challenges of today by implementing innovative, forward thinking solutions to directly address client challenges and enhance organizational efficiency.

Elina Lagoudaki is the Localization Director at Peloton Interactive, overseeing the localization and accessibility operations for class content. She leads a localization team who advises on and delivers subtitling, dubbing, voice over, and AI evaluation services with the aim of amplifying the reach of Peloton content. Originally a translator by education, she has 20+ years of experience in the localization industry, mainly in the media and telecoms sectors. Elina holds a PhD in Translation Technology from Imperial College London, and her current area of focus is the design and strategic application of AI-powered localization models.

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.

Julio Leal is the head of the localization team at Rover, where he leads initiatives to adapt content and services for global markets. Prior to joining Rover, he directed the localization program at Spendesk for nearly two years, enhancing the company’s international presence. Julio has also contributed his expertise to industry leaders such as Wayfair, Ciena, and SAP.

Fluent in Spanish, English, and German, Julio holds a Master’s degree in Translation and Interpreting Studies from the University of Granada in Spain. He also earned an MBA and possesses executive certificates in Digital Team Management, Web Globalization Management, and Global Marketing.

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 genres, 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.

Beidi is working as Knowledge Engineer at Scania, specialising in semantic technologies and graph-based solutions. She holds a PhD in symbolic AI and has a strong technical background in knowledge representation and reasoning. Prior to her current role, she worked as Research Ontologist Specialist at Novo Nordisk, where her team was responsible for developing and maintaining enterprise-level ontologies and knowledge graphs.

Tech-driven linguist and solutions architect Andreas Ljungström thrives at the intersection of language and innovation. With over 15 years of experience as a TMS and CAT consultant and a rich background across multiple roles in tech and language services, he has advised and helped countless customers navigate the language technology landscapes toward success in localization.

Christos Makropoulos is a seasoned learning and development leader with more than 17 years of experience in the technical and strategic facets of training, eLearning, and all aspects of education. At AstraZeneca he owns the global IT End User Training capability. Christos is also a professional linguist by vocation, with 12 languages under his belt and a number of academic achievements. Since 2020, he has added a pioneering internal language service within his portfolio of services at AstraZeneca, which aims to disrupt the corporate translation landscape.

Vera Malysheva has worked in the localization industry since 2016 after completing her B.A. Translation at the University of Leipzig. After 3 years as a project manager in a translation agency, she transitioned to the buyer side, consulting enterprises like GetYourGuide and TeamViewer on best practices for processes, tooling, and quality management in localization. She grew up bilingually between Germany and Ukraine and is passionate about helping people understand each other.

Fabio Minazzi is passionate about developing ideas and creating businesses for an inclusive society in a connected world. With a background in audio R&D, he has built a career in software and games localization, taking on roles as an entrepreneur, investor, and global business leader. Always learning, Fabio never stops reading technical papers and history books to understand how emerging technologies, like generative algorithms, impact society. He spent the past two years on speech synthesis projects, including “Voice for Purpose,” which he will present at PIC#17. Outside of work, he actively supports social causes and peace-building efforts.

Matt Mores is a GTM leader with over 20 years of experience in the localization industry. He has successfully built teams across the US, EMEA, and APAC. Most recently, Matt is leading a GTM team that launched LILT as a leading AI solution for enterprise translation in EMEA. He has successfully won and onboarded top enterprises in regulated industries, including financial services, life sciences, and other highly regulated sectors.

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.

Miriam Moyano Reifenrath is a Senior Localization Program Manager at Riot Games. Since joining Riot in 2020, she has played a pivotal role in transforming localization practices and driving strategic innovation. Miriam’s career began in 2013 as a translator, and she has since worked as a project manager, operations manager, localization producer, and program manager. She has coordinated localization efforts across various game and around-game projects.

Her dedication and expertise have earned her several accolades, including first prize for incorporating a gender perspective in her master’s thesis on voice-over localization at the University of Vigo, which she also presented at the Valencia-Napoli Colloquium on Gender and Translation in 2016. Most recently, in June 2024, she participated in two panel discussions, “Working in Multicultural Teams” and “Building the Case for Localization,” at the Game Quality Forum in Amsterdam.

Miriam is also deeply committed to inclusion and diversity and is one of the founding co-leads of Riot Games’ first Disability & Neurodiversity employee resource group.

Mari-Liis Muiste is an experienced localization specialist who has worked for Booking.com, Bugaboo, VSI and FedEx. Originally from Estonia, she has spent large proportion of her life in the United States and the Netherlands, which has prompted her interest in cultural aspects of localization. Due to her extensive experience in global organizations, she is skilled in positioning localization as a key stakeholder in digital strategy. She is interested in creating the best user experience for all customers regardless of the country they are from, and incorporating UX strategies in localization work.

Claudia Francesca Mueller has over 15 years of experience in content, localization, and translation. She started as a journalist before branching into various content roles such as content writer, copywriter, content editor, content strategist, managing editor, and transcreator. 
Claudia’s passion for language, culture, shapes, colours, 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 a Team Lead for Content Design and Localization at Trusted Shops, promoting a strong collaboration between the two disciplines, as she believes they are interconnected.

Marta is a Localization and Quality Management expert with over 12 years of industry experience, specializing in AI-powered language solutions to integrate touchless workflows to optimize translation quality at scale. Marta’s work bridges vendor and buyer perspectives, driving innovative and cross-functional programs that elevate user experience, and align localization efforts and business goals. She is part of the Women in Localization Catalunya Chapter leadership since 2023.

Brona Nilsson is a Generative AI Specialist at Oracle. Previously she was machine learning engineer in the Global Language Services group at IKEA. She has held leadership roles in speech technology at various other European companies, including Nuance Communications, SVOX, and Lernout & Hauspie. Before transitioning to industry, she lectured in Natural Language Processing at Trinity College Dublin where she earned a B.A. in Computer Science and Linguistics and a Ph.D. in AI.

Amy Grace O’Brien is a no-nonsense terminologist, AI wrangler, and localization troublemaker at Adobe. She’s on a mission to make terminology management actually work—cutting through the noise, cleaning up the mess, and building AI-driven solutions that scale. From revamping translation quality processes to leading industry-first innovations in multilingual term extraction, she’s all about impact. A frank-speaking Northerner with a sharp eye for efficiency, Amy bridges the gap between linguists, tech, and business, ensuring words do what they’re meant to. If it’s broken, she’ll fix it. If it’s inefficient, she’ll automate it. And if it’s boring, she’ll make it fun.

Sara is doctoral research student at the Centre for Translation Studies (CTS), University of Surrey, with almost 15 years of experience in the localization industry. She has worked as a marketing translator, subtitler and lead linguist in both in-house and freelance positions across the industry. She is passionate about conducting academically rigorous research with maximal relevance to the real world of commercial translation and localization. Her PhD project examines the present and future of marketing translation services through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Marina is a linguist and polyglot with experience in academic pursuits as well as management, leadership and innovation. Marina holds a PhD degree in Theoretical Linguistics. Her academic work centered around the exploration of the elementary particles of language within the framework of Nanosyntax. In 2014, Marina transitioned to the world of Localization. For several years, she developed processes and solutions for crowd-based localization, covering technology, BI, linguistic quality, Community management and more. Currently, Marina is heading the Linguistic AI Services Center of Excellence at RWS, dedicating her efforts to the development and implementation of linguistic AI solutions.

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.

Nova Patch (they/them) is Director of Internationalization & Localization at Shutterstock, with over 20 years of experience working at the intersection of language, technology, and culture. Drawing on a background in software engineering and product management, they have guided the expansion of platforms into over 30 languages through scalable, inclusive strategies that make digital products more accessible and locally meaningful for diverse global audiences. Nova is also a lifetime individual member of the Unicode Consortium, reflecting a long-standing commitment to open standards.

Morana is a Croatian-born Berlin-based localization, content and UX professional. She has spent the past 14 years working as a manager and leader in the tech industry, building up localization, content and UX teams and processes while working on lean and efficient workflows. She loves to talk about why building products with great user experience is important, what good localization really means, why storytelling is the most underrated skill in business, empowering women in leadership, and how businesses and individuals can apply systems thinking and holistic approach for growth and scale.

Ola Persson graduated from the University of Växjö, with a degree in Marketing in 1987. During his initial work in a software company, he developed his language technology skills and formed his own company, WordFinder Software, in 1990. Their main product, WordFinder Unlimited, is a subscription-based dictionary service that complements other CAT tools. Between 1995 – 2007 Ola was also running TRADOS Scandinavia as a franchisee, giving him a wide understanding of the needs of translation suppliers and clients and how translation tools can assist them.

Anna has been in the localization industry for nearly 30 years. She started as a Translator and has worked in Project Management and Quality Management roles. Anna is currently an AI Program Manager at Welocalize, advising clients and overseeing the process of implementing Machine Translation and AI in localization workflows.

Dominique is an experienced executive in localization and AI-driven language solutions, combining a background in economics and management with a passion for innovation. As CRO of Seprotec she specializes in optimizing multilingual workflows, leveraging AI to enhance efficiency, and driving sustainable growth. A dynamic leader focused on collaboration, strategy, and the evolving role of technology in global communication.

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.

Peter Reynolds is CEO at memoQ and was previously Co-CEO. He has worked at Idiom, Berlitz GlobalNet, Bowne Global Solution and Lionbridge. Peter has worked with memoQ since 2008 and is one of the main architects of memoQ’s growth from startup to being leadership in the translation technology sector.

Peter has been actively involved in the development and promotion of standards for over a decade – he is an Irish expert to ISO TC 37 Committee. He holds and BSc and an MBA degree from Open University and is a localization and translation industry veteran.

Rachel Rosin is a leader in digital experience operations, leading high-performing teams across strategy, localization and development disciplines. Rachel’s career is defined by her ability to create engaging digital experiences that resonate with global audiences, and developing systems and infrastructures that scale with business needs. At the intersection of technical knowledge and strategic vision, Rachel specializes in optimizing digital operations while maintaining a customer-centric focus that drives genuine global engagement and business growth.

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.

María Sáez is a Localization expert with 13 years’ experience in Localization, translation and tech with varied projects types in institutions such as the European Parliament and companies such as Amazon and Kahoot! She has worked as linguist, localization program manager and content manager, and has successfully cooperated expanding market growth in diverse environments, currently leading a team of 45+ freelancers and supporting globalization in ed-tech together with Gabriele Spiteri.

Joel Sahleen manages the Internationalization Engineering team at Spotify, and is the volunteer lead for the Unicode Education Initiative. Trained as a classical Chinese linguist and a cross-cultural ethical theorist, for the last decade and a half, he has been working in the field of software internationalization and localization as an engineer, an architect, a team lead and a manager. A regular speaker at both internationalization and localization conferences, he is passionate about the technical, practical and ethical aspects of developing software for a global audience.

Marina Sánchez Torrón is a Linguistic Engineer at Smartling with over 20 years of experience in the language industry, having previously worked as a translator, a computational linguist, and a language analyst. She holds a Ph.D. in Translation Studies from The University of Auckland. Her expertise and research interests revolve around translation quality, UX and AI.

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.

Chiara Scaldaferro is a localization professional with over seven years of experience, specializing in marketing, technical support, and digital product localization for 10+ languages. She began her career as a translator for leading automotive and industrial brands before moving into localization management, delivering results in the 3D printing and EdTech industries in Berlin. Her expertise includes streamlining processes through integrations and automation, building trusted translator teams, and driving inclusive multilingual projects. Passionate about localization advocacy, she has developed online courses, volunteered with Women in Localization, and is exploring AI applications to advance the industry.

Richard Sikes has been immersed in technical translation and localization for over 30 years. He is passionate about linguistic technologies of all kinds and spends much of his time deploying technology solutions. Richard has managed localization teams at several industry-leading software companies. He contributes frequently to MultiLingual magazine, and is well-known as an organizer, speaker, and moderator at translation industry events.

Giulia Silvestrini is interpreting solution manager at Acolad, a leading player in the language industry. Focused on the interpreting market, she tailors and develops interpreting as a distinct offering — from conference interpretation to the provision of interpreting services to support daily multilingual communication within companies and organizations. Giulia helps teams, companies, and institutions identify and deploy the right service solutions to overcome linguistic challenges — from the interpretation itself, to technology and support — all aspects are designed to ensure the success of live multilingual communication.

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.

Pavel Soukenik is the head of global solutions at Acolad. With extensive experience in technology and language services, he leads the development of innovative B2B services. His contributions to international growth of leading global companies and to nurturing future industry innovators were recognized with the Microsoft Supplier of the Year Award and the University of Washington Instructional Excellence Award. Renowned for his contributions to education and leadership focused on partnership and excellence, Pavel excels in transforming strategic insights into effective global solutions.

Gabriele Spiteri has a BA in Translation and Interpreting, as well as an MA in Macroeconomics. He started out in Localization as a translator in 2015, moved on to Project Management, working as a PM assistant for a London-based LSP – LanguageLine Solutions. From 2017 to 2021, he was employed as PM at Locaria, London, where he grew to leading their Website Localization team. In 2021, he then moved client-side, and had a one-year spell at Games Workshop, Nottingham, managing a team of 7 Language Leads, and leading the team’s transition to a TMS-driven function. As of 2022, he has led Kahoot!’s Product Localization efforts alongside Maria Saez Molero.

Johan Sporre, Engineering Manager, Digital Global Language Services, is a leader with a great passion in languages, people and technology. His team provides Localization solutions to IKEA, to simplify multi-language communication, to reach customers and co-workers faster with a smaller price tag. They have implemented machine translation, tools and processes to enhance the capabilities of reuse and workflow automation for translations in IKEA, to better connect developers/content creators and linguists in IKEA. He has acquired over 25 years of achievement formulating and advancing revenue-generating projects and led professional teams to execute innovative and sustainable resolutions.

Olga Stokowiec is a multi-faceted localization expert, polyglot, expat. She holds two Master’s degrees: in Law from the University of Warsaw and in Applied Translation Studies from the University of Leeds. Setting up localization processes at a startup? Managing loc deliverables for a gaming giant? Planning and executing a product roadmap for a localization software provider? Olga has done it all. She’s currently leading the Localization program at Maxon, driving multidisciplinary efforts towards automated, scalable localization operations. When not in localization, you’ll probably see her with a trumpet or her chihuahua.

Nicolas Underwood serves as the Director of Games Product Management at Lionbridge Games. With a lengthy tenure at Lionbridge, Nicolas has established himself as a seasoned veteran in the gaming industry, bringing a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his role. Prior to joining Lionbridge, he served as Director of R&D at ExeQuo, and held key positions at Around the World and Knockin’ Boots, further honing his skills in the industry. His leadership and dedication continue to drive the success of Lionbridge’s gaming division, ensuring that players around the world enjoy seamless and immersive gaming experiences.

Jaap van der Meer is the founder and CEO of TAUS, an organization started in 2004 that is on a mission to empower global enterprises and their service and technology providers with data-enhanced machine translation and language data solutions. He is a language industry pioneer and visionary, who started his first translation company, INK, in The Netherlands in 1980. Jaap is a regular speaker at conferences and author of many articles about technologies, translation, and globalization trends.

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.

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.

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.

Colin digitally empowers Media & Entertainment businesses at scale in EMEA; reducing their costs, increase resilience, and enable them to adapt more quickly to changing market conditions to better serve customers.

Jennifer has been working with Machine Learning technology since 2018, which led to her current role at Smartling where she is currently driving the AI technology research and development strategy. Her career has spanned SaaS for e-commerce, fintech, and localization, where she focused on UX, Product Management, and enterprise implementation. Jennifer has diverse background and received her MS, Design for Interaction, Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology and BS in Architectural Studies from University of Southern California.

Angelika Zerfaß studied Chinese/Japanese and computational linguistics at the University of Bonn, Germany. After her studies she worked for the Japanese Embassy in Bonn and then for Trados in Japan, Germany and the US. Since 2000 she has been providing independent consultancy, training and technical support for translation tools from her company based in Germany for clients all over the world. She is a frequent speaker at translation and localization industry events.