Our Current Program Committee Members

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).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brona Nilsson is a senior machine learning engineer in the Global Language Services group at IKEA, where she leads R&D initiatives in generative AI. She has held leadership roles in speech technology at various European companies, including Nuance Communications, SVOX, and Lernout & Hauspie. Before transitioning to industry, she lectured in Natural Language Processing at Trinity College Dublin. She earned a B.A. in Computer Science and Linguistics as well as a Ph.D. in AI from Trinity College, where she studied under Pádraig Cunningham, focusing her research on applying the cognitive framework of case-based reasoning to machine translation.

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.

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

Dominique Puls has been a passionate driver of new ideas in the translation and localization industries for more than a decade. She is a language enthusiast, digital native, economics nerd, mother, science fiction fan, rock music addict, and visionary. As managing director at tsd Gmbh, a SeproTec Company, Dominque constantly challenges approaches to solutions and processes. Feasibility, sustainability, the ever-changing needs of multilingual content, cost effectiveness, and fully integrated solutions are her focus points.

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.