LocWorld54 Monterey

Known affectionately as The Content Wrangler, Scott Abel is an internationally recognized intelligent content strategist and cognitive computing evangelist who specializes in helping organizations deliver the right content to the right audience, anywhere, anytime, on any device. He is the coauthor of Intelligent Content: A Primer and The Language of Content Strategy (XML Press). Scott is the founder, CEO and chief strategist at The Content Wrangler, Inc. He coproduces Information Development World Conferences, produces a popular series of content strategy books and is the host of the San Francisco Content Strategy Content Marketing Professionals Meetup. Scott is also a highly sought-after keynote presenter, moderator and a frequent contributor to content industry publications. He manages one of the most widely-viewed webinar channels on the BrightTALK network, producing over 100 content-focused webinars a year. Scott’s alter ego, The Audio Wrangler, is a popular DJ and dance music mashup artist.

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.

A seasoned localization professional with over 17 years’ experience in the industry, Nicole Alves’s love of languages began at home. Born and raised in the United States and a dual citizen of Portugal, her foreign language studies and travel began in grammar school, leading her to pursue a degree in French Language and Literature and Italian Studies at Providence College in Rhode Island. After graduating and working in a French immersion school, she pursued a career as a freelance linguist and foreign language consultant specializing in fashion and international relations. Her 13 years in this pursuit were an excellent foundation to transition to a more strategic role at Crown Equipment Corporation where she supports and fine tunes a corporate localization strategy covering 39 languages.

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.

Paul Barth is a 30+ year veteran in the localization industry with expertise in global content management and overall localization solutions. Paul is a Global Account Director for RWS, working with some of the most strategic RWS customers to help them fully leverage RWS technology and services.

Helena Batt serves as the Director of Localization at TED, overseeing dubbing, subtitling, and localization efforts to ensure Talks resonate authentically in 115 languages. With 15 years of experience in product and language strategy, she excels at the crossroads of technology, content, and culture. Helena leads TED’s pioneering AI dubbing program, combining innovative tools with human expertise to expand multilingual access at scale. Adept at navigating diverse cultures and languages, she empowers millions to access inspiring ideas and reimagines how global audiences engage with knowledge. Before joining TED, Helena advanced her career in Hong Kong, Paris, Frankfurt, and New York, driving localization and product strategies that fueled international growth.

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.

Viviana Bernabe, CPACC, leads Interpreting and Accessibility at Welocalize, bringing over 15 years of experience in localization, interpretation, accessibility, and AI-driven workflows. With a strong background in project and program management, she expands the concept of digital accessibility to include linguistic and cognitive access, enabling organizations to serve users of all languages and communication styles. Her work delivers inclusive, end-to-end user experiences while driving innovation at the intersection of language services and accessibility.

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

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.

Born in Barcelona and a nomad at heart, Olga Blasco has 30 years of experience in the language services industry. After holding leadership positions in Lionbridge and Welocalize, since 2016 she is a growth strategist, M&A advisor and mentor. Her mission is to help organizations increase their value and fulfil their end game through the right investments in talent, technology and M&A. Olga runs Blasco Consulting and is M&A Principal Partner at Lion People Global in Dublin. She is also a non-profit champion, having fundraised and delivered projects for disadvantaged women entrepreneurs in Turkey, and proudly serves on the boards of Clear Tech/Clear Global and Women in Localization.

Nikolay Bogoychev (or Nick for short) is a language nerd with a passion for foreign languages and cultures. After completing his PhD in Machine Translation at the university of Edinburgh, he continued working there as a postdoc, working on creating free, open source high quality translation models for end users. After a brief startup stint, he landed at Meta, where he works on training and evaluating llama models, and relentlessly advocates for improved multilingual support in all large language model products.

Kathleen Bostick is a seasoned leader in the global content industry with over 30 years of experience driving innovative marketing strategies and leading high-performing sales teams. As DATAmundi’s Chief Marketing Officer, she plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s growth and global impact.
Before joining DATAmundi, Kathleen spent much of her career at SDL (now RWS) as Executive Vice President of SDL North America, where she led sales and operations teams dedicated to helping global enterprises deliver world-class digital experiences. She has collaborated with hundreds of top brands across high-tech, financial services, government, retail, online media, travel, and more, witnessing firsthand the vital role global content plays in today’s competitive landscape.
Passionate about education and mentorship, Kathleen actively supports and inspires professionals in the global content industry. With an MBA in marketing, she is a sought-after speaker and a dedicated advocate for women.

Wayne Bourland has 25 years of experience working at Dell. He is currently responsible for Translation Strategy and leading the move to Agentic.  Active in the broader translation industry, Wayne is a member of the TAUS advisory board, the RWS Customer Advisory Council, and has been published in MultiLingual magazine, the Economist, Brand Quarterly, and numerous industry blogs – and along with 11 other industry peers, published the Globalization Strategy Playbook.

Lucie Bovyn is a global business leader specializing in end-to-end globalization strategy and operational transformation. She has led at the intersection of client and vendor organizations, building world-class teams, streamlining complex localization ecosystems, and embedding innovation as a competitive advantage. Known for orchestrating high-impact, cross-functional initiatives, Lucie ensures rapid, efficient market entry at scale. Her leadership advances industry best practices and shapes the strategic direction of globalization across the technology sector.

Jane Brendler leads Global Language Services at Craft, where she helps clients transcreate global marketing campaigns for effective impact in the market. With a degree in translation and conference interpreting, she is a linguist at heart, bringing a wealth of knowledge in cultural nuances and localization. Jane has overseen the adaptation of numerous global campaigns and helped clients transform their localization strategy to centralized models. She is passionate about leveraging technology to enhance global communication.

With over twenty years of experience in the localization industry, Pia Bresnan has built a career at the intersection of language, technology, and global strategy. She has worked across both the client and vendor sides, scaling high-performing global teams, driving operational excellence, and championing innovation in localization practices. Since joining Uber in 2017, Pia has played a pivotal role in evolving the company’s globalization strategy, first by strengthening its localization foundation, and more recently by shaping its multilingual GenAI efforts. Known for her strategic mindset and ability to connect people, processes, and platforms, Pia is a trusted leader who drives impact across cross-functional teams and industry initiatives alike.

Alex is a Software Engineer at Square, where he designs and builds localization infrastructure that enables scalable, efficient workflows for product teams. He collaborates with cross-functional partners and Globalization engineering to develop innovative systems that accelerate engineering velocity and enhance global product quality.

Julia Cassidy is the Director of Global Experience & Localization at SurveyMonkey, a global leader in online surveys and forms headquartered in San Mateo, California. Originally from Bavaria in Germany, Julia is based in Dublin, Ireland and manages a globally dispersed team in charge of all aspects of localization and global experiences at SurveyMonkey. Throughout her 20+ year career, she has held various roles, primarily at US technology companies, ranging from German translator, machine translation specialist, language and process engineer, language quality and localization manager as well as global experience leader. She is passionate about building scalable localization and content delivery programs that build deep connections with global audiences and enable business growth.

Edgar Castillo is a software quality engineer who specializes in ensuring that products are ready for a worldwide audience from the very beginning. By assessing globalization in the early stages of emerging technologies, he helps deliver high-quality products that are accessible and effective for users everywhere.

Kriz Chan’s localization journey started in Singapore with Airbnb in Language Management, focusing on Asian languages and quality ownership. She then moved into localization program management as she discovered her passion for scaling internationalization-friendly UI solutions across various interfaces. This took her to London, Berlin and most recently, New York. She is now with Meta, specializing in establishing quality evaluation framework for GenAI products, saliency checks for multilingual LLM datasets, product UI localization and leveraging linguistic/market insights on content A/B testing to illustrate the impact of localization.

Fabiano Cid is a seasoned global content strategist and Chief Solutions Officer at Powerling, where he seamlessly connects strategy with execution to enhance brand reach worldwide. With over 25 years of experience in the language services industry, he has successfully led high-performing teams across Latin America, North America, and Europe. In 1999, he founded Ccaps Translation and Localization, transforming it into one of Latin America’s most respected providers before its merger with OXO Innovation in 2018. As a dedicated member of GALA, Fabiano has held numerous leadership roles, supporting strategic growth and community building within the industry. He also serves on the advisory board of Women in Localization, actively promoting equity, mentorship, and greater representation. Recognized as a leading voice in globalization, he was recently named global content wrangler and is the creator and host of SOFA, a series featuring candid conversations with localization leaders.

Jourik Ciesielski holds a Master’s degree in Translation and a Postgraduate Certificate in Specialized Translation from KU Leuven (Belgium). He began his career in 2013 as an intern at Yamagata Europe in Ghent, where his strong interest in language technology led him to become Chief Technology Officer.

In 2020, he founded his own company, C-Jay International, focusing on technology consulting, engineering, and market research. His work centers around implementing translation technology, deploying AI solutions, and optimizing workflows, with a specialization in automation, integrations, TMS, and data standardization. In 2025, he embarked on a new CTO role at ELAN Languages.

Peter Coleman is a senior research analyst at CSA Research with over 20 years of experience developing and managing language services programs, content management systems, and digital asset management solutions for global enterprises.

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).

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.

Matt Cutler has been in the globalization industry for 18 years working in both the consulting and software industries. Through those years he has worked with over 135 different languages across multiple vendors and translation management systems.

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.

Arnaud Daix has over 20 years of experience in the LSP industry, leading global teams and managing complex international projects. Recognized for his expertise in customer relations and team leadership, he joined Acolad in 2011, holding key roles in operations and account management. After a year as COO in the data services industry, he returned to Acolad in 2023 as EVP & General Manager North America, driving growth across the U.S. and Canada.

Paul is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of experience in leading and scaling global teams and businesses in the software and services industries. He is currently the GM / TME at Welocalize.

Nynne DeNiro is the Global Head of Account Management for Thermo Fisher Scientific Language Services, leading a team that supports more than 400 clients worldwide. With over 25 years in localization and life sciences, she specializes in streamlining complex, regulated content workflows for global enterprises. Nynne is passionate about applying technology and intelligent automation to transform translation management, most recently spearheading Thermo Fisher’s AI-driven intake chatbot initiative to accelerate speed, strengthen compliance, and improve the content lifecycle across the organization.

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

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

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.

Farmehr Farhour is the co-founder and CTO of Kara Technologies, where he leads a team of engineers, linguists, and artists building AI-driven digital avatars to make content accessible in sign language at scale. With an academic background in computer science and AI from Auckland University and Georgia Tech, his focus has been to bridge language, culture, and technology across education, transport, and entertainment. A bilingual English–Farsi speaker with working knowledge of New Zealand Sign Language, Farmehr brings a global perspective to localization and accessibility challenges.

Klaus Fleischmann 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.

Salvo Giammarresi is Senior Director and Head of Localization at Airbnb. Previously he held globalization leadership roles at several technology companies in Silicon Valley including PayPal and Yahoo. Salvo holds a Ph.D. in applied linguistics, and is a published author and speaker on the topics of globalization, localization project management, international product management, formulaic language, and translation studies.

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

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

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

Celine Halpert started her career as a translator and conference interpreter working for UNESCO, UNHCR, UNCTAD, and many NGOs. In 2019, she switched to localization, first in the medical device industry and then at Canva. She has spent the past three years leading the Localization Quality and Operations team. She led the implementation of Canva’s AI localization strategy to expand product availability for LOTE users. Celine graduated from ISIT (Paris) and holds 2 master’s degrees from UNSW that combine her passions for languages and social work (MA in Translation and Interpreting Studies and MA in International Social Development).

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

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

Nancy N. Hernon is founder and CEO of G3 Translate, a leading global language services provider founded in 2006. She holds an M.A. in German and English language/cultural studies from University of Hanover, Germany. With extensive industry experience across project management, sales, and marketing, Nancy has built G3 Translate into an innovative translation and localization solutions provider serving businesses worldwide. She actively participates in industry associations, mentors emerging professionals, and champions cutting-edge technology in localization. Her commitment to excellence and innovation drives G3 Translate’s continued growth globally.

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

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

Erika Jeffries is the co-producer of LocWorld’s Process Innovation Challenge (PIC), exhibits manager 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.

Katell Jentreau has more than twenty years of experience in localization, both on the vendor and client sides. She led the globalization effort at Box for three years, before joining Netflix’s Globalization team in 2015 as the company was getting ready to launch globally. At the start of 2024, Katell joined Expedia Group where she has been leading the centralized Globalization function for all Expedia brands. From 2013 to 2015, she was also on the board of Women in Localization and has remained a member and volunteer ever since.

John N. Just is the Chief Learning Officer at KnowBe4 where he leads teams from around the globe that consistently win awards and industry accolades for the best online training in the industry. He has educated millions of learners via eLearning around the world on compliance and security topics. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University, a master’s degree in instructional technology from the University of South Florida, and a doctorate in instructional technology & distance education from Nova Southeastern University.

Gabriel is an industry researcher, consultant, and content producer. With over a decade in the language industry, Gabriel has worn many hats, from onboarding new clients as a business developer to hands-on work on projects in 100+ languages, from deconstructing industry trends to advising clients on how to talk to global audiences. Yet the biggest challenge lies ahead of us – how do professionals and companies grow and reinvent themselves while the industry is transformed by new technology? Through his varied projects, Gabriel has re-confirmed what we all know: global business is a people business. And our industry will continue to have a fundamental role to play in enabling it.

Nataly Kelly is the Chief Marketing Officer at Zappi, where she leads the global marketing strategy to drive awareness and demand for its consumer insights platform. A seasoned business leader and international marketing expert, she brings decades of experience helping companies scale and expand globally.

Before joining Zappi, Nataly spent nearly a decade at HubSpot in executive roles including VP of Marketing, International Operations and Strategy, and Localization. She played a key role in the company’s global expansion and also held leadership positions at Smartling and CSA Research.

Nataly is a recognized thought leader in international marketing and global business. She is a longtime contributor to Harvard Business Review and writes regularly for Forbes and leading marketing trade publications. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and is the author of Take Your Company Global, as well as the co-author of Brand Global, Adapt Local.

Her work has earned recognition from LinkedIn’s CMO 50 list (2024), Pavilion’s Top 50 CMOs to Watch (2025), and Remote’s Work Influencers list (2022). When Nataly is not helping tech companies achieve global scale, you can find her exploring new cultures with her husband and two daughters.

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

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

Li Li is a Senior Localization Program Manager at Guidewire, where she leads localization strategy and planning to support the company’s global market expansion. She focuses on streamlining and accelerating the localization process by reducing time to market through automation and enhanced internal project management processes and tooling – ensuring efficient, scalable, and high-quality global content delivery.

With over 20 years of experience in the localization industry, Li Li has worked on both the language service provider and client sides. This dual perspective gives her a deep understanding of the challenges faced by both and drives her passion for improving collaboration and engagement across the localization ecosystem.

Li Li also brings two decades of international work experience and a strong interest in languages and cultures. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, an MBA in Project Management, and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

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

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.

Alexander Lum, Director of Product Content Development, has experienced the evolution of content authoring tools and processes in the content development workflow throughout his 30+ years of experience. He specializes in many things, including end-to-end product content development and publishing. His primary focus today is improving customers’ user experiences and updating authoring tools with digital transformation initiatives, including incorporating Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools into product content development workflows.

Julie Mack has been a senior localization program manager in tech at Uber for almost five years, working primarily with marketing and marketing tech on integrating and managing automated translation workflows with authoring platforms. She provides data-driven insights to stakeholders regarding priority languages for their target regions and audiences, budget and operational metrics, and translation quality. Her role is critical in aligning priorities and road maps across product, data, and tech operations to drive improvements in the localization experience for content creators and deliver a better user experience for Uber’s diverse customer base.

Michael Mannhardt is head of International Business at Congree and President & CEO of the Congree US-subsidiary Congree Language Technologies Inc. He graduated with a degree in business management and has nearly twenty years of experience in the language technology industry. At Congree, Michael spreads the message of content optimization the world over and supports global partners and customers. Before joining Congree in 2019, he previously worked at Acrolinx and Across Systems.

Katrina Montinola is a seasoned Silicon Valley technology executive with 25+ years of experience building and leading engineering teams. She began her career at Oracle, where she led the development of the company’s first web server, and went on to lead growth-stage startups including healthcare analytics firm Archimedes. Certified in advanced AI and machine learning through DeepLearning.ai, Katrina brings expertise in algorithms, NLP, recommender systems, and multimodal models. She advises companies on pragmatic, transformational AI adoption—helping them integrate AI to drive efficiency and competitive advantage. Katrina holds a BS in Information and Computer Science from Georgia Tech.

Mandy Morgan brings over 18 years of experience in the language services industry, including nearly a decade at Welocalize. Her career has spanned roles in operations, sales engineering, and account management, where she now serves as a senior strategic account manager. Mandy partners with leading tech companies to develop scalable localization programs, drive innovation, and solve complex challenges. She is passionate about building strong client relationships and staying ahead of industry trends to deliver tailored, forward-thinking solutions.

Priscila’s expertise in localization is rooted in a rich and varied background. Her early career saw her as a music translator and composer for Cannes Lions-awarded projects, showcasing a flair for impactful communication. This creative foundation was complemented by years as a regional translation manager. As Director of Language Quality at KnowBe4, helping organizations strengthen their security culture and manage human risk, she now leads a widespread Quality Assurance team, ensuring content localization fuels market expansion and user feedback powers data-driven strategy. Priscila further champions the field through her volunteer work in Women in Localization as the Metrics program director.

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.

Sophie Murphy is the Chief Operating Officer at DATAmundi, bringing over 15 years of experience in leadership within the localization and AI-driven data solutions sectors. She has successfully led global teams in production, sales, and strategy, fostering transformation and innovation at companies such as Argos Multilingual and LanguageWire. A native French speaker residing in Ireland, Sophie combines cultural insights with operational expertise to provide scalable and customer-focused solutions. Her practical approach to process improvement and commitment to reliable service contribute to meaningful advancements in AI and language technology.

Rika Nakazawa is a senior technology executive, VC investor, and best-selling author recognized on Forbes 50>50 in Innovation. As Chief Commercial Innovation at NTT, she leads global initiatives in photonic networks, space-tech, and sustainable digital transformation. Trilingual and Princeton-educated, Rika has held executive roles at NVIDIA, Sony, Accenture, and Capgemini, and serves on multiple boards across AI, cybersecurity, and quantum ecosystems. A frequent public speaker, she bridges deep tech with societal impact. She is a PhD candidate exploring AI and quantum at industrial frontiers, and holds an MSc in sustainability from the University of Leeds.

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.

Patricia Oceguera started as a teacher for a new generation of translators and interpreters. Due to her experience and fascination with innovating what has already been done, she’s now the head of the translation and interpreting programs, bringing what the world has to offer to the people in charge of the future.

Sonia has held leadership roles at startups and global companies—including LinkedIn, GoPro, Square, and Zynga—where she scaled operations and led globalization strategies that elevated brand, product, and content experiences worldwide, delivering measurable impact. With extensive experience leading teams across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and a passion for culture and technology, she is a trusted advisor on global growth, AI adoption, and innovation acceleration. Known for her strategic acumen and global perspective, Sonia is a frequent contributor to localization conferences, roundtables and forums.

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.

With over 15 years of dedicated experience in localization, Liliana Pardo-Becerra has consistently spearheaded successful localization programs across e-commerce, telecommunications, and technology sectors. Her expertise lies in fostering international expansion by crafting best-in-class processes and end-user experiences. Currently leading Vimeo’s Localization team, Liliana focuses on advancing product and marketing localization strategies.

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.

Mika Pehkonen is a frequent speaker at industry events with a passion for processes and automation.

Morana Peric is a Croatian-born Berlin-based localization, content, and UX professional. She has spent the past 15 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, and how businesses and individuals can apply systems thinking for growth and scale.

Ella Petlicka is a highly experienced professional in internationalization and localization, currently serving as the Manager of Optimization TPM at Pinterest since May 2020. With a strong background in leading teams of Technical and Quality Program Managers, Ella specializes in managing and optimizing technological ecosystems to ensure seamless localization processes for international markets. Previous roles include Manager of Internationalization & Localization at Pinterest, Senior Program Manager at BetterUp, and Program Director at Venga Global, where Ella developed scalable localization strategies and managed extensive teams for diverse content types. Ella holds a Master of Science in Translation Studies from The University of Edinburgh and has additional qualifications in audiovisual translation and Scandinavian studies.

Kathleen Pierce is a principal analyst at Forrester, advising leaders in marketing, sales, customer experience, and the partner ecosystem. She leverages her 30 years of experience in B2B and B2C to help them optimize localization, taxonomy, revenue enablement, compliance, and content operations. Prior to Forrester, Kathleen led content operations, enablement, and UI/UX departments at Illumina, Hewlett Packard, Maxwell Technologies, Qualcomm, and Litton. Her recent localization research at Forrester includes prioritization tools, technology assessments, analyses of localization in the age of AI, maturity roadmaps, and measurement models.

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.

Kevin Redford is a localization manager for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, overseeing a team that works on audio and video projects in over 90 languages. He has a special interest in using AI technologies to improve workflows as well as speed and accuracy. He previously worked at Fox Studios and Sony Entertainment Network in localization. Kevin fled his native Canada for the warm weather of Los Angeles, where he lived for 19 years. Now, he and his wife and their three children live in Utah, where he somewhat tolerates winter.

Jenny Reid’s background includes a variety of localization roles, including quality assurance testing, linguistic quality management, localization engineering, vendor management and project management. She has ten years of experience in client-side translation management systems implementation and administration.

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

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

Kristy Sakai is CEO of WE ARE VERY, she leads the agency’s focus on global marketing, international expansion consultation, multilingual content creation, and localization services. With a background deeply rooted in cross-cultural experiences and a decade of expertise in copywriting and translation, I’ve spearheaded our company’s evolution from Supertext USA, Inc. to WE ARE VERY, Inc. Growing up in the UK, US, Germany, and Japan, she understands global marketing and the importance of subtle differences in effective messaging.

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.

After receiving his PhD in 2008, Konstantin Savenkov piloted various research projects at Moscow State University. Moving into the business sector in 2012, Konstantin worked with notable start-ups such as Bookmate and Mindojo. He became increasingly aware of the trouble global companies had when onboarding cognitive AI services. To address this issue, Konstantin founded Intento with Grigory Sapunov in 2016, in part with the distinguished Berkeley Skydeck Accelerator Program. At Intento, they build Language Hub, a platform for AI agents to automate enterprise localization using machine translation and generative AI.

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.

As Senior Manager of Localization Program and Portfolio Management at Autodesk, Yoshimi leads localization efforts for a wide range of company content, including software products, websites, marketing, sales, and customer success materials. Her career includes roles at both the U.S. headquarters and the Japan office, where she has served as a program and team manager in localization and user training groups. Yoshimi and her team play a pivotal role in global product launches, executing scalable localization strategies tailored to regional and linguistic needs, and advancing key departmental initiatives such as MT-AI, LQA, CSAT, performance metrics, and business strategy development.

Daria Sinitsyna is a lead AI engineer at Intento, where she heads a team focused on researching advancements in artificial intelligence and enhancing machine translation evaluation workflows. With a master’s degree in computational linguistics from Syracuse University, where she was a Fulbright alumna, Daria possesses a strong expertise in natural language processing, machine learning, multi-agent systems, and prompt engineering. Her background enables her to effectively bridge the gap between linguistic theory and its practical applications in the rapidly changing field of Generative AI.

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.

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 leadership focused on partnership and excellence, Pavel excels in transforming strategic insights into effective global solutions.

Melissa Sterner is the Localization Program Manager at LastPass, where she leads the localization team. She is responsible for developing the business’s localization strategy and roadmap, scaling the team’s localization workflows, and managing the localized content for global launches of LastPass’ products, website, support site, and marketing campaigns. Her favorite part about working in tech is teaming up with engineers and developers to build and optimize technical localization processes. Prior to LastPass, Melissa spent several years on the vendor side, where she was able to hone her project management skills. She holds a double bachelor’s degree in German and Chinese studies from the University of Delaware, as well as a master’s degree in translation from The Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

Min Tan is a localization consultant from Google’s global business solutions team. She has been in the localization industry for almost ten years, working on both the service provider and buyer sides. Most recently, Min worked as the Simplified Chinese language manager for Google. She graduated with a master’s degree in translation and localization management from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

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

Vieux Valcin is a dedicated translation and localization management student at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, with a strong focus on localization engineering. He actively hones his technical expertise in artificial intelligence, translation management, and multimodal AI. A skilled programmer proficient in both frontend and backend development, Vieux also brings strength in complex statistical problem-solving. Currently, he works as a computational linguist at Labelbox in San Francisco, where he contributes to the development of advanced GenAI systems — such as chatbots, recommender engines, and voice assistants — across multiple linguistic domains.

Gert Van Assche is the Innovation Hub Leader at DATAmundi, where he leads innovation at the intersection of language and AI. A seasoned IT generalist with deep expertise in documentation, localization, and multilingual data processing, Gert has spent over a decade pioneering technology solutions for data labeling and evaluation.

As founder of DATAmundi, he built a company delivering high-quality training data to major AI players while creating opportunities for over 1,000 people worldwide. Passionate about developing cutting-edge solutions and fostering innovative teams, Gert remains committed to advancing the industry through continuous learning and knowledge-sharing. A true “hands-on” leader, Gert enjoys woodworking, construction, and carpentry.

Language industry afficionado, market researcher, and consulting expert. Strategic thinker, practical doer, forever curious and hungry to learn. Passionate about everything that makes successful companies tick.

Kunqi Wang is a high school student at Cate School in Santa Barbara, California. He is a leading voice in the mental health field for youth, using his nonprofit MindBridge Foundation to create tangible impact in his local area, including advocacy, education, research, and volunteering. He finds fulfillment in representing his peers, coming from an immigrant family himself, especially for non-native English speakers.

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.

Rachel White is a Globalization Technical Program Manager at Square, where she leads efforts to automate localization workflows, streamline cross-functional collaboration, and optimize processes at scale. She partners closely with Globalization engineering, product, and localization teams to deliver efficient, scalable solutions that strengthen Square’s global product experience.

With over 15 years of localization expertise, Franziska Willnow has shaped global content strategies across multiple organizations. As senior program manager on Amazon Web Services’ Marketing Technology and Measurement team, she builds bridges between teams to enhance international reach and impact. AWS provides cloud computing services to millions of customers worldwide, from startups to enterprises, helping them innovate and scale while optimizing their operational efficiency.

Maureen Wink is an accomplished solutions engineer with a strong passion for harnessing software to address complex business challenges. With over 20 years of experience spanning analytics-based platforms to AI-driven solutions, she has partnered with global enterprises to bridge the gap between technology and business objectives. In her current role, Maureen empowers customers and prospects to maximize the value of AI-powered localization solutions by providing strategic guidance, sharing best practices, and delivering data-driven insights.

Shirley Xu is a technical program manager at AWS, where she combines her passion for language and technology to build smarter localization solutions that enhance the global customer experience. With over seven years in the industry, she has led initiatives in workflow automation, localization tooling, vendor and quality management, and most recently, Large Language Model (LLM)-driven post-editing. Shirley is especially excited about the potential of LLMs to transform how global content is delivered at scale. She holds an MA in localization from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

Masaru Yamada is a translation studies scholar and educator whose career encompasses IT localization management and industrial consulting. As a professor at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, he leads pioneering research on AI-enhanced multilingual communication and mentors students in advanced translation technologies. As CEO of Translation Lab Inc., in partnership with Yaraku Inc., he forges industry–academic collaborations. A former board member of the Japan Association of Interpreting and Translation Studies (JAITS) and the Asia-Pacific Association for Machine Translation (AAMT), he offers empirical expertise in translation processes, CAT tools, MTPE, GenAI, and the application of machine translation in language education.

Ebru Yıldırım is the Founder and CEO of Ollang, an AI-first multimodal localization platform transforming how content is scaled and distributed globally. She has led partnerships with major studios, streamers, and distributors worldwide, combining agentic AI with human creativity to deliver 40,000+ projects across 25+ formats and languages. Under her leadership, Ollang has generated over $100 million in new revenues for its partners and become a go-to platform for companies seeking to expand reach, reduce costs, and maintain creative integrity in the new content economy. Recognized for her thought leadership, she shares actionable strategies on accelerating workflows, unlocking new revenue streams, and achieving global growth without sacrificing quality.