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.

Petra has led product, enablement, and now global solutions with one goal: turn AI-powered translation into something enterprises can trust. She guides teams through the chaotic reality of hybrid workflows — where models produce at scale, and humans decide what’s acceptable. Her work centers on making localization faster and smarter without sacrificing the judgment that keeps brands safe.

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.

Hilary Atkisson Normanha is a Senior Product Manager at Spotify, where she builds the infrastructure that governs how AI operates across languages and markets. With over a decade of experience at the intersection of language, technology, and systems, she writes and speaks about why language expertise belongs at the center of how AI is built.

Tyler Balding is the Senior Quality Assurance Director at KnowBe4, where she builds and scales systems that enable complex operations to run smoothly. With extensive experience in eLearning, she specializes in streamlining workflow processes and leads a dedicated QA team. Her focus remains on ensuring all course content meets the highest standards for excellence and universal accessibility. Tyler holds a degree in foreign languages with a specialization in Spanish and a minor in business from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Sara Basile is a senior product leader with over a decade of experience driving platform strategy for B2B SaaS organizations. At XTM, she owns the end-to-end product vision and strategy to evolve one of the industry’s leading TMSs to an innovative, AI-powered localization platform. Known for translating complex enterprise challenges into scalable product decisions, Sara sits at the intersection of language technology, intelligent automation, and global content operations. At PIC20, she brings one core conviction: the industry’s most important unsolved problem isn’t translation quality, it’s the moment before translation begins.

Alexander Becker is Head of Sales at Congree Language Technologies GmbH.

With a background in computational linguistics, Alexander works closely with customers across different industries, helping them turn business requirements, linguistic processes, and technical possibilities into practical solutions. With Congree UCC, he supports organizations in making generative AI useful while keeping their own content, language, and quality standards under control.

His focus is on creating measurable customer value, including return on investment, process reliability, content quality, and long-term customer satisfaction. With his combination of sales leadership, consulting experience, and technical curiosity, Alexander is comfortable discussing both strategic transformation and implementation details.

When needed, he can move from the business case down to the API, workflow, or data model level. Outside the world of language technology, Alexander enjoys hiking and table tennis.

Renato Beninatto is a world-renowned localization expert, author, and strategist with over three decades of executive experience. As the CEO of LocWorld, co-owner of MultiLingual Media, and co-founder of Nimdzi Insights, he has deeply shaped the global language services market.

Beninatto is an Adjunct Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) and co-author of *The General Theory of the Translation Company*. A polyglot who has lived in seven countries and speaks five languages, he is a premier voice on globalization, AI integration, and international corporate growth.

Olga has over 20 years of experience in language technology, NLP, machine learning, global content transformation, and AI data development, and is passionate about growing businesses through driving change and innovation. Olga started her career in language technology building lexicons and rules for rule-based MT, expanding her expertise into broader applications of NLP and machine learning to enterprise translation workflows. Olga has also served as the president of AMTA, VP and technology program sponsor for Women in Localization, and an engineering leadership advisor at California State University, Chico.

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

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

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

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.

Inge Boonen is passionate about fostering relationships and building communities within the localization and globalization industry. With an academic background in languages and translation, and nearly two decades of experience, she is dedicated to promoting localization as a strategic revenue enabler. Inge founded the Lessons in Localization Club to provide a safe space for localization leaders to connect, share knowledge, and drive innovation. Her expertise includes international growth strategies, workflow optimization, and enhancing global user experiences. Through her work at Nimdzi Insights, Inge advocates for the value of localization in empowering businesses to expand globally and achieve sustainable success.

Erik Bremer leads Dell’s Content Engineering & Translation organization (CE&T), a 300+ member organization responsible for technical product content and globalization of Dell’s products and services. He brings over two decades of leadership in business transformation, leveraging technology to streamline operations through simplification, automation, and a data-centric approach. Under his leadership, CE&T has advanced a modern information experience powered by GenAI at scale, delivering smarter, faster, globally consistent content. He champions innovation and governance frameworks that enable enterprise-wide adoption of AI solutions, ensuring Dell remains at the forefront of global content strategy and operational excellence.

Tom Bridges is co-founder and CEO of CaptionHub, a leading enterprise platform for video captioning, subtitling, and localization. Before CaptionHub, Tom co-founded Unit Post Production and served as Managing Director of Neon Pictures, giving him over two decades of hands-on experience across post-production and media localization. He holds master’s degrees from Cambridge in both Neuroscience and Architecture and the Moving Image—an interdisciplinary background that has shaped his approach to building tools at the intersection of language, technology, and communication.

Elena Carpanese is a localization leader with several years of experience in global content strategy and multilingual delivery. She spent the last five years at DeepL, where she helped build and manage the localization team, scaling operations across 15+ markets. Fluent in English, Italian, Spanish and German, Elena is passionate about how language and technology intersect, and is committed to using AI in localization with a focus on people and cultures.

Marcus is passionate about the intersection of language and technology, and have been in this space for much of his career. With a background in both technology and linguistics, he is eager to continue to engage with the evolving worlds of technology and global content.

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.

Berk Çetiner is a Localization Project Manager at Laoret, specializing in translation technology and agile workflows. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Istanbul University and brings extensive experience managing complex, multilingual localization lifecycles. Berk is deeply passionate about developing and implementing automation solutions that streamline operational processes. By leveraging scalable technologies, he ensures reliable, consistent linguistic quality while minimizing project turnaround times. His core expertise lies in bridging the gap between innovative, AI-driven efficiency and irreplaceable human precision, demonstrating how automation can empower language professionals to scale their output effectively.

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.

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).

Gary Condon is a Responsible AI Research Consultant based in Dublin, focused on the ethical and human-centered dimensions of AI systems. He holds an MSc in Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence from TU Dublin, graduating with First Class Honours, and has published peer-reviewed research on bias evaluation in agentic AI workflows. Before moving into AI, Gary spent over 25 years leading global software engineering teams across Ireland, India, the United States, and China, with a focus on internationalization and localization. He brings both a research background and enterprise delivery experience to conversations about how AI is built responsibly.

Based in Madrid, Laura is a sales and account management professional with extensive experience across commercial, operational, and regulated-industry environments. She currently leads Sales for Southern Europe and works as an Account Director managing strategic enterprise accounts, primarily in the banking and travel sectors, where precision, trust, and nuance are non-negotiable.

Laura’s career spans both client-facing and delivery roles, including leadership positions as Project Management Team Lead and Translation Team Lead for major banking clients, giving her a grounded view of how delivery excellence translates into long-term client value. Laura began her professional journey as a legal and financial translator, a foundation that continues to inform her deep understanding of complex, highly regulated industries and customer needs.

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

Mayank is the CEO of a global content, localization, and market-expansion solutions company, where he leads strategic initiatives for brands entering multicultural and multilingual markets. He has played a key role in developing Indianization Through Process – a workflow-driven methodology that integrates market consultancy, cultural intelligence, localized content creation, and analytics to help global companies succeed in India. With more than a decade of experience across localization strategy, business development, and digital content transformation, Mayank advises organizations on how to scale effectively by using culturally aligned and data-informed localization workflows. He regularly collaborates with global teams seeking to understand and navigate India’s complex landscape of micro-markets.

María Jesús de Arriba Díaz has been enabling the international growth of global companies across diverse sizes and industries for over 25 years. Her localization journey began as a translator and interpreter and quickly progressed into leadership roles in operations, quality, and vendor management.

She is highly experienced in building and modernizing localization and global language experience programs. Passionate about the globalization and localization industry, she plays an active role in shaping its future through her volunteer work as Vice President of Women in Localization and board sponsor for Technology and Innovation, including WeShape AI.

A former Chairperson and Board Member of GALA, she is an active mentor and a strong advocate for knowledge sharing within the industry.

Anne-Sophie Delafosse is a localization, quality, and internationalization leader with deep expertise in building scalable global content and product systems. Before Spotify, she created and led Deliveroo’s localization program, integrating it into product and design workflows and earning the 2020 “Localization Process Innovator of the Year (USA)” award. At Spotify, she works at the intersection of AI, multilingual quality, and program strategy, developing operating models, governance frameworks, and evaluation systems that enable AI features to launch across 70+ languages. She partners across engineering, research, product, and content to ensure linguistic quality, cultural nuance, and clarity in Spotify’s AI ecosystem.

Katrin Drescher serves as Senior Director of Globalization at Tenable, leading global content operations across cybersecurity domains in 12+ languages. With over fifteen years of experience at the intersection of language technology and human expertise, she brings a clear-eyed enterprise buyer’s perspective to the future of the profession.

Katrin believes the industry is moving from a craft model to a systems-thinking model, where the professionals who thrive operate at the intersection of subject matter expertise, language knowledge, and data literacy. Rather than competing with AI, she sees an opportunity to become the layer of intelligence that makes it trustworthy. At Tenable, she is actively investing in exactly that kind of upskilling for both her team and her vendor partners.

Elitza Dublewa-Servatius is an empathetic, determined leader driving transformation at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners as Manager of Digital EX & Change and Automated Translation Solutions. A former professional interpreter fluent in seven languages, she is an avid AI and language researcher dedicated to bridging global communication gaps.

At this conference, Elitza shares her multicultural perspective and hands-on expertise, offering actionable insights into navigating complex organizational change, implementing enterprise AI translation tools, and fostering inclusive, cross-border collaboration at the intersection of human-centric leadership and technological innovation.

Maite has a technical background in computer science and software development, having performed for more than 10 years in different roles in software development, where she encountered the need to translate software into the languages of the customers. She is currently a senior member of the leadership team at SAP Language Experience, leading the product management team in developing solutions to support the complex translation processes for the company. She is also responsible for multiple strategic projects, contributing to the expansion of SAP’s AI translation, patent portfolio and renewal of the translation tool landscape for the age of AI.

Rafaëla Ellensburg is a Content Engineering Consultant and founder of The Content Engineering Agency, specializing in content architecture, linked data, and semantic infrastructure. With over a decade of experience in e-commerce, omnichannel content strategy, and MarTech integration, she helps organizations structure content so AI can traverse meaning—not just retrieve files.

Her work sits at the intersection of metadata, domain modeling, and knowledge graph architecture. She developed the PRISMAS™ framework for scalable, context-rich content systems and has spoken at World IA Day London 2026.

Rafaëla brings a multidisciplinary perspective on how structured content enables AI to co-create meaningfully across global audiences.

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.

Gabriel Fairman is the founder and CEO of Bureau Works, with over two decades of experience building translation technology, designing enterprise workflows, and supporting global organizations across industries. Raised in a multilingual family and fluent in six languages, he brings a lifelong fascination with communication and identity to his work. Gabriel has led large-scale implementations for some of the world’s most complex organizations and is known for bridging human-centered thinking with advanced technical innovation. He speaks regularly at industry events and is committed to creating systems that make multilingual communication more sustainable, intuitive, and authentically human.

María Roa Felices is the Director of Marketing and Events at Vistatec, where she drives global brand strategy, industry engagement, and high‑impact events. With deep expertise in localization and globalization, she specializes in elevating thought leadership, fostering community, and increasing visibility for innovative language‑technology initiatives. Known for her strategic mindset and collaborative approach, María plays a key role in shaping Vistatec’s presence across international markets.

Carrie Fischer is the Globalization Services Manager at Subway, headquartered in Shelton, CT. She is responsible for the company’s globalization strategy. With over 30 years of experience in localization, she has previously held roles at Bodybuilding.com, Hyperion/Oracle, and Transparent Language.

Carrie is a board member of Women in Localization, the largest female-led nonprofit in the localization industry. She also serves as a mentor through Mentor Ease, Women in Localization’s mentorship platform, and is passionate about localization outreach to academia.

Klaus Fleischmann studied translation and interpreting in Vienna and holds an M.A. in Conference Interpreting from Monterey, California, as well as an MAS in Technical Communication from Danube University in Krems, Austria. In 1996, he founded Kaleidoscope GmbH, a language technology company, and went on to build the leading enterprise terminology management platform, Quickterm.

In 2007, he became Managing Director of Austria’s leading LSP, Eurocom Translation Services GmbH. He has served on the boards of directors of GALA, ELIA, TermNet, and LTI.

Abby is a localization leader with over a decade of experience shaping multilingual content for global digital health companies. At DarioHealth, she has led the expansion of a digital health platform from one language into ten, overseeing global launches for enterprise clients including Google and Amazon. Her work spans mental health content transcreation, operational strategy, and AI integration in localization workflows—particularly in preparing source content more intelligently before it reaches a translator. She is an active member of Women in Localization and brings both strategic vision and practitioner instinct to questions of quality, efficiency, and what it means to localize with care.

Sara Gil is a project and program manager with experience driving complex, cross-functional initiatives within global organizations. She currently works as a Senior Program Manager at ServiceNow, where she focuses on operational alignment, stakeholder coordination, and execution excellence.

Sara brings a structured, outcomes-driven approach to program management, combined with strong collaboration skills across diverse teams.

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.

Daniel is a Senior Product Manager at Workday, where he specializes in building solutions that empower agents to deliver rich, contextually relevant user experiences across all languages. With a career spanning over 20 years, Daniel has navigated the diverse landscapes of consulting, startups, and large-scale enterprises. He brings a deep, multifaceted perspective to the conference, rooted in a steadfast user-first philosophy. Daniel’s approach is defined by the belief that while technology is in a constant state of flux, the fundamental needs of people remain constant—a principle he uses to bridge the gap between complex technical systems and authentic human connection.

Giulia is a Localization Program Manager with over eight years of industry experience, leading product localization strategy and operations at Qonto. Her journey started with a degree in Translation & Interpreting—studied first in Venice and then in London—before moving into project management on the vendor side. She transitioned to the client side to gain new perspectives, spending over four years at Amazon before choosing fintech for the opportunity to make a greater impact. As Qonto’s one-person localization team, Giulia bridges language, design, and technology, experimenting with new tools and optimizing workflows while balancing innovation and governance in a fast-moving, AI-first environment.

L’Meese Greaney is a sociolinguist who applies academic insight to global content workflows. With a deep understanding of semantic framing, discourse, and the interplay of language and power, she designs scalable systems for multilingual data curation and translation.

Her expertise in multilingual content transformation enables organizations to deliver seamless, culturally nuanced communication worldwide. Drawing on her background as an educator, she is passionate about fostering intellectual agency and promoting independent, informed thinking across diverse languages and cultures.

Lucía Guerrero is a Globalization Program Manager at Expedia Group, where she currently drives the Globalization AI strategy and its execution. With over 15 years in the localization industry, she has been exploring and applying AI and machine learning to localization workflows for the past seven years.

Andrea Guisado Muñoz is a localization professional with over 12 years of experience, having started her career in translation and localization. She explores how AI innovation and human-centered leadership can work together, helping teams navigate rapid industry change.

With nearly a decade of experience within the same team, she brings a practical, real-world perspective on how localization is evolving in the age of AI. Based in southern Spain, Andrea is driven by building resilient, future-ready teams.

Carola leads the global Content Operations team for ZEISS’s Medical Technology segment. Her team covers core disciplines including content development, translation management, linguistic assets and data management, as well as information architecture and technological infrastructure. Both governance and operational responsibilities are centralized within her team.

She places a strong strategic focus on designing and implementing future-proof processes and data-driven automation, with the goal of unlocking the value of language data across a wide range of current and future business applications. In doing so, her team helps drive innovation and digitalization across the company.

Carola has worked in the language industry for more than twenty years. Previously, she held roles such as Head of Translations at Fresenius Medical Care GmbH, Head of Project Management at Lionbridge Germany, and served as a consultant in translation management, process optimization, and content strategy.

Michael Harris is an experienced localization technologist with a background in solution architecture, product management, full-stack development, machine translation, business process management, and linguistics, with great people skills and a passion for learning new things.

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.

Nicolas Jadot is a Localization Tech Manager with over a decade of experience driving language operations for international organizations and e-commerce companies. As Language Solutions Manager at Trendyol, his focus is on cross-functional localization process design, AI-augmented workflows, and data pipelines at scale. Nicolas brings deep practical expertise in localization automation, having successfully shaped tooling roadmaps and implemented technology-driven efficiencies. He also brings extensive hands-on experience integrating artificial intelligence into linguistic operations, offering valuable insights into the future of scalable language infrastructure.

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

Beata Janaszkiewicz-Cavalcanti is a Lead Researcher at Nimdzi Insights, with a professional background in education, translation, and linguistics. She plays an active leadership role in Women in Localization as the Poland Chapter Manager and Events Manager for the Global Growth and Diversity Program.

A dedicated community builder, she brings a research-driven yet practical perspective on emerging technologies, advocating for a balanced and deliberate approach to AI adoption in localization.

Tucker Johnson is co-founder of Nimdzi Insights and represents Nimdzi Insights, Localization World Ltd, and MultiLingual Media LLC. He hosts the Nimdzi LIVE! podcast, where he speaks with leaders and innovators across the globalization industry. He is also an adjunct professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a guest lecturer at other universities. His work focuses on language services, localization strategy, market research, media, events, education, and helping organizations succeed in multilingual markets.

Ari Karampour is a technology strategy leader with a background in computer engineering and more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry. She began her career as a programmer and has since focused on building systems that make work more scalable, efficient, and intelligent. Since joining Indeed in 2022, Ari has led the Technology and Automation team within Localization, overseeing data analytics, technology platforms, automation, and AI and machine translation initiatives. In her role, she manages a team of product, program, and project managers who design customizable workflows, use data to support better decision-making, build tools that help teams work more effectively, and apply AI as a decision layer to ensure the right level of human involvement.

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.

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
supplier management strategies in companies like VeriSign, VMware and Apple. Eva is a co-founder and an
Advisory Board member of Women in Localization. She is currently the Program Chair of the Translation and
Localization Management Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, imparting
her knowledge and longstanding localization and leadership experience to graduate students. She is also an
instructor at the Localization Institute. She is from Slovakia, speaks multiple languages, and holds MAs in
Foreign Language Teaching and in Translation.

Manuel Kohl is a localization professional with 10+ years experience in the industry. With a pragmatic and forward-thinking approach, Manuel is passionate about exploring how the challenges posed by AI can be transformed into meaningful opportunities his team.

Mercedes leads the International Experience team at Notion, where she has grown the scope and strategic footprint of the team across both Product and Marketing localization. Last year she drove key company-wide international expansion initiatives including RTL enablement and non-English LLM and AI product evaluation frameworks. She previously led the product localization teams at Spotify and Facebook, always keeping global users and cultural relevance in mind when building.

Josef Kubovsky serves as the CEO of Nimdzi Insights, a prominent consulting and market research firm specializing in the language services industry. With a background in language technology, localization strategy, and international business development, Josef brings over 20 years of experience, driving growth and innovation in the sector. He is renowned for his strategic vision and expertise in guiding organizations through transformative processes and has successfully led numerous projects for global clients. Passionate about using technology to solve complex challenges, Josef is dedicated to helping businesses navigate the evolving landscape of language services.

Indira is a localization leader with experience spanning two decades across a wide spectrum of roles within the localization industry on both the vendor and buyer sides. Focused on global readiness, operational excellence, and content safety at scale through innovation and the responsible adoption of AI, Indira leads a cross-functional team dedicated to enabling content and features to reach non-English-speaking girls, women, and people who menstruate in a language they understand, with evergreen content that is relevant to them.

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

Luciana brings extensive experience leading the delivery of multilingual versions of Microsoft products, content, and AI-driven experiences at scale. She champions an AI-first approach and is a strong believer that complexity is inevitable, but chaos is optional. She pairs strong governance, responsible AI, and human-in-the-loop oversight to accelerate global delivery while maintaining sustained, measurable quality and customer satisfaction worldwide.

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

Dan Milczarski is Vice President of Solutions at Blackbird.io, where he leads global solution architecture and helps enterprises design scalable, automated multilingual content workflows. With over 20 years of experience in language services and technology, he previously served as CTO at CQ fluency, driving innovation in automation, machine learning, and operational excellence.

Dan has built and optimized localization ecosystems for global organizations, with expertise in orchestration, systems integration, and quality frameworks.

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.

Miriam Moyano Reifenrath is a Senior Globalization Program Manager at Riot Games, where she has helped drive strategic innovation and evolve localization practices since 2020. Starting her career as a translator in 2013, she has held roles across project management, operations, production, and program management, leading globalization efforts for both game and player-facing experiences.

She holds a background in multimedia localization and has been recognized for her work on inclusion and gender perspectives in localization, including receiving first prize for her master’s thesis on voice-over localization at the University of Vigo, later presented at the Valencia–Napoli Colloquium on Gender and Translation. Miriam has spoken at industry events including LocWorld, Game Quality Forum, and Languages & the Media, and has delivered guest lectures at Dublin City University.

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

Maja Nebes is a Marketing Localization Program Manager at ServiceNow, based in Vienna, Austria, specializing in bridging human expertise and AI-driven automation to deliver culturally relevant, high-quality global content. With extensive experience leading cross-functional localization programs, she builds internal AI capabilities that redefine how localization teams operate at scale and challenge traditional localization models without sacrificing quality. Her most recent work explores what happens when core localization processes are handed over to AI—and which human steps are actually worth keeping.

Anna is a language professional who has spent two decades at the intersection of translation and technology in London. Since joining Cloudflare’s Globalization Team in 2020, she has overseen EMEA localization across sales, marketing, and support. She is also operationalizing AI and machine learning in translation and supports other strategic initiatives, including transcreation, translation quality, and international SEO.

Before her current role, she led localization services at S&P Global Platts and focused on localization engineering at Canon Europe. At Sandberg Translation Partners, she was instrumental in integrating machine translation into specialized Nordic language workflows.

Pejman Nozad is one of the most successful tech investors in the world. He has invested in over 100 companies, including Dropbox, DoorDash, and LendingClub. He is the Founding Managing Partner of Pear VC, a seed-stage venture capital firm that partners with entrepreneurs from the very beginning.

Kevin O’Donnell is an international expansion and growth advisor with extensive experience in B2B product and growth leadership.

He leads Global10x, a specialized consultancy that helps B2B companies develop successful international growth strategies, increase global revenue, and optimize go-to-market and localization processes.

Kevin has held senior roles at companies such as Dropbox, Microsoft, and Nitro, where he was responsible for scaling products globally and modernizing localization operations.

Kevin O’Neill (New York) joined KKR in 2018 and is a Managing Director on the Credit team. He focuses on governance, workouts and restructurings. Prior to his current role, Mr. O’Neill was an attorney in the bankruptcy & corporate reorganization group of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and prior to that, was a law clerk to the Honorable Shelley C. Chapman of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Mr. O’Neill holds an M.Sc in Law and Finance from the University of Oxford, a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame.

With 15+ years of experience shaping how global organizations communicate across markets, Irene brings extensive expertise in localization, content management, and technology. At TransPerfect, she serves as a Strategic Account Manager, guiding enterprise clients toward solutions that are both precise and impactful. She also channels her international experience into her role as Program Director of Global Sponsorships at Women in Localization, where she has spent over five years fostering connections that expand global visibility and reach.

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

Marcin Pajak is an Engineering Manager and former Staff Engineer at Miro. He leads Experience Systems across accessibility, design systems, and localization, driving platform strategy for AI-first product development. Recently, he spearheaded the engineering strategy for Miro’s continuous AI-first localization pipeline, successfully reducing translation turnaround times from days to seconds. By treating localization like code and leveraging CI/CD automation, local AI agents, and custom orchestration, Marcin aligns fast-paced engineering with seamless global product delivery.

Born into a multicultural family of scientists, Marina paired her multilingual background with an eccentric childhood dream that led her to mastering 11 languages … and still counting. After working as translator, educator, consultant, and more, Marina turned to exploring the elementary particles of language in her PhD research on Nanosyntax. In 2014, she exchanged academic life for the high-paced world of localization and is currently leading the Linguistic AI Services division at RWS. In her spare time, Marina still reads about science and engages in research inspired by the vast amount of data she encounters in her daily work.

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

Nova Patch (they/them) is Director of Internationalization & Localization at Shutterstock, with over two decades of experience at the intersection of language, technology, and culture. Drawing on a background in software engineering and product management, they have led the expansion of global platforms into more than 30 languages through scalable, inclusive, and culturally grounded localization approaches.

A lifetime individual member of the Unicode Consortium and co-founder of Shutterstock’s LGBTQ+ employee resource group, Nova is committed to advancing open standards and creating digital experiences that support diverse users worldwide.

A language nerd by nature, Leena is an experienced language industry expert with more than 25 years of experience in language services, language technology, and language service buying. She has studied languages and business and has worked in operations management, business management, and sales. For the past eight years, Leena has focused on the development and growth of various language tech solutions at Acolad Group; since 2023, she has served as AI Solution Manager at Acolad.

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.

Lara Prospero is a global leader working at the intersection of AI, learning, and the future of work, with a non-traditional path spanning engineering, consultancy, and multiple industries—from space and telecommunications to finance—long before joining Microsoft.

She currently leads global teams building AI-first skilling and enablement platforms, helping organizations move beyond fragmented AI experimentation into integrated, measurable impact embedded in the flow of work. Her work focuses on orchestrating technology, data, and human capability to enable transformation at scale.

Lara brings an outside-in perspective to localization—not as a standalone function, but as part of a broader shift in how organizations create, adapt, and deliver content globally. She challenges traditional models by questioning whether optimizing existing processes is enough in a world where AI is fundamentally changing how content is produced, consumed, and expected.

She works closely with leaders across business, technology, and learning to move from efficiency-driven conversations to value-driven systems, where AI not only reduces cost, but also reshapes capability, speed, and global reach.

A key theme of her work is ensuring that AI strengthens human judgment, capability, and agency, and that organizations evolve their structures—not just their toolsets—to fully realize the opportunity.

Growing up in a multicultural environment and immersed in localization from an early age, Dominique Puls built a deep connection to languages, culture, and global communication. Today, as Global Chief Revenue Officer for Seprotec, she helps organizations turn complexity into clarity, aligning people, processes, and technology to make multilingual operations scalable, relevant, and future-ready. With over 15 years of experience, she bridges strategy and execution, from AI-enabled localization and workflow design to commercial and organizational transformation. Known for her collaborative, hands-on style, Dominique shares practical insights drawn from real-world leadership and change.

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

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

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.

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.

Stefania currently leads the Internationalization Program at Expedia Group. Previously, she was Head of UX Content at Glovo, where she oversaw both Content Design and Localization. With two decades of experience in localization and content, she has worked across leading companies such as Booking.com and FedEx, as well as localization agencies.

Stefania is passionate about making products global-ready from the very beginning, ensuring international users are included in product thinking rather than treated as an afterthought. She is a strong advocate for the role of content in shaping effective, inclusive user experiences that resonate across languages, cultures, and markets.

Maria is a localization manager specializing in product localization strategy. With over nine years of experience, she has led and scaled successful localization programs for organizations across B2C and B2B markets in retail, travel, fintech, and SaaS. Combining supplier-side and enterprise-side perspectives, Maria now implements end-to-end strategies in collaboration with product managers, engineers, and content designers to support globalization in the life sciences within a digital health environment, accelerating global launches and improving user experience.

Born in the USA and based in Germany for 25+ years, Marta Schuman has spent just as long in the localization industry and the last decade leading DHL’s Corporate Language Services (CLS). She leads an international team of project managers, AI and data engineers, and language experts dedicated to making global communication faster, smarter, and more accessible across DHL. Powered by the team’s shared spirit of innovation, CLS is entering its next evolution, where responsible AI and deep human expertise advance together. In a time when AI is reshaping how we all work, Marta believes success comes from teams that stay curious, work openly, and experiment boldly.

Sarit Sela is the Head of Product and Engineering for Globalization at PayPal, where she leads the strategy and development of PayPal’s global product experiences. With a focus on innovation and scalability, she oversees the engineering and product teams responsible for localizing PayPal’s platform for millions of users worldwide.

With over 25 years at the intersection of language and technology, Jerome has made it his mission to turn content globalization into a competitive edge for tech companies. From AI-powered workflows to CI/CD pipelines and enterprise TMS deployments, he brings both strategic clarity and technical depth. A trusted partner to leadership teams, he aligns product, engineering, and operations to build scalable language models that accelerate international growth and drive lasting business impact.

Priyanka Singh is a Senior Localization Program Manager at Google, where she leads localization efforts for Google’s hardware products. With over a decade of experience in the industry, she has a proven track record of managing complex, large-scale localization projects across multiple regions and languages.

Alex Sirac is a content strategy consultant with over a decade of experience making complex information accessible across languages and cultures.

Formerly Head of Content at Hyli and a marketing localization editor at Meta for six years, they have bridged the gap between experts and the public in the fields of tech and open knowledge. As an administrator of the French-language Wikipedia, Alex works with multilingual communities committed to removing barriers to culture and information.

Alex brings a practitioner’s lens and a personal stake in gender-neutral language to ongoing conversations about representation, localization, and AI.

Francesca is Localization Director at Phrase and manager of the LocLeaders community. Francesca has been in the localization industry for 15+ years and her journey includes roles in the video game industry, language service providers, consulting, events, and community management. In her current role, Francesca is responsible for designing effective localization strategies and processes, leveraging the latest technology, while advocating for knowledge sharing and advancing the industry as a whole.

Olga Stokowiec is a localization program and product manager. She’s been in the industry for over six years, with the experience spanning from managing daily deliveries to shaping long-term roadmaps at companies of different sizes and complexity. Currently, she’s leading localization efforts at Maxon, aligning six product teams, marketing, and legal, to empower creative communities around the world. When not in localization, Olga is devouring books about history and geopolitics, practicing trumpet, and staying active.

Mikolaj Szajna is a localization leader with 15 years of experience across both the vendor and enterprise sides of the industry, where he has led transformational localization programs for several international technology companies.

He is currently Senior Manager of Localization at Booking.com, where he leads global localization strategy and operations across more than 45 languages. His work focuses on embedding AI-driven automation into localization workflows and connecting language technology directly to measurable business impact.

His team localizes 79 billion words annually across more than 100 content types, with a strong focus on delivering personalized experiences at scale.

Antonio Tejada brings over three decades of experience in translation and localization. He joined LanguageLine in 2022 following the acquisition of Capita Translation and Interpreting, where he served as Managing Director. Throughout his career, he has held several senior executive roles, leading global teams, expanding multilingual services, and overseeing strategic integration efforts across Spain, Ireland, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Antonio has been a key advocate for innovation in language technology, including the introduction of computer-aided translation (CAT) tools and early adoption of machine translation. He continues to advance LanguageLine’s translation and localization capabilities worldwide.

Amanda Thoniati is a localization professional with extensive experience in delivering global content strategies and multilingual solutions. She specializes in bridging language, technology, and culture to help organizations scale globally. With a strong background in stakeholder collaboration and process optimization, she has led initiatives that improve quality, efficiency, cost, and market reach. Amanda holds an academic background in legal, medical, and financial translation, as well as conference interpreting. Multilingual at her core, she is passionate about innovation in localization and interdisciplinary synergies, helping teams navigate the evolving global landscape.

Paola Tirelli is a linguist and AI specialist focused on the intersection of localization, prompt design, and applied AI. Her work centers on building and testing AI-driven workflows for localization, with particular attention to prompting, evaluation, and quality at scale.

She is especially interested in how linguistic expertise can guide automation and make AI solutions more effective in real-world settings. At the conference, she brings a cross-functional perspective that connects localization practice, language quality, and applied AI innovation.

Tamara Tirják is a video game localization consultant and trainer, helping her clients deliver high-quality localization solutions that enhance the gaming experience for players around the world. With a solid background in localization, business, and technology, she is part of Nimdzi Insights’ team of experts as a Localization Consultant.

Tamara’s extensive experience in localization includes working as a freelance translator, in-house linguist, project manager, translation tool support engineer, and technical trainer for various leading language service providers. Previously, as Head of Localization at Frontier Developments, she led the team responsible for defining the narrative and localization strategy, pipelines, and execution across all games, marketing, and studio activities to deliver and support products globally.

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

Teresa Toronjo is Senior Manager of Internationalization and Localization at Malt, Europe’s leading freelance marketplace, where she oversees localization and content operations, including marketing. In 2025, she led the creation of malt.com—the company’s largest cross-functional initiative—uniting over 45 people to transform Malt’s global growth strategy. With over 14 years of experience in translation and localization, Teresa has held roles spanning project management and localization leadership across SaaS and software companies in Europe and Southeast Asia. Originally from Seville, Spain, she has lived and worked in seven countries, bringing firsthand insight into global communication and cultural diversity.

Maya Toutountzi is a product leader with a strong foundation in computer engineering. She delivers solutions where innovation meets purpose to create meaningful impact. Delivering customer-centric solutions and launching new products and features that make a real difference is what motivates her.

Valentina Turra has been working at Philips Healthcare since 2013. After 11 years as a Translation Validator for Italian, she has recently taken on a new role as a UI/UX Localization Specialist. She is passionate about continuous improvement, whether it means implementing new translation and terminology tools, streamlining localization processes, or enhancing source content quality. Valentina’s work focuses on bridging the gap between UX design and localization, ensuring that global products are both technically robust and culturally relevant.

Miklós Urbán is a Principal Enterprise AI & Automation Architect at Phrase with over 25 years of experience at the intersection of AI, machine learning, and content automation. He specializes in designing AI-driven workflows that leverage state-of-the-art technologies to transform complex localization processes into scalable, efficient solutions. Miklós has pioneered innovative applications of LLMs for content adaptation, quality assurance, and audience-specific customization. Outside of work, he observes the night sky, finds his rhythm on the salsa dance floor, and competes in pool—three passions that reflect a mind drawn to the universe, music, and creativity.

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.

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.

Beatriz Verdasco has been in internationalization and localization for over 16 years and has 10+ years of experience leading multicultural and multidisciplinary global teams that multiply growth by bringing digital products to international audiences. She leads localization and global readiness at Trendyol Group, the largest eCommerce company in Turkey and the most valuable private internet company in the EMEA region. Bea is passionate about the combined power of technology and languages to create authentic, inclusive experiences for people across cultures and geographical borders.

Christian is a content strategist and product design leader lovingly agonising over UX at the intersection of brand disloyalty, affect perseverance, and capitalism optimism porn. He has built marcom, editorial, and design teams from startups to big tech, and plotted content for ARTE, BBC, DDB, Fab, funk, Handelsblatt, Highsnobiety, i-D, Jung von Matt, Leo Burnett, Plantage, VICE, Virtue, Vogue, and Zalando. He lectured at AMD Berlin and mentored early-stage teams at Deutsche Telekom’s tech incubator. At the Grace Accelerator, he helps FLINTA* founders find the narrative to their product-market fit. His favourite metric is employee retention. He could go on forever about people talking about themselves in third person on LinkedIn.

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.

Christian Wecke leads the Language Data & Technology Management team at DHL’s Corporate Language Services (CLS), where he is shaping the future of how the world’s largest logistics company communicates across borders—connecting people and improving lives. At the intersection of AI, language data, and enterprise platforms, Christian explores how APIs unlock the power of LLMs in translation and localization—because in a world of AI, everything speaks API.

His work focuses on building scalable, intelligent language and translation infrastructures that connect people, data, and platforms across more than 220 countries and territories. He also shares insights from CLS’s global transformation journey and its first steps toward an orchestrated, LangOps-driven ecosystem—where automation, intelligence, and human expertise converge.

Alex Zekakis has been in the localization industry for more than 13 years, starting off as a localization project manager on the vendor side. After a few years in the industry he moved into different roles, initially leading production teams and then focusing on delivering solutions, before he joined XTM International. Alex currently holds the role of director of support services at XTM International, where he is primarily focused on driving the customer experience throughout presales and onboarding as well as continuous support.

Ziyi (Ian) is a Technical Project Manager at Zoetis with expertise in machine translation evaluation, AI training, and localization workflow automation. He is skilled in designing and applying evaluation metrics tailored to the medical and pharmaceutical domains, with a strong focus on accuracy and terminology. He is experienced in building AI-driven solutions and integrating terminology management tools with AI translation. He is passionate about driving innovation at the intersection of language technology and global communication.

George Zhao is the CEO of VideoLocalize.com, a video technology provider, and the CEO of Boffin Language Group, a translation and localization service provider. With over 25 years of experience in the language industry, Zhao is a serial entrepreneur focused on innovative ideas that can transform the rapidly evolving language sector.

He currently leads the development of VideoLocalize.com, an innovative video dubbing technology that has received recognition, including the 2016 and 2017 TAUS Game Changer Innovation Awards and the 2017 LocWorld PIC award. Actively involved in the language industry, Zhao served on the 2017–2018 Board of Directors of the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA).

Karina specializes in building and scaling localization quality frameworks for global content deployment. With a long career across multiple localization areas, her work spans quality strategy, workflow design, and operational management. Her focus is on practical, user-centered quality systems that drive impact across global markets, particularly at KnowBe4 in the mission-critical space of security awareness and eLearning.