OCTOBER 4-6, 2021
GAME GLOBAL
DIGITAL SUMMIT
Your online event dedicated to video game localization and QA
Stream Game Global Sessions:
Game Global Digital Summit: October 2021
12 Sessions available to stream at your convenience,
only $99 USD (or $25 USD each)
ACCESS SESSIONS HERE
OUR EVENT
Based on over 20 years of successful experience producing localization events and ten years of hosting the Games Localization Round Table, the organizers of the LocWorld Conference have created an open and honest event dedicated to video game globalization.
Designed as an event for stakeholders of the video game globalization industry, Game Global offers a shared space where folks from across the gaming industry spectrum can meet and share their endeavors, successes, best practices and research in a collaborative and transparent manner.
Game Global offers the unique experience for those specializing in text and audio translation and localization, localization and functional QA to learn from fellow industry experts and share inspiration.
After the success of our first two digital summits in June 2020 and March 2021, we are excited to be hosting our next virtual event on video game localization and QA in October 2021.
During the event you will be able to:
- Take your knowledge to the next level with high-quality live presentations and panels.
- Network and discuss with your peers and new contacts through our app.
- Enjoy yourself and chat with peers during our virtual happy hours.
Check out our program below! For more questions or inquiries you can contact our Conference Manager Francesca Sorrentino at francesca@gameglobal.events.
PRICING
Includes access to the networking app, live webinars on both days, recorded webinars on both days.
PROGRAM
Times are CET
Stay tuned for more details!
NetworkingPending Confirmation
Visit our sponsors, exchange messages with other attendees, schedule a video meeting or find a group discussion you would like to join or create.
Game Global
Game Global
Nick Adams
Director of Transgender RepresentationGLAAD
Nick Adams is the director of transgender representation at GLAAD. He is a resource for media content creators who are telling stories about transgender people. Nick has consulted on hundreds of films and TV shows to help them create authentic transgender characters and stories. He has also worked with Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, DONTNOD, and other gaming companies to create trans-inclusive video games. Nick joined GLAAD in 1998, and transitioned himself at that time.
Belén Agulló García
FounderAccessibility Warriors
Belén Agulló García holds a BA in translation and interpreting studies, an MA in audiovisual translation, and a PhD in multimedia accessibility. The topic of her dissertation was accessible subtitles for virtual reality and that was the beginning of her journey as an accessibility advocate. Previously, Belén worked for more than five years in the game localization industry, holding different leadership positions. She combined her years in this industry with her true calling, training others. Currently, Belén is the VP of learning and lead media researcher at Nimdzi Insights and the founder of Accessibility Warriors.
Pedro Alfageme
Audio Artist ManagerElectronic Arts
Pedro Alfageme is audio artist manager at Electronic Arts. He is responsible for the technical quality of the localized dialogue and the continuous improvement of processes and tools. Pedro leads a team that delivers over a million dialogue files across 11 languages with high-quality standards every year. He has been working in the video game industry since 2004. His experience goes from voiceover recording, editing, and post processing to product owner of EA’s content management system for localization. Pedro is currently involved in voice technologies research and development as a localization stakeholder.
Marie Amigues
CEOAltagram
Marie Amigues is the CEO and founder of Altagram. After living in Paris, Ottawa and New York, she settled in Berlin in 2006. Following her studies in philosophy at La Sorbonne, Marie obtained an MBA in marketing management at Essec. In 2017, she was selected as one of the Top 10 Women in Management in Germany’s gaming industry. Passion, hard work and expertise are the driving forces behind Marie’s accomplishments. She has brought together a team of over 150 talented in-house game localization specialists who have successfully shipped over 5,000 game titles since 2006 for prestigious clients such as Square Enix, Supercell, Blizzard and SEGA, just to name a few.
Cristina Anselmi
Machine Translation LeadElectronic Arts
Cristina Anselmi is machine translation lead at Electronic Arts (EA). She takes care of everything related to machine translation (MT) implementation and maintenance within EA localization, leads a team of MT specialists, and coordinates several developments around MT. Cristina has been in the video game localization industry since 2012, managing all kinds of multilingual projects, from small mobile games to big MMORPGs, and several AAA titles. Her focus for the past four years has been implementing MT and AI technologies to automate workflows within EA localization. Cristina’s goal is to pave the way for this to be welcome in daily life and to be seen as a help rather than an enemy, a powerful tool that can enhance productivity, without jeopardizing quality and creativity.
Estelle Bailly
Localization DirectorHi Rez Studios
With over 20 years of experience in the video game localization industry, Estelle Bailly is an expert in the globalization and internationalization of creative content. She started her career in France, where she learned about the various aspects of the localization pipeline through multiple experiences which lead her to become head of localization at one of the largest video game localization agencies in Paris. In 2016, Estelle joined Hi-Rez Studios, a games-as-a-service studio, as localization director. Since then, her core focus has been to help the company to better engage and serve their international audience, offering them higher quality and enhanced support in various languages. Estelle is currently based in the UK, leading a multicultural team that translates three live games in more than eight languages.
Andrea Ballista
CEOVoiseed
Andrea Ballista has been working in the game industry for more than 25 years. Starting from his passion of music, songwriting, and singing, he holds a degree in computer music. Since cofounding Binari Sonori in 1994, Andrea has been the audio director for Keywords Studios from 2015 until the end of 2019. In 2020 he cofounded Voiseed to proceed into research and development of deep learning-based emotional virtual voices.
LinkedIn: andrea-ballista-4617912
Gérard Barnaud
Localization Project ManagerUbisoft
An industry veteran with 17 years of experience in the gaming industry, Gérard Barnaud started as a localization tester in Ireland in 2001 where he worked for Vivendi. He then moved to Atari headquarters in Lyon, France, where he started as a localization project manager on Neverwinter Nights and evolved to a position of producer for The Witcher (original). He then moved to UBISOFT Montreal and back into localization for Far Cry 2 and Brothers in Arms 3, and ended up in the south of France at the Montpellier studio. Barnaud has worked on various titles ranging from licensed games to large role playing games and intellectual properties for all audiences, and is still passionate about his work.
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz
Senior Localization DirectorElectronic Arts
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz is the senior localization director at EA, heading up all worldwide localization functions including translation, recordings, vendor management, testing and engineering for the video game developer and publisher. Originally a translator by education, she looks back at 15 years of experience in the game localization industry. Her current focus is on shaping the strategic direction of localization in the company’s shift to online service models.
Thomas Barth
Global LQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Thomas Barth (Tommy) has been working in games services for over 12 years and, like many young aspiring professionals, he started in the field of quality assurance (QA) to get a foot in the door of the industry. Since then, he leveled up from German QA tester to test lead, to project manager, to localization quality assurance (LQA) manager and most recently to LQA director at the global games services provider Keywords Studios. Throughout his career, Tommy had the chance to work with brilliant client partners from all sectors of the industry (developers, publishers and hardware manufacturers), provide and supervise testing for games of all genres and sizes, and on all platforms (from consoles to mobile, to the latest and greatest in virtual and augmented reality). He is passionate about the industry and believes that we are better together. Tommy also has a deep love for games and interactive entertainment and feels that all gamers around the world should have the same amazing and immersive experience, no matter which language they speak and play games in. Helping people succeed gives him energy and is one of his key drives as a professional.
Micaela Belluzzo
Global Resource ManagerKeywords Studios
Micaela Belluzzo is the global resource manager at Keywords Studios, focusing on project resourcing and quality control. A translator and interpreter by education, Micaela started her translation career localizing software and media content in 1998. She then joined SDL in Maidenhead as a localization project manager and in 2000 she moved to Milan to manage the EA Italy localization office. From 2003 Micaela contributed to the building of the EA integration hub in Madrid where she worked as head of localization production-integration until 2007. After a two-year break working for international cooperation in Africa and the Middle East, she joined Keywords with a focus on audio localization production and has been working on resource management for the past six years.
Teddy Bengtsson
Founder/DirectorRoundTable Studio
Teddy grew up in Sweden where he studied languages. Although his early professional career diverged into skiing, fashion and the restaurant trade, he eventually came back to languages through localization and a global journey including five home countries. Having held senior localization roles with major IT players Microsoft and Oracle, a crazy idea led him to start an LSP business in Argentina in 2003. RoundTable Studio quickly grew into a regional leader with production centers in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Porto Alegre (Brazil), and a business management unit in Spain where game localization has become one of its key vertical markets.
Mario Bergantiños
Director, Localization Analytics & Video-AudioElectronic Arts
Mario Bergantiños started his journey studying broadcasting, 3D and audio production. After working as a freelancer for several companies he started working at EA and now he has more than 16 years of experience in building high performing teams from audio and video disciplines to data analytics. As a member of EA’s Localization and Madrid leadership teams, Mario is co-responsible for the innovation and strategy of the localization business as well as managing the Audio Artist, Audio Capture, Video Loc and Data Analytics teams.
Mario Bergantiños
Senior Manager- Audio & Video LocalizationElectronic Arts
Priscilla Bermea
Cargo Localization Operations and Partner LeadRiot Games
Priscilla Bermea is the localization operations lead for Latin America at Riot Games. She is Mexican and a professional with over 10 years of experience in the gaming localization industry. Priscilla has been a fierce gamer since she can remember, and has dedicated herself to translating and interpreting videogames for friends and family. After working as a freelance translator and specialized project manager, she turned her favorite hobby into a career, becoming part of the Latin-American Riot Games team in 2016.
Miguel Bernal-Merino
LecturerUniversity of Roehampton
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
Brigitte Berner
Loc Vendor Management SupervisorElectronic Arts
Brigitte Berner is vendor management supervisor at Electronic Arts, leading a small team of vendor specialists. After being with the company for 15 years, building and shaping the vendor management function, including vendor recruitment and quality evaluation processes, her current focus is on automation, leveraging data and exploring usage of AI. Being solution driven, Brigitte is passionate about improving processes and questioning the status quo.
Chris Bewick
Regional FQA Director - EurasiaKeywords Studios
Brian Bies
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy
Managing PartnerLevsha
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy started his journey in video game localization as a freelance translator in 2005. In 2009, he became one of the founders of Levsha localization and has been a managing partner at the studio since then. Despite having a degree in computational linguistics, Fedor’s passion has always been finding new ways to facilitate efficient and joyful interaction and collaboration between different people.
Jonathan Bowring
RiversightJonathan Bowring graduated in computer science and worked for the UK Ministry of Defence and Hewlett-Packard before joining Canon. As Canon’s EMEA localization director, he built an independent services division with its own profit and loss of £15M. Jonathan trained as a mentor and coach and founded Riversight in 2016. The company intends to unlock the potential within leaders, teams and organizations, and provides coaching and facilitation to SME and corporate clients.
Virginia Boyero
Associate ProducerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Virginia Boyero is a history graduate who started a career in games localization in 2006, following a passion for working with languages and quickly getting hooked on the fast-paced tempo of the industry. She joined Massive Entertainment in 2010, and after the release of Far Cry 3 moved on to The Division team where she’s been an Associate Producer for the audio, localization and narrative departments for The Division and The Division 2. Outside of work, Virginia is often found reading travel literature, preferably while on a train.
Gaëlle Caballero
Director of Localization QATestronic
Gaëlle Caballero is a global head of localization quality assurance (LQA) with years of experience in video game QA and localization. A former lawyer, she started her career as a French LQA tester in London and developed her localization skillset working on multiple titles and platforms as a technician, lead, and project manager. Gaëlle successfully developed and delivered Testronic’s Warsaw-based LQA department and is responsible for its continued success. She is recognized for her extensive experience in team management, development, and swift delivery. A great motivator and team builder, she creates confidence and excitement across multiple Testronic global LQA facilities. An advocate for women in games, Gaëlle is involved in Testronic’s initiative aiming to mentor and promote the role of Women in the Games industry. She is also chairman of Testronic’s learning and development committee.
Gordon Campbell
Chief Executive OfficerGo Testify
Gordon Campbell is an experienced entrepreneur, having launched multiple companies in the design and gaming sectors since 2007. Over the last 13 years, Gordon has assisted companies like BBC, HBO and Zynga to produce high-quality entertainment that people want to invest time in. With a masters in human-centered design, he focuses on creating user-centric products using state-of-the-art technology.
Today, Gordon is the CEO of Testify, a company that is uses AI to transform how user testing is conducted within game development; putting players at the heart of every decision. In his current role, Gordon has worked alongside indies to top-50 mobile game studios such as Zynga to ensure they’re using the right testing methods to deliver impact and value within the development cycle.
Eric Say Chan
Program ManagerKeywords Studios
Born in Mexico City and later relocated to Canada, Eric Chan is a program manager with seven years of experience in video game quality assurance (QA). Initially a web developer, he made the jump to video games in 2011 within localization and functionality QA as a tester, test lead and later project manager. Knowledgeable in FQA, LQA, localization and audio, Eric has focused his efforts for the past two years within Keywords’ FQA department. He has since been focusing on project delivery, promoting growth and career paths for staff, and deploying improvements to internal processes.
Anastasiia Chertenkova
Marketing Creatives Team LeadPlayrix
Anastasiia Chertenkova’s path to the game development industry was rather unusual. She started her career as an officer of the police force of Ukraine/inspector of the Ukrainian Bureau of Interpol, senior officer of the criminal investigation sector, and taught administrative law and administrative procedure law in one of the state universities. Then she worked as a freelance translator for a couple of years. She joined the game development industry in 2016, starting as a customer support representative for Playrix. Since then, Anastasiia has held the positions of customer support team lead, community manager and player experience department manager. She is currently marketing creatives team lead.
Glory Choe
Program Manager, R&D LocalizationSalesforce
Before her recent move to Salesforce, Glory started her localization career as a linguist, followed by stints as LQA engineer at Linkedin and L10n producer at Zynga. In 2015, she joined an esports game studio, Super Evil Megacorp, as a Localization Manager, which was truly a dream come true for a lifelong gamer such as herself. Fascinated by different languages and cultures around the world ever since she was little, Glory studied languages and linguistics at the University of Washington in Seattle and has traveled to over 20 countries and three of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Cristian Conteduca
General ManagerYokozuna Data
Cristian Conteduca is general manager of Yokozuna Data. He has a background in scientific computing and physical modeling. Over the past few years, Cristian has developed and implemented AI/ML algorithms applied to video games and high-throughput cloud architectures. His goal is to merge AI and software engineering in a profitable and efficient way in real-life applications.
Daniele Corrado
Customer Support Engineer5th Kind
Daniele had been a consumer of the gaming industry since, well, forever. In 2010 he moved to the other side of the barricades. He began his career as a localization tester for a heterogeneous bunch of titles and platforms. While at Riot Games, Daniele worked in various capacities on every product that was released. His swansong was the global coordination for VALORANT as the Localization Producer for the title. He is currently helping DESTINYbit in developing their next title and he is working as Technical Support Engineer for 5th Kind.
Jamie Cox
Global Content Localization ProducerBlizzard Entertainment
Jamie Cox is a global content localization producer at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard is his first experience in the video game industry, but he’s been in the localization industry for over seven years, first at Gengo, then Welocalize, and then United Language Group. Over the years, Jamie has developed expertise in fast-paced environments, creating useful workflows and problem solving bottlenecks. In his spare time, he enjoys reading (currently the Wheel of Time series), playing way too much Overwatch, and he also plays the harp.
Diego Cresceri
CEO and FounderCreative Words
Diego Cresceri is CEO and founder of Creative Words, a language service provider based in Genoa. At Creative Words he is responsible for the company’s strategy and growth. His clients include multilingual translation agencies, Italian companies aiming to internationalize, and foreign companies aiming to enter the Italian market. Diego graduated from the University of Genoa in translation and interpreting and before founding Creative Words he was a translator, project manager and chief operations officer at a local translation agency. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the European Language Industry Association (ELIA). When not involved in his company, Diego holds workshops and seminars on innovation, artificial intelligence, and machine translation at universities, training schools, and language associations nationally and internationally.
Simone Crosignani
PR ManagerJinglebell Localization
Simone Crosignani worked as a video game journalist for 15 years before moving to the public relations department of Sony Computer Entertainment in Italy. At Sony he handled enthusiast and online media, working on the launch campaigns of PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and 100+ games. In 2006 Simone moved to Binari Sonori, a translation and audio production company, now part of Keywords Studios. In 2016 he joined Jinglebell Localization, the game localization spin-off of audio production powerhouse Jinglebell Communication. Simone has been a member of the International Game Developers Association localization group since day one and has been vice-chair of the group since 2013.
Mirela Cukovic Hanson
Senior Director QAElectronic Arts
Mirela Cukovic Hanson leads Mobile, Maxis and Live quality assurance (QA) teams for Electronic Art’s (EA) development teams around the world. These teams have ensured the quality of players’ experiences in some of the most popular games in the industry: The Sims, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heros; RealRacing3, The Simpsons Tapped Out, PvZ, Battlefield, Madden and others. Mirela is a change agent that has been leading the EA QA organization through several transformations and continues to set a vision for the future and inspire action from what she firmly believes is the best QA talent in the industry. Prior to her current role, Mirela held several technical and operational roles at central and global development groups. She has been at EA for ten years and before that, she held various engineering and technical leadership roles in the Silicon Valley. Mirela holds a degree in computer science from UBC.
Mariana Dadalto Schettino
Gender Inclusive Language SpecialistGame Global
Mariana Dadalto Schettino is a video game localization professional with a passion for gender inclusive language practices and is a project management enthusiast. As a localization tester at Electronic Arts (EA), she has worked to build in quality on more than 15 different titles, from AAA to mobile games. Mariana is the founder of the Gender Inclusive Taskforce for Localization at EA. As the lead stakeholder for this initiative, she creates guidelines for inclusive language for 20 different territories and improves processes regarding gender matters in the department. In addition to researching and implementing guides for a non-binary approach, Mariana works on shipping the first product from EA localization with applied non-binary language. She is currently transitioning to quality assurance testing while continuing as a researcher and adviser for diversity and inclusion practices with an inclusive language approach for localization.
Andrew Dale
King
Paul Davies
Head of Localization and Narrative DesignSocialpoint
Paul Davies manages the English game writing and localization teams at Socialpoint, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games, in sunny Barcelona. Prior to that, he held various positions at Electronic Arts in the UK and Germany, where he most recently managed the worldwide localization of EA’s mobile games portfolio. A keen gamer at heart, Paul started his career as a translator and language tester for console games at Sony Computer Entertainment in (not-so-sunny) Liverpool.
Tabea De Wille
LecturerUniversity of Limerick
Tabea De Wille holds an MA in German and English linguistics from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and an MS in multilingual computing and localization from the University of Limerick, Ireland. She has completed her PhD studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland, where she examined perceived quality in the context of crowdsourced localization. Previously, Tabea worked in the localization industry, primarily in video games localization and is currently a lecturer at the University of Limerick.
Twitter: @TabeaDeWille
LinkedIn: tabeadewille
Mason Deming
XLOCMason Deming is the chief technology officer (CTO) and system architect of XLOC. While at XLOC he has worked closely with developers on high profile titles such as League of Legends, the Call of Duty series and Borderlands. Prior to founding and serving as XLOC’s CTO, Mason enjoyed a successful career in game design, development, business-to-business e-commerce and database administration. He has performed key programming roles on numerous high profile titles while working on staff at Activision. He served as CTO for Roaring Mouse Entertainment and developed, programmed and managed Networld Exchange’s B2B e-commerce system.
Olivier Deslandes
VP Audio & TranslationSIDE Audio PTW
Olivier Deslandes is a games industry veteran, starting as a voice talent, voice director and translator in the late 1990s. He has contributed to more than 200 titles. Olivier joined Side in 2002 to establish and develop its localization department. In 2017, with Side under PTW ownership, he became senior director of global audio. He rose to vice president of audio and translation for PTW and Side in 2018. Olivier holds degrees in communication and advertising.
Diana Díaz Montón
CofounderNative Prime
Diana Díaz Montón is a game localization specialist with over 20 years of experience. She graduated in translation and interpreting, then began her career with an internship at EA Sports. Diana founded Wordlab in 2005 and in 2010 cofounded Native Prime, a company specialized in video game localization. She has been involved in the localization of reference titles such as Dragon Quest XI, Ni no Kuni, Hitman 2 & 3, Snack World, and hundreds more. Diana enjoys spreading the love for video game localization and has participated as a speaker at different events, such as GDC or Gamelab, both addressed to future localizers as well as to developers and publishers. She collaborates with different universities and institutions where she teaches game localization and project management, and has also written a series of articles about the challenges of game localization.
Twitter: maloria
LinkedIn: dianadiazmonton
Dmitry Drozdov
King
Jakub Dudkowski
Senior QA Project ManagerQLOC
Jakub Dudkowski is a quality assurance (QA) professional with over eight years of experience as a functionality, localization and certification QA tester, team leader, project manager, training manager, community manager and QA manager. Currently he is a senior QA project manager at QLOC. Jakub is also a fighting game player, tournament organizer, host and community supporter with over 16 years of competitive experience. He has worked on over 100 titles including several fighting games.
Nathalie Duret
HR ManagerKeywords Studios
Nathalie Duret is the human resource manager (HR) at Keywords Studios, Paris, France, and as such, she is responsible for recruitment and training. She has worked for more than 20 years in the localization industry, including 13 years at Electronic Arts, France. Nathalie has held various positions giving her the opportunity to tackle video games localization specifics such as text and audio localization, project management, vendor management, team management and more. In 2013, she decided to move to HR to bring support to the localization teams from a different perspective, to focus on people development and to help the teams grow and adapt to constantly changing environments.
Kate Edwards
CEO / Principal ConsultantGeogrify
Kate Edwards is the CEO and principal consultant of Geogrify, a consultancy for content culturalization, a board member of Take This, and is the former executive director of the International Game Developers Association from 2012 to 2017. In addition to being an outspoken advocate that serves in several advisory/board roles, she is a geographer, writer and corporate strategist who pioneered the field of content culturalization in games. As Microsoft’s first geopolitical strategist on the geopolitical strategy team she created and managed, Edwards protected the company against political and cultural content risks across all products and locales. Since Microsoft, she has assisted many clients on a variety of geopolitical and cultural issues across many products and game franchises. Kate is also a columnist for MultiLingual magazine. Fortune magazine named her as one of the “10 most powerful women” in the game industry and she was named by GamesIndustry.biz as one of their six People of the Year. In April 2018, she was honored with Reboot Develop’s annual Hero Award.
Mario Ferrer
Senior UX WriterSenior UX Writer
Mario Ferrer is a senior (or señor) user experience (UX) writer. He designs content that guides users across digital products and services. Mario is a part of UX Writers Spain, a local community of practitioners that guide professionals on how to get into the discipline, and helps companies discover the value of the UX writer role within a product team. He’s always trying to find the best tacos in town, listens to stand-up comedy and teaches his two kids about Mexican Lucha Libre.
Stanisław Fiedor
CEOFuero
Stanisław Fiedor graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics with the master degree in finance and accounting. His adventure with interactive content started already in high school were together with the current chief technical officer he was developing flash-based multiplayer experiences. During his university times, he started an interactive agency. Stan is the chief executive officer and cofounder of Fuero Games. Stan grew the studio from a four people team to a 40 professionals big experienced team. During this time he closed deals with some of the biggest players in the industry like WarGaming, Nexon, CD Projekt or Miniclip and responsible for signing IP’s like The Witcher. Stan is also a founding member of the Polish Games Association.
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content Localization
Loquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content LocalizationLoquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck is an independent consultant who learned his trade setting up and managing localization
processes and teams for free-to-play/mobile games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games on
the publisher side. This made him develop a particular interest in seeking and trying out new language
technology and service provider models that allow for economic and quality continuous translation
workflows. Connecting the dots between the needs of product owners with the strengths of service
providers, he now supports businesses in selecting and implementing the right processes, tools and
partners for their products.
Krzysztof Fudro
FQA Team LeadKeywords Studios
Krzysztof Fudro is functionality quality assurance (QA) lead at Keywords Studios Katowice. He and his team work with clients to achieve the highest testing efficiency possible. Prior to Keywords Studios Katowice, Krzysztof worked at In-House Studio as a game designer and QA tester. That experience allows him to predict what each client needs the most, sometimes even before the client realizes it. Krzysztof’s addiction to efficiency, combined with an interest in automation, always pushes him further to improve and optimize processes.
Joshua van Gageldonk
Guerrilla GamesJoshua van Gageldonk started working as a quality assurance tester in Guerrilla Games in August 2013, at the very end stages of development of Killzone Shadow Fall. After the development of Killzone Shadow Fall was completed, he was part of the test team for Horizon Zero Dawn, where he specialized in testing Robots, World Activities (non story-driven content), Random Encounters and Living World.
Carlos Garcia-Shelton
Product ManagerXLOC
Carlos Garcia-Shelton is the product manager at XLOC and is responsible for overseeing the business and all aspects of product development. Learning game production from many different angles such as quality assurance, development, publishing and localization has led him to a love for identifying and executing ways to bring together global teams and organize their efforts in the most efficient and effective ways.
Steven Garrad
Outsourcing, Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Jaime Gine
Keywords StudiosJaime Giné is chief customer officer for Keywords Studios. He represents the voice of the customer in the Keywords global organization across all services and designs innovative and customized solutions for Keywords top clients, always within the framework of strategic partnerships. Before joining Keywords he was vice president international development services at Electronic Arts (EA). Prior to joining EA, Jaime worked at SDL, holding various positions as departmental manager, project manager and divisional director. He was also part of the executive team that led SDL during the IPO.
Natalie Gladkaya
Director of LocalizationPlarium
Natalie Gladkaya joined the game localization industry in 2011 as a translator/editor, then managed teams of game localization and localization quality assurance. During her tenure with Plarium, she has worked on localizing over ten web and mobile game titles, including Raid: Shadow Legends and Mech Arena, into a variety of languages, building localization workflow, and both in-house and remote localization teams from the ground up.
LinkedIn: natalie-gladkaya
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov
Head of LocalizationSocial Quantum
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov started in translation and adaptation of text games at local IRC networks in 2003. He then switched to software and ended up doing amateur localization of huge titles like SWAT 4 and Septerra Core. Now Mike is the head of localization at Social Quantum, one of the top ten largest game publishers in Russia and Eastern Europe. The mobile game developer has created such titles as Megapolis, Wild West: New Frontier, Dragon’s World, Ice Age World, and Poker Jet, and is in the process of creating more. The company has also been conducting successful experiments in machine translation and machine translation post-editing.
Kaysie Green
Program Manager, Games LocalizationGlyph Language Services
Kaysie Green joined Glyph in 2015 as a project manager and developed her zone of genius around the games industry. This passion was her path to becoming a project manager devoted to Glyph’s games clients. Kaysie is currently the program manager for Glyph’s games division. In this role, she ensures continuous process improvement, up-to-the-moment market research, production quality and the cultivation of Glyph’s team of top-tier, game-obsessed linguists. Before coming to Glyph, Kaysie earned her BA in international relations from Gonzaga University, in 2013.
Aditya Gupta
Cofounder & QA Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Aditya Gupta is a cofounder of Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group. Currently working as a quality assurance and release manager at Day Zero, he has over nine years of game industry experience in game production and release management. Aditya is versed in quality assurance, title certification, and the release management process for multiplatform games. Over the years, he has worked on 12 AAA titles from Ubisoft, Codemasters, Streamline Games, and various other AAA publishers. In his leisure, he loves to cook and cruise around on his motorbike.
LinkedIn: my.linkedin.com/in/aditya-gupta-64204086
Clara Gómez Pérez
Localization Lead & Vendor ManagerGoodgame Studios
Clara Gómez Pérez joined the game localization industry ten years ago. Since 2011 she has led the localization department at Goodgame Studios. She holds a BA in translation and interpreting and an MA in specialized translation. Clara’s favorite localization-related topics are content management systems, key performance indicators, localization tools, process automation and funny localization mistakes.
Patricia Gómez Jurado
Associate Director of Content DesignKing
Patricia Gómez is based in Barcelona, where she is associate director of content design at King. She is building the first content design craft at King, managing a team of content designers and leading content operations. Previously, Patricia was the head of content at eDreams Odigeo, leading a team of UX writers and localization specialists. She started her career in the localization industry and worked six years as localization manager at Google Spain and Portugal. She currently teaches localization in the UX writing course by Shifta (Elisava).
Patrick Görtjes
Localization Project ManagerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Patrick Görtjes is a Localization Project Manager at Massive Entertainment, the lead development studio behind the Tom Clancy’s The Division games. Patrick holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Communication and got his start in the industry as a translator before moving on to project management. When he’s not working, Patrick enjoys hiking, board games, and karaoke.
Lukasz Hacura
Anshar Studios
Christin Hansson
KingChristin Hansson has been working with quality assurance (QA), project management and agile methods in the mobile industry for 15 years. She is now working hands-on for two game teams at King and is successfully supporting them in their ways of working with QA. Christin is also working together with the localization team at King to improve their testing processes. She has a big passion for both games and quality.
Amanda Hawthorne
Inclusive Language SpecialistElectronic Arts IL
Amanda Jane Hawthorne is an inclusive language specialist with a background as an English teacher, trainer, and materials writer. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the area of diversity, specializing in race and LGBT+ awareness. Currently based in Madrid, Amanda works full time in the tech industry, is the founding director of The Bechdel Film Club Madrid, and volunteers with antiracism organizations. She is also an award winning researcher and recently contributed to the book How To Write Inclusive Materials by Tyson Seburn.
Ulrich Henes
PrincipalLocWorld
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.
Inés Hernández
Electronic ArtsInés Hernández is a veteran game industry professional with over 15 years of experience in video games localization. She is currently managing the localization portfolio and project management teams at Electronic Arts.
Robert Herzog
Head of LocalizationTravian Games
Robert Herzog is the of head of localization and writing at Travian Games, overseeing the strategic direction of both departments. He’s been with the company for 11 years, starting as a localization project manager in 2011. Before that, Robert earned his spurs in other video game companies as localization project manager and translator. He found his way into the gaming and localization industry as freelance translator in 2004.
Celia Hodent
Game UX ConsultantCelia Hodent
Celia Hodent is recognized as a leader in the application of user experience (UX) and cognitive science in the game industry. Celia holds a PhD in psychology and has over ten years of experience in the development of UX strategy and processes in video game studios. Through her work at Ubisoft, LucasArts, and as director of UX at Epic Games (Fortnite), she has contributed to many projects across multiple platforms, from PC to consoles, mobile, and VR. Celia is also the founder of the Game UX Summit, advisor for the GDC UX Summit, member of the Foresight Committee at CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, an independent French administrative regulatory body), author of The Gamer’s Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design and The Psychology of Video Games. She currently works as an independent consultant, helping studios increase the likelihood of their games to be engaging and successful. Celia also provides guidance on the topics of playful learning, ethics, unconscious bias, and inclusion in technology.
Twitter: @CeliaHodent
Blog: celiahodent.com
Bjorn Holste
Localization QA ManagerSQUARE ENIX
Björn Holste is localization QA manager at Square Enix, overseeing, shaping and improving the LQA for many titles and franchises including Tomb Raider, Just Cause and Life is Strange. He has worked in LQA and QA for over a decade and during this time has worked in various roles on many different titles. After a brief stint in Software/Web QA, he joined the great team at Square Enix about 2 years ago.
Echo Huang
Senior Delivery ManagerBeyondsoft Corporation
Ann Hurley
Vice President of Business DevelopmentTestronic
Ann Hurley has worked within the games industry for over 30 years, starting in sales team management within the distribution sector, then moving into publishing. For the past 12 years, she has been working in the quality assurance vendor space. Although steps have been taken to embrace diversity within our industry, Ann feels strongly about the nurturing of young women within games, to ensure they are supported through coaching in order to build their confidence to find their true potential.
Marina Ilari
CEOTerra Localizations
Marina Ilari is an ATA certified translator with 16 years of experience in the localization industry. She has worked as a translator and quality assurance specialist for many companies around the world with a special focus on video game localization. Marina is the chief executive officer of Terra Localizations and co-host of the podcast En Pantuflas. She was a 2020 recipient of the Enterprising Women of the Year award.
Marina Ilinykh
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Marina Ilinykh started her career in localization in 2011. Since then she’s been working in game localization on both the vendor and client sides. Currently Marina is the head of localization at Playrix, overseeing localization of all of the company’s titles, ensuring market-readiness and driving innovation initiatives.
Gina Jackson
Games Consultant/AdvisorGina Jackson is a games industry consultant and advisor. She started in games development in 1992 and has worked for developers, publishers, and distributors covering console, PC, and mobile games. Gina is particularly passionate about diversity, mental health, and skills development. She is treasurer of GamesAid, on the board for NextGen Skills Academy, and a visiting professor in games industry and business at Norwich University of the Arts (NUA). Gina recently received the MCV/DEVELOP Women in Games award for her outstanding contribution, a fellowship from NUA for services to the games industry, and has been honored with an Order of the British Empire for her work in education and diversity in the games industry.
Maryam Jaddoo
Localization ManagerWizards of the Coast
Maryam Jaddoo is the head of localization at Wizards of the Coast. She is responsible for leading critical product development and localization of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons and MTG Arena among others. Maryam has 10 years of localization experience. In her career, she has worked as a translator, game guide writer, game tester and project manager. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French and a master’s degree in project management and is fluent in multiple languages. Maryam is originally from Mauritius and her native language is French.
Paul Jakovlev
Customer Success Team LeadLokalise
Paul Jakovlev is a customer success team lead at Lokalise. He is an avid gamer and living the dream of learning about behind the scenes of game development by helping his favorite industry with localization challenges. In his spare time, Paul likes to binge-watch documentaries on various streaming platforms.
Rafał Jaworski
Linguistic AI ExpertXTM International
Rafał Jaworski, PhD, is an academic lecturer and scientist specializing in natural language processing techniques. His alma mater is Adam University in Poznań, Poland, where he works at the Department of Artificial Intelligence. Rafał’s scientific work concentrates around developing robust AI algorithms for the needs of computer assisted translation. These include automatic lookup of linguistic resources and computer assisted post editing, among others. Apart from the research and teaching, he works as linguistic AI expert at XTM International, leading a team of young and talented developers who put his visions and ideas into practice.
Renée Jessen
CEOCharacter Publishing & Localization
Cofounder and CEO of Character Publishing & Localization since 2010, Renée Jessen initially started working as a dubbing translator in the mid-nineties while studying rhetoric and history of ideas. The challenge of creating spoken language and personality in translations is still the favorite part of his job although business development takes up the majority of his time. Today, Character is both a global localization company focused on games and a publishing house of interactive experiences for children. Renée’s main focus is to balance the use of technologies and the translators’ need for a creative approach to their work.
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli
Head of Translation ServicesTestronic
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli was born in Argentina, has lived in several countries and has always been marked by books, games, languages and having to adapt to different cultures. Choosing to pursue studies in translation led to living in Warsaw. Around 2015, this escalated from working with Testronic’s localization quality assurance team to being involved in the development of Testronic’s translation services. He has managed the translation process for multiple game titles and tries to be involved as a translator or editor when time permits (aside from being constantly engaged with games and other forms of culture).
Alex Johnson
Dubbing Producer
Patricia Jurado
Head of Content and InsightsKing
Patricia is the current Head of Content and Insights, managing a team of content strategists and insights analysts at King Player Support. Previously, she worked at eDreams Odigeo as Head of Content and Localization, managing a team of UX writers, Content Specialists and translations providers responsible for the group websites and apps content in 20 languages. Between 2008 and 2014, Patricia worked at Google as a Language Manager driving quality product localization for Spain and Portugal. Patricia started her professional career in SDL as a translator and project manager. She holds a Master in Internet Business from ISDI and has completed Scrum Master official training. Patricia is the former manager of the Catalan Chapter of Women in Localization.
Your Job Title: Head of Content and Insights
Tomasz Juszczak
Vice President of TechnologyFuero
Tomasz Juszczak is vice president of technology at Fuero Games, where he leads and oversights all projects in the company from the technical side, including technology research and implementing programmers code quality principles. His current focus at Fuero Games is leading of the Artificial Intelligence Testing Framework R&D Project. The AITeF project is being developed as one of the selected projects under a grant from the National Center for Research and Development in Poland. His personal portfolio includes projects for different disciplines, from the medical field, car industry to sales projects in which he worked closely with Samsung and TVN. He has expertise in VR, AR, SaaS, applications, 2D/3D games for mobile, console and PC.
Alex Kang
Chief Operating OfficerBridge Translations
Alex Kisok Kang is the cofounder and chief operating officer of Bridge Translations in Seoul, Korea. He has been in the translation industry for over 15 years, working in various capacities including freelance translator, lecturer and language service provider executive. He has transformed Bridge Translations from a conventional translation company into a dedicated mobile game localization company. Alex previously oversaw all aspects of day-to-day management but with the growth of business, he now focuses on QA and client relations.
Polina Karpova
Vendor ManagerLevsha
For the past 2 ½ years, Polina Karpova has been a vendor manager at Levsha localization studio where she is responsible for seeking and recruiting new vendors as well as guiding and helping them throughout their cooperation with Levsha. Whenever vendors face an issue with payment, workload, information, or production — she is there for them. Polina studied international relations at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (English and Spanish languages) and as a student, she participated in a game localization workshop in 2016.
Dominick Kelly
Client Solution Director - Europe, Middle East and AsiaXTM International
Dominick Kelly fell into the localization industry 16 years ago as a software engineer and decided never to leave. Over time, he has been involved with the localization tool space and worked at some of the largest language service providers in the world. For the past six years, Dominick has worked at XTM International, as a key part of the team focused on driving innovation and growth at the forefront of cloud-based language technology.
Ayesha Khan
Principal Narrative DesignerDeep Silver Dambuster Studios
Ayesha Khan is an unapologetic word nerd, fascinated by the way languages change over time and influence the way their speakers think. Having moved around for most of her life, Ayesha has used her cultural adaptability and comfort with several languages to help her integrate into game development studios in four countries, where she has worked on titles including The Lord of the Rings Online, Gears Tactics, Wizard101, DarkOrbit and APB. Ayesha has been a narrative designer, writer, content designer and everything in between. Her favorite forms of amateur anthropology include sampling local food and drink wherever she can and gleefully inflicting her karaoke skills upon bar patrons around the world.
Vladimir Konoplitsky
CEORIOTLOC
Vladimir is a team lead and head of the localization studio Riotloc. He started as a games translator and editor in 2007 and worked on everything from casual indie games to AAA titles. Vladimir is a specialist in QA and translation tools and is an old fan of the Total War series, but has an affection for RPGs. He is a strong believer in handcrafting the approach and team-like relations between developers and localizers. Apart from inventing new ways of working in his team, he occasionally speaks at game conferences, organizes localization workshops and gamedav events. He failed university exams once because of Fallout 3.
Gábor Kovács
Game Localization ExpertmemoQ
As part of the memoQ gaming unit, Gábor Kovács uses his abilities to combine technical knowledge with sales skills to act as a primary contact for product demos, client needs assessment, and training along with many other duties. Using his well-honed communication skills, he can simplify and communicate complex concepts to a nontechnical audience. Gábor’s IT background also gives him the edge when it comes to technical discussion and finding the right solutions. He has been an avid gamer since childhood.
Denisse Kreeger
Head of Global Localization ProductionRiot Games
Denisse Kreeger is the head of global localization production at Riot Games, and the Los Angeles chapter manager at Women in Localization. With over 15 years of experience in the localization industry, she has also managed localization production at Blizzard Entertainment and Netflix, where she helped build much of the localization infrastructure. Denisse graduated from UCLA and has an MA from the University of Roehampton in audiovisual translation.
LinkedIn: dkreegerl10n
Mathieu Lachance
FQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Mathieu Lachance has worked in the video game industry for over 12 years on more than 400 video game titles. He currently heads Keywords’ Testing services through the Keywords, VMC, Babel and Enzyme studios, leading an international team of over 2500 spanning 15 studios. He has been a featured expert, speaker and lecturer in/at MCV magazine, Develop magazine, Gamasutra, HEC Montreal University, EA’s XDS, Oculus Connect, MIGS, NGDC and more.
Renato Laus
Lead QA CoordinatorRovio Entertainment
Renato Laus is a lead quality assurance (QA) coordinator at Rovio Entertainment. He takes pride in ensuring its games have top-notch quality, and works daily with the QA leads. Renato heads up several cross-unit initiatives engaging with internal stakeholders, and he champions localization in the company as a means to expand the market reach of its games, therefore taking steps to improve the localization processes, interfacing with internal teams and external vendors alike.
LinkedIn: renato-laus-91b506a5
Stephen Laverick
Team Experience DirectorTestronic
Stephen Laverick is the team experience director at Testronic. He is responsible for recruitment, learning and development, and the community of employees. Though he is based in Warsaw, Stephen’s current role covers the UK, Europe and the United States. He has over 20 years of recruitment and learning, and development experience. Stephen has held numerous positions across the UK and Europe at various companies ranging from start-ups to blue chip companies. From a young age he has had a passion for gaming and still plays on a number of devices, so putting his passion for gaming and developing people together is like a dream come true!
Luca Lazari
Audio Technical Operations ManagerKeywords Studios
Luca Lazari works for Keywords Studios as an audio technical operations manager. He worked for music and TV studios after graduating in sound and recording engineering, and science and technology of music communication. Luca joined the game localization industry in 2008 as an audio project lead at Binari Sonori, later acquired by Keywords Studios. After managing the audio technical part for multilanguage localization of countless games (including AAA titles) for over a decade, he moved to Keywords Studios audio localization division, operating at a global level, supervising audio technical processes and workflows.
LinkedIn: lucalazari
Tom Lee
CofounderLOVO
Tom Lee worked in sales at MuleSoft (now a Salesforce company) and digital marketing at LG prior to his time at LOVO. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UC Berkeley.
When Tom is not interacting with users or reading up on the latest trends in AI and voice, he can be found writing poems, drinking beer, training in a boxing gym, scuba diving, or playing FIFA.
LinkedIn: tomsklee
Ville Lehtinen
Senior DeveloperRovio Entertainment
With over a decade of experience working on both mobile/embedded graphics engines and games, Ville Lehtinen has worked with game studios at companies such as Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Rovio. His recently released titles include South Park Phone Destroyer (Ubisoft Redlynx) and Small Town Murders (Rovio).
LinkedIn: ville-lehtinen-99337410
Marie Leininger
Vendor SpecialistElectronic Arts
After graduating from the Cologne University of Applied Science, Marie Leininger started work as a localization project manager for marketing content. In 2017, she moved to Electronic Arts as a vendor specialist and interim multilingual localization specialist. Marie’s main focus is on evaluating and defining translation and post-editing quality, and establishing and maintaining vendor relationships.
Audrey Lepage
Senior Localization Project ManagerBigpoint GmbH
With a degree in modern languages and literature, Audrey Lepage started her career in the games industry in 2010 as a French localization tester for DTP Entertainment, Hamburg. After a year of testing fun, she moved to Bigpoint where she first worked as a French translator, then as a localization project manager (LPM) and then was promoted to senior LPM in 2017. In the constant search for more efficient and streamlined workflows, Bigpoint transitioned to XTM four years ago and has been tailoring the tool to meet their requirements with the support of the XTM team.
Michael Liu
R2GamesMichael Liu is a Chinese-Canadian English localization specialist and quality assurance at Reality Squared Games, with over 20 years of gaming experience especially in MMORPGs, MOBAs and CCGs which require an intimate understanding of game mechanics. Michael loves to play video games on a deep level with self-imposed challenges such as low-level games (beat games at the lowest level possible), naked runs (not wearing any equipment), iron man (permanent death, can only use what you find). He is responsible for highly technical translations that contain heavy gaming jargon or deep understanding of game mechanics. Has extremely accurate and creative translations.
Irina Lokshyna
Development DirectorWargaming
Federica Lusardi
Senior Translator/Editor - ItalianSQUARE ENIX
A passionate gamer since childhood, Federica Lusardi began working in the videogames industry when she moved to London in 2011 to study for an MA in audiovisual translation. After a brief time as a language tester for SEGA and translating her first game for Codemasters as a freelancer, she worked at Pole To Win as an in-house translator and team supervisor. Federica joined Square Enix in 2016, where she currently works as Italian translator/editor. Her work encompasses translation for games and marketing campaigns, and she has translated games such as Life is Strange 2, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the FINAL FANTASY Trading Card Game and Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Sílvio Macedo
Senior Localization DirectorBluelab
Sílvio Macedo has 15 years of experience in game localization and has managed dozens of AAA titles, as well as a vast variety of mobile and online games of all genres for multi-platforms. Sílvio has managed/overseen every step of the localization process, from translation to audio recording and post-production. His hands-on approach gives him a thorough knowledge of the complex localization process involved in each game title. He’s currently the senior localization director at BlueLab, where he’s been working since 2004.
Takako Maeda
Globalization Project ManagerKing
Takako Maeda is a globalization project manager at King, inspired by the Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement, Kaizen. She joined King in 2014 and recently has taken on the challenge of internationalization, working closely with game engine developers to ensure high quality in King games. She loves coming up with creative solutions to problems and working with colleagues from across the organization. She lives in Barcelona and in her free time enjoys making Japanese ceramics.
Sebastian Maeser
LQA Project ManagerKeywords Studios
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual TranslationUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron is a lecturer and a member of the research group TransMedia Catalonia at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is the director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation and has extensive experience as a translator, specializing in software and game localization. Carme’s research interests include game localization, game accessibility, audiovisual translation and accessibility to the media. She has published extensively in international journals, participated in several research projects and is one of the principal investigators of the Researching Audio Description: Translation, Delivery and New Scenarios (RAD), funded by the Spanish Government. Carme is coauthor of Game Localization: Translating for the Global Digital Entertainment Industry (O’Hagan and Mangiron, 2013) and one of the editors of Fun for All: Translation and Accessibility Practices in Video Games (Mangiron, Orero & O’Hagan, 2014).
Anca Marica
EMEA Localization ManagerUbisoft
Anca Marica is a localization professional with over ten years of experience in the video game industry. At Ubisoft, she oversees the localization operations for the EMEA region by keeping in close contact with project managers and handling various transversal topics such as loc quality, process improvement or vendor management to ensure the localized versions of Ubisoft games meet company standards.
She holds a BA in English and Spanish philology, a master’s degree in international studies and an MS in project management.
Teresa Marshall
VP Globalization & LocalizationSalesforce
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 Education. From 2014 to 2016 she was on the board of Women in Localization. Before joining Salesforce in 2009, Teresa managed localization efforts at both Google and PGP in Silicon Valley while teaching at MIIS. An active member of the localization community, she has been the organizer and cohost of the annual Localization Unconference in Silicon Valley since 2009.
Jakub Marszałkowski
GIC & Indie Games Poland FoundationJakub Marszałkowski is the cofounder and a board member of Indie Games Poland, conducting projects that provide the presence of Poland at expos and conferences, travel scholarships, game jams, or visits of foreign delegations in Poland. Jakub regularly serves as a spokesperson for the Polish game industry and the CEE region. He was recognized with the annual award of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as an organizer and promoter working for game developers. As the head of the Game Industry Conference in Poznań, Jakub developed it into one of the largest events in the CEE region. He is also a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Poznan University of Technology.
Nadine Martin
Senior Manager, Test ServicesSony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Nadine Martin has been working in the games industry and quality assurance (QA) for over 15 years. She joined Sony PlayStation’s internal QA team after completing a degree in business administration, starting initially as a localization tester for German and progressing to the management of the localization test team. In 2013 she became senior manager for test services which includes localization and functional testing. The team is responsible for testing game franchises such as Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Horizon and God of War on all PlayStation platforms, including virtual reality and mobile. Nadine has presented extensively on QA and localization topics.
Robert Masella
Senior Gameplay EngineerRare(Microsoft)
Robert Masella is a Senior Software Engineer at Rare with over 14 years of experience working of game development. He has worked on a wide variety of games including Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the Kinect Sports series, and Sea of Thieves. He’s worked on a variety of feature areas, but mostly spends time developing AI, physics and animation code. During production of Sea of Thieves, he has been heavily involved in the automated testing of gameplay code, in order to maintain the build integrity required for a service game.
Philip Mayes
Managing DirectorMighty Kingdom
Philip Mayes is the managing director of Mighty Kingdom, winner of the 2019 Australian Game Developer of the Year Award. With more than 15 years of experience, he has worked on games for many large international brands, including Star Wars, LEGO, and Disney. Founded by Philip in 2010, Mighty Kingdom is one of the largest and most diverse game developers in Australia, with over 120 people working across Australia and New Zealand. He is a passionate advocate for the industry locally, and is eager to see that industry be as inclusive, progressive, and successful as possible.
Twitter: @pjm
Fabio Minazzi
Text Localization DirectorKeywords Studios
Fabio Minazzi has been into localization of interactive media since 1992, dealing with text, audio and video contents at Philips Interctive Media. After founding Binari Sonori, he dealt with software localization projects for Sun, Oracle, Peregrine and Adobe for a decade, using CAT and WISIWIG localization tools, DTP and workflow systems. This experience has proven useful in the roaring game localization industry, where, for the past ten years, Fabio has been in charge of game localization by Codemasters, Microsoft, Capcom, Square Enix and Bandai-Namco. An active member of Games Localization SIG and cofounder of the Games Localization Round Table, he is passionate about building bridges between cultures and helping people publish great content worldwide.
Hugo Miranda
Language SpecialistBlizzard Entertainment
As a language specialist for Latin American Spanish, Hugo Miranda’s main quest is to find what serves players best. From making linguistic creative decisions on style, translation and voiceover to diving deep into the history and culture of the region, he combines a passion for video games, languages and heritage.
Anneta Mitsopoulo
Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Anneta Mitsopoulou has been with Electronic Arts (EA) since 2008. She holds a diploma in translation and is based in Cologne, Germany. Anneta’s current focus lies on workflow optimization and automation. She is also involved in machine translation research at EA and is passionate about technology and automating workflows.
Maciej Miąsik
Pixel CrowMaciej Miąsik is a veteran game developer, producer, designer, sound designer, programmer and cofounder of several gamedev studios that have been active for the past 25 years. Maciej was head of production and responsible for the first part in 2007 of the Witcher series. Other games he has participated in may be known to adventure game players: Reah: Face the Unknown, Schizm: Mysterious Journey, Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon and Sentinel: Descendants in Time, and recently, Beat Cop. One title codeveloped by him is Electro Body (1992), considered one of the first successful Polish PC games. Maciej is also actively engaged in different educational efforts such as curriculum director at Game Dev School and as a regular lecturer at Warsaw Film School and Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology. He is currently working as a member of the board at Movie Games S.A. and on his new game at Pixel Crow.
Valentina Mollica
LQA ManagerTestronic
Nadine Monschau
Senior Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Nadine Monschau is senior localization manager at EA, leading the translation, vendor management, machine translation, and desktop publishing teams. She has a background in translation and started her career at EA and in the video game localization industry in 2001. Currently, Nadine has kicked off an inclusive language initiative to ensure that players can immerse in an inclusive experience when they play EA games. She is also the local chair of EA’s Women’s Ultimate Team Employee Resource Group and passionate to help women (and her teams in general) progress in their careers.
Catherin Newmann Halebian
Localization Manager, OG Production & LATAMBlizzard Entertainment
As a localization manager, Catherin Newmann Halebian’s main objective is to support her teams and pipelines, enabling them to provide the highest level of service. She does this with tools such as neural machine translation, digital asset management and computer-assisted translation. Working with multidisciplinary stakeholders has enabled her to develop expertise in interpretation (simultaneous, consecutive and live streamed subtitles) as well as audiovisual and multimedia localization.
Kassi O’Connor
Outside Services DirectorGlu Mobile
Kassi O’Connor began her career in gaming over 11 years ago working in external development. Since then, she’s worked on over 100 titles, been a producer and has expanded the outsourcing and localization department to 11 studios worldwide. Kassi is currently the outside services director and runs all external services for Glu Mobile, including external development, localization and independent contractors. She enjoys working with external teams and using them in a way that they feel ownership of the game they are working on. Kassi has presented at numerous international and US conferences. She holds a BA in communication and an MBA.
Bazz O'Reilly
LQA Service Delivery ManagerKeywords Studios
Tony O'Dowd
KantanAI Director & Head of Localization TechnologyKeywords Studios
Tony O’Dowd is the founder and chief architect of KantanAI, a cloud-based AI and custom machine translation solutions provider which is a part of Keywords Studios. He is a serial entrepreneur and localization veteran with more than 25 years of experience working in the language industry. Tony has previously held senior positions at Lotus Development Corporation, Symantec Corporation, Corel Corporation Ltd., and Alchemy Software Development, which he founded in 2000. He holds a BS in computer science from Trinity College Dublin, and a fellowship from the Localization Research Institute at the University of Limerick. Today, Tony leads innovations in KantanAI and localization technology at Keywords Studios.
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen
Global Head, PMOKeywords Studios
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen is officially an industry veteran, having spent 20 years in different roles in testing and localization services at Square Enix. He has recently joined Keywords Studios to build cross-service programs, supporting their global development and publishing clients. He remains an active and enthusiastic member of the game localization and testing community.
Ana Paredes
Project ManagerUbisoft
Ana Paredes joined the localization and video game industries by chance after moving to Montreal. During her tenure at Keywords, she worked briefly in testing before moving to translation, in what was, at the time, one of the most secret and expected projects of the company — Starcraft 2. Following that, Ana provided for Brazilian Portuguese content management at Expedia, and subsequently moved into project management at companies such as SDL and Transperfect. Most recently she worked on Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising. Ana’s interests revolve around all things related to diversity, inclusion, skateboarding, and cats. She thinks completing games is overrated, and the last title she saw through was Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime, which doesn’t even have VO!
LinkedIn: ana-gt-paredes
Donna Parrish
PrincipalLocWorld
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 Translators without Borders.
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer
Turn 10 Quality ManagerMicrosoft
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer grew up in what was then rural Bellevue, Washington, and went to Western Washington University before joining Microsoft in 1998. He was in development for six years before joining the centralized test organization. Jimbo has been a quality manager at Microsoft for twelve years and shipped dozens of Xbox and PC games. He had a three and a half year detour as the test manager for HoloLens Experiences and is happy to be back working on games. Jimbo is currently the Turn 10 quality manager and super proud of the just released Forza Horizon.
Vlad Pomarjanschi
QC Localization Team LeadUbisoft
Vlad Pomarjanschi started his career at Ubisoft six years ago, pursuing his all-time passion for videogames. Vlad quickly got involved in localization testing, subsequently joining QC-LOC where he climbed through the ranks, becoming its team lead three years ago. This position offered him the opportunity to engage in numerous and diverse Ubisoft projects, from small-scope titles to AAAs, facing all the challenges and rewards that come with managing localization testing. Vlad considers himself very lucky to be involved in such an impactful, yet dynamic field, with talents from so many different cultures and backgrounds.
Sandra Pourmarin
Localization ConsultantUbisoft
Sandra Pourmarin’s journey in the video game localization industry started 16 years ago with Ubisoft Montreal. Initially Localization Project Manager, she has been localization consultant for ten years now, overseeing Ubisoft NCSA localization and defining Ubisoft worldwide localization strategy with key localization stakeholders. No need to say that localization is one of Sandra’s favorite topics. Very enthusiastic about constant changes in the video game industry, which she sees as an opportunity to challenge oneself and foster out-of-the-box thinking in order to optimize localization processes while always targeting high quality standards.
Chris Priestman
Business Development ManagerZA/UM
Chris Priestman has a keen interest in experimental video games after spending a decade in journalism. He now works at ZA/UM, the studio behind the award-winning, roleplaying game Disco Elysium, where he started as a writer and soon became the producer in charge of localization. Chris is now the business development manager at ZA/UM.
Twitter: @CPriestman
Liz Prince
Business ManagerAmiqus
Liz Prince is the business manager at award-winning recruitment specialist Amiqus. She is also the founder of Putting the G Into Gaming, an initiative to build more diverse and inclusive workplaces in games. Putting the G into Gaming has four focuses: attracting women into games from other industries; supporting women already working in the games sector; working with schools, universities and colleges to promote games as an attractive career option for girls and young women; and helping studios with their equity, diversity, and inclusion journey through the Empower Up program.
Elzbieta Pustul
TestronicElżbieta Pustuł is a quality assurance (QA) manager with over 10 years of experience in areas of localization, end-user support,and QA services for top-tier game publishers around the world. She started her career working for Electronic Arts as a customer support analyst where she has acquired her initial training and widened her skills. Later she worked as a localization and QA specialist for CD-Projekt, the publisher of The Witcher series of games. Her name can be spotted in credits of numerous games, including Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl, The Witcher, Mass Effect, Metro 2033 and Far Cry 5. At the end of a day, Elżbieta is usually pushing the “on” button on her favorite game console in pursuit of another platinum trophy.
Cristina Pérez Cerezo
Keywords StudiosCristina is the linguist team lead in the Barcelona office of the Keywords Studios. She graduated from the University of Granada with a B.A. in Translation and Interpreting. A couple of years later, she decided to specialize and took a master’s in audiovisual translation course at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Thanks to a collaboration program established between the university and Keywords Studios, she had the opportunity to do an internship as a Spanish language specialist at the company’s office in Dublin, where she ended up becoming part of the team.
Catalina Quijano
Localization Project Manager
Michael Radnitz
Senior Producer, LocalizationBlizzard Entertainment
Michael Radnitz is a senior producer with more than 12 years of experience in the games industry. He has shipped more than ten AAA titles (such as Diablo III and Overwatch) globally across various platforms . Planning, documentation and scheduling are words that excite Michael, and he thoroughly enjoys all aspects of production. He was involved in the localization of every Blizzard IP as well as web-based and other non-game content. Over the past five years, Michael’s focus has been on the Diablo and Overwatch franchises, including shipment of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls on console and in China, the release of Overwatch and the set up of the localization pipeline for the Overwatch League. He is currently setting up the localization pipeline for Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal.
Leilani Ramirez
Manager of DialogueSony Interactive Entertainment
Leilani Ramirez is the manager of dialogue for Sony Interactive Entertainment. An island girl from Hawaii, Leilani moved to Los Angeles (LA) and graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a BA in communications and recording arts. After dabbling in the film and TV post-production world, she fell into the interactive realm and started her game audio career at Electronic Arts — Los Angeles in 2003, working on multiple titles as the dialog lead for the Medal of Honor and Command & Conquer series. From there, Leilani jumped into the freelancing world and was the dialogue supervisor for several titles including Uncharted 3, ADR1FT and Fat Princess Adventures before landing at Sony PlayStation where she completed God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and photography, and volunteers at the Children’s Hospital of LA, with her dog, Frodo, who is a member of the dog-therapy team.
Chris Rowley
LQA Head of Division/Operations DirectorKeywords Studios
Chris Rowley, an industry veteran since 2002, spent his first five years in development as a games designer and producer. He moved to Codemasters to become their first quality assurance (QA) manager. Since then he has held various QA, localization management and director roles at publishers SCEE, Eidos, 2K and EA. Chris then moved to the vendor side in 2014 working at Testronic, PTW and now Keywords where he is currently responsible for the LQA service line and FQA operations. Chris has been a regular presenter and panelist on the conference circuit for a number of years.
Dave Ruane
Digital Content and Partnerships ManagerXTM International
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 currently manages digital content and partner strategies at XTM International. Dave 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.
Inés Rubio
Language Services Sr. Global ManagerNI
Inés Rubio is a localization veteran with experience in ecommerce, marketing and 15 years of gaming industry background. Her interest in process improvement centered around technology and outsourcing solutions drove her to research potential machine translation applications to games localization before the Google Neural Machine Translation landmark. Inés currently applies her passion to translation and localization processes at National Instruments, a leader in software defined automated testing and measurements.
Hadrien Rudich
Localization Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Hadrien Rudich is a localization project manager at Blizzard Entertainment. He started his localization journey at Blizzard eight years ago as French LQA analyst working on titles such as Diablo 3, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone. He moved on to new responsibilities after a few years as a project manager specialized in outsourcing solutions. In his current role Hadrien has been involved in numerous game releases and in 2018 he began working in a more central position on Overwatch, where his extensive knowledge and love for the game, both as an avid player and professional, are put to good use.
Isabell Rudolph
Localization Project CoordinatorGoodgame Studios
Isabell Rudolph has a BA in technical communication and an MS in software localization. She joined the localization department at Goodgame Studios in 2014, gaining experience in working with free-to-play games for mobile and web, delivering high-quality translations, optimizing workflows and continuously improving localization processes and quality.
Loreto Sanz Fueyo
Senior Director of LocalizationPTW
Loreto Sanz Fueyo, senior director of localization at PTW, graduated from King’s College in London, England, where she received her master’s degree in computational linguistics and formal grammar. She began her professional career as a games tester and translator, developing her localization knowledge and skills for over 13 years before becoming PTW’s director of translation in 2019. Loreto’s passion for communication and clear messaging has made her an invaluable part of PTW’s staff, where she provides guidance to all levels of the organization. Her latest obsession is building a house in Spain and when she’s not busy localizing, she can be found pouring over floor plans and interior design magazines!
António Saraiva
Managing PartnerGojira
António Saraiva is founder and managing partner at Gojira, a media production company that develops video games, apps and conversational characters (intelligent avatars). He taught game design and video game related subjects at Universidade Lusófona, IPA and Restart (Lisbon). Before Gojira, he was producer and game designer at Biodroid Productions and also IP Hunter and licensing manager for Biodroid Entertainment. António has worked in a multitude of media formats ranging from press to television to multimedia off and online. Starting out as a television producer and director in the late 80’s, he founded his own company, Latina-Europa, and authored many children’s, pop music and youth culture TV series. In Portugal he was a pioneer in writing on the internet’s social and creative issues, namely in Blitz, to which he still contributes.
Konstantin Savenkov
CEOIntento
After receiving a PhD in 2008, Konstantin Savenkov led research and development efforts for online content services then worked as CTO at Zvooq and as a chief operating officer at Bookmate. In 2016, he contributed his experience in artificial intelligence (AI), tech and operations to cofound Intento, Inc., where they build tools to source, evaluate and use machine translation (MT) and other cognitive AI services. Intento regularly publishes independent MT evaluation studies and aims to be a reference point for utilizing MT to solve particular business problems.
Tobias Scherf
Solution ArchitectMemsource
Tobias Scherf is a solution architect at Memsource. He draws on his 20 years of experience in the localization industry working with enterprise clients to develop innovative solutions, maximizing the value and adoption of Memsource’s machine translation and AI-based features. Prior to Memsource, Tobias worked in various roles from localization quality assurance in localization engineering to executive management on the language service provider side. He is experienced in running enterprise localization programs including language quality programs and quality analytics. Tobias has been instrumental in the design and development of proprietary solutions to effectively measure and improve translation quality.
David Schumacher
Manager, Test Services - PlayStation Studios QASony Interactive Entertainment
David Schumacher has worked in the industry for over 17 years, 12 of which have been in quality assurance. Starting his career at Sony Internal QA, David rejoined Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2020 after working alongside clients such as the BBC, Fox, and Rebellion as a producer and lead designer. He is a manager in test services, the group that coordinates functional and localization testing for franchises such as Gran Turismo, Horizon, God of War and Dreams across all PlayStation platforms, and recently including PC and mobile.
Miguel Sepúlveda
Global Localization ManagerKing
Miguel Sepúlveda started his journey in the exciting localization world in 1995. He worked as a quality assurance (QA) specialist for Microsoft for a few projects such as Microsoft Project, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. Early in his career, Miguel worked on the vendor side, mainly working for Lionbridge as localization QA manager for different clients. In 2007 he had the opportunity to enter the gaming industry thanks to Electronic Arts where he was responsible for setting up the technical team to provide automated localization QA services to games such as FIFA, Harry Potter or Need for Speed among others. Then Miguel moved the buyer side giving him the opportunity to complete his vision of how the localization industry worked from both sides. In 2014 he joined the King Candy Crush world where his role is to lead the globalization efforts of a very talented team.
Vanessa Shallcross
Head of LocalizationSEGA Europe
Having been in the games industry since 1996, Vanessa Shallcross is an experienced manager of computer game localization on a global basis. In her early years, she worked for Psygnosis, then moved to Sony Computer Entertainment and more recently Bigpoint GmbH based in Hamburg. Since November 2020 Vanessa was honored to be appointed as the Head of Localisation for Sega Europe overseeing all Localisation, Audio, LQA, and Engineering, part of the wider Operations Team, located in Brentford HQ. Her current focus is on getting to know her team and all the stakeholders across the Sega business, as well as planning the strategic direction of the Localisation Department.
Shwetank Sharma
CEOLocNapps Media
Shwetank Sharma is a seasoned management professional with experience across game localization business consulting, business development and localization project management. In his past professional pursuits, international experience in client relationship and project management for localization services stand out. Shwetank founded Locnapps Media in 2014 which has been instrumental in servicing videogame developers/publishers and language service providers for South East Asian, Middle Eastern and Indian Languages.
Kseniya Shorokhova
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Kseniya Shorokhova has an educational background in linguistics but she got into the language industry just five years ago when she found herself working as a Russian-English translator at Playrix. At that time, their localization team consisted of only three people. Kseniya has grown together with the team and the company, gradually making her way to team lead and ultimately becoming the head of localization. She now oversees more than 40 people and is responsible for Playrix’s localization strategy.
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck
Senior Manager, VO ProductionRiot Games
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck is senior manager of voiceover production at Riot Games, leading the team that produces the voiceover for League of Legends, Wild Rift, VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, and Riot Forge’s upcoming titles. Prior to Riot, she was at the helm of Side LA, where her team worked on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, Riot Games’ Legends of Runeterra, Epic Games’ Fortnite: Save the World, Splash Damage’s Gears: Tactics, and Dontnod Entertainment’s Tell Me Why, among hundreds of other titles. At the start of her career, Jacquie spent a decade with Sony PlayStation, coordinating dialog for projects from Socom 3 to God of War 3. She then went on to manage talent and casting for the Worldwide Studios product development services group, including titles such as The Order: 1886, Spiderman, and 2018’s God of War. Jacquie and her husband live with their cat, Bruce, in Los Angeles, California.
IMDb: Jacquie Shriver
Yumi Okubo-Shuman
Localization Engineering ManagerBig Fish
Yumi Shuman is a localization engineering manager in the International team at Big Fish. She is passionate about the integration of language and modern technologies with game products. Her current focus is driving cloud-based CAT technology with the mix of machine translation and TM program strategy. This is a key component in widening content availability for game and marketing localization. When she’s not working, Yumi enjoys playing with her 5-year-old twins.
Harald Simon
Localization DirectorBethesda
Harald Simon is localization director at Bethesda. He has been in the localization industry since the early 1990s, both on the vendor and the client side. In the video games industry he has held senior positions with Virgin Interactive and Electronic Arts, before joining Bethesda in 2011.
Kaushal Singh
QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Kirill Soloviev
CEO & Co-FounderContentQuo
Kirill Soloviev is the CEO and co-founder at ContentQuo, an Estonian translation technology company that helps global LSPs, enterprise localization teams and government agencies reduce their linguistic quality risk, improve vendor performance and boost machine translation quality at scale with a data-driven approach. During his 18 years in the industry, Kirill has served in diverse buyer-side and vendor-side roles, most recently as global director of localization at Acronis. Kirill has also co-organized the Localization Unconference in Tallinn and regularly mentors both new and seasoned localization professionals.
Kirill Soloviev
ContentQuoKirill Soloviev is the cofounder and head of product at ContentQuo, an Estonian tech startup helping localization teams and language service providers manage and reduce localization quality risk at any scale, with any translation management system. With 15 years of experience in localization across diverse buyer and vendor roles, Kirill served most recently as global director of localization at Acronis, a category-leading software product company, where his team was responsible for both linguistic quality assurance (QA) and software QA. Kirill also organizes the Localization unconference in Tallinn and collaborates with TAUS.
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference ManagerGame Global
Francesca has been in the video game localization industry since 2010, covering various roles: from marketing intern and translator for online games at Wooga and Bigpoint, to Senior Multilingual Localization Specialist at Electronic Arts managing large, multilingual titles, to Program Manager for the Games department at Alpha CRC.
Having experienced both the client and the service provider side of the industry, Francesca recently decided to become a freelance translator and consultant and is currently working as Conference Manager for Game Global and video game localization instructor for the Localization Institute.
Mike Souto
Business Development DirectorGridly
Mike Souto has over 20 years of experience in game and app development and localization. He’s a producer of AAA titles, including the Commandos series, TimeSplitters 2, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and many more. With experience of internal and external development teams, Mike’s been involved in game development at various touchpoints in the process.
LinkedIn: michael-souto-287a131
Niall Spooner-Harvey
Account ManagerGlyph Language Services
Niall Spooner-Harvey has over seven years of experience in the localization industry. He is very happy to be back at Glyph after three years away, most recently working as a project manager in the consumer robotics sector. A classics graduate from the UK, Niall is as passionate about gaming as he is about languages, both living and dead. When not talking at great length about the differences between British and American English or being a two-time Pun Slam champion, he can be found playing Cricket Captain 2020 and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Karen Stevens
Sports Accessibility LeadElectronic Arts
Karen Stevens is the Electronic Arts (EA) sports accessibility lead. She strives to improve the user experience for those with interactive differences. Stevens has been in the game industry for over 13 years and has first-hand experience of what it’s like living with disabilities. She has spoken at several conferences on the topic, and has been featured in magazines, television programs and radio shows.
Nate Stoddard
QA Discipline PrincipalEpic Games
Nate Stoddard has been working in quality assurance (QA), testing, hardware development and game development for more than 12 years. In that time, he has worked on over 34 titles, on almost as many platforms. Nate recently moved from Boston to North Carolina to work at Epic Games and is now a senior QA lead on Fortnite.
Leticia Sáenz Murga
Keywords StudiosCurrently, the localization lead at Keywords Studios Barcelona, Leticia Sáenz Murga manages a team of project managers, coordinators, and linguists specializing in the challenges of localizing market leading games. Leticia has over 11 years of experience in video games localization in different roles, from translator to senior project manager, giving her insight of the whole development and localization process as well as in-depth knowledge of game development and design.
Blanca Sánchez Joplin
Game WriterSocialpoint
Blanca Joplin has been working for over five years as a game writer at Socialpoint, one of Spain’s most vibrant game developers. During this time, she has worked on some very successful titles, including Monster Legends (her main focus and love of her life), Dragon City, World Chef and Word Life. Blanca’s background is in translation, having spent two years as a freelance translator and subtitler prior to arriving at Socialpoint, which has been her home ever since.
Andrea Tabacchi
VP Customer SuccessMemsource
Andrea Tabacchi is the vice president of customer success at Memsource where he utilizes his extensive experience in building customer-centric language technology solutions for multinational corporations and global translation companies. He and his team work with clients to develop solutions to address their translation technology needs, including innovative ways to optimize the Memsource platform, and liaise between clients and internal teams to suggest tool improvements. Prior to Memsource, Andrea spent over ten years on the language service provider side where he served in several roles in language technology, from localization engineering to technology director.
LinkedIn: andreatabacchi
Tülay Tetiker McNally
Director, Inclusive Design & Product DevelopmentElectronic Arts
Tülay Tetiker McNally is director, inclusive design and product development at Electronic Arts, and is responsible for establishing EA Studio’s global approach to creating inclusive products and features that put players first, partnering with EA development teams worldwide. Beginning her career in the video games industry more than 15 years ago at SEGA and Square Enix, she later joined Electronic Arts to head up central development operations at BioWare Edmonton. More recently Tülay was a senior development director at DICE Stockholm. Tülay is originally from Turkey and was raised in Munich, Germany. She has had the opportunity to live and work in countries across Europe and North America. An experienced public speaker and mentor of students and young professionals, she connects with gamers to listen to what makes them feel excluded or marginalized. For the future Tülay wants players to engage with games in safe, fun, and positive ways regardless of who they are or where they are from, to bring inclusive design and thinking to the core of game design. Tülay holds an MA in American studies, with specializations in the history of immigration and civil rights movement, and a BA in psychology from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 2020 she was selected as an inaugural member of TGA’s Future Class.
Mette Tingey
DirectorAlpha CRC
Mette Tingey is the director of Alpha Games, responsible for the revenue, accounts and commercial side of all games business within Alpha. Alpha is a mature LSP with 30+ years of experience providing end-to-end localization solutions to games developers and publishers across the globe.
Tamara Tirjak
Senior Localization ManagerFrontier Developments
Tamara Tirjak is the senior localization manager of Frontier Developments, a self-publishing video game developer based in Cambridge, UK. She is responsible for coordinating all localization-related activities across the organization, focusing on establishing reproducible, automated processes in order to streamline translation efforts and support the company’s international presence. Tamara’s previous experience includes working as an in-house linguist, project manager, translation tool support engineer, and technical trainer for various leading language service providers. She is a certified memoQ trainer, a qualified English-Hungarian translator and interpreter, and holds an MS degree in technology management.
Demid Tishin
All Correct GroupDemid Tishin is a game designer, entrepreneur and mentor. In 2006, he founded Allcorrect Group, a language services business and won a good name with customers such as EA, Ubisoft, Bandai Namco and Gaijin. He also founded Translation Forum Russia, a major convention for the translation industry, and helped to develop ISO 11669, the first ISO standard on translation services. Since 2016, Demid has been the full-time CEO of Funbakers, a game development studio.
To Be Announced
Sony Interactive Entertainment
George Tong
Senior DirectorBeyondsoft Corporation
George Tong has nearly 19 years of IT and business management experience in the product globalization industry. Since 2016, George has worked in the US as senior engineering director, using his globalization industry knowledge, leading Beyondsoft’s onshore/offshore team to globalize clients’ products portfolios. Prior to that, in Nov 2005, George was the general manager and chief technical lead of Product G11N Services Business Unit at Beyondsoft, overseeing project management, technology innovation, personnel management, and business operations.
Charles Ulbig
LT LeadElectronic Arts
Charles Ulbig’s first role in 2002 at Electronic Arts was as QA tester for Football Manager in Cologne, Germany. One day the localization supervisor asked if he was interested in traveling around the world for free — well, almost free. Back in the day, localization testers were sent directly to the development studios to test the games and Charles’ first project abroad was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in Chertsey, UK. For him, it was an incredible experience to work on the same game with so many different people from around Europe. What motivates Charles, besides working with games, is the creativity behind the process of localization. Nothing is more gratifying to him than finding solutions to localization problems and seeing them later in-game. In 2007, Charles moved with EA to Madrid, Spain, took the position of senior tester and then became the localization testing team lead for German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. He is responsible for three permanent linguistic experts and up to 50 temporary employees during peak times.
Ulises Uno
Content & Localization ManagerEtermax
Ulises Uno is content and localization manager at etermax, leading a strategic area for the company’s gaming division which is focused on developing and publishing worldwide social games that entertain, connect and foster knowledge in up to 34 languages. With an educational background in social sciences and translation, he joined the gaming industry as a translator and copywriter. Ulises currently leads a team of language specialists, user experience writers and content producers, guiding them toward a product-centric mindset.
Jeferson Valadares
CEODoppio Games
Jeferson Valadares is CEO and cofounder of Doppio Games, a voice-first game studio based in Lisbon, Portugal. He was also the lead designer on the studio’s debut title The Vortex, available for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. He is also a member of the board of directors at Rovio. In past lives he was VP/GM of Mobile at Bandai Namco; Studio GM at Electronic Arts and Executive Producer at BioWare in San Francisco; Studio Director at Playfish and Creative Director at EA Mobile in London; and Game Development Director at Digital Chocolate’s Sumea studio in Helsinki.
Andrew Vestal
Senior Localization Program ManagerAmazon Game Studios
Andrew Vestal got his start in games localization in 2004, turning Japanese RPGs into English at Tokyo’s 8-4, Ltd. He moved back to the United States in 2006 to work at Blizzard Entertainment, where he oversaw the localization of the first two World of Warcraft expansions, Diablo III, and Battle.net. In 2013, he took a brief break from games to join Microsoft to focus on localization tooling and pipeline design. At Amazon Game Studios since 2017, Andrew currently oversees translation and translation testing of all first-party AGS titles, Twitch Prime, and Lumberyard. He loves retro games and has accidentally started a collection of CRT monitors in his garage.
Brandon Victor
Keywords Studios
Janet Weddle
Technical QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Janet Weddle is a technical QA manager with 15 years of experience in game development, project management, test management and automation. She started her career as a game developer at KnowWonder, Inc. which became Amaze Entertainment. Janet’s development experience there and her later roles in test management and project management led to her strong appreciation of great tools. Throughout her career she saw the benefit of tools and automation in test, development, art and management. Success in these areas led to Janet current position as a technical QA manager and an automation advocate.
Ben Wibberley
Managing PartnerDAQA
Ben Wibberley has over 20 years of experience in the video game industry, specializing in executive strategy, global production support, external development, international production and live operations. Having signed, grown and managed $100M’s of multi-service deals, he has an intimate knowledge of industry best practices, working with some of the most well-known companies in the business. Ben founded DAQA as an independent, new generation video games support agency. DAQA provides strategic consultancy, evaluation and implementation of operations for AAA studios, alongside representation of unique, disruptive, technology-based service companies.
Matt Wilson
Global Head of Format QASony Interactive Entertainment
Matt Wilson is a leader in the software and hardware industry with over 20 years of specialist quality assurance (QA) and testing experience. He is currently the global head of format QA within Sony Interactive Entertainment which handles all compliance for PlayStation globally. Matt has experience leading and building a large (250+) co-located team that deals with 30,000+ products globally annually, each with very short service-level agreements. He recently transitioned four separate regional QA teams to a single co-located global QA team. Matt lives in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Hayato Wada Wong
Cofounder & Localization Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Hayato Wada Wong is a ten-year video game and localization industry veteran, trilingual in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Having shipped titles and work experience in AAA game titles with Sega, as well as working in the outsourcing/gaming-as-a-service industry at Pole to Win and Streamline Studios, Hayato is versed in game production, quality assurance (QA) and localization. Currently, he is a localization manager and cofounder for Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group, a business division involved in rejuvenating the post development process of localization, culturalization marketing, QA, and compliance testing into something fit for the modern times. Hayato hopes to make game development as enjoyable as playing games.
LinkedIn: hayato-wada-wong-b909537
Christine Xaysakda
International Account ManagerLBS Suite
At LBS Suite, Christine Xaysakda is responsible for developing international business, participating in company strategies, and (what she loves the most) advising language service providers on the optimization of clients’ internal processes through technologies. She is passionate about technology, languages, and cultures. Christine loves brainstorming: talking about new business, projects, and ideas. Perhaps you can try speak with her in Mandarin, Cantonese, English or French.
Jingyu Zhang
King
Vladimir Zhdanov
Vladimir has been in game localization since 2010. He started as an undergraduate Mandarin-to-Russian translator. He graduated in 2012 with a thesis on Chinese MMORPG translations, and gradually improved his skills until he ended up managing a team of in-house translators for a Chinese mobile gaming company in Beijing in 2015. He lives a life of a passionate localizator: in his spare time he localizes the webcomics series Zen Pencils, and in early 2017 he and his wife volunteered to localize the Indian comic book Menstrupedia into Russian.
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk
QA DirectorQLOC
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk graduated in Japanese studies and public relations but as soon as he started his adventure with functional and compliance testing in 2010, he knew there was no going back. After moving to Madrid, he gathered professional experience in localization quality assurance (QA) while working for Electronic Arts on IPs like Battlefield, FIFA, Sims and Need for Speed. He continued his career at QLOC as a team leader and project manager (PM). As a PM Sergiusz oversaw projects for external clients and the QA process for in-house porting projects, including titles like Resident Evil 6, DmC: Devil May Cry, Ultra Street Fighter IV and more. As a QA director since 2014, he manages QLOC’s QA department that employs over 170 specialists, supervises the work of managers and leads, and is responsible for the coordination of all department activities.
Game Global
Game GlobalNick Adams
Director of Transgender RepresentationGLAAD
Nick Adams is the director of transgender representation at GLAAD. He is a resource for media content creators who are telling stories about transgender people. Nick has consulted on hundreds of films and TV shows to help them create authentic transgender characters and stories. He has also worked with Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, DONTNOD, and other gaming companies to create trans-inclusive video games. Nick joined GLAAD in 1998, and transitioned himself at that time.
Belén Agulló García
FounderAccessibility Warriors
Belén Agulló García holds a BA in translation and interpreting studies, an MA in audiovisual translation, and a PhD in multimedia accessibility. The topic of her dissertation was accessible subtitles for virtual reality and that was the beginning of her journey as an accessibility advocate. Previously, Belén worked for more than five years in the game localization industry, holding different leadership positions. She combined her years in this industry with her true calling, training others. Currently, Belén is the VP of learning and lead media researcher at Nimdzi Insights and the founder of Accessibility Warriors.
Pedro Alfageme
Audio Artist ManagerElectronic Arts
Pedro Alfageme is audio artist manager at Electronic Arts. He is responsible for the technical quality of the localized dialogue and the continuous improvement of processes and tools. Pedro leads a team that delivers over a million dialogue files across 11 languages with high-quality standards every year. He has been working in the video game industry since 2004. His experience goes from voiceover recording, editing, and post processing to product owner of EA’s content management system for localization. Pedro is currently involved in voice technologies research and development as a localization stakeholder.
Marie Amigues
CEOAltagram
Marie Amigues is the CEO and founder of Altagram. After living in Paris, Ottawa and New York, she settled in Berlin in 2006. Following her studies in philosophy at La Sorbonne, Marie obtained an MBA in marketing management at Essec. In 2017, she was selected as one of the Top 10 Women in Management in Germany’s gaming industry. Passion, hard work and expertise are the driving forces behind Marie’s accomplishments. She has brought together a team of over 150 talented in-house game localization specialists who have successfully shipped over 5,000 game titles since 2006 for prestigious clients such as Square Enix, Supercell, Blizzard and SEGA, just to name a few.
Cristina Anselmi
Machine Translation LeadElectronic Arts
Cristina Anselmi is machine translation lead at Electronic Arts (EA). She takes care of everything related to machine translation (MT) implementation and maintenance within EA localization, leads a team of MT specialists, and coordinates several developments around MT. Cristina has been in the video game localization industry since 2012, managing all kinds of multilingual projects, from small mobile games to big MMORPGs, and several AAA titles. Her focus for the past four years has been implementing MT and AI technologies to automate workflows within EA localization. Cristina’s goal is to pave the way for this to be welcome in daily life and to be seen as a help rather than an enemy, a powerful tool that can enhance productivity, without jeopardizing quality and creativity.
Estelle Bailly
Localization DirectorHi Rez Studios
With over 20 years of experience in the video game localization industry, Estelle Bailly is an expert in the globalization and internationalization of creative content. She started her career in France, where she learned about the various aspects of the localization pipeline through multiple experiences which lead her to become head of localization at one of the largest video game localization agencies in Paris. In 2016, Estelle joined Hi-Rez Studios, a games-as-a-service studio, as localization director. Since then, her core focus has been to help the company to better engage and serve their international audience, offering them higher quality and enhanced support in various languages. Estelle is currently based in the UK, leading a multicultural team that translates three live games in more than eight languages.
Andrea Ballista
CEOVoiseed
Andrea Ballista has been working in the game industry for more than 25 years. Starting from his passion of music, songwriting, and singing, he holds a degree in computer music. Since cofounding Binari Sonori in 1994, Andrea has been the audio director for Keywords Studios from 2015 until the end of 2019. In 2020 he cofounded Voiseed to proceed into research and development of deep learning-based emotional virtual voices.
LinkedIn: andrea-ballista-4617912
Gérard Barnaud
Localization Project ManagerUbisoft
An industry veteran with 17 years of experience in the gaming industry, Gérard Barnaud started as a localization tester in Ireland in 2001 where he worked for Vivendi. He then moved to Atari headquarters in Lyon, France, where he started as a localization project manager on Neverwinter Nights and evolved to a position of producer for The Witcher (original). He then moved to UBISOFT Montreal and back into localization for Far Cry 2 and Brothers in Arms 3, and ended up in the south of France at the Montpellier studio. Barnaud has worked on various titles ranging from licensed games to large role playing games and intellectual properties for all audiences, and is still passionate about his work.
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz
Senior Localization DirectorElectronic Arts
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz is the senior localization director at EA, heading up all worldwide localization functions including translation, recordings, vendor management, testing and engineering for the video game developer and publisher. Originally a translator by education, she looks back at 15 years of experience in the game localization industry. Her current focus is on shaping the strategic direction of localization in the company’s shift to online service models.
Thomas Barth
Global LQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Thomas Barth (Tommy) has been working in games services for over 12 years and, like many young aspiring professionals, he started in the field of quality assurance (QA) to get a foot in the door of the industry. Since then, he leveled up from German QA tester to test lead, to project manager, to localization quality assurance (LQA) manager and most recently to LQA director at the global games services provider Keywords Studios. Throughout his career, Tommy had the chance to work with brilliant client partners from all sectors of the industry (developers, publishers and hardware manufacturers), provide and supervise testing for games of all genres and sizes, and on all platforms (from consoles to mobile, to the latest and greatest in virtual and augmented reality). He is passionate about the industry and believes that we are better together. Tommy also has a deep love for games and interactive entertainment and feels that all gamers around the world should have the same amazing and immersive experience, no matter which language they speak and play games in. Helping people succeed gives him energy and is one of his key drives as a professional.
Micaela Belluzzo
Global Resource ManagerKeywords Studios
Micaela Belluzzo is the global resource manager at Keywords Studios, focusing on project resourcing and quality control. A translator and interpreter by education, Micaela started her translation career localizing software and media content in 1998. She then joined SDL in Maidenhead as a localization project manager and in 2000 she moved to Milan to manage the EA Italy localization office. From 2003 Micaela contributed to the building of the EA integration hub in Madrid where she worked as head of localization production-integration until 2007. After a two-year break working for international cooperation in Africa and the Middle East, she joined Keywords with a focus on audio localization production and has been working on resource management for the past six years.
Teddy Bengtsson
Founder/DirectorRoundTable Studio
Teddy grew up in Sweden where he studied languages. Although his early professional career diverged into skiing, fashion and the restaurant trade, he eventually came back to languages through localization and a global journey including five home countries. Having held senior localization roles with major IT players Microsoft and Oracle, a crazy idea led him to start an LSP business in Argentina in 2003. RoundTable Studio quickly grew into a regional leader with production centers in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Porto Alegre (Brazil), and a business management unit in Spain where game localization has become one of its key vertical markets.
Mario Bergantiños
Director, Localization Analytics & Video-AudioElectronic Arts
Mario Bergantiños started his journey studying broadcasting, 3D and audio production. After working as a freelancer for several companies he started working at EA and now he has more than 16 years of experience in building high performing teams from audio and video disciplines to data analytics. As a member of EA’s Localization and Madrid leadership teams, Mario is co-responsible for the innovation and strategy of the localization business as well as managing the Audio Artist, Audio Capture, Video Loc and Data Analytics teams.
Mario Bergantiños
Senior Manager- Audio & Video LocalizationElectronic Arts
Priscilla Bermea
Cargo Localization Operations and Partner LeadRiot Games
Priscilla Bermea is the localization operations lead for Latin America at Riot Games. She is Mexican and a professional with over 10 years of experience in the gaming localization industry. Priscilla has been a fierce gamer since she can remember, and has dedicated herself to translating and interpreting videogames for friends and family. After working as a freelance translator and specialized project manager, she turned her favorite hobby into a career, becoming part of the Latin-American Riot Games team in 2016.
Miguel Bernal-Merino
LecturerUniversity of Roehampton
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
Brigitte Berner
Loc Vendor Management SupervisorElectronic Arts
Brigitte Berner is vendor management supervisor at Electronic Arts, leading a small team of vendor specialists. After being with the company for 15 years, building and shaping the vendor management function, including vendor recruitment and quality evaluation processes, her current focus is on automation, leveraging data and exploring usage of AI. Being solution driven, Brigitte is passionate about improving processes and questioning the status quo.
Chris Bewick
Regional FQA Director - EurasiaKeywords Studios
Brian Bies
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy
Managing PartnerLevsha
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy started his journey in video game localization as a freelance translator in 2005. In 2009, he became one of the founders of Levsha localization and has been a managing partner at the studio since then. Despite having a degree in computational linguistics, Fedor’s passion has always been finding new ways to facilitate efficient and joyful interaction and collaboration between different people.
Jonathan Bowring
RiversightJonathan Bowring graduated in computer science and worked for the UK Ministry of Defence and Hewlett-Packard before joining Canon. As Canon’s EMEA localization director, he built an independent services division with its own profit and loss of £15M. Jonathan trained as a mentor and coach and founded Riversight in 2016. The company intends to unlock the potential within leaders, teams and organizations, and provides coaching and facilitation to SME and corporate clients.
Virginia Boyero
Associate ProducerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Virginia Boyero is a history graduate who started a career in games localization in 2006, following a passion for working with languages and quickly getting hooked on the fast-paced tempo of the industry. She joined Massive Entertainment in 2010, and after the release of Far Cry 3 moved on to The Division team where she’s been an Associate Producer for the audio, localization and narrative departments for The Division and The Division 2. Outside of work, Virginia is often found reading travel literature, preferably while on a train.
Gaëlle Caballero
Director of Localization QATestronic
Gaëlle Caballero is a global head of localization quality assurance (LQA) with years of experience in video game QA and localization. A former lawyer, she started her career as a French LQA tester in London and developed her localization skillset working on multiple titles and platforms as a technician, lead, and project manager. Gaëlle successfully developed and delivered Testronic’s Warsaw-based LQA department and is responsible for its continued success. She is recognized for her extensive experience in team management, development, and swift delivery. A great motivator and team builder, she creates confidence and excitement across multiple Testronic global LQA facilities. An advocate for women in games, Gaëlle is involved in Testronic’s initiative aiming to mentor and promote the role of Women in the Games industry. She is also chairman of Testronic’s learning and development committee.
Gordon Campbell
Chief Executive OfficerGo Testify
Gordon Campbell is an experienced entrepreneur, having launched multiple companies in the design and gaming sectors since 2007. Over the last 13 years, Gordon has assisted companies like BBC, HBO and Zynga to produce high-quality entertainment that people want to invest time in. With a masters in human-centered design, he focuses on creating user-centric products using state-of-the-art technology.
Today, Gordon is the CEO of Testify, a company that is uses AI to transform how user testing is conducted within game development; putting players at the heart of every decision. In his current role, Gordon has worked alongside indies to top-50 mobile game studios such as Zynga to ensure they’re using the right testing methods to deliver impact and value within the development cycle.
Eric Say Chan
Program ManagerKeywords Studios
Born in Mexico City and later relocated to Canada, Eric Chan is a program manager with seven years of experience in video game quality assurance (QA). Initially a web developer, he made the jump to video games in 2011 within localization and functionality QA as a tester, test lead and later project manager. Knowledgeable in FQA, LQA, localization and audio, Eric has focused his efforts for the past two years within Keywords’ FQA department. He has since been focusing on project delivery, promoting growth and career paths for staff, and deploying improvements to internal processes.
Anastasiia Chertenkova
Marketing Creatives Team LeadPlayrix
Anastasiia Chertenkova’s path to the game development industry was rather unusual. She started her career as an officer of the police force of Ukraine/inspector of the Ukrainian Bureau of Interpol, senior officer of the criminal investigation sector, and taught administrative law and administrative procedure law in one of the state universities. Then she worked as a freelance translator for a couple of years. She joined the game development industry in 2016, starting as a customer support representative for Playrix. Since then, Anastasiia has held the positions of customer support team lead, community manager and player experience department manager. She is currently marketing creatives team lead.
Glory Choe
Program Manager, R&D LocalizationSalesforce
Before her recent move to Salesforce, Glory started her localization career as a linguist, followed by stints as LQA engineer at Linkedin and L10n producer at Zynga. In 2015, she joined an esports game studio, Super Evil Megacorp, as a Localization Manager, which was truly a dream come true for a lifelong gamer such as herself. Fascinated by different languages and cultures around the world ever since she was little, Glory studied languages and linguistics at the University of Washington in Seattle and has traveled to over 20 countries and three of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Cristian Conteduca
General ManagerYokozuna Data
Cristian Conteduca is general manager of Yokozuna Data. He has a background in scientific computing and physical modeling. Over the past few years, Cristian has developed and implemented AI/ML algorithms applied to video games and high-throughput cloud architectures. His goal is to merge AI and software engineering in a profitable and efficient way in real-life applications.
Daniele Corrado
Customer Support Engineer5th Kind
Daniele had been a consumer of the gaming industry since, well, forever. In 2010 he moved to the other side of the barricades. He began his career as a localization tester for a heterogeneous bunch of titles and platforms. While at Riot Games, Daniele worked in various capacities on every product that was released. His swansong was the global coordination for VALORANT as the Localization Producer for the title. He is currently helping DESTINYbit in developing their next title and he is working as Technical Support Engineer for 5th Kind.
Jamie Cox
Global Content Localization ProducerBlizzard Entertainment
Jamie Cox is a global content localization producer at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard is his first experience in the video game industry, but he’s been in the localization industry for over seven years, first at Gengo, then Welocalize, and then United Language Group. Over the years, Jamie has developed expertise in fast-paced environments, creating useful workflows and problem solving bottlenecks. In his spare time, he enjoys reading (currently the Wheel of Time series), playing way too much Overwatch, and he also plays the harp.
Diego Cresceri
CEO and FounderCreative Words
Diego Cresceri is CEO and founder of Creative Words, a language service provider based in Genoa. At Creative Words he is responsible for the company’s strategy and growth. His clients include multilingual translation agencies, Italian companies aiming to internationalize, and foreign companies aiming to enter the Italian market. Diego graduated from the University of Genoa in translation and interpreting and before founding Creative Words he was a translator, project manager and chief operations officer at a local translation agency. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the European Language Industry Association (ELIA). When not involved in his company, Diego holds workshops and seminars on innovation, artificial intelligence, and machine translation at universities, training schools, and language associations nationally and internationally.
Simone Crosignani
PR ManagerJinglebell Localization
Simone Crosignani worked as a video game journalist for 15 years before moving to the public relations department of Sony Computer Entertainment in Italy. At Sony he handled enthusiast and online media, working on the launch campaigns of PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and 100+ games. In 2006 Simone moved to Binari Sonori, a translation and audio production company, now part of Keywords Studios. In 2016 he joined Jinglebell Localization, the game localization spin-off of audio production powerhouse Jinglebell Communication. Simone has been a member of the International Game Developers Association localization group since day one and has been vice-chair of the group since 2013.
Mirela Cukovic Hanson
Senior Director QAElectronic Arts
Mirela Cukovic Hanson leads Mobile, Maxis and Live quality assurance (QA) teams for Electronic Art’s (EA) development teams around the world. These teams have ensured the quality of players’ experiences in some of the most popular games in the industry: The Sims, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heros; RealRacing3, The Simpsons Tapped Out, PvZ, Battlefield, Madden and others. Mirela is a change agent that has been leading the EA QA organization through several transformations and continues to set a vision for the future and inspire action from what she firmly believes is the best QA talent in the industry. Prior to her current role, Mirela held several technical and operational roles at central and global development groups. She has been at EA for ten years and before that, she held various engineering and technical leadership roles in the Silicon Valley. Mirela holds a degree in computer science from UBC.
Mariana Dadalto Schettino
Gender Inclusive Language SpecialistGame Global
Mariana Dadalto Schettino is a video game localization professional with a passion for gender inclusive language practices and is a project management enthusiast. As a localization tester at Electronic Arts (EA), she has worked to build in quality on more than 15 different titles, from AAA to mobile games. Mariana is the founder of the Gender Inclusive Taskforce for Localization at EA. As the lead stakeholder for this initiative, she creates guidelines for inclusive language for 20 different territories and improves processes regarding gender matters in the department. In addition to researching and implementing guides for a non-binary approach, Mariana works on shipping the first product from EA localization with applied non-binary language. She is currently transitioning to quality assurance testing while continuing as a researcher and adviser for diversity and inclusion practices with an inclusive language approach for localization.
Andrew Dale
KingPaul Davies
Head of Localization and Narrative DesignSocialpoint
Paul Davies manages the English game writing and localization teams at Socialpoint, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games, in sunny Barcelona. Prior to that, he held various positions at Electronic Arts in the UK and Germany, where he most recently managed the worldwide localization of EA’s mobile games portfolio. A keen gamer at heart, Paul started his career as a translator and language tester for console games at Sony Computer Entertainment in (not-so-sunny) Liverpool.
Tabea De Wille
LecturerUniversity of Limerick
Tabea De Wille holds an MA in German and English linguistics from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and an MS in multilingual computing and localization from the University of Limerick, Ireland. She has completed her PhD studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland, where she examined perceived quality in the context of crowdsourced localization. Previously, Tabea worked in the localization industry, primarily in video games localization and is currently a lecturer at the University of Limerick.
Twitter: @TabeaDeWille
LinkedIn: tabeadewille
Mason Deming
XLOCMason Deming is the chief technology officer (CTO) and system architect of XLOC. While at XLOC he has worked closely with developers on high profile titles such as League of Legends, the Call of Duty series and Borderlands. Prior to founding and serving as XLOC’s CTO, Mason enjoyed a successful career in game design, development, business-to-business e-commerce and database administration. He has performed key programming roles on numerous high profile titles while working on staff at Activision. He served as CTO for Roaring Mouse Entertainment and developed, programmed and managed Networld Exchange’s B2B e-commerce system.
Olivier Deslandes
VP Audio & TranslationSIDE Audio PTW
Olivier Deslandes is a games industry veteran, starting as a voice talent, voice director and translator in the late 1990s. He has contributed to more than 200 titles. Olivier joined Side in 2002 to establish and develop its localization department. In 2017, with Side under PTW ownership, he became senior director of global audio. He rose to vice president of audio and translation for PTW and Side in 2018. Olivier holds degrees in communication and advertising.
Diana Díaz Montón
CofounderNative Prime
Diana Díaz Montón is a game localization specialist with over 20 years of experience. She graduated in translation and interpreting, then began her career with an internship at EA Sports. Diana founded Wordlab in 2005 and in 2010 cofounded Native Prime, a company specialized in video game localization. She has been involved in the localization of reference titles such as Dragon Quest XI, Ni no Kuni, Hitman 2 & 3, Snack World, and hundreds more. Diana enjoys spreading the love for video game localization and has participated as a speaker at different events, such as GDC or Gamelab, both addressed to future localizers as well as to developers and publishers. She collaborates with different universities and institutions where she teaches game localization and project management, and has also written a series of articles about the challenges of game localization.
Twitter: maloria
LinkedIn: dianadiazmonton
Dmitry Drozdov
KingJakub Dudkowski
Senior QA Project ManagerQLOC
Jakub Dudkowski is a quality assurance (QA) professional with over eight years of experience as a functionality, localization and certification QA tester, team leader, project manager, training manager, community manager and QA manager. Currently he is a senior QA project manager at QLOC. Jakub is also a fighting game player, tournament organizer, host and community supporter with over 16 years of competitive experience. He has worked on over 100 titles including several fighting games.
Nathalie Duret
HR ManagerKeywords Studios
Nathalie Duret is the human resource manager (HR) at Keywords Studios, Paris, France, and as such, she is responsible for recruitment and training. She has worked for more than 20 years in the localization industry, including 13 years at Electronic Arts, France. Nathalie has held various positions giving her the opportunity to tackle video games localization specifics such as text and audio localization, project management, vendor management, team management and more. In 2013, she decided to move to HR to bring support to the localization teams from a different perspective, to focus on people development and to help the teams grow and adapt to constantly changing environments.
Kate Edwards
CEO / Principal ConsultantGeogrify
Kate Edwards is the CEO and principal consultant of Geogrify, a consultancy for content culturalization, a board member of Take This, and is the former executive director of the International Game Developers Association from 2012 to 2017. In addition to being an outspoken advocate that serves in several advisory/board roles, she is a geographer, writer and corporate strategist who pioneered the field of content culturalization in games. As Microsoft’s first geopolitical strategist on the geopolitical strategy team she created and managed, Edwards protected the company against political and cultural content risks across all products and locales. Since Microsoft, she has assisted many clients on a variety of geopolitical and cultural issues across many products and game franchises. Kate is also a columnist for MultiLingual magazine. Fortune magazine named her as one of the “10 most powerful women” in the game industry and she was named by GamesIndustry.biz as one of their six People of the Year. In April 2018, she was honored with Reboot Develop’s annual Hero Award.
Mario Ferrer
Senior UX WriterSenior UX Writer
Mario Ferrer is a senior (or señor) user experience (UX) writer. He designs content that guides users across digital products and services. Mario is a part of UX Writers Spain, a local community of practitioners that guide professionals on how to get into the discipline, and helps companies discover the value of the UX writer role within a product team. He’s always trying to find the best tacos in town, listens to stand-up comedy and teaches his two kids about Mexican Lucha Libre.
Stanisław Fiedor
CEOFuero
Stanisław Fiedor graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics with the master degree in finance and accounting. His adventure with interactive content started already in high school were together with the current chief technical officer he was developing flash-based multiplayer experiences. During his university times, he started an interactive agency. Stan is the chief executive officer and cofounder of Fuero Games. Stan grew the studio from a four people team to a 40 professionals big experienced team. During this time he closed deals with some of the biggest players in the industry like WarGaming, Nexon, CD Projekt or Miniclip and responsible for signing IP’s like The Witcher. Stan is also a founding member of the Polish Games Association.
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content Localization
Loquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content LocalizationLoquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck is an independent consultant who learned his trade setting up and managing localization
processes and teams for free-to-play/mobile games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games on
the publisher side. This made him develop a particular interest in seeking and trying out new language
technology and service provider models that allow for economic and quality continuous translation
workflows. Connecting the dots between the needs of product owners with the strengths of service
providers, he now supports businesses in selecting and implementing the right processes, tools and
partners for their products.
Krzysztof Fudro
FQA Team LeadKeywords Studios
Krzysztof Fudro is functionality quality assurance (QA) lead at Keywords Studios Katowice. He and his team work with clients to achieve the highest testing efficiency possible. Prior to Keywords Studios Katowice, Krzysztof worked at In-House Studio as a game designer and QA tester. That experience allows him to predict what each client needs the most, sometimes even before the client realizes it. Krzysztof’s addiction to efficiency, combined with an interest in automation, always pushes him further to improve and optimize processes.
Joshua van Gageldonk
Guerrilla GamesJoshua van Gageldonk started working as a quality assurance tester in Guerrilla Games in August 2013, at the very end stages of development of Killzone Shadow Fall. After the development of Killzone Shadow Fall was completed, he was part of the test team for Horizon Zero Dawn, where he specialized in testing Robots, World Activities (non story-driven content), Random Encounters and Living World.
Carlos Garcia-Shelton
Product ManagerXLOC
Carlos Garcia-Shelton is the product manager at XLOC and is responsible for overseeing the business and all aspects of product development. Learning game production from many different angles such as quality assurance, development, publishing and localization has led him to a love for identifying and executing ways to bring together global teams and organize their efforts in the most efficient and effective ways.
Steven Garrad
Outsourcing, Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Jaime Gine
Keywords StudiosJaime Giné is chief customer officer for Keywords Studios. He represents the voice of the customer in the Keywords global organization across all services and designs innovative and customized solutions for Keywords top clients, always within the framework of strategic partnerships. Before joining Keywords he was vice president international development services at Electronic Arts (EA). Prior to joining EA, Jaime worked at SDL, holding various positions as departmental manager, project manager and divisional director. He was also part of the executive team that led SDL during the IPO.
Natalie Gladkaya
Director of LocalizationPlarium
Natalie Gladkaya joined the game localization industry in 2011 as a translator/editor, then managed teams of game localization and localization quality assurance. During her tenure with Plarium, she has worked on localizing over ten web and mobile game titles, including Raid: Shadow Legends and Mech Arena, into a variety of languages, building localization workflow, and both in-house and remote localization teams from the ground up.
LinkedIn: natalie-gladkaya
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov
Head of LocalizationSocial Quantum
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov started in translation and adaptation of text games at local IRC networks in 2003. He then switched to software and ended up doing amateur localization of huge titles like SWAT 4 and Septerra Core. Now Mike is the head of localization at Social Quantum, one of the top ten largest game publishers in Russia and Eastern Europe. The mobile game developer has created such titles as Megapolis, Wild West: New Frontier, Dragon’s World, Ice Age World, and Poker Jet, and is in the process of creating more. The company has also been conducting successful experiments in machine translation and machine translation post-editing.
Kaysie Green
Program Manager, Games LocalizationGlyph Language Services
Kaysie Green joined Glyph in 2015 as a project manager and developed her zone of genius around the games industry. This passion was her path to becoming a project manager devoted to Glyph’s games clients. Kaysie is currently the program manager for Glyph’s games division. In this role, she ensures continuous process improvement, up-to-the-moment market research, production quality and the cultivation of Glyph’s team of top-tier, game-obsessed linguists. Before coming to Glyph, Kaysie earned her BA in international relations from Gonzaga University, in 2013.
Aditya Gupta
Cofounder & QA Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Aditya Gupta is a cofounder of Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group. Currently working as a quality assurance and release manager at Day Zero, he has over nine years of game industry experience in game production and release management. Aditya is versed in quality assurance, title certification, and the release management process for multiplatform games. Over the years, he has worked on 12 AAA titles from Ubisoft, Codemasters, Streamline Games, and various other AAA publishers. In his leisure, he loves to cook and cruise around on his motorbike.
LinkedIn: my.linkedin.com/in/aditya-gupta-64204086
Clara Gómez Pérez
Localization Lead & Vendor ManagerGoodgame Studios
Clara Gómez Pérez joined the game localization industry ten years ago. Since 2011 she has led the localization department at Goodgame Studios. She holds a BA in translation and interpreting and an MA in specialized translation. Clara’s favorite localization-related topics are content management systems, key performance indicators, localization tools, process automation and funny localization mistakes.
Patricia Gómez Jurado
Associate Director of Content DesignKing
Patricia Gómez is based in Barcelona, where she is associate director of content design at King. She is building the first content design craft at King, managing a team of content designers and leading content operations. Previously, Patricia was the head of content at eDreams Odigeo, leading a team of UX writers and localization specialists. She started her career in the localization industry and worked six years as localization manager at Google Spain and Portugal. She currently teaches localization in the UX writing course by Shifta (Elisava).
Patrick Görtjes
Localization Project ManagerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Patrick Görtjes is a Localization Project Manager at Massive Entertainment, the lead development studio behind the Tom Clancy’s The Division games. Patrick holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Communication and got his start in the industry as a translator before moving on to project management. When he’s not working, Patrick enjoys hiking, board games, and karaoke.
Lukasz Hacura
Anshar StudiosChristin Hansson
KingChristin Hansson has been working with quality assurance (QA), project management and agile methods in the mobile industry for 15 years. She is now working hands-on for two game teams at King and is successfully supporting them in their ways of working with QA. Christin is also working together with the localization team at King to improve their testing processes. She has a big passion for both games and quality.
Amanda Hawthorne
Inclusive Language SpecialistElectronic Arts IL
Amanda Jane Hawthorne is an inclusive language specialist with a background as an English teacher, trainer, and materials writer. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the area of diversity, specializing in race and LGBT+ awareness. Currently based in Madrid, Amanda works full time in the tech industry, is the founding director of The Bechdel Film Club Madrid, and volunteers with antiracism organizations. She is also an award winning researcher and recently contributed to the book How To Write Inclusive Materials by Tyson Seburn.
Ulrich Henes
PrincipalLocWorld
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.
Inés Hernández
Electronic ArtsInés Hernández is a veteran game industry professional with over 15 years of experience in video games localization. She is currently managing the localization portfolio and project management teams at Electronic Arts.
Robert Herzog
Head of LocalizationTravian Games
Robert Herzog is the of head of localization and writing at Travian Games, overseeing the strategic direction of both departments. He’s been with the company for 11 years, starting as a localization project manager in 2011. Before that, Robert earned his spurs in other video game companies as localization project manager and translator. He found his way into the gaming and localization industry as freelance translator in 2004.
Celia Hodent
Game UX ConsultantCelia Hodent
Celia Hodent is recognized as a leader in the application of user experience (UX) and cognitive science in the game industry. Celia holds a PhD in psychology and has over ten years of experience in the development of UX strategy and processes in video game studios. Through her work at Ubisoft, LucasArts, and as director of UX at Epic Games (Fortnite), she has contributed to many projects across multiple platforms, from PC to consoles, mobile, and VR. Celia is also the founder of the Game UX Summit, advisor for the GDC UX Summit, member of the Foresight Committee at CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, an independent French administrative regulatory body), author of The Gamer’s Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design and The Psychology of Video Games. She currently works as an independent consultant, helping studios increase the likelihood of their games to be engaging and successful. Celia also provides guidance on the topics of playful learning, ethics, unconscious bias, and inclusion in technology.
Twitter: @CeliaHodent
Blog: celiahodent.com
Bjorn Holste
Localization QA ManagerSQUARE ENIX
Björn Holste is localization QA manager at Square Enix, overseeing, shaping and improving the LQA for many titles and franchises including Tomb Raider, Just Cause and Life is Strange. He has worked in LQA and QA for over a decade and during this time has worked in various roles on many different titles. After a brief stint in Software/Web QA, he joined the great team at Square Enix about 2 years ago.
Echo Huang
Senior Delivery ManagerBeyondsoft Corporation
Ann Hurley
Vice President of Business DevelopmentTestronic
Ann Hurley has worked within the games industry for over 30 years, starting in sales team management within the distribution sector, then moving into publishing. For the past 12 years, she has been working in the quality assurance vendor space. Although steps have been taken to embrace diversity within our industry, Ann feels strongly about the nurturing of young women within games, to ensure they are supported through coaching in order to build their confidence to find their true potential.
Marina Ilari
CEOTerra Localizations
Marina Ilari is an ATA certified translator with 16 years of experience in the localization industry. She has worked as a translator and quality assurance specialist for many companies around the world with a special focus on video game localization. Marina is the chief executive officer of Terra Localizations and co-host of the podcast En Pantuflas. She was a 2020 recipient of the Enterprising Women of the Year award.
Marina Ilinykh
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Marina Ilinykh started her career in localization in 2011. Since then she’s been working in game localization on both the vendor and client sides. Currently Marina is the head of localization at Playrix, overseeing localization of all of the company’s titles, ensuring market-readiness and driving innovation initiatives.
Gina Jackson
Games Consultant/AdvisorGina Jackson is a games industry consultant and advisor. She started in games development in 1992 and has worked for developers, publishers, and distributors covering console, PC, and mobile games. Gina is particularly passionate about diversity, mental health, and skills development. She is treasurer of GamesAid, on the board for NextGen Skills Academy, and a visiting professor in games industry and business at Norwich University of the Arts (NUA). Gina recently received the MCV/DEVELOP Women in Games award for her outstanding contribution, a fellowship from NUA for services to the games industry, and has been honored with an Order of the British Empire for her work in education and diversity in the games industry.
Maryam Jaddoo
Localization ManagerWizards of the Coast
Maryam Jaddoo is the head of localization at Wizards of the Coast. She is responsible for leading critical product development and localization of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons and MTG Arena among others. Maryam has 10 years of localization experience. In her career, she has worked as a translator, game guide writer, game tester and project manager. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French and a master’s degree in project management and is fluent in multiple languages. Maryam is originally from Mauritius and her native language is French.
Paul Jakovlev
Customer Success Team LeadLokalise
Paul Jakovlev is a customer success team lead at Lokalise. He is an avid gamer and living the dream of learning about behind the scenes of game development by helping his favorite industry with localization challenges. In his spare time, Paul likes to binge-watch documentaries on various streaming platforms.
Rafał Jaworski
Linguistic AI ExpertXTM International
Rafał Jaworski, PhD, is an academic lecturer and scientist specializing in natural language processing techniques. His alma mater is Adam University in Poznań, Poland, where he works at the Department of Artificial Intelligence. Rafał’s scientific work concentrates around developing robust AI algorithms for the needs of computer assisted translation. These include automatic lookup of linguistic resources and computer assisted post editing, among others. Apart from the research and teaching, he works as linguistic AI expert at XTM International, leading a team of young and talented developers who put his visions and ideas into practice.
Renée Jessen
CEOCharacter Publishing & Localization
Cofounder and CEO of Character Publishing & Localization since 2010, Renée Jessen initially started working as a dubbing translator in the mid-nineties while studying rhetoric and history of ideas. The challenge of creating spoken language and personality in translations is still the favorite part of his job although business development takes up the majority of his time. Today, Character is both a global localization company focused on games and a publishing house of interactive experiences for children. Renée’s main focus is to balance the use of technologies and the translators’ need for a creative approach to their work.
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli
Head of Translation ServicesTestronic
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli was born in Argentina, has lived in several countries and has always been marked by books, games, languages and having to adapt to different cultures. Choosing to pursue studies in translation led to living in Warsaw. Around 2015, this escalated from working with Testronic’s localization quality assurance team to being involved in the development of Testronic’s translation services. He has managed the translation process for multiple game titles and tries to be involved as a translator or editor when time permits (aside from being constantly engaged with games and other forms of culture).
Alex Johnson
Dubbing ProducerPatricia Jurado
Head of Content and InsightsKing
Patricia is the current Head of Content and Insights, managing a team of content strategists and insights analysts at King Player Support. Previously, she worked at eDreams Odigeo as Head of Content and Localization, managing a team of UX writers, Content Specialists and translations providers responsible for the group websites and apps content in 20 languages. Between 2008 and 2014, Patricia worked at Google as a Language Manager driving quality product localization for Spain and Portugal. Patricia started her professional career in SDL as a translator and project manager. She holds a Master in Internet Business from ISDI and has completed Scrum Master official training. Patricia is the former manager of the Catalan Chapter of Women in Localization.
Your Job Title: Head of Content and Insights
Tomasz Juszczak
Vice President of TechnologyFuero
Tomasz Juszczak is vice president of technology at Fuero Games, where he leads and oversights all projects in the company from the technical side, including technology research and implementing programmers code quality principles. His current focus at Fuero Games is leading of the Artificial Intelligence Testing Framework R&D Project. The AITeF project is being developed as one of the selected projects under a grant from the National Center for Research and Development in Poland. His personal portfolio includes projects for different disciplines, from the medical field, car industry to sales projects in which he worked closely with Samsung and TVN. He has expertise in VR, AR, SaaS, applications, 2D/3D games for mobile, console and PC.
Alex Kang
Chief Operating OfficerBridge Translations
Alex Kisok Kang is the cofounder and chief operating officer of Bridge Translations in Seoul, Korea. He has been in the translation industry for over 15 years, working in various capacities including freelance translator, lecturer and language service provider executive. He has transformed Bridge Translations from a conventional translation company into a dedicated mobile game localization company. Alex previously oversaw all aspects of day-to-day management but with the growth of business, he now focuses on QA and client relations.
Polina Karpova
Vendor ManagerLevsha
For the past 2 ½ years, Polina Karpova has been a vendor manager at Levsha localization studio where she is responsible for seeking and recruiting new vendors as well as guiding and helping them throughout their cooperation with Levsha. Whenever vendors face an issue with payment, workload, information, or production — she is there for them. Polina studied international relations at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (English and Spanish languages) and as a student, she participated in a game localization workshop in 2016.
Dominick Kelly
Client Solution Director - Europe, Middle East and AsiaXTM International
Dominick Kelly fell into the localization industry 16 years ago as a software engineer and decided never to leave. Over time, he has been involved with the localization tool space and worked at some of the largest language service providers in the world. For the past six years, Dominick has worked at XTM International, as a key part of the team focused on driving innovation and growth at the forefront of cloud-based language technology.
Ayesha Khan
Principal Narrative DesignerDeep Silver Dambuster Studios
Ayesha Khan is an unapologetic word nerd, fascinated by the way languages change over time and influence the way their speakers think. Having moved around for most of her life, Ayesha has used her cultural adaptability and comfort with several languages to help her integrate into game development studios in four countries, where she has worked on titles including The Lord of the Rings Online, Gears Tactics, Wizard101, DarkOrbit and APB. Ayesha has been a narrative designer, writer, content designer and everything in between. Her favorite forms of amateur anthropology include sampling local food and drink wherever she can and gleefully inflicting her karaoke skills upon bar patrons around the world.
Vladimir Konoplitsky
CEORIOTLOC
Vladimir is a team lead and head of the localization studio Riotloc. He started as a games translator and editor in 2007 and worked on everything from casual indie games to AAA titles. Vladimir is a specialist in QA and translation tools and is an old fan of the Total War series, but has an affection for RPGs. He is a strong believer in handcrafting the approach and team-like relations between developers and localizers. Apart from inventing new ways of working in his team, he occasionally speaks at game conferences, organizes localization workshops and gamedav events. He failed university exams once because of Fallout 3.
Gábor Kovács
Game Localization ExpertmemoQ
As part of the memoQ gaming unit, Gábor Kovács uses his abilities to combine technical knowledge with sales skills to act as a primary contact for product demos, client needs assessment, and training along with many other duties. Using his well-honed communication skills, he can simplify and communicate complex concepts to a nontechnical audience. Gábor’s IT background also gives him the edge when it comes to technical discussion and finding the right solutions. He has been an avid gamer since childhood.
Denisse Kreeger
Head of Global Localization ProductionRiot Games
Denisse Kreeger is the head of global localization production at Riot Games, and the Los Angeles chapter manager at Women in Localization. With over 15 years of experience in the localization industry, she has also managed localization production at Blizzard Entertainment and Netflix, where she helped build much of the localization infrastructure. Denisse graduated from UCLA and has an MA from the University of Roehampton in audiovisual translation.
LinkedIn: dkreegerl10n
Mathieu Lachance
FQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Mathieu Lachance has worked in the video game industry for over 12 years on more than 400 video game titles. He currently heads Keywords’ Testing services through the Keywords, VMC, Babel and Enzyme studios, leading an international team of over 2500 spanning 15 studios. He has been a featured expert, speaker and lecturer in/at MCV magazine, Develop magazine, Gamasutra, HEC Montreal University, EA’s XDS, Oculus Connect, MIGS, NGDC and more.
Renato Laus
Lead QA CoordinatorRovio Entertainment
Renato Laus is a lead quality assurance (QA) coordinator at Rovio Entertainment. He takes pride in ensuring its games have top-notch quality, and works daily with the QA leads. Renato heads up several cross-unit initiatives engaging with internal stakeholders, and he champions localization in the company as a means to expand the market reach of its games, therefore taking steps to improve the localization processes, interfacing with internal teams and external vendors alike.
LinkedIn: renato-laus-91b506a5
Stephen Laverick
Team Experience DirectorTestronic
Stephen Laverick is the team experience director at Testronic. He is responsible for recruitment, learning and development, and the community of employees. Though he is based in Warsaw, Stephen’s current role covers the UK, Europe and the United States. He has over 20 years of recruitment and learning, and development experience. Stephen has held numerous positions across the UK and Europe at various companies ranging from start-ups to blue chip companies. From a young age he has had a passion for gaming and still plays on a number of devices, so putting his passion for gaming and developing people together is like a dream come true!
Luca Lazari
Audio Technical Operations ManagerKeywords Studios
Luca Lazari works for Keywords Studios as an audio technical operations manager. He worked for music and TV studios after graduating in sound and recording engineering, and science and technology of music communication. Luca joined the game localization industry in 2008 as an audio project lead at Binari Sonori, later acquired by Keywords Studios. After managing the audio technical part for multilanguage localization of countless games (including AAA titles) for over a decade, he moved to Keywords Studios audio localization division, operating at a global level, supervising audio technical processes and workflows.
LinkedIn: lucalazari
Tom Lee
CofounderLOVO
Tom Lee worked in sales at MuleSoft (now a Salesforce company) and digital marketing at LG prior to his time at LOVO. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UC Berkeley.
When Tom is not interacting with users or reading up on the latest trends in AI and voice, he can be found writing poems, drinking beer, training in a boxing gym, scuba diving, or playing FIFA.
LinkedIn: tomsklee
Ville Lehtinen
Senior DeveloperRovio Entertainment
With over a decade of experience working on both mobile/embedded graphics engines and games, Ville Lehtinen has worked with game studios at companies such as Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Rovio. His recently released titles include South Park Phone Destroyer (Ubisoft Redlynx) and Small Town Murders (Rovio).
LinkedIn: ville-lehtinen-99337410
Marie Leininger
Vendor SpecialistElectronic Arts
After graduating from the Cologne University of Applied Science, Marie Leininger started work as a localization project manager for marketing content. In 2017, she moved to Electronic Arts as a vendor specialist and interim multilingual localization specialist. Marie’s main focus is on evaluating and defining translation and post-editing quality, and establishing and maintaining vendor relationships.
Audrey Lepage
Senior Localization Project ManagerBigpoint GmbH
With a degree in modern languages and literature, Audrey Lepage started her career in the games industry in 2010 as a French localization tester for DTP Entertainment, Hamburg. After a year of testing fun, she moved to Bigpoint where she first worked as a French translator, then as a localization project manager (LPM) and then was promoted to senior LPM in 2017. In the constant search for more efficient and streamlined workflows, Bigpoint transitioned to XTM four years ago and has been tailoring the tool to meet their requirements with the support of the XTM team.
Michael Liu
R2GamesMichael Liu is a Chinese-Canadian English localization specialist and quality assurance at Reality Squared Games, with over 20 years of gaming experience especially in MMORPGs, MOBAs and CCGs which require an intimate understanding of game mechanics. Michael loves to play video games on a deep level with self-imposed challenges such as low-level games (beat games at the lowest level possible), naked runs (not wearing any equipment), iron man (permanent death, can only use what you find). He is responsible for highly technical translations that contain heavy gaming jargon or deep understanding of game mechanics. Has extremely accurate and creative translations.
Irina Lokshyna
Development DirectorWargaming
Federica Lusardi
Senior Translator/Editor - ItalianSQUARE ENIX
A passionate gamer since childhood, Federica Lusardi began working in the videogames industry when she moved to London in 2011 to study for an MA in audiovisual translation. After a brief time as a language tester for SEGA and translating her first game for Codemasters as a freelancer, she worked at Pole To Win as an in-house translator and team supervisor. Federica joined Square Enix in 2016, where she currently works as Italian translator/editor. Her work encompasses translation for games and marketing campaigns, and she has translated games such as Life is Strange 2, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the FINAL FANTASY Trading Card Game and Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Sílvio Macedo
Senior Localization DirectorBluelab
Sílvio Macedo has 15 years of experience in game localization and has managed dozens of AAA titles, as well as a vast variety of mobile and online games of all genres for multi-platforms. Sílvio has managed/overseen every step of the localization process, from translation to audio recording and post-production. His hands-on approach gives him a thorough knowledge of the complex localization process involved in each game title. He’s currently the senior localization director at BlueLab, where he’s been working since 2004.
Takako Maeda
Globalization Project ManagerKing
Takako Maeda is a globalization project manager at King, inspired by the Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement, Kaizen. She joined King in 2014 and recently has taken on the challenge of internationalization, working closely with game engine developers to ensure high quality in King games. She loves coming up with creative solutions to problems and working with colleagues from across the organization. She lives in Barcelona and in her free time enjoys making Japanese ceramics.
Sebastian Maeser
LQA Project ManagerKeywords Studios
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual TranslationUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron is a lecturer and a member of the research group TransMedia Catalonia at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is the director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation and has extensive experience as a translator, specializing in software and game localization. Carme’s research interests include game localization, game accessibility, audiovisual translation and accessibility to the media. She has published extensively in international journals, participated in several research projects and is one of the principal investigators of the Researching Audio Description: Translation, Delivery and New Scenarios (RAD), funded by the Spanish Government. Carme is coauthor of Game Localization: Translating for the Global Digital Entertainment Industry (O’Hagan and Mangiron, 2013) and one of the editors of Fun for All: Translation and Accessibility Practices in Video Games (Mangiron, Orero & O’Hagan, 2014).
Anca Marica
EMEA Localization ManagerUbisoft
Anca Marica is a localization professional with over ten years of experience in the video game industry. At Ubisoft, she oversees the localization operations for the EMEA region by keeping in close contact with project managers and handling various transversal topics such as loc quality, process improvement or vendor management to ensure the localized versions of Ubisoft games meet company standards.
She holds a BA in English and Spanish philology, a master’s degree in international studies and an MS in project management.
Teresa Marshall
VP Globalization & LocalizationSalesforce
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 Education. From 2014 to 2016 she was on the board of Women in Localization. Before joining Salesforce in 2009, Teresa managed localization efforts at both Google and PGP in Silicon Valley while teaching at MIIS. An active member of the localization community, she has been the organizer and cohost of the annual Localization Unconference in Silicon Valley since 2009.
Jakub Marszałkowski
GIC & Indie Games Poland FoundationJakub Marszałkowski is the cofounder and a board member of Indie Games Poland, conducting projects that provide the presence of Poland at expos and conferences, travel scholarships, game jams, or visits of foreign delegations in Poland. Jakub regularly serves as a spokesperson for the Polish game industry and the CEE region. He was recognized with the annual award of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as an organizer and promoter working for game developers. As the head of the Game Industry Conference in Poznań, Jakub developed it into one of the largest events in the CEE region. He is also a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Poznan University of Technology.
Nadine Martin
Senior Manager, Test ServicesSony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Nadine Martin has been working in the games industry and quality assurance (QA) for over 15 years. She joined Sony PlayStation’s internal QA team after completing a degree in business administration, starting initially as a localization tester for German and progressing to the management of the localization test team. In 2013 she became senior manager for test services which includes localization and functional testing. The team is responsible for testing game franchises such as Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Horizon and God of War on all PlayStation platforms, including virtual reality and mobile. Nadine has presented extensively on QA and localization topics.
Robert Masella
Senior Gameplay EngineerRare(Microsoft)
Robert Masella is a Senior Software Engineer at Rare with over 14 years of experience working of game development. He has worked on a wide variety of games including Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the Kinect Sports series, and Sea of Thieves. He’s worked on a variety of feature areas, but mostly spends time developing AI, physics and animation code. During production of Sea of Thieves, he has been heavily involved in the automated testing of gameplay code, in order to maintain the build integrity required for a service game.
Philip Mayes
Managing DirectorMighty Kingdom
Philip Mayes is the managing director of Mighty Kingdom, winner of the 2019 Australian Game Developer of the Year Award. With more than 15 years of experience, he has worked on games for many large international brands, including Star Wars, LEGO, and Disney. Founded by Philip in 2010, Mighty Kingdom is one of the largest and most diverse game developers in Australia, with over 120 people working across Australia and New Zealand. He is a passionate advocate for the industry locally, and is eager to see that industry be as inclusive, progressive, and successful as possible.
Twitter: @pjm
Fabio Minazzi
Text Localization DirectorKeywords Studios
Fabio Minazzi has been into localization of interactive media since 1992, dealing with text, audio and video contents at Philips Interctive Media. After founding Binari Sonori, he dealt with software localization projects for Sun, Oracle, Peregrine and Adobe for a decade, using CAT and WISIWIG localization tools, DTP and workflow systems. This experience has proven useful in the roaring game localization industry, where, for the past ten years, Fabio has been in charge of game localization by Codemasters, Microsoft, Capcom, Square Enix and Bandai-Namco. An active member of Games Localization SIG and cofounder of the Games Localization Round Table, he is passionate about building bridges between cultures and helping people publish great content worldwide.
Hugo Miranda
Language SpecialistBlizzard Entertainment
As a language specialist for Latin American Spanish, Hugo Miranda’s main quest is to find what serves players best. From making linguistic creative decisions on style, translation and voiceover to diving deep into the history and culture of the region, he combines a passion for video games, languages and heritage.
Anneta Mitsopoulo
Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Anneta Mitsopoulou has been with Electronic Arts (EA) since 2008. She holds a diploma in translation and is based in Cologne, Germany. Anneta’s current focus lies on workflow optimization and automation. She is also involved in machine translation research at EA and is passionate about technology and automating workflows.
Maciej Miąsik
Pixel CrowMaciej Miąsik is a veteran game developer, producer, designer, sound designer, programmer and cofounder of several gamedev studios that have been active for the past 25 years. Maciej was head of production and responsible for the first part in 2007 of the Witcher series. Other games he has participated in may be known to adventure game players: Reah: Face the Unknown, Schizm: Mysterious Journey, Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon and Sentinel: Descendants in Time, and recently, Beat Cop. One title codeveloped by him is Electro Body (1992), considered one of the first successful Polish PC games. Maciej is also actively engaged in different educational efforts such as curriculum director at Game Dev School and as a regular lecturer at Warsaw Film School and Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology. He is currently working as a member of the board at Movie Games S.A. and on his new game at Pixel Crow.
Valentina Mollica
LQA ManagerTestronic
Nadine Monschau
Senior Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Nadine Monschau is senior localization manager at EA, leading the translation, vendor management, machine translation, and desktop publishing teams. She has a background in translation and started her career at EA and in the video game localization industry in 2001. Currently, Nadine has kicked off an inclusive language initiative to ensure that players can immerse in an inclusive experience when they play EA games. She is also the local chair of EA’s Women’s Ultimate Team Employee Resource Group and passionate to help women (and her teams in general) progress in their careers.
Catherin Newmann Halebian
Localization Manager, OG Production & LATAMBlizzard Entertainment
As a localization manager, Catherin Newmann Halebian’s main objective is to support her teams and pipelines, enabling them to provide the highest level of service. She does this with tools such as neural machine translation, digital asset management and computer-assisted translation. Working with multidisciplinary stakeholders has enabled her to develop expertise in interpretation (simultaneous, consecutive and live streamed subtitles) as well as audiovisual and multimedia localization.
Kassi O’Connor
Outside Services DirectorGlu Mobile
Kassi O’Connor began her career in gaming over 11 years ago working in external development. Since then, she’s worked on over 100 titles, been a producer and has expanded the outsourcing and localization department to 11 studios worldwide. Kassi is currently the outside services director and runs all external services for Glu Mobile, including external development, localization and independent contractors. She enjoys working with external teams and using them in a way that they feel ownership of the game they are working on. Kassi has presented at numerous international and US conferences. She holds a BA in communication and an MBA.
Bazz O'Reilly
LQA Service Delivery ManagerKeywords Studios
Tony O'Dowd
KantanAI Director & Head of Localization TechnologyKeywords Studios
Tony O’Dowd is the founder and chief architect of KantanAI, a cloud-based AI and custom machine translation solutions provider which is a part of Keywords Studios. He is a serial entrepreneur and localization veteran with more than 25 years of experience working in the language industry. Tony has previously held senior positions at Lotus Development Corporation, Symantec Corporation, Corel Corporation Ltd., and Alchemy Software Development, which he founded in 2000. He holds a BS in computer science from Trinity College Dublin, and a fellowship from the Localization Research Institute at the University of Limerick. Today, Tony leads innovations in KantanAI and localization technology at Keywords Studios.
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen
Global Head, PMOKeywords Studios
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen is officially an industry veteran, having spent 20 years in different roles in testing and localization services at Square Enix. He has recently joined Keywords Studios to build cross-service programs, supporting their global development and publishing clients. He remains an active and enthusiastic member of the game localization and testing community.
Ana Paredes
Project ManagerUbisoft
Ana Paredes joined the localization and video game industries by chance after moving to Montreal. During her tenure at Keywords, she worked briefly in testing before moving to translation, in what was, at the time, one of the most secret and expected projects of the company — Starcraft 2. Following that, Ana provided for Brazilian Portuguese content management at Expedia, and subsequently moved into project management at companies such as SDL and Transperfect. Most recently she worked on Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising. Ana’s interests revolve around all things related to diversity, inclusion, skateboarding, and cats. She thinks completing games is overrated, and the last title she saw through was Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime, which doesn’t even have VO!
LinkedIn: ana-gt-paredes
Donna Parrish
PrincipalLocWorld
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 Translators without Borders.
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer
Turn 10 Quality ManagerMicrosoft
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer grew up in what was then rural Bellevue, Washington, and went to Western Washington University before joining Microsoft in 1998. He was in development for six years before joining the centralized test organization. Jimbo has been a quality manager at Microsoft for twelve years and shipped dozens of Xbox and PC games. He had a three and a half year detour as the test manager for HoloLens Experiences and is happy to be back working on games. Jimbo is currently the Turn 10 quality manager and super proud of the just released Forza Horizon.
Vlad Pomarjanschi
QC Localization Team LeadUbisoft
Vlad Pomarjanschi started his career at Ubisoft six years ago, pursuing his all-time passion for videogames. Vlad quickly got involved in localization testing, subsequently joining QC-LOC where he climbed through the ranks, becoming its team lead three years ago. This position offered him the opportunity to engage in numerous and diverse Ubisoft projects, from small-scope titles to AAAs, facing all the challenges and rewards that come with managing localization testing. Vlad considers himself very lucky to be involved in such an impactful, yet dynamic field, with talents from so many different cultures and backgrounds.
Sandra Pourmarin
Localization ConsultantUbisoft
Sandra Pourmarin’s journey in the video game localization industry started 16 years ago with Ubisoft Montreal. Initially Localization Project Manager, she has been localization consultant for ten years now, overseeing Ubisoft NCSA localization and defining Ubisoft worldwide localization strategy with key localization stakeholders. No need to say that localization is one of Sandra’s favorite topics. Very enthusiastic about constant changes in the video game industry, which she sees as an opportunity to challenge oneself and foster out-of-the-box thinking in order to optimize localization processes while always targeting high quality standards.
Chris Priestman
Business Development ManagerZA/UM
Chris Priestman has a keen interest in experimental video games after spending a decade in journalism. He now works at ZA/UM, the studio behind the award-winning, roleplaying game Disco Elysium, where he started as a writer and soon became the producer in charge of localization. Chris is now the business development manager at ZA/UM.
Twitter: @CPriestman
Liz Prince
Business ManagerAmiqus
Liz Prince is the business manager at award-winning recruitment specialist Amiqus. She is also the founder of Putting the G Into Gaming, an initiative to build more diverse and inclusive workplaces in games. Putting the G into Gaming has four focuses: attracting women into games from other industries; supporting women already working in the games sector; working with schools, universities and colleges to promote games as an attractive career option for girls and young women; and helping studios with their equity, diversity, and inclusion journey through the Empower Up program.
Elzbieta Pustul
TestronicElżbieta Pustuł is a quality assurance (QA) manager with over 10 years of experience in areas of localization, end-user support,and QA services for top-tier game publishers around the world. She started her career working for Electronic Arts as a customer support analyst where she has acquired her initial training and widened her skills. Later she worked as a localization and QA specialist for CD-Projekt, the publisher of The Witcher series of games. Her name can be spotted in credits of numerous games, including Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl, The Witcher, Mass Effect, Metro 2033 and Far Cry 5. At the end of a day, Elżbieta is usually pushing the “on” button on her favorite game console in pursuit of another platinum trophy.
Cristina Pérez Cerezo
Keywords StudiosCristina is the linguist team lead in the Barcelona office of the Keywords Studios. She graduated from the University of Granada with a B.A. in Translation and Interpreting. A couple of years later, she decided to specialize and took a master’s in audiovisual translation course at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Thanks to a collaboration program established between the university and Keywords Studios, she had the opportunity to do an internship as a Spanish language specialist at the company’s office in Dublin, where she ended up becoming part of the team.
Catalina Quijano
Localization Project ManagerMichael Radnitz
Senior Producer, LocalizationBlizzard Entertainment
Michael Radnitz is a senior producer with more than 12 years of experience in the games industry. He has shipped more than ten AAA titles (such as Diablo III and Overwatch) globally across various platforms . Planning, documentation and scheduling are words that excite Michael, and he thoroughly enjoys all aspects of production. He was involved in the localization of every Blizzard IP as well as web-based and other non-game content. Over the past five years, Michael’s focus has been on the Diablo and Overwatch franchises, including shipment of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls on console and in China, the release of Overwatch and the set up of the localization pipeline for the Overwatch League. He is currently setting up the localization pipeline for Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal.
Leilani Ramirez
Manager of DialogueSony Interactive Entertainment
Leilani Ramirez is the manager of dialogue for Sony Interactive Entertainment. An island girl from Hawaii, Leilani moved to Los Angeles (LA) and graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a BA in communications and recording arts. After dabbling in the film and TV post-production world, she fell into the interactive realm and started her game audio career at Electronic Arts — Los Angeles in 2003, working on multiple titles as the dialog lead for the Medal of Honor and Command & Conquer series. From there, Leilani jumped into the freelancing world and was the dialogue supervisor for several titles including Uncharted 3, ADR1FT and Fat Princess Adventures before landing at Sony PlayStation where she completed God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and photography, and volunteers at the Children’s Hospital of LA, with her dog, Frodo, who is a member of the dog-therapy team.
Chris Rowley
LQA Head of Division/Operations DirectorKeywords Studios
Chris Rowley, an industry veteran since 2002, spent his first five years in development as a games designer and producer. He moved to Codemasters to become their first quality assurance (QA) manager. Since then he has held various QA, localization management and director roles at publishers SCEE, Eidos, 2K and EA. Chris then moved to the vendor side in 2014 working at Testronic, PTW and now Keywords where he is currently responsible for the LQA service line and FQA operations. Chris has been a regular presenter and panelist on the conference circuit for a number of years.
Dave Ruane
Digital Content and Partnerships ManagerXTM International
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 currently manages digital content and partner strategies at XTM International. Dave 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.
Inés Rubio
Language Services Sr. Global ManagerNI
Inés Rubio is a localization veteran with experience in ecommerce, marketing and 15 years of gaming industry background. Her interest in process improvement centered around technology and outsourcing solutions drove her to research potential machine translation applications to games localization before the Google Neural Machine Translation landmark. Inés currently applies her passion to translation and localization processes at National Instruments, a leader in software defined automated testing and measurements.
Hadrien Rudich
Localization Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Hadrien Rudich is a localization project manager at Blizzard Entertainment. He started his localization journey at Blizzard eight years ago as French LQA analyst working on titles such as Diablo 3, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone. He moved on to new responsibilities after a few years as a project manager specialized in outsourcing solutions. In his current role Hadrien has been involved in numerous game releases and in 2018 he began working in a more central position on Overwatch, where his extensive knowledge and love for the game, both as an avid player and professional, are put to good use.
Isabell Rudolph
Localization Project CoordinatorGoodgame Studios
Isabell Rudolph has a BA in technical communication and an MS in software localization. She joined the localization department at Goodgame Studios in 2014, gaining experience in working with free-to-play games for mobile and web, delivering high-quality translations, optimizing workflows and continuously improving localization processes and quality.
Loreto Sanz Fueyo
Senior Director of LocalizationPTW
Loreto Sanz Fueyo, senior director of localization at PTW, graduated from King’s College in London, England, where she received her master’s degree in computational linguistics and formal grammar. She began her professional career as a games tester and translator, developing her localization knowledge and skills for over 13 years before becoming PTW’s director of translation in 2019. Loreto’s passion for communication and clear messaging has made her an invaluable part of PTW’s staff, where she provides guidance to all levels of the organization. Her latest obsession is building a house in Spain and when she’s not busy localizing, she can be found pouring over floor plans and interior design magazines!
António Saraiva
Managing PartnerGojira
António Saraiva is founder and managing partner at Gojira, a media production company that develops video games, apps and conversational characters (intelligent avatars). He taught game design and video game related subjects at Universidade Lusófona, IPA and Restart (Lisbon). Before Gojira, he was producer and game designer at Biodroid Productions and also IP Hunter and licensing manager for Biodroid Entertainment. António has worked in a multitude of media formats ranging from press to television to multimedia off and online. Starting out as a television producer and director in the late 80’s, he founded his own company, Latina-Europa, and authored many children’s, pop music and youth culture TV series. In Portugal he was a pioneer in writing on the internet’s social and creative issues, namely in Blitz, to which he still contributes.
Konstantin Savenkov
CEOIntento
After receiving a PhD in 2008, Konstantin Savenkov led research and development efforts for online content services then worked as CTO at Zvooq and as a chief operating officer at Bookmate. In 2016, he contributed his experience in artificial intelligence (AI), tech and operations to cofound Intento, Inc., where they build tools to source, evaluate and use machine translation (MT) and other cognitive AI services. Intento regularly publishes independent MT evaluation studies and aims to be a reference point for utilizing MT to solve particular business problems.
Tobias Scherf
Solution ArchitectMemsource
Tobias Scherf is a solution architect at Memsource. He draws on his 20 years of experience in the localization industry working with enterprise clients to develop innovative solutions, maximizing the value and adoption of Memsource’s machine translation and AI-based features. Prior to Memsource, Tobias worked in various roles from localization quality assurance in localization engineering to executive management on the language service provider side. He is experienced in running enterprise localization programs including language quality programs and quality analytics. Tobias has been instrumental in the design and development of proprietary solutions to effectively measure and improve translation quality.
David Schumacher
Manager, Test Services - PlayStation Studios QASony Interactive Entertainment
David Schumacher has worked in the industry for over 17 years, 12 of which have been in quality assurance. Starting his career at Sony Internal QA, David rejoined Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2020 after working alongside clients such as the BBC, Fox, and Rebellion as a producer and lead designer. He is a manager in test services, the group that coordinates functional and localization testing for franchises such as Gran Turismo, Horizon, God of War and Dreams across all PlayStation platforms, and recently including PC and mobile.
Miguel Sepúlveda
Global Localization ManagerKing
Miguel Sepúlveda started his journey in the exciting localization world in 1995. He worked as a quality assurance (QA) specialist for Microsoft for a few projects such as Microsoft Project, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. Early in his career, Miguel worked on the vendor side, mainly working for Lionbridge as localization QA manager for different clients. In 2007 he had the opportunity to enter the gaming industry thanks to Electronic Arts where he was responsible for setting up the technical team to provide automated localization QA services to games such as FIFA, Harry Potter or Need for Speed among others. Then Miguel moved the buyer side giving him the opportunity to complete his vision of how the localization industry worked from both sides. In 2014 he joined the King Candy Crush world where his role is to lead the globalization efforts of a very talented team.
Vanessa Shallcross
Head of LocalizationSEGA Europe
Having been in the games industry since 1996, Vanessa Shallcross is an experienced manager of computer game localization on a global basis. In her early years, she worked for Psygnosis, then moved to Sony Computer Entertainment and more recently Bigpoint GmbH based in Hamburg. Since November 2020 Vanessa was honored to be appointed as the Head of Localisation for Sega Europe overseeing all Localisation, Audio, LQA, and Engineering, part of the wider Operations Team, located in Brentford HQ. Her current focus is on getting to know her team and all the stakeholders across the Sega business, as well as planning the strategic direction of the Localisation Department.
Shwetank Sharma
CEOLocNapps Media
Shwetank Sharma is a seasoned management professional with experience across game localization business consulting, business development and localization project management. In his past professional pursuits, international experience in client relationship and project management for localization services stand out. Shwetank founded Locnapps Media in 2014 which has been instrumental in servicing videogame developers/publishers and language service providers for South East Asian, Middle Eastern and Indian Languages.
Kseniya Shorokhova
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Kseniya Shorokhova has an educational background in linguistics but she got into the language industry just five years ago when she found herself working as a Russian-English translator at Playrix. At that time, their localization team consisted of only three people. Kseniya has grown together with the team and the company, gradually making her way to team lead and ultimately becoming the head of localization. She now oversees more than 40 people and is responsible for Playrix’s localization strategy.
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck
Senior Manager, VO ProductionRiot Games
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck is senior manager of voiceover production at Riot Games, leading the team that produces the voiceover for League of Legends, Wild Rift, VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, and Riot Forge’s upcoming titles. Prior to Riot, she was at the helm of Side LA, where her team worked on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, Riot Games’ Legends of Runeterra, Epic Games’ Fortnite: Save the World, Splash Damage’s Gears: Tactics, and Dontnod Entertainment’s Tell Me Why, among hundreds of other titles. At the start of her career, Jacquie spent a decade with Sony PlayStation, coordinating dialog for projects from Socom 3 to God of War 3. She then went on to manage talent and casting for the Worldwide Studios product development services group, including titles such as The Order: 1886, Spiderman, and 2018’s God of War. Jacquie and her husband live with their cat, Bruce, in Los Angeles, California.
IMDb: Jacquie Shriver
Yumi Okubo-Shuman
Localization Engineering ManagerBig Fish
Yumi Shuman is a localization engineering manager in the International team at Big Fish. She is passionate about the integration of language and modern technologies with game products. Her current focus is driving cloud-based CAT technology with the mix of machine translation and TM program strategy. This is a key component in widening content availability for game and marketing localization. When she’s not working, Yumi enjoys playing with her 5-year-old twins.
Harald Simon
Localization DirectorBethesda
Harald Simon is localization director at Bethesda. He has been in the localization industry since the early 1990s, both on the vendor and the client side. In the video games industry he has held senior positions with Virgin Interactive and Electronic Arts, before joining Bethesda in 2011.
Kaushal Singh
QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Kirill Soloviev
CEO & Co-FounderContentQuo
Kirill Soloviev is the CEO and co-founder at ContentQuo, an Estonian translation technology company that helps global LSPs, enterprise localization teams and government agencies reduce their linguistic quality risk, improve vendor performance and boost machine translation quality at scale with a data-driven approach. During his 18 years in the industry, Kirill has served in diverse buyer-side and vendor-side roles, most recently as global director of localization at Acronis. Kirill has also co-organized the Localization Unconference in Tallinn and regularly mentors both new and seasoned localization professionals.
Kirill Soloviev
ContentQuoKirill Soloviev is the cofounder and head of product at ContentQuo, an Estonian tech startup helping localization teams and language service providers manage and reduce localization quality risk at any scale, with any translation management system. With 15 years of experience in localization across diverse buyer and vendor roles, Kirill served most recently as global director of localization at Acronis, a category-leading software product company, where his team was responsible for both linguistic quality assurance (QA) and software QA. Kirill also organizes the Localization unconference in Tallinn and collaborates with TAUS.
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference ManagerGame Global
Francesca has been in the video game localization industry since 2010, covering various roles: from marketing intern and translator for online games at Wooga and Bigpoint, to Senior Multilingual Localization Specialist at Electronic Arts managing large, multilingual titles, to Program Manager for the Games department at Alpha CRC.
Having experienced both the client and the service provider side of the industry, Francesca recently decided to become a freelance translator and consultant and is currently working as Conference Manager for Game Global and video game localization instructor for the Localization Institute.
Mike Souto
Business Development DirectorGridly
Mike Souto has over 20 years of experience in game and app development and localization. He’s a producer of AAA titles, including the Commandos series, TimeSplitters 2, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and many more. With experience of internal and external development teams, Mike’s been involved in game development at various touchpoints in the process.
LinkedIn: michael-souto-287a131
Niall Spooner-Harvey
Account ManagerGlyph Language Services
Niall Spooner-Harvey has over seven years of experience in the localization industry. He is very happy to be back at Glyph after three years away, most recently working as a project manager in the consumer robotics sector. A classics graduate from the UK, Niall is as passionate about gaming as he is about languages, both living and dead. When not talking at great length about the differences between British and American English or being a two-time Pun Slam champion, he can be found playing Cricket Captain 2020 and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Karen Stevens
Sports Accessibility LeadElectronic Arts
Karen Stevens is the Electronic Arts (EA) sports accessibility lead. She strives to improve the user experience for those with interactive differences. Stevens has been in the game industry for over 13 years and has first-hand experience of what it’s like living with disabilities. She has spoken at several conferences on the topic, and has been featured in magazines, television programs and radio shows.
Nate Stoddard
QA Discipline PrincipalEpic Games
Nate Stoddard has been working in quality assurance (QA), testing, hardware development and game development for more than 12 years. In that time, he has worked on over 34 titles, on almost as many platforms. Nate recently moved from Boston to North Carolina to work at Epic Games and is now a senior QA lead on Fortnite.
Leticia Sáenz Murga
Keywords StudiosCurrently, the localization lead at Keywords Studios Barcelona, Leticia Sáenz Murga manages a team of project managers, coordinators, and linguists specializing in the challenges of localizing market leading games. Leticia has over 11 years of experience in video games localization in different roles, from translator to senior project manager, giving her insight of the whole development and localization process as well as in-depth knowledge of game development and design.
Blanca Sánchez Joplin
Game WriterSocialpoint
Blanca Joplin has been working for over five years as a game writer at Socialpoint, one of Spain’s most vibrant game developers. During this time, she has worked on some very successful titles, including Monster Legends (her main focus and love of her life), Dragon City, World Chef and Word Life. Blanca’s background is in translation, having spent two years as a freelance translator and subtitler prior to arriving at Socialpoint, which has been her home ever since.
Andrea Tabacchi
VP Customer SuccessMemsource
Andrea Tabacchi is the vice president of customer success at Memsource where he utilizes his extensive experience in building customer-centric language technology solutions for multinational corporations and global translation companies. He and his team work with clients to develop solutions to address their translation technology needs, including innovative ways to optimize the Memsource platform, and liaise between clients and internal teams to suggest tool improvements. Prior to Memsource, Andrea spent over ten years on the language service provider side where he served in several roles in language technology, from localization engineering to technology director.
LinkedIn: andreatabacchi
Tülay Tetiker McNally
Director, Inclusive Design & Product DevelopmentElectronic Arts
Tülay Tetiker McNally is director, inclusive design and product development at Electronic Arts, and is responsible for establishing EA Studio’s global approach to creating inclusive products and features that put players first, partnering with EA development teams worldwide. Beginning her career in the video games industry more than 15 years ago at SEGA and Square Enix, she later joined Electronic Arts to head up central development operations at BioWare Edmonton. More recently Tülay was a senior development director at DICE Stockholm. Tülay is originally from Turkey and was raised in Munich, Germany. She has had the opportunity to live and work in countries across Europe and North America. An experienced public speaker and mentor of students and young professionals, she connects with gamers to listen to what makes them feel excluded or marginalized. For the future Tülay wants players to engage with games in safe, fun, and positive ways regardless of who they are or where they are from, to bring inclusive design and thinking to the core of game design. Tülay holds an MA in American studies, with specializations in the history of immigration and civil rights movement, and a BA in psychology from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 2020 she was selected as an inaugural member of TGA’s Future Class.
Mette Tingey
DirectorAlpha CRC
Mette Tingey is the director of Alpha Games, responsible for the revenue, accounts and commercial side of all games business within Alpha. Alpha is a mature LSP with 30+ years of experience providing end-to-end localization solutions to games developers and publishers across the globe.
Tamara Tirjak
Senior Localization ManagerFrontier Developments
Tamara Tirjak is the senior localization manager of Frontier Developments, a self-publishing video game developer based in Cambridge, UK. She is responsible for coordinating all localization-related activities across the organization, focusing on establishing reproducible, automated processes in order to streamline translation efforts and support the company’s international presence. Tamara’s previous experience includes working as an in-house linguist, project manager, translation tool support engineer, and technical trainer for various leading language service providers. She is a certified memoQ trainer, a qualified English-Hungarian translator and interpreter, and holds an MS degree in technology management.
Demid Tishin
All Correct GroupDemid Tishin is a game designer, entrepreneur and mentor. In 2006, he founded Allcorrect Group, a language services business and won a good name with customers such as EA, Ubisoft, Bandai Namco and Gaijin. He also founded Translation Forum Russia, a major convention for the translation industry, and helped to develop ISO 11669, the first ISO standard on translation services. Since 2016, Demid has been the full-time CEO of Funbakers, a game development studio.
To Be Announced
Sony Interactive EntertainmentGeorge Tong
Senior DirectorBeyondsoft Corporation
George Tong has nearly 19 years of IT and business management experience in the product globalization industry. Since 2016, George has worked in the US as senior engineering director, using his globalization industry knowledge, leading Beyondsoft’s onshore/offshore team to globalize clients’ products portfolios. Prior to that, in Nov 2005, George was the general manager and chief technical lead of Product G11N Services Business Unit at Beyondsoft, overseeing project management, technology innovation, personnel management, and business operations.
Charles Ulbig
LT LeadElectronic Arts
Charles Ulbig’s first role in 2002 at Electronic Arts was as QA tester for Football Manager in Cologne, Germany. One day the localization supervisor asked if he was interested in traveling around the world for free — well, almost free. Back in the day, localization testers were sent directly to the development studios to test the games and Charles’ first project abroad was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in Chertsey, UK. For him, it was an incredible experience to work on the same game with so many different people from around Europe. What motivates Charles, besides working with games, is the creativity behind the process of localization. Nothing is more gratifying to him than finding solutions to localization problems and seeing them later in-game. In 2007, Charles moved with EA to Madrid, Spain, took the position of senior tester and then became the localization testing team lead for German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. He is responsible for three permanent linguistic experts and up to 50 temporary employees during peak times.
Ulises Uno
Content & Localization ManagerEtermax
Ulises Uno is content and localization manager at etermax, leading a strategic area for the company’s gaming division which is focused on developing and publishing worldwide social games that entertain, connect and foster knowledge in up to 34 languages. With an educational background in social sciences and translation, he joined the gaming industry as a translator and copywriter. Ulises currently leads a team of language specialists, user experience writers and content producers, guiding them toward a product-centric mindset.
Jeferson Valadares
CEODoppio Games
Jeferson Valadares is CEO and cofounder of Doppio Games, a voice-first game studio based in Lisbon, Portugal. He was also the lead designer on the studio’s debut title The Vortex, available for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. He is also a member of the board of directors at Rovio. In past lives he was VP/GM of Mobile at Bandai Namco; Studio GM at Electronic Arts and Executive Producer at BioWare in San Francisco; Studio Director at Playfish and Creative Director at EA Mobile in London; and Game Development Director at Digital Chocolate’s Sumea studio in Helsinki.
Andrew Vestal
Senior Localization Program ManagerAmazon Game Studios
Andrew Vestal got his start in games localization in 2004, turning Japanese RPGs into English at Tokyo’s 8-4, Ltd. He moved back to the United States in 2006 to work at Blizzard Entertainment, where he oversaw the localization of the first two World of Warcraft expansions, Diablo III, and Battle.net. In 2013, he took a brief break from games to join Microsoft to focus on localization tooling and pipeline design. At Amazon Game Studios since 2017, Andrew currently oversees translation and translation testing of all first-party AGS titles, Twitch Prime, and Lumberyard. He loves retro games and has accidentally started a collection of CRT monitors in his garage.
Brandon Victor
Keywords StudiosJanet Weddle
Technical QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Janet Weddle is a technical QA manager with 15 years of experience in game development, project management, test management and automation. She started her career as a game developer at KnowWonder, Inc. which became Amaze Entertainment. Janet’s development experience there and her later roles in test management and project management led to her strong appreciation of great tools. Throughout her career she saw the benefit of tools and automation in test, development, art and management. Success in these areas led to Janet current position as a technical QA manager and an automation advocate.
Ben Wibberley
Managing PartnerDAQA
Ben Wibberley has over 20 years of experience in the video game industry, specializing in executive strategy, global production support, external development, international production and live operations. Having signed, grown and managed $100M’s of multi-service deals, he has an intimate knowledge of industry best practices, working with some of the most well-known companies in the business. Ben founded DAQA as an independent, new generation video games support agency. DAQA provides strategic consultancy, evaluation and implementation of operations for AAA studios, alongside representation of unique, disruptive, technology-based service companies.
Matt Wilson
Global Head of Format QASony Interactive Entertainment
Matt Wilson is a leader in the software and hardware industry with over 20 years of specialist quality assurance (QA) and testing experience. He is currently the global head of format QA within Sony Interactive Entertainment which handles all compliance for PlayStation globally. Matt has experience leading and building a large (250+) co-located team that deals with 30,000+ products globally annually, each with very short service-level agreements. He recently transitioned four separate regional QA teams to a single co-located global QA team. Matt lives in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Hayato Wada Wong
Cofounder & Localization Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Hayato Wada Wong is a ten-year video game and localization industry veteran, trilingual in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Having shipped titles and work experience in AAA game titles with Sega, as well as working in the outsourcing/gaming-as-a-service industry at Pole to Win and Streamline Studios, Hayato is versed in game production, quality assurance (QA) and localization. Currently, he is a localization manager and cofounder for Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group, a business division involved in rejuvenating the post development process of localization, culturalization marketing, QA, and compliance testing into something fit for the modern times. Hayato hopes to make game development as enjoyable as playing games.
LinkedIn: hayato-wada-wong-b909537
Christine Xaysakda
International Account ManagerLBS Suite
At LBS Suite, Christine Xaysakda is responsible for developing international business, participating in company strategies, and (what she loves the most) advising language service providers on the optimization of clients’ internal processes through technologies. She is passionate about technology, languages, and cultures. Christine loves brainstorming: talking about new business, projects, and ideas. Perhaps you can try speak with her in Mandarin, Cantonese, English or French.
Jingyu Zhang
KingVladimir Zhdanov
Vladimir has been in game localization since 2010. He started as an undergraduate Mandarin-to-Russian translator. He graduated in 2012 with a thesis on Chinese MMORPG translations, and gradually improved his skills until he ended up managing a team of in-house translators for a Chinese mobile gaming company in Beijing in 2015. He lives a life of a passionate localizator: in his spare time he localizes the webcomics series Zen Pencils, and in early 2017 he and his wife volunteered to localize the Indian comic book Menstrupedia into Russian.
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk
QA DirectorQLOC
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk graduated in Japanese studies and public relations but as soon as he started his adventure with functional and compliance testing in 2010, he knew there was no going back. After moving to Madrid, he gathered professional experience in localization quality assurance (QA) while working for Electronic Arts on IPs like Battlefield, FIFA, Sims and Need for Speed. He continued his career at QLOC as a team leader and project manager (PM). As a PM Sergiusz oversaw projects for external clients and the QA process for in-house porting projects, including titles like Resident Evil 6, DmC: Devil May Cry, Ultra Street Fighter IV and more. As a QA director since 2014, he manages QLOC’s QA department that employs over 170 specialists, supervises the work of managers and leads, and is responsible for the coordination of all department activities.
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Intro
Join Game Global conference manager, Francesca Sorrentino, to learn about what to expect from Game Global Digital Summit 2021!
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference ManagerGame Global
Francesca has been in the video game localization industry since 2010, covering various roles: from marketing intern and translator for online games at Wooga and Bigpoint, to Senior Multilingual Localization Specialist at Electronic Arts managing large, multilingual titles, to Program Manager for the Games department at Alpha CRC.
Having experienced both the client and the service provider side of the industry, Francesca recently decided to become a freelance translator and consultant and is currently working as Conference Manager for Game Global and video game localization instructor for the Localization Institute.
Accessibility and Game Design: Why It Matters
According to the World Organization of Health, over one billion people worldwide live with some form of disability. That statistic does not include temporary or situational disability (for example, a broken arm). Taking accessibility into account while designing games is vital to cater to the needs of a diverse audience. The reality is that everybody benefits from better accessibility options. In this presentation, we will define game accessibility, discuss why user-centric design is key to design relevant games, talk about what resources you can use to get started, present examples of accessible games, and conclude with a set of best practices to take your users’ game experience to the next level.
Takeaways:
Attendees will learn why accessible game design is important to consider; what goes into making a game accessible and examples of accessible games; and what resources they will need to get started.
Belén Agulló García
FounderAccessibility Warriors
Belén Agulló García holds a BA in translation and interpreting studies, an MA in audiovisual translation, and a PhD in multimedia accessibility. The topic of her dissertation was accessible subtitles for virtual reality and that was the beginning of her journey as an accessibility advocate. Previously, Belén worked for more than five years in the game localization industry, holding different leadership positions. She combined her years in this industry with her true calling, training others. Currently, Belén is the VP of learning and lead media researcher at Nimdzi Insights and the founder of Accessibility Warriors.
Miguel Bernal-Merino
LecturerUniversity of Roehampton
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
How to Make Your Teams More Inclusive
In the past decade, the video game industry has become increasingly diverse, and companies are now beginning to understand the importance of inclusivity. In this panel presentation, our team of industry veterans will discuss concrete strategies and initiatives both you and your company can take to help foster a more diverse and inclusive environment. This discussion will focus on the inclusivity of gender, accessibility, and mental health for all employees in the gaming industry.
Takeaways: Attendees will get insights on how to drive diversity from within your organization for a more open and equal workplace.
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz
Senior Localization DirectorElectronic Arts
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz is the senior localization director at EA, heading up all worldwide localization functions including translation, recordings, vendor management, testing and engineering for the video game developer and publisher. Originally a translator by education, she looks back at 15 years of experience in the game localization industry. Her current focus is on shaping the strategic direction of localization in the company’s shift to online service models.
Ann Hurley
Vice President of Business DevelopmentTestronic
Ann Hurley has worked within the games industry for over 30 years, starting in sales team management within the distribution sector, then moving into publishing. For the past 12 years, she has been working in the quality assurance vendor space. Although steps have been taken to embrace diversity within our industry, Ann feels strongly about the nurturing of young women within games, to ensure they are supported through coaching in order to build their confidence to find their true potential.
Gina Jackson
Games Consultant/AdvisorGina Jackson is a games industry consultant and advisor. She started in games development in 1992 and has worked for developers, publishers, and distributors covering console, PC, and mobile games. Gina is particularly passionate about diversity, mental health, and skills development. She is treasurer of GamesAid, on the board for NextGen Skills Academy, and a visiting professor in games industry and business at Norwich University of the Arts (NUA). Gina recently received the MCV/DEVELOP Women in Games award for her outstanding contribution, a fellowship from NUA for services to the games industry, and has been honored with an Order of the British Empire for her work in education and diversity in the games industry.
Philip Mayes
Managing DirectorMighty Kingdom
Philip Mayes is the managing director of Mighty Kingdom, winner of the 2019 Australian Game Developer of the Year Award. With more than 15 years of experience, he has worked on games for many large international brands, including Star Wars, LEGO, and Disney. Founded by Philip in 2010, Mighty Kingdom is one of the largest and most diverse game developers in Australia, with over 120 people working across Australia and New Zealand. He is a passionate advocate for the industry locally, and is eager to see that industry be as inclusive, progressive, and successful as possible.
Twitter: @pjm
Gaëlle Caballero
Director of Localization QATestronic
Gaëlle Caballero is a global head of localization quality assurance (LQA) with years of experience in video game QA and localization. A former lawyer, she started her career as a French LQA tester in London and developed her localization skillset working on multiple titles and platforms as a technician, lead, and project manager. Gaëlle successfully developed and delivered Testronic’s Warsaw-based LQA department and is responsible for its continued success. She is recognized for her extensive experience in team management, development, and swift delivery. A great motivator and team builder, she creates confidence and excitement across multiple Testronic global LQA facilities. An advocate for women in games, Gaëlle is involved in Testronic’s initiative aiming to mentor and promote the role of Women in the Games industry. She is also chairman of Testronic’s learning and development committee.
Managing Perception of Quality — A Path to Player Satisfaction?
Crowdsourcing localization has been suggested and implemented as a solution to the ever-increasing volumes of content in a growing industry. However, one of the concerns that has been expressed is crowdsourced localization might not yield high-quality results. One perspective is that perceived quality can be influenced by extrinsic cues rather than the actual, objectively observable attributes of a product. In this session, we will introduce research findings that indicate extrinsic information on the source of a translation can impact how this translation is perceived and asks how these findings might be applied to game localization context and management of quality perceptions.
Takeaways:
Attendees will gain information on who has performed localization and that knowledge’s effect on how the quality is perceived.They will learn that evaluating intrinsic quality takes skills, experience, and time which end-users often don’t have, therefore the end-users rely greatly on extrinsic information or preconceptions.
Tabea De Wille
LecturerUniversity of Limerick
Tabea De Wille holds an MA in German and English linguistics from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and an MS in multilingual computing and localization from the University of Limerick, Ireland. She has completed her PhD studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland, where she examined perceived quality in the context of crowdsourced localization. Previously, Tabea worked in the localization industry, primarily in video games localization and is currently a lecturer at the University of Limerick.
Twitter: @TabeaDeWille
LinkedIn: tabeadewille
Miguel Bernal-Merino
LecturerUniversity of Roehampton
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
LunchPending Confirmation
Grab your lunch and join the conversations during the lunch hour.
Game Global
Game GlobalNick Adams
Director of Transgender RepresentationGLAAD
Nick Adams is the director of transgender representation at GLAAD. He is a resource for media content creators who are telling stories about transgender people. Nick has consulted on hundreds of films and TV shows to help them create authentic transgender characters and stories. He has also worked with Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, DONTNOD, and other gaming companies to create trans-inclusive video games. Nick joined GLAAD in 1998, and transitioned himself at that time.
Belén Agulló García
FounderAccessibility Warriors
Belén Agulló García holds a BA in translation and interpreting studies, an MA in audiovisual translation, and a PhD in multimedia accessibility. The topic of her dissertation was accessible subtitles for virtual reality and that was the beginning of her journey as an accessibility advocate. Previously, Belén worked for more than five years in the game localization industry, holding different leadership positions. She combined her years in this industry with her true calling, training others. Currently, Belén is the VP of learning and lead media researcher at Nimdzi Insights and the founder of Accessibility Warriors.
Pedro Alfageme
Audio Artist ManagerElectronic Arts
Pedro Alfageme is audio artist manager at Electronic Arts. He is responsible for the technical quality of the localized dialogue and the continuous improvement of processes and tools. Pedro leads a team that delivers over a million dialogue files across 11 languages with high-quality standards every year. He has been working in the video game industry since 2004. His experience goes from voiceover recording, editing, and post processing to product owner of EA’s content management system for localization. Pedro is currently involved in voice technologies research and development as a localization stakeholder.
Marie Amigues
CEOAltagram
Marie Amigues is the CEO and founder of Altagram. After living in Paris, Ottawa and New York, she settled in Berlin in 2006. Following her studies in philosophy at La Sorbonne, Marie obtained an MBA in marketing management at Essec. In 2017, she was selected as one of the Top 10 Women in Management in Germany’s gaming industry. Passion, hard work and expertise are the driving forces behind Marie’s accomplishments. She has brought together a team of over 150 talented in-house game localization specialists who have successfully shipped over 5,000 game titles since 2006 for prestigious clients such as Square Enix, Supercell, Blizzard and SEGA, just to name a few.
Cristina Anselmi
Machine Translation LeadElectronic Arts
Cristina Anselmi is machine translation lead at Electronic Arts (EA). She takes care of everything related to machine translation (MT) implementation and maintenance within EA localization, leads a team of MT specialists, and coordinates several developments around MT. Cristina has been in the video game localization industry since 2012, managing all kinds of multilingual projects, from small mobile games to big MMORPGs, and several AAA titles. Her focus for the past four years has been implementing MT and AI technologies to automate workflows within EA localization. Cristina’s goal is to pave the way for this to be welcome in daily life and to be seen as a help rather than an enemy, a powerful tool that can enhance productivity, without jeopardizing quality and creativity.
Estelle Bailly
Localization DirectorHi Rez Studios
With over 20 years of experience in the video game localization industry, Estelle Bailly is an expert in the globalization and internationalization of creative content. She started her career in France, where she learned about the various aspects of the localization pipeline through multiple experiences which lead her to become head of localization at one of the largest video game localization agencies in Paris. In 2016, Estelle joined Hi-Rez Studios, a games-as-a-service studio, as localization director. Since then, her core focus has been to help the company to better engage and serve their international audience, offering them higher quality and enhanced support in various languages. Estelle is currently based in the UK, leading a multicultural team that translates three live games in more than eight languages.
Andrea Ballista
CEOVoiseed
Andrea Ballista has been working in the game industry for more than 25 years. Starting from his passion of music, songwriting, and singing, he holds a degree in computer music. Since cofounding Binari Sonori in 1994, Andrea has been the audio director for Keywords Studios from 2015 until the end of 2019. In 2020 he cofounded Voiseed to proceed into research and development of deep learning-based emotional virtual voices.
LinkedIn: andrea-ballista-4617912
Gérard Barnaud
Localization Project ManagerUbisoft
An industry veteran with 17 years of experience in the gaming industry, Gérard Barnaud started as a localization tester in Ireland in 2001 where he worked for Vivendi. He then moved to Atari headquarters in Lyon, France, where he started as a localization project manager on Neverwinter Nights and evolved to a position of producer for The Witcher (original). He then moved to UBISOFT Montreal and back into localization for Far Cry 2 and Brothers in Arms 3, and ended up in the south of France at the Montpellier studio. Barnaud has worked on various titles ranging from licensed games to large role playing games and intellectual properties for all audiences, and is still passionate about his work.
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz
Senior Localization DirectorElectronic Arts
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz is the senior localization director at EA, heading up all worldwide localization functions including translation, recordings, vendor management, testing and engineering for the video game developer and publisher. Originally a translator by education, she looks back at 15 years of experience in the game localization industry. Her current focus is on shaping the strategic direction of localization in the company’s shift to online service models.
Thomas Barth
Global LQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Thomas Barth (Tommy) has been working in games services for over 12 years and, like many young aspiring professionals, he started in the field of quality assurance (QA) to get a foot in the door of the industry. Since then, he leveled up from German QA tester to test lead, to project manager, to localization quality assurance (LQA) manager and most recently to LQA director at the global games services provider Keywords Studios. Throughout his career, Tommy had the chance to work with brilliant client partners from all sectors of the industry (developers, publishers and hardware manufacturers), provide and supervise testing for games of all genres and sizes, and on all platforms (from consoles to mobile, to the latest and greatest in virtual and augmented reality). He is passionate about the industry and believes that we are better together. Tommy also has a deep love for games and interactive entertainment and feels that all gamers around the world should have the same amazing and immersive experience, no matter which language they speak and play games in. Helping people succeed gives him energy and is one of his key drives as a professional.
Micaela Belluzzo
Global Resource ManagerKeywords Studios
Micaela Belluzzo is the global resource manager at Keywords Studios, focusing on project resourcing and quality control. A translator and interpreter by education, Micaela started her translation career localizing software and media content in 1998. She then joined SDL in Maidenhead as a localization project manager and in 2000 she moved to Milan to manage the EA Italy localization office. From 2003 Micaela contributed to the building of the EA integration hub in Madrid where she worked as head of localization production-integration until 2007. After a two-year break working for international cooperation in Africa and the Middle East, she joined Keywords with a focus on audio localization production and has been working on resource management for the past six years.
Teddy Bengtsson
Founder/DirectorRoundTable Studio
Teddy grew up in Sweden where he studied languages. Although his early professional career diverged into skiing, fashion and the restaurant trade, he eventually came back to languages through localization and a global journey including five home countries. Having held senior localization roles with major IT players Microsoft and Oracle, a crazy idea led him to start an LSP business in Argentina in 2003. RoundTable Studio quickly grew into a regional leader with production centers in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Porto Alegre (Brazil), and a business management unit in Spain where game localization has become one of its key vertical markets.
Mario Bergantiños
Director, Localization Analytics & Video-AudioElectronic Arts
Mario Bergantiños started his journey studying broadcasting, 3D and audio production. After working as a freelancer for several companies he started working at EA and now he has more than 16 years of experience in building high performing teams from audio and video disciplines to data analytics. As a member of EA’s Localization and Madrid leadership teams, Mario is co-responsible for the innovation and strategy of the localization business as well as managing the Audio Artist, Audio Capture, Video Loc and Data Analytics teams.
Mario Bergantiños
Senior Manager- Audio & Video LocalizationElectronic Arts
Priscilla Bermea
Cargo Localization Operations and Partner LeadRiot Games
Priscilla Bermea is the localization operations lead for Latin America at Riot Games. She is Mexican and a professional with over 10 years of experience in the gaming localization industry. Priscilla has been a fierce gamer since she can remember, and has dedicated herself to translating and interpreting videogames for friends and family. After working as a freelance translator and specialized project manager, she turned her favorite hobby into a career, becoming part of the Latin-American Riot Games team in 2016.
Miguel Bernal-Merino
LecturerUniversity of Roehampton
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
Brigitte Berner
Loc Vendor Management SupervisorElectronic Arts
Brigitte Berner is vendor management supervisor at Electronic Arts, leading a small team of vendor specialists. After being with the company for 15 years, building and shaping the vendor management function, including vendor recruitment and quality evaluation processes, her current focus is on automation, leveraging data and exploring usage of AI. Being solution driven, Brigitte is passionate about improving processes and questioning the status quo.
Chris Bewick
Regional FQA Director - EurasiaKeywords Studios
Brian Bies
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy
Managing PartnerLevsha
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy started his journey in video game localization as a freelance translator in 2005. In 2009, he became one of the founders of Levsha localization and has been a managing partner at the studio since then. Despite having a degree in computational linguistics, Fedor’s passion has always been finding new ways to facilitate efficient and joyful interaction and collaboration between different people.
Jonathan Bowring
RiversightJonathan Bowring graduated in computer science and worked for the UK Ministry of Defence and Hewlett-Packard before joining Canon. As Canon’s EMEA localization director, he built an independent services division with its own profit and loss of £15M. Jonathan trained as a mentor and coach and founded Riversight in 2016. The company intends to unlock the potential within leaders, teams and organizations, and provides coaching and facilitation to SME and corporate clients.
Virginia Boyero
Associate ProducerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Virginia Boyero is a history graduate who started a career in games localization in 2006, following a passion for working with languages and quickly getting hooked on the fast-paced tempo of the industry. She joined Massive Entertainment in 2010, and after the release of Far Cry 3 moved on to The Division team where she’s been an Associate Producer for the audio, localization and narrative departments for The Division and The Division 2. Outside of work, Virginia is often found reading travel literature, preferably while on a train.
Gaëlle Caballero
Director of Localization QATestronic
Gaëlle Caballero is a global head of localization quality assurance (LQA) with years of experience in video game QA and localization. A former lawyer, she started her career as a French LQA tester in London and developed her localization skillset working on multiple titles and platforms as a technician, lead, and project manager. Gaëlle successfully developed and delivered Testronic’s Warsaw-based LQA department and is responsible for its continued success. She is recognized for her extensive experience in team management, development, and swift delivery. A great motivator and team builder, she creates confidence and excitement across multiple Testronic global LQA facilities. An advocate for women in games, Gaëlle is involved in Testronic’s initiative aiming to mentor and promote the role of Women in the Games industry. She is also chairman of Testronic’s learning and development committee.
Gordon Campbell
Chief Executive OfficerGo Testify
Gordon Campbell is an experienced entrepreneur, having launched multiple companies in the design and gaming sectors since 2007. Over the last 13 years, Gordon has assisted companies like BBC, HBO and Zynga to produce high-quality entertainment that people want to invest time in. With a masters in human-centered design, he focuses on creating user-centric products using state-of-the-art technology.
Today, Gordon is the CEO of Testify, a company that is uses AI to transform how user testing is conducted within game development; putting players at the heart of every decision. In his current role, Gordon has worked alongside indies to top-50 mobile game studios such as Zynga to ensure they’re using the right testing methods to deliver impact and value within the development cycle.
Eric Say Chan
Program ManagerKeywords Studios
Born in Mexico City and later relocated to Canada, Eric Chan is a program manager with seven years of experience in video game quality assurance (QA). Initially a web developer, he made the jump to video games in 2011 within localization and functionality QA as a tester, test lead and later project manager. Knowledgeable in FQA, LQA, localization and audio, Eric has focused his efforts for the past two years within Keywords’ FQA department. He has since been focusing on project delivery, promoting growth and career paths for staff, and deploying improvements to internal processes.
Anastasiia Chertenkova
Marketing Creatives Team LeadPlayrix
Anastasiia Chertenkova’s path to the game development industry was rather unusual. She started her career as an officer of the police force of Ukraine/inspector of the Ukrainian Bureau of Interpol, senior officer of the criminal investigation sector, and taught administrative law and administrative procedure law in one of the state universities. Then she worked as a freelance translator for a couple of years. She joined the game development industry in 2016, starting as a customer support representative for Playrix. Since then, Anastasiia has held the positions of customer support team lead, community manager and player experience department manager. She is currently marketing creatives team lead.
Glory Choe
Program Manager, R&D LocalizationSalesforce
Before her recent move to Salesforce, Glory started her localization career as a linguist, followed by stints as LQA engineer at Linkedin and L10n producer at Zynga. In 2015, she joined an esports game studio, Super Evil Megacorp, as a Localization Manager, which was truly a dream come true for a lifelong gamer such as herself. Fascinated by different languages and cultures around the world ever since she was little, Glory studied languages and linguistics at the University of Washington in Seattle and has traveled to over 20 countries and three of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Cristian Conteduca
General ManagerYokozuna Data
Cristian Conteduca is general manager of Yokozuna Data. He has a background in scientific computing and physical modeling. Over the past few years, Cristian has developed and implemented AI/ML algorithms applied to video games and high-throughput cloud architectures. His goal is to merge AI and software engineering in a profitable and efficient way in real-life applications.
Daniele Corrado
Customer Support Engineer5th Kind
Daniele had been a consumer of the gaming industry since, well, forever. In 2010 he moved to the other side of the barricades. He began his career as a localization tester for a heterogeneous bunch of titles and platforms. While at Riot Games, Daniele worked in various capacities on every product that was released. His swansong was the global coordination for VALORANT as the Localization Producer for the title. He is currently helping DESTINYbit in developing their next title and he is working as Technical Support Engineer for 5th Kind.
Jamie Cox
Global Content Localization ProducerBlizzard Entertainment
Jamie Cox is a global content localization producer at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard is his first experience in the video game industry, but he’s been in the localization industry for over seven years, first at Gengo, then Welocalize, and then United Language Group. Over the years, Jamie has developed expertise in fast-paced environments, creating useful workflows and problem solving bottlenecks. In his spare time, he enjoys reading (currently the Wheel of Time series), playing way too much Overwatch, and he also plays the harp.
Diego Cresceri
CEO and FounderCreative Words
Diego Cresceri is CEO and founder of Creative Words, a language service provider based in Genoa. At Creative Words he is responsible for the company’s strategy and growth. His clients include multilingual translation agencies, Italian companies aiming to internationalize, and foreign companies aiming to enter the Italian market. Diego graduated from the University of Genoa in translation and interpreting and before founding Creative Words he was a translator, project manager and chief operations officer at a local translation agency. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the European Language Industry Association (ELIA). When not involved in his company, Diego holds workshops and seminars on innovation, artificial intelligence, and machine translation at universities, training schools, and language associations nationally and internationally.
Simone Crosignani
PR ManagerJinglebell Localization
Simone Crosignani worked as a video game journalist for 15 years before moving to the public relations department of Sony Computer Entertainment in Italy. At Sony he handled enthusiast and online media, working on the launch campaigns of PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and 100+ games. In 2006 Simone moved to Binari Sonori, a translation and audio production company, now part of Keywords Studios. In 2016 he joined Jinglebell Localization, the game localization spin-off of audio production powerhouse Jinglebell Communication. Simone has been a member of the International Game Developers Association localization group since day one and has been vice-chair of the group since 2013.
Mirela Cukovic Hanson
Senior Director QAElectronic Arts
Mirela Cukovic Hanson leads Mobile, Maxis and Live quality assurance (QA) teams for Electronic Art’s (EA) development teams around the world. These teams have ensured the quality of players’ experiences in some of the most popular games in the industry: The Sims, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heros; RealRacing3, The Simpsons Tapped Out, PvZ, Battlefield, Madden and others. Mirela is a change agent that has been leading the EA QA organization through several transformations and continues to set a vision for the future and inspire action from what she firmly believes is the best QA talent in the industry. Prior to her current role, Mirela held several technical and operational roles at central and global development groups. She has been at EA for ten years and before that, she held various engineering and technical leadership roles in the Silicon Valley. Mirela holds a degree in computer science from UBC.
Mariana Dadalto Schettino
Gender Inclusive Language SpecialistGame Global
Mariana Dadalto Schettino is a video game localization professional with a passion for gender inclusive language practices and is a project management enthusiast. As a localization tester at Electronic Arts (EA), she has worked to build in quality on more than 15 different titles, from AAA to mobile games. Mariana is the founder of the Gender Inclusive Taskforce for Localization at EA. As the lead stakeholder for this initiative, she creates guidelines for inclusive language for 20 different territories and improves processes regarding gender matters in the department. In addition to researching and implementing guides for a non-binary approach, Mariana works on shipping the first product from EA localization with applied non-binary language. She is currently transitioning to quality assurance testing while continuing as a researcher and adviser for diversity and inclusion practices with an inclusive language approach for localization.
Andrew Dale
KingPaul Davies
Head of Localization and Narrative DesignSocialpoint
Paul Davies manages the English game writing and localization teams at Socialpoint, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games, in sunny Barcelona. Prior to that, he held various positions at Electronic Arts in the UK and Germany, where he most recently managed the worldwide localization of EA’s mobile games portfolio. A keen gamer at heart, Paul started his career as a translator and language tester for console games at Sony Computer Entertainment in (not-so-sunny) Liverpool.
Tabea De Wille
LecturerUniversity of Limerick
Tabea De Wille holds an MA in German and English linguistics from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and an MS in multilingual computing and localization from the University of Limerick, Ireland. She has completed her PhD studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland, where she examined perceived quality in the context of crowdsourced localization. Previously, Tabea worked in the localization industry, primarily in video games localization and is currently a lecturer at the University of Limerick.
Twitter: @TabeaDeWille
LinkedIn: tabeadewille
Mason Deming
XLOCMason Deming is the chief technology officer (CTO) and system architect of XLOC. While at XLOC he has worked closely with developers on high profile titles such as League of Legends, the Call of Duty series and Borderlands. Prior to founding and serving as XLOC’s CTO, Mason enjoyed a successful career in game design, development, business-to-business e-commerce and database administration. He has performed key programming roles on numerous high profile titles while working on staff at Activision. He served as CTO for Roaring Mouse Entertainment and developed, programmed and managed Networld Exchange’s B2B e-commerce system.
Olivier Deslandes
VP Audio & TranslationSIDE Audio PTW
Olivier Deslandes is a games industry veteran, starting as a voice talent, voice director and translator in the late 1990s. He has contributed to more than 200 titles. Olivier joined Side in 2002 to establish and develop its localization department. In 2017, with Side under PTW ownership, he became senior director of global audio. He rose to vice president of audio and translation for PTW and Side in 2018. Olivier holds degrees in communication and advertising.
Diana Díaz Montón
CofounderNative Prime
Diana Díaz Montón is a game localization specialist with over 20 years of experience. She graduated in translation and interpreting, then began her career with an internship at EA Sports. Diana founded Wordlab in 2005 and in 2010 cofounded Native Prime, a company specialized in video game localization. She has been involved in the localization of reference titles such as Dragon Quest XI, Ni no Kuni, Hitman 2 & 3, Snack World, and hundreds more. Diana enjoys spreading the love for video game localization and has participated as a speaker at different events, such as GDC or Gamelab, both addressed to future localizers as well as to developers and publishers. She collaborates with different universities and institutions where she teaches game localization and project management, and has also written a series of articles about the challenges of game localization.
Twitter: maloria
LinkedIn: dianadiazmonton
Dmitry Drozdov
KingJakub Dudkowski
Senior QA Project ManagerQLOC
Jakub Dudkowski is a quality assurance (QA) professional with over eight years of experience as a functionality, localization and certification QA tester, team leader, project manager, training manager, community manager and QA manager. Currently he is a senior QA project manager at QLOC. Jakub is also a fighting game player, tournament organizer, host and community supporter with over 16 years of competitive experience. He has worked on over 100 titles including several fighting games.
Nathalie Duret
HR ManagerKeywords Studios
Nathalie Duret is the human resource manager (HR) at Keywords Studios, Paris, France, and as such, she is responsible for recruitment and training. She has worked for more than 20 years in the localization industry, including 13 years at Electronic Arts, France. Nathalie has held various positions giving her the opportunity to tackle video games localization specifics such as text and audio localization, project management, vendor management, team management and more. In 2013, she decided to move to HR to bring support to the localization teams from a different perspective, to focus on people development and to help the teams grow and adapt to constantly changing environments.
Kate Edwards
CEO / Principal ConsultantGeogrify
Kate Edwards is the CEO and principal consultant of Geogrify, a consultancy for content culturalization, a board member of Take This, and is the former executive director of the International Game Developers Association from 2012 to 2017. In addition to being an outspoken advocate that serves in several advisory/board roles, she is a geographer, writer and corporate strategist who pioneered the field of content culturalization in games. As Microsoft’s first geopolitical strategist on the geopolitical strategy team she created and managed, Edwards protected the company against political and cultural content risks across all products and locales. Since Microsoft, she has assisted many clients on a variety of geopolitical and cultural issues across many products and game franchises. Kate is also a columnist for MultiLingual magazine. Fortune magazine named her as one of the “10 most powerful women” in the game industry and she was named by GamesIndustry.biz as one of their six People of the Year. In April 2018, she was honored with Reboot Develop’s annual Hero Award.
Mario Ferrer
Senior UX WriterSenior UX Writer
Mario Ferrer is a senior (or señor) user experience (UX) writer. He designs content that guides users across digital products and services. Mario is a part of UX Writers Spain, a local community of practitioners that guide professionals on how to get into the discipline, and helps companies discover the value of the UX writer role within a product team. He’s always trying to find the best tacos in town, listens to stand-up comedy and teaches his two kids about Mexican Lucha Libre.
Stanisław Fiedor
CEOFuero
Stanisław Fiedor graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics with the master degree in finance and accounting. His adventure with interactive content started already in high school were together with the current chief technical officer he was developing flash-based multiplayer experiences. During his university times, he started an interactive agency. Stan is the chief executive officer and cofounder of Fuero Games. Stan grew the studio from a four people team to a 40 professionals big experienced team. During this time he closed deals with some of the biggest players in the industry like WarGaming, Nexon, CD Projekt or Miniclip and responsible for signing IP’s like The Witcher. Stan is also a founding member of the Polish Games Association.
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content Localization
Loquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content LocalizationLoquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck is an independent consultant who learned his trade setting up and managing localization
processes and teams for free-to-play/mobile games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games on
the publisher side. This made him develop a particular interest in seeking and trying out new language
technology and service provider models that allow for economic and quality continuous translation
workflows. Connecting the dots between the needs of product owners with the strengths of service
providers, he now supports businesses in selecting and implementing the right processes, tools and
partners for their products.
Krzysztof Fudro
FQA Team LeadKeywords Studios
Krzysztof Fudro is functionality quality assurance (QA) lead at Keywords Studios Katowice. He and his team work with clients to achieve the highest testing efficiency possible. Prior to Keywords Studios Katowice, Krzysztof worked at In-House Studio as a game designer and QA tester. That experience allows him to predict what each client needs the most, sometimes even before the client realizes it. Krzysztof’s addiction to efficiency, combined with an interest in automation, always pushes him further to improve and optimize processes.
Joshua van Gageldonk
Guerrilla GamesJoshua van Gageldonk started working as a quality assurance tester in Guerrilla Games in August 2013, at the very end stages of development of Killzone Shadow Fall. After the development of Killzone Shadow Fall was completed, he was part of the test team for Horizon Zero Dawn, where he specialized in testing Robots, World Activities (non story-driven content), Random Encounters and Living World.
Carlos Garcia-Shelton
Product ManagerXLOC
Carlos Garcia-Shelton is the product manager at XLOC and is responsible for overseeing the business and all aspects of product development. Learning game production from many different angles such as quality assurance, development, publishing and localization has led him to a love for identifying and executing ways to bring together global teams and organize their efforts in the most efficient and effective ways.
Steven Garrad
Outsourcing, Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Jaime Gine
Keywords StudiosJaime Giné is chief customer officer for Keywords Studios. He represents the voice of the customer in the Keywords global organization across all services and designs innovative and customized solutions for Keywords top clients, always within the framework of strategic partnerships. Before joining Keywords he was vice president international development services at Electronic Arts (EA). Prior to joining EA, Jaime worked at SDL, holding various positions as departmental manager, project manager and divisional director. He was also part of the executive team that led SDL during the IPO.
Natalie Gladkaya
Director of LocalizationPlarium
Natalie Gladkaya joined the game localization industry in 2011 as a translator/editor, then managed teams of game localization and localization quality assurance. During her tenure with Plarium, she has worked on localizing over ten web and mobile game titles, including Raid: Shadow Legends and Mech Arena, into a variety of languages, building localization workflow, and both in-house and remote localization teams from the ground up.
LinkedIn: natalie-gladkaya
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov
Head of LocalizationSocial Quantum
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov started in translation and adaptation of text games at local IRC networks in 2003. He then switched to software and ended up doing amateur localization of huge titles like SWAT 4 and Septerra Core. Now Mike is the head of localization at Social Quantum, one of the top ten largest game publishers in Russia and Eastern Europe. The mobile game developer has created such titles as Megapolis, Wild West: New Frontier, Dragon’s World, Ice Age World, and Poker Jet, and is in the process of creating more. The company has also been conducting successful experiments in machine translation and machine translation post-editing.
Kaysie Green
Program Manager, Games LocalizationGlyph Language Services
Kaysie Green joined Glyph in 2015 as a project manager and developed her zone of genius around the games industry. This passion was her path to becoming a project manager devoted to Glyph’s games clients. Kaysie is currently the program manager for Glyph’s games division. In this role, she ensures continuous process improvement, up-to-the-moment market research, production quality and the cultivation of Glyph’s team of top-tier, game-obsessed linguists. Before coming to Glyph, Kaysie earned her BA in international relations from Gonzaga University, in 2013.
Aditya Gupta
Cofounder & QA Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Aditya Gupta is a cofounder of Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group. Currently working as a quality assurance and release manager at Day Zero, he has over nine years of game industry experience in game production and release management. Aditya is versed in quality assurance, title certification, and the release management process for multiplatform games. Over the years, he has worked on 12 AAA titles from Ubisoft, Codemasters, Streamline Games, and various other AAA publishers. In his leisure, he loves to cook and cruise around on his motorbike.
LinkedIn: my.linkedin.com/in/aditya-gupta-64204086
Clara Gómez Pérez
Localization Lead & Vendor ManagerGoodgame Studios
Clara Gómez Pérez joined the game localization industry ten years ago. Since 2011 she has led the localization department at Goodgame Studios. She holds a BA in translation and interpreting and an MA in specialized translation. Clara’s favorite localization-related topics are content management systems, key performance indicators, localization tools, process automation and funny localization mistakes.
Patricia Gómez Jurado
Associate Director of Content DesignKing
Patricia Gómez is based in Barcelona, where she is associate director of content design at King. She is building the first content design craft at King, managing a team of content designers and leading content operations. Previously, Patricia was the head of content at eDreams Odigeo, leading a team of UX writers and localization specialists. She started her career in the localization industry and worked six years as localization manager at Google Spain and Portugal. She currently teaches localization in the UX writing course by Shifta (Elisava).
Patrick Görtjes
Localization Project ManagerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Patrick Görtjes is a Localization Project Manager at Massive Entertainment, the lead development studio behind the Tom Clancy’s The Division games. Patrick holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Communication and got his start in the industry as a translator before moving on to project management. When he’s not working, Patrick enjoys hiking, board games, and karaoke.
Lukasz Hacura
Anshar StudiosChristin Hansson
KingChristin Hansson has been working with quality assurance (QA), project management and agile methods in the mobile industry for 15 years. She is now working hands-on for two game teams at King and is successfully supporting them in their ways of working with QA. Christin is also working together with the localization team at King to improve their testing processes. She has a big passion for both games and quality.
Amanda Hawthorne
Inclusive Language SpecialistElectronic Arts IL
Amanda Jane Hawthorne is an inclusive language specialist with a background as an English teacher, trainer, and materials writer. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the area of diversity, specializing in race and LGBT+ awareness. Currently based in Madrid, Amanda works full time in the tech industry, is the founding director of The Bechdel Film Club Madrid, and volunteers with antiracism organizations. She is also an award winning researcher and recently contributed to the book How To Write Inclusive Materials by Tyson Seburn.
Ulrich Henes
PrincipalLocWorld
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.
Inés Hernández
Electronic ArtsInés Hernández is a veteran game industry professional with over 15 years of experience in video games localization. She is currently managing the localization portfolio and project management teams at Electronic Arts.
Robert Herzog
Head of LocalizationTravian Games
Robert Herzog is the of head of localization and writing at Travian Games, overseeing the strategic direction of both departments. He’s been with the company for 11 years, starting as a localization project manager in 2011. Before that, Robert earned his spurs in other video game companies as localization project manager and translator. He found his way into the gaming and localization industry as freelance translator in 2004.
Celia Hodent
Game UX ConsultantCelia Hodent
Celia Hodent is recognized as a leader in the application of user experience (UX) and cognitive science in the game industry. Celia holds a PhD in psychology and has over ten years of experience in the development of UX strategy and processes in video game studios. Through her work at Ubisoft, LucasArts, and as director of UX at Epic Games (Fortnite), she has contributed to many projects across multiple platforms, from PC to consoles, mobile, and VR. Celia is also the founder of the Game UX Summit, advisor for the GDC UX Summit, member of the Foresight Committee at CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, an independent French administrative regulatory body), author of The Gamer’s Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design and The Psychology of Video Games. She currently works as an independent consultant, helping studios increase the likelihood of their games to be engaging and successful. Celia also provides guidance on the topics of playful learning, ethics, unconscious bias, and inclusion in technology.
Twitter: @CeliaHodent
Blog: celiahodent.com
Bjorn Holste
Localization QA ManagerSQUARE ENIX
Björn Holste is localization QA manager at Square Enix, overseeing, shaping and improving the LQA for many titles and franchises including Tomb Raider, Just Cause and Life is Strange. He has worked in LQA and QA for over a decade and during this time has worked in various roles on many different titles. After a brief stint in Software/Web QA, he joined the great team at Square Enix about 2 years ago.
Echo Huang
Senior Delivery ManagerBeyondsoft Corporation
Ann Hurley
Vice President of Business DevelopmentTestronic
Ann Hurley has worked within the games industry for over 30 years, starting in sales team management within the distribution sector, then moving into publishing. For the past 12 years, she has been working in the quality assurance vendor space. Although steps have been taken to embrace diversity within our industry, Ann feels strongly about the nurturing of young women within games, to ensure they are supported through coaching in order to build their confidence to find their true potential.
Marina Ilari
CEOTerra Localizations
Marina Ilari is an ATA certified translator with 16 years of experience in the localization industry. She has worked as a translator and quality assurance specialist for many companies around the world with a special focus on video game localization. Marina is the chief executive officer of Terra Localizations and co-host of the podcast En Pantuflas. She was a 2020 recipient of the Enterprising Women of the Year award.
Marina Ilinykh
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Marina Ilinykh started her career in localization in 2011. Since then she’s been working in game localization on both the vendor and client sides. Currently Marina is the head of localization at Playrix, overseeing localization of all of the company’s titles, ensuring market-readiness and driving innovation initiatives.
Gina Jackson
Games Consultant/AdvisorGina Jackson is a games industry consultant and advisor. She started in games development in 1992 and has worked for developers, publishers, and distributors covering console, PC, and mobile games. Gina is particularly passionate about diversity, mental health, and skills development. She is treasurer of GamesAid, on the board for NextGen Skills Academy, and a visiting professor in games industry and business at Norwich University of the Arts (NUA). Gina recently received the MCV/DEVELOP Women in Games award for her outstanding contribution, a fellowship from NUA for services to the games industry, and has been honored with an Order of the British Empire for her work in education and diversity in the games industry.
Maryam Jaddoo
Localization ManagerWizards of the Coast
Maryam Jaddoo is the head of localization at Wizards of the Coast. She is responsible for leading critical product development and localization of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons and MTG Arena among others. Maryam has 10 years of localization experience. In her career, she has worked as a translator, game guide writer, game tester and project manager. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French and a master’s degree in project management and is fluent in multiple languages. Maryam is originally from Mauritius and her native language is French.
Paul Jakovlev
Customer Success Team LeadLokalise
Paul Jakovlev is a customer success team lead at Lokalise. He is an avid gamer and living the dream of learning about behind the scenes of game development by helping his favorite industry with localization challenges. In his spare time, Paul likes to binge-watch documentaries on various streaming platforms.
Rafał Jaworski
Linguistic AI ExpertXTM International
Rafał Jaworski, PhD, is an academic lecturer and scientist specializing in natural language processing techniques. His alma mater is Adam University in Poznań, Poland, where he works at the Department of Artificial Intelligence. Rafał’s scientific work concentrates around developing robust AI algorithms for the needs of computer assisted translation. These include automatic lookup of linguistic resources and computer assisted post editing, among others. Apart from the research and teaching, he works as linguistic AI expert at XTM International, leading a team of young and talented developers who put his visions and ideas into practice.
Renée Jessen
CEOCharacter Publishing & Localization
Cofounder and CEO of Character Publishing & Localization since 2010, Renée Jessen initially started working as a dubbing translator in the mid-nineties while studying rhetoric and history of ideas. The challenge of creating spoken language and personality in translations is still the favorite part of his job although business development takes up the majority of his time. Today, Character is both a global localization company focused on games and a publishing house of interactive experiences for children. Renée’s main focus is to balance the use of technologies and the translators’ need for a creative approach to their work.
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli
Head of Translation ServicesTestronic
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli was born in Argentina, has lived in several countries and has always been marked by books, games, languages and having to adapt to different cultures. Choosing to pursue studies in translation led to living in Warsaw. Around 2015, this escalated from working with Testronic’s localization quality assurance team to being involved in the development of Testronic’s translation services. He has managed the translation process for multiple game titles and tries to be involved as a translator or editor when time permits (aside from being constantly engaged with games and other forms of culture).
Alex Johnson
Dubbing ProducerPatricia Jurado
Head of Content and InsightsKing
Patricia is the current Head of Content and Insights, managing a team of content strategists and insights analysts at King Player Support. Previously, she worked at eDreams Odigeo as Head of Content and Localization, managing a team of UX writers, Content Specialists and translations providers responsible for the group websites and apps content in 20 languages. Between 2008 and 2014, Patricia worked at Google as a Language Manager driving quality product localization for Spain and Portugal. Patricia started her professional career in SDL as a translator and project manager. She holds a Master in Internet Business from ISDI and has completed Scrum Master official training. Patricia is the former manager of the Catalan Chapter of Women in Localization.
Your Job Title: Head of Content and Insights
Tomasz Juszczak
Vice President of TechnologyFuero
Tomasz Juszczak is vice president of technology at Fuero Games, where he leads and oversights all projects in the company from the technical side, including technology research and implementing programmers code quality principles. His current focus at Fuero Games is leading of the Artificial Intelligence Testing Framework R&D Project. The AITeF project is being developed as one of the selected projects under a grant from the National Center for Research and Development in Poland. His personal portfolio includes projects for different disciplines, from the medical field, car industry to sales projects in which he worked closely with Samsung and TVN. He has expertise in VR, AR, SaaS, applications, 2D/3D games for mobile, console and PC.
Alex Kang
Chief Operating OfficerBridge Translations
Alex Kisok Kang is the cofounder and chief operating officer of Bridge Translations in Seoul, Korea. He has been in the translation industry for over 15 years, working in various capacities including freelance translator, lecturer and language service provider executive. He has transformed Bridge Translations from a conventional translation company into a dedicated mobile game localization company. Alex previously oversaw all aspects of day-to-day management but with the growth of business, he now focuses on QA and client relations.
Polina Karpova
Vendor ManagerLevsha
For the past 2 ½ years, Polina Karpova has been a vendor manager at Levsha localization studio where she is responsible for seeking and recruiting new vendors as well as guiding and helping them throughout their cooperation with Levsha. Whenever vendors face an issue with payment, workload, information, or production — she is there for them. Polina studied international relations at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (English and Spanish languages) and as a student, she participated in a game localization workshop in 2016.
Dominick Kelly
Client Solution Director - Europe, Middle East and AsiaXTM International
Dominick Kelly fell into the localization industry 16 years ago as a software engineer and decided never to leave. Over time, he has been involved with the localization tool space and worked at some of the largest language service providers in the world. For the past six years, Dominick has worked at XTM International, as a key part of the team focused on driving innovation and growth at the forefront of cloud-based language technology.
Ayesha Khan
Principal Narrative DesignerDeep Silver Dambuster Studios
Ayesha Khan is an unapologetic word nerd, fascinated by the way languages change over time and influence the way their speakers think. Having moved around for most of her life, Ayesha has used her cultural adaptability and comfort with several languages to help her integrate into game development studios in four countries, where she has worked on titles including The Lord of the Rings Online, Gears Tactics, Wizard101, DarkOrbit and APB. Ayesha has been a narrative designer, writer, content designer and everything in between. Her favorite forms of amateur anthropology include sampling local food and drink wherever she can and gleefully inflicting her karaoke skills upon bar patrons around the world.
Vladimir Konoplitsky
CEORIOTLOC
Vladimir is a team lead and head of the localization studio Riotloc. He started as a games translator and editor in 2007 and worked on everything from casual indie games to AAA titles. Vladimir is a specialist in QA and translation tools and is an old fan of the Total War series, but has an affection for RPGs. He is a strong believer in handcrafting the approach and team-like relations between developers and localizers. Apart from inventing new ways of working in his team, he occasionally speaks at game conferences, organizes localization workshops and gamedav events. He failed university exams once because of Fallout 3.
Gábor Kovács
Game Localization ExpertmemoQ
As part of the memoQ gaming unit, Gábor Kovács uses his abilities to combine technical knowledge with sales skills to act as a primary contact for product demos, client needs assessment, and training along with many other duties. Using his well-honed communication skills, he can simplify and communicate complex concepts to a nontechnical audience. Gábor’s IT background also gives him the edge when it comes to technical discussion and finding the right solutions. He has been an avid gamer since childhood.
Denisse Kreeger
Head of Global Localization ProductionRiot Games
Denisse Kreeger is the head of global localization production at Riot Games, and the Los Angeles chapter manager at Women in Localization. With over 15 years of experience in the localization industry, she has also managed localization production at Blizzard Entertainment and Netflix, where she helped build much of the localization infrastructure. Denisse graduated from UCLA and has an MA from the University of Roehampton in audiovisual translation.
LinkedIn: dkreegerl10n
Mathieu Lachance
FQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Mathieu Lachance has worked in the video game industry for over 12 years on more than 400 video game titles. He currently heads Keywords’ Testing services through the Keywords, VMC, Babel and Enzyme studios, leading an international team of over 2500 spanning 15 studios. He has been a featured expert, speaker and lecturer in/at MCV magazine, Develop magazine, Gamasutra, HEC Montreal University, EA’s XDS, Oculus Connect, MIGS, NGDC and more.
Renato Laus
Lead QA CoordinatorRovio Entertainment
Renato Laus is a lead quality assurance (QA) coordinator at Rovio Entertainment. He takes pride in ensuring its games have top-notch quality, and works daily with the QA leads. Renato heads up several cross-unit initiatives engaging with internal stakeholders, and he champions localization in the company as a means to expand the market reach of its games, therefore taking steps to improve the localization processes, interfacing with internal teams and external vendors alike.
LinkedIn: renato-laus-91b506a5
Stephen Laverick
Team Experience DirectorTestronic
Stephen Laverick is the team experience director at Testronic. He is responsible for recruitment, learning and development, and the community of employees. Though he is based in Warsaw, Stephen’s current role covers the UK, Europe and the United States. He has over 20 years of recruitment and learning, and development experience. Stephen has held numerous positions across the UK and Europe at various companies ranging from start-ups to blue chip companies. From a young age he has had a passion for gaming and still plays on a number of devices, so putting his passion for gaming and developing people together is like a dream come true!
Luca Lazari
Audio Technical Operations ManagerKeywords Studios
Luca Lazari works for Keywords Studios as an audio technical operations manager. He worked for music and TV studios after graduating in sound and recording engineering, and science and technology of music communication. Luca joined the game localization industry in 2008 as an audio project lead at Binari Sonori, later acquired by Keywords Studios. After managing the audio technical part for multilanguage localization of countless games (including AAA titles) for over a decade, he moved to Keywords Studios audio localization division, operating at a global level, supervising audio technical processes and workflows.
LinkedIn: lucalazari
Tom Lee
CofounderLOVO
Tom Lee worked in sales at MuleSoft (now a Salesforce company) and digital marketing at LG prior to his time at LOVO. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UC Berkeley.
When Tom is not interacting with users or reading up on the latest trends in AI and voice, he can be found writing poems, drinking beer, training in a boxing gym, scuba diving, or playing FIFA.
LinkedIn: tomsklee
Ville Lehtinen
Senior DeveloperRovio Entertainment
With over a decade of experience working on both mobile/embedded graphics engines and games, Ville Lehtinen has worked with game studios at companies such as Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Rovio. His recently released titles include South Park Phone Destroyer (Ubisoft Redlynx) and Small Town Murders (Rovio).
LinkedIn: ville-lehtinen-99337410
Marie Leininger
Vendor SpecialistElectronic Arts
After graduating from the Cologne University of Applied Science, Marie Leininger started work as a localization project manager for marketing content. In 2017, she moved to Electronic Arts as a vendor specialist and interim multilingual localization specialist. Marie’s main focus is on evaluating and defining translation and post-editing quality, and establishing and maintaining vendor relationships.
Audrey Lepage
Senior Localization Project ManagerBigpoint GmbH
With a degree in modern languages and literature, Audrey Lepage started her career in the games industry in 2010 as a French localization tester for DTP Entertainment, Hamburg. After a year of testing fun, she moved to Bigpoint where she first worked as a French translator, then as a localization project manager (LPM) and then was promoted to senior LPM in 2017. In the constant search for more efficient and streamlined workflows, Bigpoint transitioned to XTM four years ago and has been tailoring the tool to meet their requirements with the support of the XTM team.
Michael Liu
R2GamesMichael Liu is a Chinese-Canadian English localization specialist and quality assurance at Reality Squared Games, with over 20 years of gaming experience especially in MMORPGs, MOBAs and CCGs which require an intimate understanding of game mechanics. Michael loves to play video games on a deep level with self-imposed challenges such as low-level games (beat games at the lowest level possible), naked runs (not wearing any equipment), iron man (permanent death, can only use what you find). He is responsible for highly technical translations that contain heavy gaming jargon or deep understanding of game mechanics. Has extremely accurate and creative translations.
Irina Lokshyna
Development DirectorWargaming
Federica Lusardi
Senior Translator/Editor - ItalianSQUARE ENIX
A passionate gamer since childhood, Federica Lusardi began working in the videogames industry when she moved to London in 2011 to study for an MA in audiovisual translation. After a brief time as a language tester for SEGA and translating her first game for Codemasters as a freelancer, she worked at Pole To Win as an in-house translator and team supervisor. Federica joined Square Enix in 2016, where she currently works as Italian translator/editor. Her work encompasses translation for games and marketing campaigns, and she has translated games such as Life is Strange 2, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the FINAL FANTASY Trading Card Game and Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Sílvio Macedo
Senior Localization DirectorBluelab
Sílvio Macedo has 15 years of experience in game localization and has managed dozens of AAA titles, as well as a vast variety of mobile and online games of all genres for multi-platforms. Sílvio has managed/overseen every step of the localization process, from translation to audio recording and post-production. His hands-on approach gives him a thorough knowledge of the complex localization process involved in each game title. He’s currently the senior localization director at BlueLab, where he’s been working since 2004.
Takako Maeda
Globalization Project ManagerKing
Takako Maeda is a globalization project manager at King, inspired by the Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement, Kaizen. She joined King in 2014 and recently has taken on the challenge of internationalization, working closely with game engine developers to ensure high quality in King games. She loves coming up with creative solutions to problems and working with colleagues from across the organization. She lives in Barcelona and in her free time enjoys making Japanese ceramics.
Sebastian Maeser
LQA Project ManagerKeywords Studios
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual TranslationUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron is a lecturer and a member of the research group TransMedia Catalonia at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is the director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation and has extensive experience as a translator, specializing in software and game localization. Carme’s research interests include game localization, game accessibility, audiovisual translation and accessibility to the media. She has published extensively in international journals, participated in several research projects and is one of the principal investigators of the Researching Audio Description: Translation, Delivery and New Scenarios (RAD), funded by the Spanish Government. Carme is coauthor of Game Localization: Translating for the Global Digital Entertainment Industry (O’Hagan and Mangiron, 2013) and one of the editors of Fun for All: Translation and Accessibility Practices in Video Games (Mangiron, Orero & O’Hagan, 2014).
Anca Marica
EMEA Localization ManagerUbisoft
Anca Marica is a localization professional with over ten years of experience in the video game industry. At Ubisoft, she oversees the localization operations for the EMEA region by keeping in close contact with project managers and handling various transversal topics such as loc quality, process improvement or vendor management to ensure the localized versions of Ubisoft games meet company standards.
She holds a BA in English and Spanish philology, a master’s degree in international studies and an MS in project management.
Teresa Marshall
VP Globalization & LocalizationSalesforce
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 Education. From 2014 to 2016 she was on the board of Women in Localization. Before joining Salesforce in 2009, Teresa managed localization efforts at both Google and PGP in Silicon Valley while teaching at MIIS. An active member of the localization community, she has been the organizer and cohost of the annual Localization Unconference in Silicon Valley since 2009.
Jakub Marszałkowski
GIC & Indie Games Poland FoundationJakub Marszałkowski is the cofounder and a board member of Indie Games Poland, conducting projects that provide the presence of Poland at expos and conferences, travel scholarships, game jams, or visits of foreign delegations in Poland. Jakub regularly serves as a spokesperson for the Polish game industry and the CEE region. He was recognized with the annual award of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as an organizer and promoter working for game developers. As the head of the Game Industry Conference in Poznań, Jakub developed it into one of the largest events in the CEE region. He is also a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Poznan University of Technology.
Nadine Martin
Senior Manager, Test ServicesSony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Nadine Martin has been working in the games industry and quality assurance (QA) for over 15 years. She joined Sony PlayStation’s internal QA team after completing a degree in business administration, starting initially as a localization tester for German and progressing to the management of the localization test team. In 2013 she became senior manager for test services which includes localization and functional testing. The team is responsible for testing game franchises such as Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Horizon and God of War on all PlayStation platforms, including virtual reality and mobile. Nadine has presented extensively on QA and localization topics.
Robert Masella
Senior Gameplay EngineerRare(Microsoft)
Robert Masella is a Senior Software Engineer at Rare with over 14 years of experience working of game development. He has worked on a wide variety of games including Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the Kinect Sports series, and Sea of Thieves. He’s worked on a variety of feature areas, but mostly spends time developing AI, physics and animation code. During production of Sea of Thieves, he has been heavily involved in the automated testing of gameplay code, in order to maintain the build integrity required for a service game.
Philip Mayes
Managing DirectorMighty Kingdom
Philip Mayes is the managing director of Mighty Kingdom, winner of the 2019 Australian Game Developer of the Year Award. With more than 15 years of experience, he has worked on games for many large international brands, including Star Wars, LEGO, and Disney. Founded by Philip in 2010, Mighty Kingdom is one of the largest and most diverse game developers in Australia, with over 120 people working across Australia and New Zealand. He is a passionate advocate for the industry locally, and is eager to see that industry be as inclusive, progressive, and successful as possible.
Twitter: @pjm
Fabio Minazzi
Text Localization DirectorKeywords Studios
Fabio Minazzi has been into localization of interactive media since 1992, dealing with text, audio and video contents at Philips Interctive Media. After founding Binari Sonori, he dealt with software localization projects for Sun, Oracle, Peregrine and Adobe for a decade, using CAT and WISIWIG localization tools, DTP and workflow systems. This experience has proven useful in the roaring game localization industry, where, for the past ten years, Fabio has been in charge of game localization by Codemasters, Microsoft, Capcom, Square Enix and Bandai-Namco. An active member of Games Localization SIG and cofounder of the Games Localization Round Table, he is passionate about building bridges between cultures and helping people publish great content worldwide.
Hugo Miranda
Language SpecialistBlizzard Entertainment
As a language specialist for Latin American Spanish, Hugo Miranda’s main quest is to find what serves players best. From making linguistic creative decisions on style, translation and voiceover to diving deep into the history and culture of the region, he combines a passion for video games, languages and heritage.
Anneta Mitsopoulo
Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Anneta Mitsopoulou has been with Electronic Arts (EA) since 2008. She holds a diploma in translation and is based in Cologne, Germany. Anneta’s current focus lies on workflow optimization and automation. She is also involved in machine translation research at EA and is passionate about technology and automating workflows.
Maciej Miąsik
Pixel CrowMaciej Miąsik is a veteran game developer, producer, designer, sound designer, programmer and cofounder of several gamedev studios that have been active for the past 25 years. Maciej was head of production and responsible for the first part in 2007 of the Witcher series. Other games he has participated in may be known to adventure game players: Reah: Face the Unknown, Schizm: Mysterious Journey, Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon and Sentinel: Descendants in Time, and recently, Beat Cop. One title codeveloped by him is Electro Body (1992), considered one of the first successful Polish PC games. Maciej is also actively engaged in different educational efforts such as curriculum director at Game Dev School and as a regular lecturer at Warsaw Film School and Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology. He is currently working as a member of the board at Movie Games S.A. and on his new game at Pixel Crow.
Valentina Mollica
LQA ManagerTestronic
Nadine Monschau
Senior Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Nadine Monschau is senior localization manager at EA, leading the translation, vendor management, machine translation, and desktop publishing teams. She has a background in translation and started her career at EA and in the video game localization industry in 2001. Currently, Nadine has kicked off an inclusive language initiative to ensure that players can immerse in an inclusive experience when they play EA games. She is also the local chair of EA’s Women’s Ultimate Team Employee Resource Group and passionate to help women (and her teams in general) progress in their careers.
Catherin Newmann Halebian
Localization Manager, OG Production & LATAMBlizzard Entertainment
As a localization manager, Catherin Newmann Halebian’s main objective is to support her teams and pipelines, enabling them to provide the highest level of service. She does this with tools such as neural machine translation, digital asset management and computer-assisted translation. Working with multidisciplinary stakeholders has enabled her to develop expertise in interpretation (simultaneous, consecutive and live streamed subtitles) as well as audiovisual and multimedia localization.
Kassi O’Connor
Outside Services DirectorGlu Mobile
Kassi O’Connor began her career in gaming over 11 years ago working in external development. Since then, she’s worked on over 100 titles, been a producer and has expanded the outsourcing and localization department to 11 studios worldwide. Kassi is currently the outside services director and runs all external services for Glu Mobile, including external development, localization and independent contractors. She enjoys working with external teams and using them in a way that they feel ownership of the game they are working on. Kassi has presented at numerous international and US conferences. She holds a BA in communication and an MBA.
Bazz O'Reilly
LQA Service Delivery ManagerKeywords Studios
Tony O'Dowd
KantanAI Director & Head of Localization TechnologyKeywords Studios
Tony O’Dowd is the founder and chief architect of KantanAI, a cloud-based AI and custom machine translation solutions provider which is a part of Keywords Studios. He is a serial entrepreneur and localization veteran with more than 25 years of experience working in the language industry. Tony has previously held senior positions at Lotus Development Corporation, Symantec Corporation, Corel Corporation Ltd., and Alchemy Software Development, which he founded in 2000. He holds a BS in computer science from Trinity College Dublin, and a fellowship from the Localization Research Institute at the University of Limerick. Today, Tony leads innovations in KantanAI and localization technology at Keywords Studios.
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen
Global Head, PMOKeywords Studios
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen is officially an industry veteran, having spent 20 years in different roles in testing and localization services at Square Enix. He has recently joined Keywords Studios to build cross-service programs, supporting their global development and publishing clients. He remains an active and enthusiastic member of the game localization and testing community.
Ana Paredes
Project ManagerUbisoft
Ana Paredes joined the localization and video game industries by chance after moving to Montreal. During her tenure at Keywords, she worked briefly in testing before moving to translation, in what was, at the time, one of the most secret and expected projects of the company — Starcraft 2. Following that, Ana provided for Brazilian Portuguese content management at Expedia, and subsequently moved into project management at companies such as SDL and Transperfect. Most recently she worked on Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising. Ana’s interests revolve around all things related to diversity, inclusion, skateboarding, and cats. She thinks completing games is overrated, and the last title she saw through was Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime, which doesn’t even have VO!
LinkedIn: ana-gt-paredes
Donna Parrish
PrincipalLocWorld
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 Translators without Borders.
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer
Turn 10 Quality ManagerMicrosoft
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer grew up in what was then rural Bellevue, Washington, and went to Western Washington University before joining Microsoft in 1998. He was in development for six years before joining the centralized test organization. Jimbo has been a quality manager at Microsoft for twelve years and shipped dozens of Xbox and PC games. He had a three and a half year detour as the test manager for HoloLens Experiences and is happy to be back working on games. Jimbo is currently the Turn 10 quality manager and super proud of the just released Forza Horizon.
Vlad Pomarjanschi
QC Localization Team LeadUbisoft
Vlad Pomarjanschi started his career at Ubisoft six years ago, pursuing his all-time passion for videogames. Vlad quickly got involved in localization testing, subsequently joining QC-LOC where he climbed through the ranks, becoming its team lead three years ago. This position offered him the opportunity to engage in numerous and diverse Ubisoft projects, from small-scope titles to AAAs, facing all the challenges and rewards that come with managing localization testing. Vlad considers himself very lucky to be involved in such an impactful, yet dynamic field, with talents from so many different cultures and backgrounds.
Sandra Pourmarin
Localization ConsultantUbisoft
Sandra Pourmarin’s journey in the video game localization industry started 16 years ago with Ubisoft Montreal. Initially Localization Project Manager, she has been localization consultant for ten years now, overseeing Ubisoft NCSA localization and defining Ubisoft worldwide localization strategy with key localization stakeholders. No need to say that localization is one of Sandra’s favorite topics. Very enthusiastic about constant changes in the video game industry, which she sees as an opportunity to challenge oneself and foster out-of-the-box thinking in order to optimize localization processes while always targeting high quality standards.
Chris Priestman
Business Development ManagerZA/UM
Chris Priestman has a keen interest in experimental video games after spending a decade in journalism. He now works at ZA/UM, the studio behind the award-winning, roleplaying game Disco Elysium, where he started as a writer and soon became the producer in charge of localization. Chris is now the business development manager at ZA/UM.
Twitter: @CPriestman
Liz Prince
Business ManagerAmiqus
Liz Prince is the business manager at award-winning recruitment specialist Amiqus. She is also the founder of Putting the G Into Gaming, an initiative to build more diverse and inclusive workplaces in games. Putting the G into Gaming has four focuses: attracting women into games from other industries; supporting women already working in the games sector; working with schools, universities and colleges to promote games as an attractive career option for girls and young women; and helping studios with their equity, diversity, and inclusion journey through the Empower Up program.
Elzbieta Pustul
TestronicElżbieta Pustuł is a quality assurance (QA) manager with over 10 years of experience in areas of localization, end-user support,and QA services for top-tier game publishers around the world. She started her career working for Electronic Arts as a customer support analyst where she has acquired her initial training and widened her skills. Later she worked as a localization and QA specialist for CD-Projekt, the publisher of The Witcher series of games. Her name can be spotted in credits of numerous games, including Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl, The Witcher, Mass Effect, Metro 2033 and Far Cry 5. At the end of a day, Elżbieta is usually pushing the “on” button on her favorite game console in pursuit of another platinum trophy.
Cristina Pérez Cerezo
Keywords StudiosCristina is the linguist team lead in the Barcelona office of the Keywords Studios. She graduated from the University of Granada with a B.A. in Translation and Interpreting. A couple of years later, she decided to specialize and took a master’s in audiovisual translation course at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Thanks to a collaboration program established between the university and Keywords Studios, she had the opportunity to do an internship as a Spanish language specialist at the company’s office in Dublin, where she ended up becoming part of the team.
Catalina Quijano
Localization Project ManagerMichael Radnitz
Senior Producer, LocalizationBlizzard Entertainment
Michael Radnitz is a senior producer with more than 12 years of experience in the games industry. He has shipped more than ten AAA titles (such as Diablo III and Overwatch) globally across various platforms . Planning, documentation and scheduling are words that excite Michael, and he thoroughly enjoys all aspects of production. He was involved in the localization of every Blizzard IP as well as web-based and other non-game content. Over the past five years, Michael’s focus has been on the Diablo and Overwatch franchises, including shipment of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls on console and in China, the release of Overwatch and the set up of the localization pipeline for the Overwatch League. He is currently setting up the localization pipeline for Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal.
Leilani Ramirez
Manager of DialogueSony Interactive Entertainment
Leilani Ramirez is the manager of dialogue for Sony Interactive Entertainment. An island girl from Hawaii, Leilani moved to Los Angeles (LA) and graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a BA in communications and recording arts. After dabbling in the film and TV post-production world, she fell into the interactive realm and started her game audio career at Electronic Arts — Los Angeles in 2003, working on multiple titles as the dialog lead for the Medal of Honor and Command & Conquer series. From there, Leilani jumped into the freelancing world and was the dialogue supervisor for several titles including Uncharted 3, ADR1FT and Fat Princess Adventures before landing at Sony PlayStation where she completed God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and photography, and volunteers at the Children’s Hospital of LA, with her dog, Frodo, who is a member of the dog-therapy team.
Chris Rowley
LQA Head of Division/Operations DirectorKeywords Studios
Chris Rowley, an industry veteran since 2002, spent his first five years in development as a games designer and producer. He moved to Codemasters to become their first quality assurance (QA) manager. Since then he has held various QA, localization management and director roles at publishers SCEE, Eidos, 2K and EA. Chris then moved to the vendor side in 2014 working at Testronic, PTW and now Keywords where he is currently responsible for the LQA service line and FQA operations. Chris has been a regular presenter and panelist on the conference circuit for a number of years.
Dave Ruane
Digital Content and Partnerships ManagerXTM International
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 currently manages digital content and partner strategies at XTM International. Dave 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.
Inés Rubio
Language Services Sr. Global ManagerNI
Inés Rubio is a localization veteran with experience in ecommerce, marketing and 15 years of gaming industry background. Her interest in process improvement centered around technology and outsourcing solutions drove her to research potential machine translation applications to games localization before the Google Neural Machine Translation landmark. Inés currently applies her passion to translation and localization processes at National Instruments, a leader in software defined automated testing and measurements.
Hadrien Rudich
Localization Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Hadrien Rudich is a localization project manager at Blizzard Entertainment. He started his localization journey at Blizzard eight years ago as French LQA analyst working on titles such as Diablo 3, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone. He moved on to new responsibilities after a few years as a project manager specialized in outsourcing solutions. In his current role Hadrien has been involved in numerous game releases and in 2018 he began working in a more central position on Overwatch, where his extensive knowledge and love for the game, both as an avid player and professional, are put to good use.
Isabell Rudolph
Localization Project CoordinatorGoodgame Studios
Isabell Rudolph has a BA in technical communication and an MS in software localization. She joined the localization department at Goodgame Studios in 2014, gaining experience in working with free-to-play games for mobile and web, delivering high-quality translations, optimizing workflows and continuously improving localization processes and quality.
Loreto Sanz Fueyo
Senior Director of LocalizationPTW
Loreto Sanz Fueyo, senior director of localization at PTW, graduated from King’s College in London, England, where she received her master’s degree in computational linguistics and formal grammar. She began her professional career as a games tester and translator, developing her localization knowledge and skills for over 13 years before becoming PTW’s director of translation in 2019. Loreto’s passion for communication and clear messaging has made her an invaluable part of PTW’s staff, where she provides guidance to all levels of the organization. Her latest obsession is building a house in Spain and when she’s not busy localizing, she can be found pouring over floor plans and interior design magazines!
António Saraiva
Managing PartnerGojira
António Saraiva is founder and managing partner at Gojira, a media production company that develops video games, apps and conversational characters (intelligent avatars). He taught game design and video game related subjects at Universidade Lusófona, IPA and Restart (Lisbon). Before Gojira, he was producer and game designer at Biodroid Productions and also IP Hunter and licensing manager for Biodroid Entertainment. António has worked in a multitude of media formats ranging from press to television to multimedia off and online. Starting out as a television producer and director in the late 80’s, he founded his own company, Latina-Europa, and authored many children’s, pop music and youth culture TV series. In Portugal he was a pioneer in writing on the internet’s social and creative issues, namely in Blitz, to which he still contributes.
Konstantin Savenkov
CEOIntento
After receiving a PhD in 2008, Konstantin Savenkov led research and development efforts for online content services then worked as CTO at Zvooq and as a chief operating officer at Bookmate. In 2016, he contributed his experience in artificial intelligence (AI), tech and operations to cofound Intento, Inc., where they build tools to source, evaluate and use machine translation (MT) and other cognitive AI services. Intento regularly publishes independent MT evaluation studies and aims to be a reference point for utilizing MT to solve particular business problems.
Tobias Scherf
Solution ArchitectMemsource
Tobias Scherf is a solution architect at Memsource. He draws on his 20 years of experience in the localization industry working with enterprise clients to develop innovative solutions, maximizing the value and adoption of Memsource’s machine translation and AI-based features. Prior to Memsource, Tobias worked in various roles from localization quality assurance in localization engineering to executive management on the language service provider side. He is experienced in running enterprise localization programs including language quality programs and quality analytics. Tobias has been instrumental in the design and development of proprietary solutions to effectively measure and improve translation quality.
David Schumacher
Manager, Test Services - PlayStation Studios QASony Interactive Entertainment
David Schumacher has worked in the industry for over 17 years, 12 of which have been in quality assurance. Starting his career at Sony Internal QA, David rejoined Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2020 after working alongside clients such as the BBC, Fox, and Rebellion as a producer and lead designer. He is a manager in test services, the group that coordinates functional and localization testing for franchises such as Gran Turismo, Horizon, God of War and Dreams across all PlayStation platforms, and recently including PC and mobile.
Miguel Sepúlveda
Global Localization ManagerKing
Miguel Sepúlveda started his journey in the exciting localization world in 1995. He worked as a quality assurance (QA) specialist for Microsoft for a few projects such as Microsoft Project, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. Early in his career, Miguel worked on the vendor side, mainly working for Lionbridge as localization QA manager for different clients. In 2007 he had the opportunity to enter the gaming industry thanks to Electronic Arts where he was responsible for setting up the technical team to provide automated localization QA services to games such as FIFA, Harry Potter or Need for Speed among others. Then Miguel moved the buyer side giving him the opportunity to complete his vision of how the localization industry worked from both sides. In 2014 he joined the King Candy Crush world where his role is to lead the globalization efforts of a very talented team.
Vanessa Shallcross
Head of LocalizationSEGA Europe
Having been in the games industry since 1996, Vanessa Shallcross is an experienced manager of computer game localization on a global basis. In her early years, she worked for Psygnosis, then moved to Sony Computer Entertainment and more recently Bigpoint GmbH based in Hamburg. Since November 2020 Vanessa was honored to be appointed as the Head of Localisation for Sega Europe overseeing all Localisation, Audio, LQA, and Engineering, part of the wider Operations Team, located in Brentford HQ. Her current focus is on getting to know her team and all the stakeholders across the Sega business, as well as planning the strategic direction of the Localisation Department.
Shwetank Sharma
CEOLocNapps Media
Shwetank Sharma is a seasoned management professional with experience across game localization business consulting, business development and localization project management. In his past professional pursuits, international experience in client relationship and project management for localization services stand out. Shwetank founded Locnapps Media in 2014 which has been instrumental in servicing videogame developers/publishers and language service providers for South East Asian, Middle Eastern and Indian Languages.
Kseniya Shorokhova
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Kseniya Shorokhova has an educational background in linguistics but she got into the language industry just five years ago when she found herself working as a Russian-English translator at Playrix. At that time, their localization team consisted of only three people. Kseniya has grown together with the team and the company, gradually making her way to team lead and ultimately becoming the head of localization. She now oversees more than 40 people and is responsible for Playrix’s localization strategy.
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck
Senior Manager, VO ProductionRiot Games
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck is senior manager of voiceover production at Riot Games, leading the team that produces the voiceover for League of Legends, Wild Rift, VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, and Riot Forge’s upcoming titles. Prior to Riot, she was at the helm of Side LA, where her team worked on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, Riot Games’ Legends of Runeterra, Epic Games’ Fortnite: Save the World, Splash Damage’s Gears: Tactics, and Dontnod Entertainment’s Tell Me Why, among hundreds of other titles. At the start of her career, Jacquie spent a decade with Sony PlayStation, coordinating dialog for projects from Socom 3 to God of War 3. She then went on to manage talent and casting for the Worldwide Studios product development services group, including titles such as The Order: 1886, Spiderman, and 2018’s God of War. Jacquie and her husband live with their cat, Bruce, in Los Angeles, California.
IMDb: Jacquie Shriver
Yumi Okubo-Shuman
Localization Engineering ManagerBig Fish
Yumi Shuman is a localization engineering manager in the International team at Big Fish. She is passionate about the integration of language and modern technologies with game products. Her current focus is driving cloud-based CAT technology with the mix of machine translation and TM program strategy. This is a key component in widening content availability for game and marketing localization. When she’s not working, Yumi enjoys playing with her 5-year-old twins.
Harald Simon
Localization DirectorBethesda
Harald Simon is localization director at Bethesda. He has been in the localization industry since the early 1990s, both on the vendor and the client side. In the video games industry he has held senior positions with Virgin Interactive and Electronic Arts, before joining Bethesda in 2011.
Kaushal Singh
QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Kirill Soloviev
CEO & Co-FounderContentQuo
Kirill Soloviev is the CEO and co-founder at ContentQuo, an Estonian translation technology company that helps global LSPs, enterprise localization teams and government agencies reduce their linguistic quality risk, improve vendor performance and boost machine translation quality at scale with a data-driven approach. During his 18 years in the industry, Kirill has served in diverse buyer-side and vendor-side roles, most recently as global director of localization at Acronis. Kirill has also co-organized the Localization Unconference in Tallinn and regularly mentors both new and seasoned localization professionals.
Kirill Soloviev
ContentQuoKirill Soloviev is the cofounder and head of product at ContentQuo, an Estonian tech startup helping localization teams and language service providers manage and reduce localization quality risk at any scale, with any translation management system. With 15 years of experience in localization across diverse buyer and vendor roles, Kirill served most recently as global director of localization at Acronis, a category-leading software product company, where his team was responsible for both linguistic quality assurance (QA) and software QA. Kirill also organizes the Localization unconference in Tallinn and collaborates with TAUS.
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference ManagerGame Global
Francesca has been in the video game localization industry since 2010, covering various roles: from marketing intern and translator for online games at Wooga and Bigpoint, to Senior Multilingual Localization Specialist at Electronic Arts managing large, multilingual titles, to Program Manager for the Games department at Alpha CRC.
Having experienced both the client and the service provider side of the industry, Francesca recently decided to become a freelance translator and consultant and is currently working as Conference Manager for Game Global and video game localization instructor for the Localization Institute.
Mike Souto
Business Development DirectorGridly
Mike Souto has over 20 years of experience in game and app development and localization. He’s a producer of AAA titles, including the Commandos series, TimeSplitters 2, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and many more. With experience of internal and external development teams, Mike’s been involved in game development at various touchpoints in the process.
LinkedIn: michael-souto-287a131
Niall Spooner-Harvey
Account ManagerGlyph Language Services
Niall Spooner-Harvey has over seven years of experience in the localization industry. He is very happy to be back at Glyph after three years away, most recently working as a project manager in the consumer robotics sector. A classics graduate from the UK, Niall is as passionate about gaming as he is about languages, both living and dead. When not talking at great length about the differences between British and American English or being a two-time Pun Slam champion, he can be found playing Cricket Captain 2020 and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Karen Stevens
Sports Accessibility LeadElectronic Arts
Karen Stevens is the Electronic Arts (EA) sports accessibility lead. She strives to improve the user experience for those with interactive differences. Stevens has been in the game industry for over 13 years and has first-hand experience of what it’s like living with disabilities. She has spoken at several conferences on the topic, and has been featured in magazines, television programs and radio shows.
Nate Stoddard
QA Discipline PrincipalEpic Games
Nate Stoddard has been working in quality assurance (QA), testing, hardware development and game development for more than 12 years. In that time, he has worked on over 34 titles, on almost as many platforms. Nate recently moved from Boston to North Carolina to work at Epic Games and is now a senior QA lead on Fortnite.
Leticia Sáenz Murga
Keywords StudiosCurrently, the localization lead at Keywords Studios Barcelona, Leticia Sáenz Murga manages a team of project managers, coordinators, and linguists specializing in the challenges of localizing market leading games. Leticia has over 11 years of experience in video games localization in different roles, from translator to senior project manager, giving her insight of the whole development and localization process as well as in-depth knowledge of game development and design.
Blanca Sánchez Joplin
Game WriterSocialpoint
Blanca Joplin has been working for over five years as a game writer at Socialpoint, one of Spain’s most vibrant game developers. During this time, she has worked on some very successful titles, including Monster Legends (her main focus and love of her life), Dragon City, World Chef and Word Life. Blanca’s background is in translation, having spent two years as a freelance translator and subtitler prior to arriving at Socialpoint, which has been her home ever since.
Andrea Tabacchi
VP Customer SuccessMemsource
Andrea Tabacchi is the vice president of customer success at Memsource where he utilizes his extensive experience in building customer-centric language technology solutions for multinational corporations and global translation companies. He and his team work with clients to develop solutions to address their translation technology needs, including innovative ways to optimize the Memsource platform, and liaise between clients and internal teams to suggest tool improvements. Prior to Memsource, Andrea spent over ten years on the language service provider side where he served in several roles in language technology, from localization engineering to technology director.
LinkedIn: andreatabacchi
Tülay Tetiker McNally
Director, Inclusive Design & Product DevelopmentElectronic Arts
Tülay Tetiker McNally is director, inclusive design and product development at Electronic Arts, and is responsible for establishing EA Studio’s global approach to creating inclusive products and features that put players first, partnering with EA development teams worldwide. Beginning her career in the video games industry more than 15 years ago at SEGA and Square Enix, she later joined Electronic Arts to head up central development operations at BioWare Edmonton. More recently Tülay was a senior development director at DICE Stockholm. Tülay is originally from Turkey and was raised in Munich, Germany. She has had the opportunity to live and work in countries across Europe and North America. An experienced public speaker and mentor of students and young professionals, she connects with gamers to listen to what makes them feel excluded or marginalized. For the future Tülay wants players to engage with games in safe, fun, and positive ways regardless of who they are or where they are from, to bring inclusive design and thinking to the core of game design. Tülay holds an MA in American studies, with specializations in the history of immigration and civil rights movement, and a BA in psychology from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 2020 she was selected as an inaugural member of TGA’s Future Class.
Mette Tingey
DirectorAlpha CRC
Mette Tingey is the director of Alpha Games, responsible for the revenue, accounts and commercial side of all games business within Alpha. Alpha is a mature LSP with 30+ years of experience providing end-to-end localization solutions to games developers and publishers across the globe.
Tamara Tirjak
Senior Localization ManagerFrontier Developments
Tamara Tirjak is the senior localization manager of Frontier Developments, a self-publishing video game developer based in Cambridge, UK. She is responsible for coordinating all localization-related activities across the organization, focusing on establishing reproducible, automated processes in order to streamline translation efforts and support the company’s international presence. Tamara’s previous experience includes working as an in-house linguist, project manager, translation tool support engineer, and technical trainer for various leading language service providers. She is a certified memoQ trainer, a qualified English-Hungarian translator and interpreter, and holds an MS degree in technology management.
Demid Tishin
All Correct GroupDemid Tishin is a game designer, entrepreneur and mentor. In 2006, he founded Allcorrect Group, a language services business and won a good name with customers such as EA, Ubisoft, Bandai Namco and Gaijin. He also founded Translation Forum Russia, a major convention for the translation industry, and helped to develop ISO 11669, the first ISO standard on translation services. Since 2016, Demid has been the full-time CEO of Funbakers, a game development studio.
To Be Announced
Sony Interactive EntertainmentGeorge Tong
Senior DirectorBeyondsoft Corporation
George Tong has nearly 19 years of IT and business management experience in the product globalization industry. Since 2016, George has worked in the US as senior engineering director, using his globalization industry knowledge, leading Beyondsoft’s onshore/offshore team to globalize clients’ products portfolios. Prior to that, in Nov 2005, George was the general manager and chief technical lead of Product G11N Services Business Unit at Beyondsoft, overseeing project management, technology innovation, personnel management, and business operations.
Charles Ulbig
LT LeadElectronic Arts
Charles Ulbig’s first role in 2002 at Electronic Arts was as QA tester for Football Manager in Cologne, Germany. One day the localization supervisor asked if he was interested in traveling around the world for free — well, almost free. Back in the day, localization testers were sent directly to the development studios to test the games and Charles’ first project abroad was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in Chertsey, UK. For him, it was an incredible experience to work on the same game with so many different people from around Europe. What motivates Charles, besides working with games, is the creativity behind the process of localization. Nothing is more gratifying to him than finding solutions to localization problems and seeing them later in-game. In 2007, Charles moved with EA to Madrid, Spain, took the position of senior tester and then became the localization testing team lead for German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. He is responsible for three permanent linguistic experts and up to 50 temporary employees during peak times.
Ulises Uno
Content & Localization ManagerEtermax
Ulises Uno is content and localization manager at etermax, leading a strategic area for the company’s gaming division which is focused on developing and publishing worldwide social games that entertain, connect and foster knowledge in up to 34 languages. With an educational background in social sciences and translation, he joined the gaming industry as a translator and copywriter. Ulises currently leads a team of language specialists, user experience writers and content producers, guiding them toward a product-centric mindset.
Jeferson Valadares
CEODoppio Games
Jeferson Valadares is CEO and cofounder of Doppio Games, a voice-first game studio based in Lisbon, Portugal. He was also the lead designer on the studio’s debut title The Vortex, available for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. He is also a member of the board of directors at Rovio. In past lives he was VP/GM of Mobile at Bandai Namco; Studio GM at Electronic Arts and Executive Producer at BioWare in San Francisco; Studio Director at Playfish and Creative Director at EA Mobile in London; and Game Development Director at Digital Chocolate’s Sumea studio in Helsinki.
Andrew Vestal
Senior Localization Program ManagerAmazon Game Studios
Andrew Vestal got his start in games localization in 2004, turning Japanese RPGs into English at Tokyo’s 8-4, Ltd. He moved back to the United States in 2006 to work at Blizzard Entertainment, where he oversaw the localization of the first two World of Warcraft expansions, Diablo III, and Battle.net. In 2013, he took a brief break from games to join Microsoft to focus on localization tooling and pipeline design. At Amazon Game Studios since 2017, Andrew currently oversees translation and translation testing of all first-party AGS titles, Twitch Prime, and Lumberyard. He loves retro games and has accidentally started a collection of CRT monitors in his garage.
Brandon Victor
Keywords StudiosJanet Weddle
Technical QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Janet Weddle is a technical QA manager with 15 years of experience in game development, project management, test management and automation. She started her career as a game developer at KnowWonder, Inc. which became Amaze Entertainment. Janet’s development experience there and her later roles in test management and project management led to her strong appreciation of great tools. Throughout her career she saw the benefit of tools and automation in test, development, art and management. Success in these areas led to Janet current position as a technical QA manager and an automation advocate.
Ben Wibberley
Managing PartnerDAQA
Ben Wibberley has over 20 years of experience in the video game industry, specializing in executive strategy, global production support, external development, international production and live operations. Having signed, grown and managed $100M’s of multi-service deals, he has an intimate knowledge of industry best practices, working with some of the most well-known companies in the business. Ben founded DAQA as an independent, new generation video games support agency. DAQA provides strategic consultancy, evaluation and implementation of operations for AAA studios, alongside representation of unique, disruptive, technology-based service companies.
Matt Wilson
Global Head of Format QASony Interactive Entertainment
Matt Wilson is a leader in the software and hardware industry with over 20 years of specialist quality assurance (QA) and testing experience. He is currently the global head of format QA within Sony Interactive Entertainment which handles all compliance for PlayStation globally. Matt has experience leading and building a large (250+) co-located team that deals with 30,000+ products globally annually, each with very short service-level agreements. He recently transitioned four separate regional QA teams to a single co-located global QA team. Matt lives in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Hayato Wada Wong
Cofounder & Localization Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Hayato Wada Wong is a ten-year video game and localization industry veteran, trilingual in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Having shipped titles and work experience in AAA game titles with Sega, as well as working in the outsourcing/gaming-as-a-service industry at Pole to Win and Streamline Studios, Hayato is versed in game production, quality assurance (QA) and localization. Currently, he is a localization manager and cofounder for Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group, a business division involved in rejuvenating the post development process of localization, culturalization marketing, QA, and compliance testing into something fit for the modern times. Hayato hopes to make game development as enjoyable as playing games.
LinkedIn: hayato-wada-wong-b909537
Christine Xaysakda
International Account ManagerLBS Suite
At LBS Suite, Christine Xaysakda is responsible for developing international business, participating in company strategies, and (what she loves the most) advising language service providers on the optimization of clients’ internal processes through technologies. She is passionate about technology, languages, and cultures. Christine loves brainstorming: talking about new business, projects, and ideas. Perhaps you can try speak with her in Mandarin, Cantonese, English or French.
Jingyu Zhang
KingVladimir Zhdanov
Vladimir has been in game localization since 2010. He started as an undergraduate Mandarin-to-Russian translator. He graduated in 2012 with a thesis on Chinese MMORPG translations, and gradually improved his skills until he ended up managing a team of in-house translators for a Chinese mobile gaming company in Beijing in 2015. He lives a life of a passionate localizator: in his spare time he localizes the webcomics series Zen Pencils, and in early 2017 he and his wife volunteered to localize the Indian comic book Menstrupedia into Russian.
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk
QA DirectorQLOC
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk graduated in Japanese studies and public relations but as soon as he started his adventure with functional and compliance testing in 2010, he knew there was no going back. After moving to Madrid, he gathered professional experience in localization quality assurance (QA) while working for Electronic Arts on IPs like Battlefield, FIFA, Sims and Need for Speed. He continued his career at QLOC as a team leader and project manager (PM). As a PM Sergiusz oversaw projects for external clients and the QA process for in-house porting projects, including titles like Resident Evil 6, DmC: Devil May Cry, Ultra Street Fighter IV and more. As a QA director since 2014, he manages QLOC’s QA department that employs over 170 specialists, supervises the work of managers and leads, and is responsible for the coordination of all department activities.
Game Global
Game GlobalNick Adams
Director of Transgender RepresentationGLAAD
Nick Adams is the director of transgender representation at GLAAD. He is a resource for media content creators who are telling stories about transgender people. Nick has consulted on hundreds of films and TV shows to help them create authentic transgender characters and stories. He has also worked with Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, DONTNOD, and other gaming companies to create trans-inclusive video games. Nick joined GLAAD in 1998, and transitioned himself at that time.
Belén Agulló García
FounderAccessibility Warriors
Belén Agulló García holds a BA in translation and interpreting studies, an MA in audiovisual translation, and a PhD in multimedia accessibility. The topic of her dissertation was accessible subtitles for virtual reality and that was the beginning of her journey as an accessibility advocate. Previously, Belén worked for more than five years in the game localization industry, holding different leadership positions. She combined her years in this industry with her true calling, training others. Currently, Belén is the VP of learning and lead media researcher at Nimdzi Insights and the founder of Accessibility Warriors.
Pedro Alfageme
Audio Artist ManagerElectronic Arts
Pedro Alfageme is audio artist manager at Electronic Arts. He is responsible for the technical quality of the localized dialogue and the continuous improvement of processes and tools. Pedro leads a team that delivers over a million dialogue files across 11 languages with high-quality standards every year. He has been working in the video game industry since 2004. His experience goes from voiceover recording, editing, and post processing to product owner of EA’s content management system for localization. Pedro is currently involved in voice technologies research and development as a localization stakeholder.
Marie Amigues
CEOAltagram
Marie Amigues is the CEO and founder of Altagram. After living in Paris, Ottawa and New York, she settled in Berlin in 2006. Following her studies in philosophy at La Sorbonne, Marie obtained an MBA in marketing management at Essec. In 2017, she was selected as one of the Top 10 Women in Management in Germany’s gaming industry. Passion, hard work and expertise are the driving forces behind Marie’s accomplishments. She has brought together a team of over 150 talented in-house game localization specialists who have successfully shipped over 5,000 game titles since 2006 for prestigious clients such as Square Enix, Supercell, Blizzard and SEGA, just to name a few.
Cristina Anselmi
Machine Translation LeadElectronic Arts
Cristina Anselmi is machine translation lead at Electronic Arts (EA). She takes care of everything related to machine translation (MT) implementation and maintenance within EA localization, leads a team of MT specialists, and coordinates several developments around MT. Cristina has been in the video game localization industry since 2012, managing all kinds of multilingual projects, from small mobile games to big MMORPGs, and several AAA titles. Her focus for the past four years has been implementing MT and AI technologies to automate workflows within EA localization. Cristina’s goal is to pave the way for this to be welcome in daily life and to be seen as a help rather than an enemy, a powerful tool that can enhance productivity, without jeopardizing quality and creativity.
Estelle Bailly
Localization DirectorHi Rez Studios
With over 20 years of experience in the video game localization industry, Estelle Bailly is an expert in the globalization and internationalization of creative content. She started her career in France, where she learned about the various aspects of the localization pipeline through multiple experiences which lead her to become head of localization at one of the largest video game localization agencies in Paris. In 2016, Estelle joined Hi-Rez Studios, a games-as-a-service studio, as localization director. Since then, her core focus has been to help the company to better engage and serve their international audience, offering them higher quality and enhanced support in various languages. Estelle is currently based in the UK, leading a multicultural team that translates three live games in more than eight languages.
Andrea Ballista
CEOVoiseed
Andrea Ballista has been working in the game industry for more than 25 years. Starting from his passion of music, songwriting, and singing, he holds a degree in computer music. Since cofounding Binari Sonori in 1994, Andrea has been the audio director for Keywords Studios from 2015 until the end of 2019. In 2020 he cofounded Voiseed to proceed into research and development of deep learning-based emotional virtual voices.
LinkedIn: andrea-ballista-4617912
Gérard Barnaud
Localization Project ManagerUbisoft
An industry veteran with 17 years of experience in the gaming industry, Gérard Barnaud started as a localization tester in Ireland in 2001 where he worked for Vivendi. He then moved to Atari headquarters in Lyon, France, where he started as a localization project manager on Neverwinter Nights and evolved to a position of producer for The Witcher (original). He then moved to UBISOFT Montreal and back into localization for Far Cry 2 and Brothers in Arms 3, and ended up in the south of France at the Montpellier studio. Barnaud has worked on various titles ranging from licensed games to large role playing games and intellectual properties for all audiences, and is still passionate about his work.
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz
Senior Localization DirectorElectronic Arts
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz is the senior localization director at EA, heading up all worldwide localization functions including translation, recordings, vendor management, testing and engineering for the video game developer and publisher. Originally a translator by education, she looks back at 15 years of experience in the game localization industry. Her current focus is on shaping the strategic direction of localization in the company’s shift to online service models.
Thomas Barth
Global LQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Thomas Barth (Tommy) has been working in games services for over 12 years and, like many young aspiring professionals, he started in the field of quality assurance (QA) to get a foot in the door of the industry. Since then, he leveled up from German QA tester to test lead, to project manager, to localization quality assurance (LQA) manager and most recently to LQA director at the global games services provider Keywords Studios. Throughout his career, Tommy had the chance to work with brilliant client partners from all sectors of the industry (developers, publishers and hardware manufacturers), provide and supervise testing for games of all genres and sizes, and on all platforms (from consoles to mobile, to the latest and greatest in virtual and augmented reality). He is passionate about the industry and believes that we are better together. Tommy also has a deep love for games and interactive entertainment and feels that all gamers around the world should have the same amazing and immersive experience, no matter which language they speak and play games in. Helping people succeed gives him energy and is one of his key drives as a professional.
Micaela Belluzzo
Global Resource ManagerKeywords Studios
Micaela Belluzzo is the global resource manager at Keywords Studios, focusing on project resourcing and quality control. A translator and interpreter by education, Micaela started her translation career localizing software and media content in 1998. She then joined SDL in Maidenhead as a localization project manager and in 2000 she moved to Milan to manage the EA Italy localization office. From 2003 Micaela contributed to the building of the EA integration hub in Madrid where she worked as head of localization production-integration until 2007. After a two-year break working for international cooperation in Africa and the Middle East, she joined Keywords with a focus on audio localization production and has been working on resource management for the past six years.
Teddy Bengtsson
Founder/DirectorRoundTable Studio
Teddy grew up in Sweden where he studied languages. Although his early professional career diverged into skiing, fashion and the restaurant trade, he eventually came back to languages through localization and a global journey including five home countries. Having held senior localization roles with major IT players Microsoft and Oracle, a crazy idea led him to start an LSP business in Argentina in 2003. RoundTable Studio quickly grew into a regional leader with production centers in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Porto Alegre (Brazil), and a business management unit in Spain where game localization has become one of its key vertical markets.
Mario Bergantiños
Director, Localization Analytics & Video-AudioElectronic Arts
Mario Bergantiños started his journey studying broadcasting, 3D and audio production. After working as a freelancer for several companies he started working at EA and now he has more than 16 years of experience in building high performing teams from audio and video disciplines to data analytics. As a member of EA’s Localization and Madrid leadership teams, Mario is co-responsible for the innovation and strategy of the localization business as well as managing the Audio Artist, Audio Capture, Video Loc and Data Analytics teams.
Mario Bergantiños
Senior Manager- Audio & Video LocalizationElectronic Arts
Priscilla Bermea
Cargo Localization Operations and Partner LeadRiot Games
Priscilla Bermea is the localization operations lead for Latin America at Riot Games. She is Mexican and a professional with over 10 years of experience in the gaming localization industry. Priscilla has been a fierce gamer since she can remember, and has dedicated herself to translating and interpreting videogames for friends and family. After working as a freelance translator and specialized project manager, she turned her favorite hobby into a career, becoming part of the Latin-American Riot Games team in 2016.
Miguel Bernal-Merino
LecturerUniversity of Roehampton
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
Brigitte Berner
Loc Vendor Management SupervisorElectronic Arts
Brigitte Berner is vendor management supervisor at Electronic Arts, leading a small team of vendor specialists. After being with the company for 15 years, building and shaping the vendor management function, including vendor recruitment and quality evaluation processes, her current focus is on automation, leveraging data and exploring usage of AI. Being solution driven, Brigitte is passionate about improving processes and questioning the status quo.
Chris Bewick
Regional FQA Director - EurasiaKeywords Studios
Brian Bies
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy
Managing PartnerLevsha
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy started his journey in video game localization as a freelance translator in 2005. In 2009, he became one of the founders of Levsha localization and has been a managing partner at the studio since then. Despite having a degree in computational linguistics, Fedor’s passion has always been finding new ways to facilitate efficient and joyful interaction and collaboration between different people.
Jonathan Bowring
RiversightJonathan Bowring graduated in computer science and worked for the UK Ministry of Defence and Hewlett-Packard before joining Canon. As Canon’s EMEA localization director, he built an independent services division with its own profit and loss of £15M. Jonathan trained as a mentor and coach and founded Riversight in 2016. The company intends to unlock the potential within leaders, teams and organizations, and provides coaching and facilitation to SME and corporate clients.
Virginia Boyero
Associate ProducerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Virginia Boyero is a history graduate who started a career in games localization in 2006, following a passion for working with languages and quickly getting hooked on the fast-paced tempo of the industry. She joined Massive Entertainment in 2010, and after the release of Far Cry 3 moved on to The Division team where she’s been an Associate Producer for the audio, localization and narrative departments for The Division and The Division 2. Outside of work, Virginia is often found reading travel literature, preferably while on a train.
Gaëlle Caballero
Director of Localization QATestronic
Gaëlle Caballero is a global head of localization quality assurance (LQA) with years of experience in video game QA and localization. A former lawyer, she started her career as a French LQA tester in London and developed her localization skillset working on multiple titles and platforms as a technician, lead, and project manager. Gaëlle successfully developed and delivered Testronic’s Warsaw-based LQA department and is responsible for its continued success. She is recognized for her extensive experience in team management, development, and swift delivery. A great motivator and team builder, she creates confidence and excitement across multiple Testronic global LQA facilities. An advocate for women in games, Gaëlle is involved in Testronic’s initiative aiming to mentor and promote the role of Women in the Games industry. She is also chairman of Testronic’s learning and development committee.
Gordon Campbell
Chief Executive OfficerGo Testify
Gordon Campbell is an experienced entrepreneur, having launched multiple companies in the design and gaming sectors since 2007. Over the last 13 years, Gordon has assisted companies like BBC, HBO and Zynga to produce high-quality entertainment that people want to invest time in. With a masters in human-centered design, he focuses on creating user-centric products using state-of-the-art technology.
Today, Gordon is the CEO of Testify, a company that is uses AI to transform how user testing is conducted within game development; putting players at the heart of every decision. In his current role, Gordon has worked alongside indies to top-50 mobile game studios such as Zynga to ensure they’re using the right testing methods to deliver impact and value within the development cycle.
Eric Say Chan
Program ManagerKeywords Studios
Born in Mexico City and later relocated to Canada, Eric Chan is a program manager with seven years of experience in video game quality assurance (QA). Initially a web developer, he made the jump to video games in 2011 within localization and functionality QA as a tester, test lead and later project manager. Knowledgeable in FQA, LQA, localization and audio, Eric has focused his efforts for the past two years within Keywords’ FQA department. He has since been focusing on project delivery, promoting growth and career paths for staff, and deploying improvements to internal processes.
Anastasiia Chertenkova
Marketing Creatives Team LeadPlayrix
Anastasiia Chertenkova’s path to the game development industry was rather unusual. She started her career as an officer of the police force of Ukraine/inspector of the Ukrainian Bureau of Interpol, senior officer of the criminal investigation sector, and taught administrative law and administrative procedure law in one of the state universities. Then she worked as a freelance translator for a couple of years. She joined the game development industry in 2016, starting as a customer support representative for Playrix. Since then, Anastasiia has held the positions of customer support team lead, community manager and player experience department manager. She is currently marketing creatives team lead.
Glory Choe
Program Manager, R&D LocalizationSalesforce
Before her recent move to Salesforce, Glory started her localization career as a linguist, followed by stints as LQA engineer at Linkedin and L10n producer at Zynga. In 2015, she joined an esports game studio, Super Evil Megacorp, as a Localization Manager, which was truly a dream come true for a lifelong gamer such as herself. Fascinated by different languages and cultures around the world ever since she was little, Glory studied languages and linguistics at the University of Washington in Seattle and has traveled to over 20 countries and three of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Cristian Conteduca
General ManagerYokozuna Data
Cristian Conteduca is general manager of Yokozuna Data. He has a background in scientific computing and physical modeling. Over the past few years, Cristian has developed and implemented AI/ML algorithms applied to video games and high-throughput cloud architectures. His goal is to merge AI and software engineering in a profitable and efficient way in real-life applications.
Daniele Corrado
Customer Support Engineer5th Kind
Daniele had been a consumer of the gaming industry since, well, forever. In 2010 he moved to the other side of the barricades. He began his career as a localization tester for a heterogeneous bunch of titles and platforms. While at Riot Games, Daniele worked in various capacities on every product that was released. His swansong was the global coordination for VALORANT as the Localization Producer for the title. He is currently helping DESTINYbit in developing their next title and he is working as Technical Support Engineer for 5th Kind.
Jamie Cox
Global Content Localization ProducerBlizzard Entertainment
Jamie Cox is a global content localization producer at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard is his first experience in the video game industry, but he’s been in the localization industry for over seven years, first at Gengo, then Welocalize, and then United Language Group. Over the years, Jamie has developed expertise in fast-paced environments, creating useful workflows and problem solving bottlenecks. In his spare time, he enjoys reading (currently the Wheel of Time series), playing way too much Overwatch, and he also plays the harp.
Diego Cresceri
CEO and FounderCreative Words
Diego Cresceri is CEO and founder of Creative Words, a language service provider based in Genoa. At Creative Words he is responsible for the company’s strategy and growth. His clients include multilingual translation agencies, Italian companies aiming to internationalize, and foreign companies aiming to enter the Italian market. Diego graduated from the University of Genoa in translation and interpreting and before founding Creative Words he was a translator, project manager and chief operations officer at a local translation agency. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the European Language Industry Association (ELIA). When not involved in his company, Diego holds workshops and seminars on innovation, artificial intelligence, and machine translation at universities, training schools, and language associations nationally and internationally.
Simone Crosignani
PR ManagerJinglebell Localization
Simone Crosignani worked as a video game journalist for 15 years before moving to the public relations department of Sony Computer Entertainment in Italy. At Sony he handled enthusiast and online media, working on the launch campaigns of PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and 100+ games. In 2006 Simone moved to Binari Sonori, a translation and audio production company, now part of Keywords Studios. In 2016 he joined Jinglebell Localization, the game localization spin-off of audio production powerhouse Jinglebell Communication. Simone has been a member of the International Game Developers Association localization group since day one and has been vice-chair of the group since 2013.
Mirela Cukovic Hanson
Senior Director QAElectronic Arts
Mirela Cukovic Hanson leads Mobile, Maxis and Live quality assurance (QA) teams for Electronic Art’s (EA) development teams around the world. These teams have ensured the quality of players’ experiences in some of the most popular games in the industry: The Sims, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heros; RealRacing3, The Simpsons Tapped Out, PvZ, Battlefield, Madden and others. Mirela is a change agent that has been leading the EA QA organization through several transformations and continues to set a vision for the future and inspire action from what she firmly believes is the best QA talent in the industry. Prior to her current role, Mirela held several technical and operational roles at central and global development groups. She has been at EA for ten years and before that, she held various engineering and technical leadership roles in the Silicon Valley. Mirela holds a degree in computer science from UBC.
Mariana Dadalto Schettino
Gender Inclusive Language SpecialistGame Global
Mariana Dadalto Schettino is a video game localization professional with a passion for gender inclusive language practices and is a project management enthusiast. As a localization tester at Electronic Arts (EA), she has worked to build in quality on more than 15 different titles, from AAA to mobile games. Mariana is the founder of the Gender Inclusive Taskforce for Localization at EA. As the lead stakeholder for this initiative, she creates guidelines for inclusive language for 20 different territories and improves processes regarding gender matters in the department. In addition to researching and implementing guides for a non-binary approach, Mariana works on shipping the first product from EA localization with applied non-binary language. She is currently transitioning to quality assurance testing while continuing as a researcher and adviser for diversity and inclusion practices with an inclusive language approach for localization.
Andrew Dale
KingPaul Davies
Head of Localization and Narrative DesignSocialpoint
Paul Davies manages the English game writing and localization teams at Socialpoint, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games, in sunny Barcelona. Prior to that, he held various positions at Electronic Arts in the UK and Germany, where he most recently managed the worldwide localization of EA’s mobile games portfolio. A keen gamer at heart, Paul started his career as a translator and language tester for console games at Sony Computer Entertainment in (not-so-sunny) Liverpool.
Tabea De Wille
LecturerUniversity of Limerick
Tabea De Wille holds an MA in German and English linguistics from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and an MS in multilingual computing and localization from the University of Limerick, Ireland. She has completed her PhD studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland, where she examined perceived quality in the context of crowdsourced localization. Previously, Tabea worked in the localization industry, primarily in video games localization and is currently a lecturer at the University of Limerick.
Twitter: @TabeaDeWille
LinkedIn: tabeadewille
Mason Deming
XLOCMason Deming is the chief technology officer (CTO) and system architect of XLOC. While at XLOC he has worked closely with developers on high profile titles such as League of Legends, the Call of Duty series and Borderlands. Prior to founding and serving as XLOC’s CTO, Mason enjoyed a successful career in game design, development, business-to-business e-commerce and database administration. He has performed key programming roles on numerous high profile titles while working on staff at Activision. He served as CTO for Roaring Mouse Entertainment and developed, programmed and managed Networld Exchange’s B2B e-commerce system.
Olivier Deslandes
VP Audio & TranslationSIDE Audio PTW
Olivier Deslandes is a games industry veteran, starting as a voice talent, voice director and translator in the late 1990s. He has contributed to more than 200 titles. Olivier joined Side in 2002 to establish and develop its localization department. In 2017, with Side under PTW ownership, he became senior director of global audio. He rose to vice president of audio and translation for PTW and Side in 2018. Olivier holds degrees in communication and advertising.
Diana Díaz Montón
CofounderNative Prime
Diana Díaz Montón is a game localization specialist with over 20 years of experience. She graduated in translation and interpreting, then began her career with an internship at EA Sports. Diana founded Wordlab in 2005 and in 2010 cofounded Native Prime, a company specialized in video game localization. She has been involved in the localization of reference titles such as Dragon Quest XI, Ni no Kuni, Hitman 2 & 3, Snack World, and hundreds more. Diana enjoys spreading the love for video game localization and has participated as a speaker at different events, such as GDC or Gamelab, both addressed to future localizers as well as to developers and publishers. She collaborates with different universities and institutions where she teaches game localization and project management, and has also written a series of articles about the challenges of game localization.
Twitter: maloria
LinkedIn: dianadiazmonton
Dmitry Drozdov
KingJakub Dudkowski
Senior QA Project ManagerQLOC
Jakub Dudkowski is a quality assurance (QA) professional with over eight years of experience as a functionality, localization and certification QA tester, team leader, project manager, training manager, community manager and QA manager. Currently he is a senior QA project manager at QLOC. Jakub is also a fighting game player, tournament organizer, host and community supporter with over 16 years of competitive experience. He has worked on over 100 titles including several fighting games.
Nathalie Duret
HR ManagerKeywords Studios
Nathalie Duret is the human resource manager (HR) at Keywords Studios, Paris, France, and as such, she is responsible for recruitment and training. She has worked for more than 20 years in the localization industry, including 13 years at Electronic Arts, France. Nathalie has held various positions giving her the opportunity to tackle video games localization specifics such as text and audio localization, project management, vendor management, team management and more. In 2013, she decided to move to HR to bring support to the localization teams from a different perspective, to focus on people development and to help the teams grow and adapt to constantly changing environments.
Kate Edwards
CEO / Principal ConsultantGeogrify
Kate Edwards is the CEO and principal consultant of Geogrify, a consultancy for content culturalization, a board member of Take This, and is the former executive director of the International Game Developers Association from 2012 to 2017. In addition to being an outspoken advocate that serves in several advisory/board roles, she is a geographer, writer and corporate strategist who pioneered the field of content culturalization in games. As Microsoft’s first geopolitical strategist on the geopolitical strategy team she created and managed, Edwards protected the company against political and cultural content risks across all products and locales. Since Microsoft, she has assisted many clients on a variety of geopolitical and cultural issues across many products and game franchises. Kate is also a columnist for MultiLingual magazine. Fortune magazine named her as one of the “10 most powerful women” in the game industry and she was named by GamesIndustry.biz as one of their six People of the Year. In April 2018, she was honored with Reboot Develop’s annual Hero Award.
Mario Ferrer
Senior UX WriterSenior UX Writer
Mario Ferrer is a senior (or señor) user experience (UX) writer. He designs content that guides users across digital products and services. Mario is a part of UX Writers Spain, a local community of practitioners that guide professionals on how to get into the discipline, and helps companies discover the value of the UX writer role within a product team. He’s always trying to find the best tacos in town, listens to stand-up comedy and teaches his two kids about Mexican Lucha Libre.
Stanisław Fiedor
CEOFuero
Stanisław Fiedor graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics with the master degree in finance and accounting. His adventure with interactive content started already in high school were together with the current chief technical officer he was developing flash-based multiplayer experiences. During his university times, he started an interactive agency. Stan is the chief executive officer and cofounder of Fuero Games. Stan grew the studio from a four people team to a 40 professionals big experienced team. During this time he closed deals with some of the biggest players in the industry like WarGaming, Nexon, CD Projekt or Miniclip and responsible for signing IP’s like The Witcher. Stan is also a founding member of the Polish Games Association.
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content Localization
Loquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content LocalizationLoquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck is an independent consultant who learned his trade setting up and managing localization
processes and teams for free-to-play/mobile games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games on
the publisher side. This made him develop a particular interest in seeking and trying out new language
technology and service provider models that allow for economic and quality continuous translation
workflows. Connecting the dots between the needs of product owners with the strengths of service
providers, he now supports businesses in selecting and implementing the right processes, tools and
partners for their products.
Krzysztof Fudro
FQA Team LeadKeywords Studios
Krzysztof Fudro is functionality quality assurance (QA) lead at Keywords Studios Katowice. He and his team work with clients to achieve the highest testing efficiency possible. Prior to Keywords Studios Katowice, Krzysztof worked at In-House Studio as a game designer and QA tester. That experience allows him to predict what each client needs the most, sometimes even before the client realizes it. Krzysztof’s addiction to efficiency, combined with an interest in automation, always pushes him further to improve and optimize processes.
Joshua van Gageldonk
Guerrilla GamesJoshua van Gageldonk started working as a quality assurance tester in Guerrilla Games in August 2013, at the very end stages of development of Killzone Shadow Fall. After the development of Killzone Shadow Fall was completed, he was part of the test team for Horizon Zero Dawn, where he specialized in testing Robots, World Activities (non story-driven content), Random Encounters and Living World.
Carlos Garcia-Shelton
Product ManagerXLOC
Carlos Garcia-Shelton is the product manager at XLOC and is responsible for overseeing the business and all aspects of product development. Learning game production from many different angles such as quality assurance, development, publishing and localization has led him to a love for identifying and executing ways to bring together global teams and organize their efforts in the most efficient and effective ways.
Steven Garrad
Outsourcing, Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Jaime Gine
Keywords StudiosJaime Giné is chief customer officer for Keywords Studios. He represents the voice of the customer in the Keywords global organization across all services and designs innovative and customized solutions for Keywords top clients, always within the framework of strategic partnerships. Before joining Keywords he was vice president international development services at Electronic Arts (EA). Prior to joining EA, Jaime worked at SDL, holding various positions as departmental manager, project manager and divisional director. He was also part of the executive team that led SDL during the IPO.
Natalie Gladkaya
Director of LocalizationPlarium
Natalie Gladkaya joined the game localization industry in 2011 as a translator/editor, then managed teams of game localization and localization quality assurance. During her tenure with Plarium, she has worked on localizing over ten web and mobile game titles, including Raid: Shadow Legends and Mech Arena, into a variety of languages, building localization workflow, and both in-house and remote localization teams from the ground up.
LinkedIn: natalie-gladkaya
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov
Head of LocalizationSocial Quantum
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov started in translation and adaptation of text games at local IRC networks in 2003. He then switched to software and ended up doing amateur localization of huge titles like SWAT 4 and Septerra Core. Now Mike is the head of localization at Social Quantum, one of the top ten largest game publishers in Russia and Eastern Europe. The mobile game developer has created such titles as Megapolis, Wild West: New Frontier, Dragon’s World, Ice Age World, and Poker Jet, and is in the process of creating more. The company has also been conducting successful experiments in machine translation and machine translation post-editing.
Kaysie Green
Program Manager, Games LocalizationGlyph Language Services
Kaysie Green joined Glyph in 2015 as a project manager and developed her zone of genius around the games industry. This passion was her path to becoming a project manager devoted to Glyph’s games clients. Kaysie is currently the program manager for Glyph’s games division. In this role, she ensures continuous process improvement, up-to-the-moment market research, production quality and the cultivation of Glyph’s team of top-tier, game-obsessed linguists. Before coming to Glyph, Kaysie earned her BA in international relations from Gonzaga University, in 2013.
Aditya Gupta
Cofounder & QA Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Aditya Gupta is a cofounder of Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group. Currently working as a quality assurance and release manager at Day Zero, he has over nine years of game industry experience in game production and release management. Aditya is versed in quality assurance, title certification, and the release management process for multiplatform games. Over the years, he has worked on 12 AAA titles from Ubisoft, Codemasters, Streamline Games, and various other AAA publishers. In his leisure, he loves to cook and cruise around on his motorbike.
LinkedIn: my.linkedin.com/in/aditya-gupta-64204086
Clara Gómez Pérez
Localization Lead & Vendor ManagerGoodgame Studios
Clara Gómez Pérez joined the game localization industry ten years ago. Since 2011 she has led the localization department at Goodgame Studios. She holds a BA in translation and interpreting and an MA in specialized translation. Clara’s favorite localization-related topics are content management systems, key performance indicators, localization tools, process automation and funny localization mistakes.
Patricia Gómez Jurado
Associate Director of Content DesignKing
Patricia Gómez is based in Barcelona, where she is associate director of content design at King. She is building the first content design craft at King, managing a team of content designers and leading content operations. Previously, Patricia was the head of content at eDreams Odigeo, leading a team of UX writers and localization specialists. She started her career in the localization industry and worked six years as localization manager at Google Spain and Portugal. She currently teaches localization in the UX writing course by Shifta (Elisava).
Patrick Görtjes
Localization Project ManagerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Patrick Görtjes is a Localization Project Manager at Massive Entertainment, the lead development studio behind the Tom Clancy’s The Division games. Patrick holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Communication and got his start in the industry as a translator before moving on to project management. When he’s not working, Patrick enjoys hiking, board games, and karaoke.
Lukasz Hacura
Anshar StudiosChristin Hansson
KingChristin Hansson has been working with quality assurance (QA), project management and agile methods in the mobile industry for 15 years. She is now working hands-on for two game teams at King and is successfully supporting them in their ways of working with QA. Christin is also working together with the localization team at King to improve their testing processes. She has a big passion for both games and quality.
Amanda Hawthorne
Inclusive Language SpecialistElectronic Arts IL
Amanda Jane Hawthorne is an inclusive language specialist with a background as an English teacher, trainer, and materials writer. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the area of diversity, specializing in race and LGBT+ awareness. Currently based in Madrid, Amanda works full time in the tech industry, is the founding director of The Bechdel Film Club Madrid, and volunteers with antiracism organizations. She is also an award winning researcher and recently contributed to the book How To Write Inclusive Materials by Tyson Seburn.
Ulrich Henes
PrincipalLocWorld
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.
Inés Hernández
Electronic ArtsInés Hernández is a veteran game industry professional with over 15 years of experience in video games localization. She is currently managing the localization portfolio and project management teams at Electronic Arts.
Robert Herzog
Head of LocalizationTravian Games
Robert Herzog is the of head of localization and writing at Travian Games, overseeing the strategic direction of both departments. He’s been with the company for 11 years, starting as a localization project manager in 2011. Before that, Robert earned his spurs in other video game companies as localization project manager and translator. He found his way into the gaming and localization industry as freelance translator in 2004.
Celia Hodent
Game UX ConsultantCelia Hodent
Celia Hodent is recognized as a leader in the application of user experience (UX) and cognitive science in the game industry. Celia holds a PhD in psychology and has over ten years of experience in the development of UX strategy and processes in video game studios. Through her work at Ubisoft, LucasArts, and as director of UX at Epic Games (Fortnite), she has contributed to many projects across multiple platforms, from PC to consoles, mobile, and VR. Celia is also the founder of the Game UX Summit, advisor for the GDC UX Summit, member of the Foresight Committee at CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, an independent French administrative regulatory body), author of The Gamer’s Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design and The Psychology of Video Games. She currently works as an independent consultant, helping studios increase the likelihood of their games to be engaging and successful. Celia also provides guidance on the topics of playful learning, ethics, unconscious bias, and inclusion in technology.
Twitter: @CeliaHodent
Blog: celiahodent.com
Bjorn Holste
Localization QA ManagerSQUARE ENIX
Björn Holste is localization QA manager at Square Enix, overseeing, shaping and improving the LQA for many titles and franchises including Tomb Raider, Just Cause and Life is Strange. He has worked in LQA and QA for over a decade and during this time has worked in various roles on many different titles. After a brief stint in Software/Web QA, he joined the great team at Square Enix about 2 years ago.
Echo Huang
Senior Delivery ManagerBeyondsoft Corporation
Ann Hurley
Vice President of Business DevelopmentTestronic
Ann Hurley has worked within the games industry for over 30 years, starting in sales team management within the distribution sector, then moving into publishing. For the past 12 years, she has been working in the quality assurance vendor space. Although steps have been taken to embrace diversity within our industry, Ann feels strongly about the nurturing of young women within games, to ensure they are supported through coaching in order to build their confidence to find their true potential.
Marina Ilari
CEOTerra Localizations
Marina Ilari is an ATA certified translator with 16 years of experience in the localization industry. She has worked as a translator and quality assurance specialist for many companies around the world with a special focus on video game localization. Marina is the chief executive officer of Terra Localizations and co-host of the podcast En Pantuflas. She was a 2020 recipient of the Enterprising Women of the Year award.
Marina Ilinykh
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Marina Ilinykh started her career in localization in 2011. Since then she’s been working in game localization on both the vendor and client sides. Currently Marina is the head of localization at Playrix, overseeing localization of all of the company’s titles, ensuring market-readiness and driving innovation initiatives.
Gina Jackson
Games Consultant/AdvisorGina Jackson is a games industry consultant and advisor. She started in games development in 1992 and has worked for developers, publishers, and distributors covering console, PC, and mobile games. Gina is particularly passionate about diversity, mental health, and skills development. She is treasurer of GamesAid, on the board for NextGen Skills Academy, and a visiting professor in games industry and business at Norwich University of the Arts (NUA). Gina recently received the MCV/DEVELOP Women in Games award for her outstanding contribution, a fellowship from NUA for services to the games industry, and has been honored with an Order of the British Empire for her work in education and diversity in the games industry.
Maryam Jaddoo
Localization ManagerWizards of the Coast
Maryam Jaddoo is the head of localization at Wizards of the Coast. She is responsible for leading critical product development and localization of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons and MTG Arena among others. Maryam has 10 years of localization experience. In her career, she has worked as a translator, game guide writer, game tester and project manager. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French and a master’s degree in project management and is fluent in multiple languages. Maryam is originally from Mauritius and her native language is French.
Paul Jakovlev
Customer Success Team LeadLokalise
Paul Jakovlev is a customer success team lead at Lokalise. He is an avid gamer and living the dream of learning about behind the scenes of game development by helping his favorite industry with localization challenges. In his spare time, Paul likes to binge-watch documentaries on various streaming platforms.
Rafał Jaworski
Linguistic AI ExpertXTM International
Rafał Jaworski, PhD, is an academic lecturer and scientist specializing in natural language processing techniques. His alma mater is Adam University in Poznań, Poland, where he works at the Department of Artificial Intelligence. Rafał’s scientific work concentrates around developing robust AI algorithms for the needs of computer assisted translation. These include automatic lookup of linguistic resources and computer assisted post editing, among others. Apart from the research and teaching, he works as linguistic AI expert at XTM International, leading a team of young and talented developers who put his visions and ideas into practice.
Renée Jessen
CEOCharacter Publishing & Localization
Cofounder and CEO of Character Publishing & Localization since 2010, Renée Jessen initially started working as a dubbing translator in the mid-nineties while studying rhetoric and history of ideas. The challenge of creating spoken language and personality in translations is still the favorite part of his job although business development takes up the majority of his time. Today, Character is both a global localization company focused on games and a publishing house of interactive experiences for children. Renée’s main focus is to balance the use of technologies and the translators’ need for a creative approach to their work.
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli
Head of Translation ServicesTestronic
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli was born in Argentina, has lived in several countries and has always been marked by books, games, languages and having to adapt to different cultures. Choosing to pursue studies in translation led to living in Warsaw. Around 2015, this escalated from working with Testronic’s localization quality assurance team to being involved in the development of Testronic’s translation services. He has managed the translation process for multiple game titles and tries to be involved as a translator or editor when time permits (aside from being constantly engaged with games and other forms of culture).
Alex Johnson
Dubbing ProducerPatricia Jurado
Head of Content and InsightsKing
Patricia is the current Head of Content and Insights, managing a team of content strategists and insights analysts at King Player Support. Previously, she worked at eDreams Odigeo as Head of Content and Localization, managing a team of UX writers, Content Specialists and translations providers responsible for the group websites and apps content in 20 languages. Between 2008 and 2014, Patricia worked at Google as a Language Manager driving quality product localization for Spain and Portugal. Patricia started her professional career in SDL as a translator and project manager. She holds a Master in Internet Business from ISDI and has completed Scrum Master official training. Patricia is the former manager of the Catalan Chapter of Women in Localization.
Your Job Title: Head of Content and Insights
Tomasz Juszczak
Vice President of TechnologyFuero
Tomasz Juszczak is vice president of technology at Fuero Games, where he leads and oversights all projects in the company from the technical side, including technology research and implementing programmers code quality principles. His current focus at Fuero Games is leading of the Artificial Intelligence Testing Framework R&D Project. The AITeF project is being developed as one of the selected projects under a grant from the National Center for Research and Development in Poland. His personal portfolio includes projects for different disciplines, from the medical field, car industry to sales projects in which he worked closely with Samsung and TVN. He has expertise in VR, AR, SaaS, applications, 2D/3D games for mobile, console and PC.
Alex Kang
Chief Operating OfficerBridge Translations
Alex Kisok Kang is the cofounder and chief operating officer of Bridge Translations in Seoul, Korea. He has been in the translation industry for over 15 years, working in various capacities including freelance translator, lecturer and language service provider executive. He has transformed Bridge Translations from a conventional translation company into a dedicated mobile game localization company. Alex previously oversaw all aspects of day-to-day management but with the growth of business, he now focuses on QA and client relations.
Polina Karpova
Vendor ManagerLevsha
For the past 2 ½ years, Polina Karpova has been a vendor manager at Levsha localization studio where she is responsible for seeking and recruiting new vendors as well as guiding and helping them throughout their cooperation with Levsha. Whenever vendors face an issue with payment, workload, information, or production — she is there for them. Polina studied international relations at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (English and Spanish languages) and as a student, she participated in a game localization workshop in 2016.
Dominick Kelly
Client Solution Director - Europe, Middle East and AsiaXTM International
Dominick Kelly fell into the localization industry 16 years ago as a software engineer and decided never to leave. Over time, he has been involved with the localization tool space and worked at some of the largest language service providers in the world. For the past six years, Dominick has worked at XTM International, as a key part of the team focused on driving innovation and growth at the forefront of cloud-based language technology.
Ayesha Khan
Principal Narrative DesignerDeep Silver Dambuster Studios
Ayesha Khan is an unapologetic word nerd, fascinated by the way languages change over time and influence the way their speakers think. Having moved around for most of her life, Ayesha has used her cultural adaptability and comfort with several languages to help her integrate into game development studios in four countries, where she has worked on titles including The Lord of the Rings Online, Gears Tactics, Wizard101, DarkOrbit and APB. Ayesha has been a narrative designer, writer, content designer and everything in between. Her favorite forms of amateur anthropology include sampling local food and drink wherever she can and gleefully inflicting her karaoke skills upon bar patrons around the world.
Vladimir Konoplitsky
CEORIOTLOC
Vladimir is a team lead and head of the localization studio Riotloc. He started as a games translator and editor in 2007 and worked on everything from casual indie games to AAA titles. Vladimir is a specialist in QA and translation tools and is an old fan of the Total War series, but has an affection for RPGs. He is a strong believer in handcrafting the approach and team-like relations between developers and localizers. Apart from inventing new ways of working in his team, he occasionally speaks at game conferences, organizes localization workshops and gamedav events. He failed university exams once because of Fallout 3.
Gábor Kovács
Game Localization ExpertmemoQ
As part of the memoQ gaming unit, Gábor Kovács uses his abilities to combine technical knowledge with sales skills to act as a primary contact for product demos, client needs assessment, and training along with many other duties. Using his well-honed communication skills, he can simplify and communicate complex concepts to a nontechnical audience. Gábor’s IT background also gives him the edge when it comes to technical discussion and finding the right solutions. He has been an avid gamer since childhood.
Denisse Kreeger
Head of Global Localization ProductionRiot Games
Denisse Kreeger is the head of global localization production at Riot Games, and the Los Angeles chapter manager at Women in Localization. With over 15 years of experience in the localization industry, she has also managed localization production at Blizzard Entertainment and Netflix, where she helped build much of the localization infrastructure. Denisse graduated from UCLA and has an MA from the University of Roehampton in audiovisual translation.
LinkedIn: dkreegerl10n
Mathieu Lachance
FQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Mathieu Lachance has worked in the video game industry for over 12 years on more than 400 video game titles. He currently heads Keywords’ Testing services through the Keywords, VMC, Babel and Enzyme studios, leading an international team of over 2500 spanning 15 studios. He has been a featured expert, speaker and lecturer in/at MCV magazine, Develop magazine, Gamasutra, HEC Montreal University, EA’s XDS, Oculus Connect, MIGS, NGDC and more.
Renato Laus
Lead QA CoordinatorRovio Entertainment
Renato Laus is a lead quality assurance (QA) coordinator at Rovio Entertainment. He takes pride in ensuring its games have top-notch quality, and works daily with the QA leads. Renato heads up several cross-unit initiatives engaging with internal stakeholders, and he champions localization in the company as a means to expand the market reach of its games, therefore taking steps to improve the localization processes, interfacing with internal teams and external vendors alike.
LinkedIn: renato-laus-91b506a5
Stephen Laverick
Team Experience DirectorTestronic
Stephen Laverick is the team experience director at Testronic. He is responsible for recruitment, learning and development, and the community of employees. Though he is based in Warsaw, Stephen’s current role covers the UK, Europe and the United States. He has over 20 years of recruitment and learning, and development experience. Stephen has held numerous positions across the UK and Europe at various companies ranging from start-ups to blue chip companies. From a young age he has had a passion for gaming and still plays on a number of devices, so putting his passion for gaming and developing people together is like a dream come true!
Luca Lazari
Audio Technical Operations ManagerKeywords Studios
Luca Lazari works for Keywords Studios as an audio technical operations manager. He worked for music and TV studios after graduating in sound and recording engineering, and science and technology of music communication. Luca joined the game localization industry in 2008 as an audio project lead at Binari Sonori, later acquired by Keywords Studios. After managing the audio technical part for multilanguage localization of countless games (including AAA titles) for over a decade, he moved to Keywords Studios audio localization division, operating at a global level, supervising audio technical processes and workflows.
LinkedIn: lucalazari
Tom Lee
CofounderLOVO
Tom Lee worked in sales at MuleSoft (now a Salesforce company) and digital marketing at LG prior to his time at LOVO. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UC Berkeley.
When Tom is not interacting with users or reading up on the latest trends in AI and voice, he can be found writing poems, drinking beer, training in a boxing gym, scuba diving, or playing FIFA.
LinkedIn: tomsklee
Ville Lehtinen
Senior DeveloperRovio Entertainment
With over a decade of experience working on both mobile/embedded graphics engines and games, Ville Lehtinen has worked with game studios at companies such as Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Rovio. His recently released titles include South Park Phone Destroyer (Ubisoft Redlynx) and Small Town Murders (Rovio).
LinkedIn: ville-lehtinen-99337410
Marie Leininger
Vendor SpecialistElectronic Arts
After graduating from the Cologne University of Applied Science, Marie Leininger started work as a localization project manager for marketing content. In 2017, she moved to Electronic Arts as a vendor specialist and interim multilingual localization specialist. Marie’s main focus is on evaluating and defining translation and post-editing quality, and establishing and maintaining vendor relationships.
Audrey Lepage
Senior Localization Project ManagerBigpoint GmbH
With a degree in modern languages and literature, Audrey Lepage started her career in the games industry in 2010 as a French localization tester for DTP Entertainment, Hamburg. After a year of testing fun, she moved to Bigpoint where she first worked as a French translator, then as a localization project manager (LPM) and then was promoted to senior LPM in 2017. In the constant search for more efficient and streamlined workflows, Bigpoint transitioned to XTM four years ago and has been tailoring the tool to meet their requirements with the support of the XTM team.
Michael Liu
R2GamesMichael Liu is a Chinese-Canadian English localization specialist and quality assurance at Reality Squared Games, with over 20 years of gaming experience especially in MMORPGs, MOBAs and CCGs which require an intimate understanding of game mechanics. Michael loves to play video games on a deep level with self-imposed challenges such as low-level games (beat games at the lowest level possible), naked runs (not wearing any equipment), iron man (permanent death, can only use what you find). He is responsible for highly technical translations that contain heavy gaming jargon or deep understanding of game mechanics. Has extremely accurate and creative translations.
Irina Lokshyna
Development DirectorWargaming
Federica Lusardi
Senior Translator/Editor - ItalianSQUARE ENIX
A passionate gamer since childhood, Federica Lusardi began working in the videogames industry when she moved to London in 2011 to study for an MA in audiovisual translation. After a brief time as a language tester for SEGA and translating her first game for Codemasters as a freelancer, she worked at Pole To Win as an in-house translator and team supervisor. Federica joined Square Enix in 2016, where she currently works as Italian translator/editor. Her work encompasses translation for games and marketing campaigns, and she has translated games such as Life is Strange 2, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the FINAL FANTASY Trading Card Game and Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Sílvio Macedo
Senior Localization DirectorBluelab
Sílvio Macedo has 15 years of experience in game localization and has managed dozens of AAA titles, as well as a vast variety of mobile and online games of all genres for multi-platforms. Sílvio has managed/overseen every step of the localization process, from translation to audio recording and post-production. His hands-on approach gives him a thorough knowledge of the complex localization process involved in each game title. He’s currently the senior localization director at BlueLab, where he’s been working since 2004.
Takako Maeda
Globalization Project ManagerKing
Takako Maeda is a globalization project manager at King, inspired by the Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement, Kaizen. She joined King in 2014 and recently has taken on the challenge of internationalization, working closely with game engine developers to ensure high quality in King games. She loves coming up with creative solutions to problems and working with colleagues from across the organization. She lives in Barcelona and in her free time enjoys making Japanese ceramics.
Sebastian Maeser
LQA Project ManagerKeywords Studios
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual TranslationUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron is a lecturer and a member of the research group TransMedia Catalonia at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is the director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation and has extensive experience as a translator, specializing in software and game localization. Carme’s research interests include game localization, game accessibility, audiovisual translation and accessibility to the media. She has published extensively in international journals, participated in several research projects and is one of the principal investigators of the Researching Audio Description: Translation, Delivery and New Scenarios (RAD), funded by the Spanish Government. Carme is coauthor of Game Localization: Translating for the Global Digital Entertainment Industry (O’Hagan and Mangiron, 2013) and one of the editors of Fun for All: Translation and Accessibility Practices in Video Games (Mangiron, Orero & O’Hagan, 2014).
Anca Marica
EMEA Localization ManagerUbisoft
Anca Marica is a localization professional with over ten years of experience in the video game industry. At Ubisoft, she oversees the localization operations for the EMEA region by keeping in close contact with project managers and handling various transversal topics such as loc quality, process improvement or vendor management to ensure the localized versions of Ubisoft games meet company standards.
She holds a BA in English and Spanish philology, a master’s degree in international studies and an MS in project management.
Teresa Marshall
VP Globalization & LocalizationSalesforce
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 Education. From 2014 to 2016 she was on the board of Women in Localization. Before joining Salesforce in 2009, Teresa managed localization efforts at both Google and PGP in Silicon Valley while teaching at MIIS. An active member of the localization community, she has been the organizer and cohost of the annual Localization Unconference in Silicon Valley since 2009.
Jakub Marszałkowski
GIC & Indie Games Poland FoundationJakub Marszałkowski is the cofounder and a board member of Indie Games Poland, conducting projects that provide the presence of Poland at expos and conferences, travel scholarships, game jams, or visits of foreign delegations in Poland. Jakub regularly serves as a spokesperson for the Polish game industry and the CEE region. He was recognized with the annual award of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as an organizer and promoter working for game developers. As the head of the Game Industry Conference in Poznań, Jakub developed it into one of the largest events in the CEE region. He is also a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Poznan University of Technology.
Nadine Martin
Senior Manager, Test ServicesSony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Nadine Martin has been working in the games industry and quality assurance (QA) for over 15 years. She joined Sony PlayStation’s internal QA team after completing a degree in business administration, starting initially as a localization tester for German and progressing to the management of the localization test team. In 2013 she became senior manager for test services which includes localization and functional testing. The team is responsible for testing game franchises such as Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Horizon and God of War on all PlayStation platforms, including virtual reality and mobile. Nadine has presented extensively on QA and localization topics.
Robert Masella
Senior Gameplay EngineerRare(Microsoft)
Robert Masella is a Senior Software Engineer at Rare with over 14 years of experience working of game development. He has worked on a wide variety of games including Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the Kinect Sports series, and Sea of Thieves. He’s worked on a variety of feature areas, but mostly spends time developing AI, physics and animation code. During production of Sea of Thieves, he has been heavily involved in the automated testing of gameplay code, in order to maintain the build integrity required for a service game.
Philip Mayes
Managing DirectorMighty Kingdom
Philip Mayes is the managing director of Mighty Kingdom, winner of the 2019 Australian Game Developer of the Year Award. With more than 15 years of experience, he has worked on games for many large international brands, including Star Wars, LEGO, and Disney. Founded by Philip in 2010, Mighty Kingdom is one of the largest and most diverse game developers in Australia, with over 120 people working across Australia and New Zealand. He is a passionate advocate for the industry locally, and is eager to see that industry be as inclusive, progressive, and successful as possible.
Twitter: @pjm
Fabio Minazzi
Text Localization DirectorKeywords Studios
Fabio Minazzi has been into localization of interactive media since 1992, dealing with text, audio and video contents at Philips Interctive Media. After founding Binari Sonori, he dealt with software localization projects for Sun, Oracle, Peregrine and Adobe for a decade, using CAT and WISIWIG localization tools, DTP and workflow systems. This experience has proven useful in the roaring game localization industry, where, for the past ten years, Fabio has been in charge of game localization by Codemasters, Microsoft, Capcom, Square Enix and Bandai-Namco. An active member of Games Localization SIG and cofounder of the Games Localization Round Table, he is passionate about building bridges between cultures and helping people publish great content worldwide.
Hugo Miranda
Language SpecialistBlizzard Entertainment
As a language specialist for Latin American Spanish, Hugo Miranda’s main quest is to find what serves players best. From making linguistic creative decisions on style, translation and voiceover to diving deep into the history and culture of the region, he combines a passion for video games, languages and heritage.
Anneta Mitsopoulo
Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Anneta Mitsopoulou has been with Electronic Arts (EA) since 2008. She holds a diploma in translation and is based in Cologne, Germany. Anneta’s current focus lies on workflow optimization and automation. She is also involved in machine translation research at EA and is passionate about technology and automating workflows.
Maciej Miąsik
Pixel CrowMaciej Miąsik is a veteran game developer, producer, designer, sound designer, programmer and cofounder of several gamedev studios that have been active for the past 25 years. Maciej was head of production and responsible for the first part in 2007 of the Witcher series. Other games he has participated in may be known to adventure game players: Reah: Face the Unknown, Schizm: Mysterious Journey, Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon and Sentinel: Descendants in Time, and recently, Beat Cop. One title codeveloped by him is Electro Body (1992), considered one of the first successful Polish PC games. Maciej is also actively engaged in different educational efforts such as curriculum director at Game Dev School and as a regular lecturer at Warsaw Film School and Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology. He is currently working as a member of the board at Movie Games S.A. and on his new game at Pixel Crow.
Valentina Mollica
LQA ManagerTestronic
Nadine Monschau
Senior Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Nadine Monschau is senior localization manager at EA, leading the translation, vendor management, machine translation, and desktop publishing teams. She has a background in translation and started her career at EA and in the video game localization industry in 2001. Currently, Nadine has kicked off an inclusive language initiative to ensure that players can immerse in an inclusive experience when they play EA games. She is also the local chair of EA’s Women’s Ultimate Team Employee Resource Group and passionate to help women (and her teams in general) progress in their careers.
Catherin Newmann Halebian
Localization Manager, OG Production & LATAMBlizzard Entertainment
As a localization manager, Catherin Newmann Halebian’s main objective is to support her teams and pipelines, enabling them to provide the highest level of service. She does this with tools such as neural machine translation, digital asset management and computer-assisted translation. Working with multidisciplinary stakeholders has enabled her to develop expertise in interpretation (simultaneous, consecutive and live streamed subtitles) as well as audiovisual and multimedia localization.
Kassi O’Connor
Outside Services DirectorGlu Mobile
Kassi O’Connor began her career in gaming over 11 years ago working in external development. Since then, she’s worked on over 100 titles, been a producer and has expanded the outsourcing and localization department to 11 studios worldwide. Kassi is currently the outside services director and runs all external services for Glu Mobile, including external development, localization and independent contractors. She enjoys working with external teams and using them in a way that they feel ownership of the game they are working on. Kassi has presented at numerous international and US conferences. She holds a BA in communication and an MBA.
Bazz O'Reilly
LQA Service Delivery ManagerKeywords Studios
Tony O'Dowd
KantanAI Director & Head of Localization TechnologyKeywords Studios
Tony O’Dowd is the founder and chief architect of KantanAI, a cloud-based AI and custom machine translation solutions provider which is a part of Keywords Studios. He is a serial entrepreneur and localization veteran with more than 25 years of experience working in the language industry. Tony has previously held senior positions at Lotus Development Corporation, Symantec Corporation, Corel Corporation Ltd., and Alchemy Software Development, which he founded in 2000. He holds a BS in computer science from Trinity College Dublin, and a fellowship from the Localization Research Institute at the University of Limerick. Today, Tony leads innovations in KantanAI and localization technology at Keywords Studios.
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen
Global Head, PMOKeywords Studios
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen is officially an industry veteran, having spent 20 years in different roles in testing and localization services at Square Enix. He has recently joined Keywords Studios to build cross-service programs, supporting their global development and publishing clients. He remains an active and enthusiastic member of the game localization and testing community.
Ana Paredes
Project ManagerUbisoft
Ana Paredes joined the localization and video game industries by chance after moving to Montreal. During her tenure at Keywords, she worked briefly in testing before moving to translation, in what was, at the time, one of the most secret and expected projects of the company — Starcraft 2. Following that, Ana provided for Brazilian Portuguese content management at Expedia, and subsequently moved into project management at companies such as SDL and Transperfect. Most recently she worked on Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising. Ana’s interests revolve around all things related to diversity, inclusion, skateboarding, and cats. She thinks completing games is overrated, and the last title she saw through was Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime, which doesn’t even have VO!
LinkedIn: ana-gt-paredes
Donna Parrish
PrincipalLocWorld
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 Translators without Borders.
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer
Turn 10 Quality ManagerMicrosoft
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer grew up in what was then rural Bellevue, Washington, and went to Western Washington University before joining Microsoft in 1998. He was in development for six years before joining the centralized test organization. Jimbo has been a quality manager at Microsoft for twelve years and shipped dozens of Xbox and PC games. He had a three and a half year detour as the test manager for HoloLens Experiences and is happy to be back working on games. Jimbo is currently the Turn 10 quality manager and super proud of the just released Forza Horizon.
Vlad Pomarjanschi
QC Localization Team LeadUbisoft
Vlad Pomarjanschi started his career at Ubisoft six years ago, pursuing his all-time passion for videogames. Vlad quickly got involved in localization testing, subsequently joining QC-LOC where he climbed through the ranks, becoming its team lead three years ago. This position offered him the opportunity to engage in numerous and diverse Ubisoft projects, from small-scope titles to AAAs, facing all the challenges and rewards that come with managing localization testing. Vlad considers himself very lucky to be involved in such an impactful, yet dynamic field, with talents from so many different cultures and backgrounds.
Sandra Pourmarin
Localization ConsultantUbisoft
Sandra Pourmarin’s journey in the video game localization industry started 16 years ago with Ubisoft Montreal. Initially Localization Project Manager, she has been localization consultant for ten years now, overseeing Ubisoft NCSA localization and defining Ubisoft worldwide localization strategy with key localization stakeholders. No need to say that localization is one of Sandra’s favorite topics. Very enthusiastic about constant changes in the video game industry, which she sees as an opportunity to challenge oneself and foster out-of-the-box thinking in order to optimize localization processes while always targeting high quality standards.
Chris Priestman
Business Development ManagerZA/UM
Chris Priestman has a keen interest in experimental video games after spending a decade in journalism. He now works at ZA/UM, the studio behind the award-winning, roleplaying game Disco Elysium, where he started as a writer and soon became the producer in charge of localization. Chris is now the business development manager at ZA/UM.
Twitter: @CPriestman
Liz Prince
Business ManagerAmiqus
Liz Prince is the business manager at award-winning recruitment specialist Amiqus. She is also the founder of Putting the G Into Gaming, an initiative to build more diverse and inclusive workplaces in games. Putting the G into Gaming has four focuses: attracting women into games from other industries; supporting women already working in the games sector; working with schools, universities and colleges to promote games as an attractive career option for girls and young women; and helping studios with their equity, diversity, and inclusion journey through the Empower Up program.
Elzbieta Pustul
TestronicElżbieta Pustuł is a quality assurance (QA) manager with over 10 years of experience in areas of localization, end-user support,and QA services for top-tier game publishers around the world. She started her career working for Electronic Arts as a customer support analyst where she has acquired her initial training and widened her skills. Later she worked as a localization and QA specialist for CD-Projekt, the publisher of The Witcher series of games. Her name can be spotted in credits of numerous games, including Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl, The Witcher, Mass Effect, Metro 2033 and Far Cry 5. At the end of a day, Elżbieta is usually pushing the “on” button on her favorite game console in pursuit of another platinum trophy.
Cristina Pérez Cerezo
Keywords StudiosCristina is the linguist team lead in the Barcelona office of the Keywords Studios. She graduated from the University of Granada with a B.A. in Translation and Interpreting. A couple of years later, she decided to specialize and took a master’s in audiovisual translation course at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Thanks to a collaboration program established between the university and Keywords Studios, she had the opportunity to do an internship as a Spanish language specialist at the company’s office in Dublin, where she ended up becoming part of the team.
Catalina Quijano
Localization Project ManagerMichael Radnitz
Senior Producer, LocalizationBlizzard Entertainment
Michael Radnitz is a senior producer with more than 12 years of experience in the games industry. He has shipped more than ten AAA titles (such as Diablo III and Overwatch) globally across various platforms . Planning, documentation and scheduling are words that excite Michael, and he thoroughly enjoys all aspects of production. He was involved in the localization of every Blizzard IP as well as web-based and other non-game content. Over the past five years, Michael’s focus has been on the Diablo and Overwatch franchises, including shipment of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls on console and in China, the release of Overwatch and the set up of the localization pipeline for the Overwatch League. He is currently setting up the localization pipeline for Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal.
Leilani Ramirez
Manager of DialogueSony Interactive Entertainment
Leilani Ramirez is the manager of dialogue for Sony Interactive Entertainment. An island girl from Hawaii, Leilani moved to Los Angeles (LA) and graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a BA in communications and recording arts. After dabbling in the film and TV post-production world, she fell into the interactive realm and started her game audio career at Electronic Arts — Los Angeles in 2003, working on multiple titles as the dialog lead for the Medal of Honor and Command & Conquer series. From there, Leilani jumped into the freelancing world and was the dialogue supervisor for several titles including Uncharted 3, ADR1FT and Fat Princess Adventures before landing at Sony PlayStation where she completed God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and photography, and volunteers at the Children’s Hospital of LA, with her dog, Frodo, who is a member of the dog-therapy team.
Chris Rowley
LQA Head of Division/Operations DirectorKeywords Studios
Chris Rowley, an industry veteran since 2002, spent his first five years in development as a games designer and producer. He moved to Codemasters to become their first quality assurance (QA) manager. Since then he has held various QA, localization management and director roles at publishers SCEE, Eidos, 2K and EA. Chris then moved to the vendor side in 2014 working at Testronic, PTW and now Keywords where he is currently responsible for the LQA service line and FQA operations. Chris has been a regular presenter and panelist on the conference circuit for a number of years.
Dave Ruane
Digital Content and Partnerships ManagerXTM International
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 currently manages digital content and partner strategies at XTM International. Dave 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.
Inés Rubio
Language Services Sr. Global ManagerNI
Inés Rubio is a localization veteran with experience in ecommerce, marketing and 15 years of gaming industry background. Her interest in process improvement centered around technology and outsourcing solutions drove her to research potential machine translation applications to games localization before the Google Neural Machine Translation landmark. Inés currently applies her passion to translation and localization processes at National Instruments, a leader in software defined automated testing and measurements.
Hadrien Rudich
Localization Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Hadrien Rudich is a localization project manager at Blizzard Entertainment. He started his localization journey at Blizzard eight years ago as French LQA analyst working on titles such as Diablo 3, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone. He moved on to new responsibilities after a few years as a project manager specialized in outsourcing solutions. In his current role Hadrien has been involved in numerous game releases and in 2018 he began working in a more central position on Overwatch, where his extensive knowledge and love for the game, both as an avid player and professional, are put to good use.
Isabell Rudolph
Localization Project CoordinatorGoodgame Studios
Isabell Rudolph has a BA in technical communication and an MS in software localization. She joined the localization department at Goodgame Studios in 2014, gaining experience in working with free-to-play games for mobile and web, delivering high-quality translations, optimizing workflows and continuously improving localization processes and quality.
Loreto Sanz Fueyo
Senior Director of LocalizationPTW
Loreto Sanz Fueyo, senior director of localization at PTW, graduated from King’s College in London, England, where she received her master’s degree in computational linguistics and formal grammar. She began her professional career as a games tester and translator, developing her localization knowledge and skills for over 13 years before becoming PTW’s director of translation in 2019. Loreto’s passion for communication and clear messaging has made her an invaluable part of PTW’s staff, where she provides guidance to all levels of the organization. Her latest obsession is building a house in Spain and when she’s not busy localizing, she can be found pouring over floor plans and interior design magazines!
António Saraiva
Managing PartnerGojira
António Saraiva is founder and managing partner at Gojira, a media production company that develops video games, apps and conversational characters (intelligent avatars). He taught game design and video game related subjects at Universidade Lusófona, IPA and Restart (Lisbon). Before Gojira, he was producer and game designer at Biodroid Productions and also IP Hunter and licensing manager for Biodroid Entertainment. António has worked in a multitude of media formats ranging from press to television to multimedia off and online. Starting out as a television producer and director in the late 80’s, he founded his own company, Latina-Europa, and authored many children’s, pop music and youth culture TV series. In Portugal he was a pioneer in writing on the internet’s social and creative issues, namely in Blitz, to which he still contributes.
Konstantin Savenkov
CEOIntento
After receiving a PhD in 2008, Konstantin Savenkov led research and development efforts for online content services then worked as CTO at Zvooq and as a chief operating officer at Bookmate. In 2016, he contributed his experience in artificial intelligence (AI), tech and operations to cofound Intento, Inc., where they build tools to source, evaluate and use machine translation (MT) and other cognitive AI services. Intento regularly publishes independent MT evaluation studies and aims to be a reference point for utilizing MT to solve particular business problems.
Tobias Scherf
Solution ArchitectMemsource
Tobias Scherf is a solution architect at Memsource. He draws on his 20 years of experience in the localization industry working with enterprise clients to develop innovative solutions, maximizing the value and adoption of Memsource’s machine translation and AI-based features. Prior to Memsource, Tobias worked in various roles from localization quality assurance in localization engineering to executive management on the language service provider side. He is experienced in running enterprise localization programs including language quality programs and quality analytics. Tobias has been instrumental in the design and development of proprietary solutions to effectively measure and improve translation quality.
David Schumacher
Manager, Test Services - PlayStation Studios QASony Interactive Entertainment
David Schumacher has worked in the industry for over 17 years, 12 of which have been in quality assurance. Starting his career at Sony Internal QA, David rejoined Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2020 after working alongside clients such as the BBC, Fox, and Rebellion as a producer and lead designer. He is a manager in test services, the group that coordinates functional and localization testing for franchises such as Gran Turismo, Horizon, God of War and Dreams across all PlayStation platforms, and recently including PC and mobile.
Miguel Sepúlveda
Global Localization ManagerKing
Miguel Sepúlveda started his journey in the exciting localization world in 1995. He worked as a quality assurance (QA) specialist for Microsoft for a few projects such as Microsoft Project, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. Early in his career, Miguel worked on the vendor side, mainly working for Lionbridge as localization QA manager for different clients. In 2007 he had the opportunity to enter the gaming industry thanks to Electronic Arts where he was responsible for setting up the technical team to provide automated localization QA services to games such as FIFA, Harry Potter or Need for Speed among others. Then Miguel moved the buyer side giving him the opportunity to complete his vision of how the localization industry worked from both sides. In 2014 he joined the King Candy Crush world where his role is to lead the globalization efforts of a very talented team.
Vanessa Shallcross
Head of LocalizationSEGA Europe
Having been in the games industry since 1996, Vanessa Shallcross is an experienced manager of computer game localization on a global basis. In her early years, she worked for Psygnosis, then moved to Sony Computer Entertainment and more recently Bigpoint GmbH based in Hamburg. Since November 2020 Vanessa was honored to be appointed as the Head of Localisation for Sega Europe overseeing all Localisation, Audio, LQA, and Engineering, part of the wider Operations Team, located in Brentford HQ. Her current focus is on getting to know her team and all the stakeholders across the Sega business, as well as planning the strategic direction of the Localisation Department.
Shwetank Sharma
CEOLocNapps Media
Shwetank Sharma is a seasoned management professional with experience across game localization business consulting, business development and localization project management. In his past professional pursuits, international experience in client relationship and project management for localization services stand out. Shwetank founded Locnapps Media in 2014 which has been instrumental in servicing videogame developers/publishers and language service providers for South East Asian, Middle Eastern and Indian Languages.
Kseniya Shorokhova
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Kseniya Shorokhova has an educational background in linguistics but she got into the language industry just five years ago when she found herself working as a Russian-English translator at Playrix. At that time, their localization team consisted of only three people. Kseniya has grown together with the team and the company, gradually making her way to team lead and ultimately becoming the head of localization. She now oversees more than 40 people and is responsible for Playrix’s localization strategy.
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck
Senior Manager, VO ProductionRiot Games
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck is senior manager of voiceover production at Riot Games, leading the team that produces the voiceover for League of Legends, Wild Rift, VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, and Riot Forge’s upcoming titles. Prior to Riot, she was at the helm of Side LA, where her team worked on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, Riot Games’ Legends of Runeterra, Epic Games’ Fortnite: Save the World, Splash Damage’s Gears: Tactics, and Dontnod Entertainment’s Tell Me Why, among hundreds of other titles. At the start of her career, Jacquie spent a decade with Sony PlayStation, coordinating dialog for projects from Socom 3 to God of War 3. She then went on to manage talent and casting for the Worldwide Studios product development services group, including titles such as The Order: 1886, Spiderman, and 2018’s God of War. Jacquie and her husband live with their cat, Bruce, in Los Angeles, California.
IMDb: Jacquie Shriver
Yumi Okubo-Shuman
Localization Engineering ManagerBig Fish
Yumi Shuman is a localization engineering manager in the International team at Big Fish. She is passionate about the integration of language and modern technologies with game products. Her current focus is driving cloud-based CAT technology with the mix of machine translation and TM program strategy. This is a key component in widening content availability for game and marketing localization. When she’s not working, Yumi enjoys playing with her 5-year-old twins.
Harald Simon
Localization DirectorBethesda
Harald Simon is localization director at Bethesda. He has been in the localization industry since the early 1990s, both on the vendor and the client side. In the video games industry he has held senior positions with Virgin Interactive and Electronic Arts, before joining Bethesda in 2011.
Kaushal Singh
QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Kirill Soloviev
CEO & Co-FounderContentQuo
Kirill Soloviev is the CEO and co-founder at ContentQuo, an Estonian translation technology company that helps global LSPs, enterprise localization teams and government agencies reduce their linguistic quality risk, improve vendor performance and boost machine translation quality at scale with a data-driven approach. During his 18 years in the industry, Kirill has served in diverse buyer-side and vendor-side roles, most recently as global director of localization at Acronis. Kirill has also co-organized the Localization Unconference in Tallinn and regularly mentors both new and seasoned localization professionals.
Kirill Soloviev
ContentQuoKirill Soloviev is the cofounder and head of product at ContentQuo, an Estonian tech startup helping localization teams and language service providers manage and reduce localization quality risk at any scale, with any translation management system. With 15 years of experience in localization across diverse buyer and vendor roles, Kirill served most recently as global director of localization at Acronis, a category-leading software product company, where his team was responsible for both linguistic quality assurance (QA) and software QA. Kirill also organizes the Localization unconference in Tallinn and collaborates with TAUS.
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference ManagerGame Global
Francesca has been in the video game localization industry since 2010, covering various roles: from marketing intern and translator for online games at Wooga and Bigpoint, to Senior Multilingual Localization Specialist at Electronic Arts managing large, multilingual titles, to Program Manager for the Games department at Alpha CRC.
Having experienced both the client and the service provider side of the industry, Francesca recently decided to become a freelance translator and consultant and is currently working as Conference Manager for Game Global and video game localization instructor for the Localization Institute.
Mike Souto
Business Development DirectorGridly
Mike Souto has over 20 years of experience in game and app development and localization. He’s a producer of AAA titles, including the Commandos series, TimeSplitters 2, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and many more. With experience of internal and external development teams, Mike’s been involved in game development at various touchpoints in the process.
LinkedIn: michael-souto-287a131
Niall Spooner-Harvey
Account ManagerGlyph Language Services
Niall Spooner-Harvey has over seven years of experience in the localization industry. He is very happy to be back at Glyph after three years away, most recently working as a project manager in the consumer robotics sector. A classics graduate from the UK, Niall is as passionate about gaming as he is about languages, both living and dead. When not talking at great length about the differences between British and American English or being a two-time Pun Slam champion, he can be found playing Cricket Captain 2020 and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Karen Stevens
Sports Accessibility LeadElectronic Arts
Karen Stevens is the Electronic Arts (EA) sports accessibility lead. She strives to improve the user experience for those with interactive differences. Stevens has been in the game industry for over 13 years and has first-hand experience of what it’s like living with disabilities. She has spoken at several conferences on the topic, and has been featured in magazines, television programs and radio shows.
Nate Stoddard
QA Discipline PrincipalEpic Games
Nate Stoddard has been working in quality assurance (QA), testing, hardware development and game development for more than 12 years. In that time, he has worked on over 34 titles, on almost as many platforms. Nate recently moved from Boston to North Carolina to work at Epic Games and is now a senior QA lead on Fortnite.
Leticia Sáenz Murga
Keywords StudiosCurrently, the localization lead at Keywords Studios Barcelona, Leticia Sáenz Murga manages a team of project managers, coordinators, and linguists specializing in the challenges of localizing market leading games. Leticia has over 11 years of experience in video games localization in different roles, from translator to senior project manager, giving her insight of the whole development and localization process as well as in-depth knowledge of game development and design.
Blanca Sánchez Joplin
Game WriterSocialpoint
Blanca Joplin has been working for over five years as a game writer at Socialpoint, one of Spain’s most vibrant game developers. During this time, she has worked on some very successful titles, including Monster Legends (her main focus and love of her life), Dragon City, World Chef and Word Life. Blanca’s background is in translation, having spent two years as a freelance translator and subtitler prior to arriving at Socialpoint, which has been her home ever since.
Andrea Tabacchi
VP Customer SuccessMemsource
Andrea Tabacchi is the vice president of customer success at Memsource where he utilizes his extensive experience in building customer-centric language technology solutions for multinational corporations and global translation companies. He and his team work with clients to develop solutions to address their translation technology needs, including innovative ways to optimize the Memsource platform, and liaise between clients and internal teams to suggest tool improvements. Prior to Memsource, Andrea spent over ten years on the language service provider side where he served in several roles in language technology, from localization engineering to technology director.
LinkedIn: andreatabacchi
Tülay Tetiker McNally
Director, Inclusive Design & Product DevelopmentElectronic Arts
Tülay Tetiker McNally is director, inclusive design and product development at Electronic Arts, and is responsible for establishing EA Studio’s global approach to creating inclusive products and features that put players first, partnering with EA development teams worldwide. Beginning her career in the video games industry more than 15 years ago at SEGA and Square Enix, she later joined Electronic Arts to head up central development operations at BioWare Edmonton. More recently Tülay was a senior development director at DICE Stockholm. Tülay is originally from Turkey and was raised in Munich, Germany. She has had the opportunity to live and work in countries across Europe and North America. An experienced public speaker and mentor of students and young professionals, she connects with gamers to listen to what makes them feel excluded or marginalized. For the future Tülay wants players to engage with games in safe, fun, and positive ways regardless of who they are or where they are from, to bring inclusive design and thinking to the core of game design. Tülay holds an MA in American studies, with specializations in the history of immigration and civil rights movement, and a BA in psychology from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 2020 she was selected as an inaugural member of TGA’s Future Class.
Mette Tingey
DirectorAlpha CRC
Mette Tingey is the director of Alpha Games, responsible for the revenue, accounts and commercial side of all games business within Alpha. Alpha is a mature LSP with 30+ years of experience providing end-to-end localization solutions to games developers and publishers across the globe.
Tamara Tirjak
Senior Localization ManagerFrontier Developments
Tamara Tirjak is the senior localization manager of Frontier Developments, a self-publishing video game developer based in Cambridge, UK. She is responsible for coordinating all localization-related activities across the organization, focusing on establishing reproducible, automated processes in order to streamline translation efforts and support the company’s international presence. Tamara’s previous experience includes working as an in-house linguist, project manager, translation tool support engineer, and technical trainer for various leading language service providers. She is a certified memoQ trainer, a qualified English-Hungarian translator and interpreter, and holds an MS degree in technology management.
Demid Tishin
All Correct GroupDemid Tishin is a game designer, entrepreneur and mentor. In 2006, he founded Allcorrect Group, a language services business and won a good name with customers such as EA, Ubisoft, Bandai Namco and Gaijin. He also founded Translation Forum Russia, a major convention for the translation industry, and helped to develop ISO 11669, the first ISO standard on translation services. Since 2016, Demid has been the full-time CEO of Funbakers, a game development studio.
To Be Announced
Sony Interactive EntertainmentGeorge Tong
Senior DirectorBeyondsoft Corporation
George Tong has nearly 19 years of IT and business management experience in the product globalization industry. Since 2016, George has worked in the US as senior engineering director, using his globalization industry knowledge, leading Beyondsoft’s onshore/offshore team to globalize clients’ products portfolios. Prior to that, in Nov 2005, George was the general manager and chief technical lead of Product G11N Services Business Unit at Beyondsoft, overseeing project management, technology innovation, personnel management, and business operations.
Charles Ulbig
LT LeadElectronic Arts
Charles Ulbig’s first role in 2002 at Electronic Arts was as QA tester for Football Manager in Cologne, Germany. One day the localization supervisor asked if he was interested in traveling around the world for free — well, almost free. Back in the day, localization testers were sent directly to the development studios to test the games and Charles’ first project abroad was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in Chertsey, UK. For him, it was an incredible experience to work on the same game with so many different people from around Europe. What motivates Charles, besides working with games, is the creativity behind the process of localization. Nothing is more gratifying to him than finding solutions to localization problems and seeing them later in-game. In 2007, Charles moved with EA to Madrid, Spain, took the position of senior tester and then became the localization testing team lead for German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. He is responsible for three permanent linguistic experts and up to 50 temporary employees during peak times.
Ulises Uno
Content & Localization ManagerEtermax
Ulises Uno is content and localization manager at etermax, leading a strategic area for the company’s gaming division which is focused on developing and publishing worldwide social games that entertain, connect and foster knowledge in up to 34 languages. With an educational background in social sciences and translation, he joined the gaming industry as a translator and copywriter. Ulises currently leads a team of language specialists, user experience writers and content producers, guiding them toward a product-centric mindset.
Jeferson Valadares
CEODoppio Games
Jeferson Valadares is CEO and cofounder of Doppio Games, a voice-first game studio based in Lisbon, Portugal. He was also the lead designer on the studio’s debut title The Vortex, available for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. He is also a member of the board of directors at Rovio. In past lives he was VP/GM of Mobile at Bandai Namco; Studio GM at Electronic Arts and Executive Producer at BioWare in San Francisco; Studio Director at Playfish and Creative Director at EA Mobile in London; and Game Development Director at Digital Chocolate’s Sumea studio in Helsinki.
Andrew Vestal
Senior Localization Program ManagerAmazon Game Studios
Andrew Vestal got his start in games localization in 2004, turning Japanese RPGs into English at Tokyo’s 8-4, Ltd. He moved back to the United States in 2006 to work at Blizzard Entertainment, where he oversaw the localization of the first two World of Warcraft expansions, Diablo III, and Battle.net. In 2013, he took a brief break from games to join Microsoft to focus on localization tooling and pipeline design. At Amazon Game Studios since 2017, Andrew currently oversees translation and translation testing of all first-party AGS titles, Twitch Prime, and Lumberyard. He loves retro games and has accidentally started a collection of CRT monitors in his garage.
Brandon Victor
Keywords StudiosJanet Weddle
Technical QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Janet Weddle is a technical QA manager with 15 years of experience in game development, project management, test management and automation. She started her career as a game developer at KnowWonder, Inc. which became Amaze Entertainment. Janet’s development experience there and her later roles in test management and project management led to her strong appreciation of great tools. Throughout her career she saw the benefit of tools and automation in test, development, art and management. Success in these areas led to Janet current position as a technical QA manager and an automation advocate.
Ben Wibberley
Managing PartnerDAQA
Ben Wibberley has over 20 years of experience in the video game industry, specializing in executive strategy, global production support, external development, international production and live operations. Having signed, grown and managed $100M’s of multi-service deals, he has an intimate knowledge of industry best practices, working with some of the most well-known companies in the business. Ben founded DAQA as an independent, new generation video games support agency. DAQA provides strategic consultancy, evaluation and implementation of operations for AAA studios, alongside representation of unique, disruptive, technology-based service companies.
Matt Wilson
Global Head of Format QASony Interactive Entertainment
Matt Wilson is a leader in the software and hardware industry with over 20 years of specialist quality assurance (QA) and testing experience. He is currently the global head of format QA within Sony Interactive Entertainment which handles all compliance for PlayStation globally. Matt has experience leading and building a large (250+) co-located team that deals with 30,000+ products globally annually, each with very short service-level agreements. He recently transitioned four separate regional QA teams to a single co-located global QA team. Matt lives in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Hayato Wada Wong
Cofounder & Localization Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Hayato Wada Wong is a ten-year video game and localization industry veteran, trilingual in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Having shipped titles and work experience in AAA game titles with Sega, as well as working in the outsourcing/gaming-as-a-service industry at Pole to Win and Streamline Studios, Hayato is versed in game production, quality assurance (QA) and localization. Currently, he is a localization manager and cofounder for Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group, a business division involved in rejuvenating the post development process of localization, culturalization marketing, QA, and compliance testing into something fit for the modern times. Hayato hopes to make game development as enjoyable as playing games.
LinkedIn: hayato-wada-wong-b909537
Christine Xaysakda
International Account ManagerLBS Suite
At LBS Suite, Christine Xaysakda is responsible for developing international business, participating in company strategies, and (what she loves the most) advising language service providers on the optimization of clients’ internal processes through technologies. She is passionate about technology, languages, and cultures. Christine loves brainstorming: talking about new business, projects, and ideas. Perhaps you can try speak with her in Mandarin, Cantonese, English or French.
Jingyu Zhang
KingVladimir Zhdanov
Vladimir has been in game localization since 2010. He started as an undergraduate Mandarin-to-Russian translator. He graduated in 2012 with a thesis on Chinese MMORPG translations, and gradually improved his skills until he ended up managing a team of in-house translators for a Chinese mobile gaming company in Beijing in 2015. He lives a life of a passionate localizator: in his spare time he localizes the webcomics series Zen Pencils, and in early 2017 he and his wife volunteered to localize the Indian comic book Menstrupedia into Russian.
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk
QA DirectorQLOC
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk graduated in Japanese studies and public relations but as soon as he started his adventure with functional and compliance testing in 2010, he knew there was no going back. After moving to Madrid, he gathered professional experience in localization quality assurance (QA) while working for Electronic Arts on IPs like Battlefield, FIFA, Sims and Need for Speed. He continued his career at QLOC as a team leader and project manager (PM). As a PM Sergiusz oversaw projects for external clients and the QA process for in-house porting projects, including titles like Resident Evil 6, DmC: Devil May Cry, Ultra Street Fighter IV and more. As a QA director since 2014, he manages QLOC’s QA department that employs over 170 specialists, supervises the work of managers and leads, and is responsible for the coordination of all department activities.
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Challenges and Solutions to Achieve an Efficient Quality Process — A Mobile Game Developer Perspective
In this discussion panel, we will address challenges and solutions in the localization quality process from a mobile game developer perspective. Our panelists will go through practical examples from their company’s daily experience and talk about best practices for achieving language quality in gaming and the role of technology in this field.
Takeaways:
Attendees will have the opportunity to learn how other developers are solving quality-related challenges in both procedural and technological ways.
Natalie Gladkaya
Director of LocalizationPlarium
Natalie Gladkaya joined the game localization industry in 2011 as a translator/editor, then managed teams of game localization and localization quality assurance. During her tenure with Plarium, she has worked on localizing over ten web and mobile game titles, including Raid: Shadow Legends and Mech Arena, into a variety of languages, building localization workflow, and both in-house and remote localization teams from the ground up.
LinkedIn: natalie-gladkaya
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov
Head of LocalizationSocial Quantum
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov started in translation and adaptation of text games at local IRC networks in 2003. He then switched to software and ended up doing amateur localization of huge titles like SWAT 4 and Septerra Core. Now Mike is the head of localization at Social Quantum, one of the top ten largest game publishers in Russia and Eastern Europe. The mobile game developer has created such titles as Megapolis, Wild West: New Frontier, Dragon’s World, Ice Age World, and Poker Jet, and is in the process of creating more. The company has also been conducting successful experiments in machine translation and machine translation post-editing.
Kseniya Shorokhova
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Kseniya Shorokhova has an educational background in linguistics but she got into the language industry just five years ago when she found herself working as a Russian-English translator at Playrix. At that time, their localization team consisted of only three people. Kseniya has grown together with the team and the company, gradually making her way to team lead and ultimately becoming the head of localization. She now oversees more than 40 people and is responsible for Playrix’s localization strategy.
Andrea Tabacchi
VP Customer SuccessMemsource
Andrea Tabacchi is the vice president of customer success at Memsource where he utilizes his extensive experience in building customer-centric language technology solutions for multinational corporations and global translation companies. He and his team work with clients to develop solutions to address their translation technology needs, including innovative ways to optimize the Memsource platform, and liaise between clients and internal teams to suggest tool improvements. Prior to Memsource, Andrea spent over ten years on the language service provider side where he served in several roles in language technology, from localization engineering to technology director.
LinkedIn: andreatabacchi
NetworkingPending Confirmation
Visit our sponsors, exchange messages with other attendees, schedule a video meeting or find a group discussion you would like to join or create.
Game Global
Game GlobalNick Adams
Director of Transgender RepresentationGLAAD
Nick Adams is the director of transgender representation at GLAAD. He is a resource for media content creators who are telling stories about transgender people. Nick has consulted on hundreds of films and TV shows to help them create authentic transgender characters and stories. He has also worked with Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, DONTNOD, and other gaming companies to create trans-inclusive video games. Nick joined GLAAD in 1998, and transitioned himself at that time.
Belén Agulló García
FounderAccessibility Warriors
Belén Agulló García holds a BA in translation and interpreting studies, an MA in audiovisual translation, and a PhD in multimedia accessibility. The topic of her dissertation was accessible subtitles for virtual reality and that was the beginning of her journey as an accessibility advocate. Previously, Belén worked for more than five years in the game localization industry, holding different leadership positions. She combined her years in this industry with her true calling, training others. Currently, Belén is the VP of learning and lead media researcher at Nimdzi Insights and the founder of Accessibility Warriors.
Pedro Alfageme
Audio Artist ManagerElectronic Arts
Pedro Alfageme is audio artist manager at Electronic Arts. He is responsible for the technical quality of the localized dialogue and the continuous improvement of processes and tools. Pedro leads a team that delivers over a million dialogue files across 11 languages with high-quality standards every year. He has been working in the video game industry since 2004. His experience goes from voiceover recording, editing, and post processing to product owner of EA’s content management system for localization. Pedro is currently involved in voice technologies research and development as a localization stakeholder.
Marie Amigues
CEOAltagram
Marie Amigues is the CEO and founder of Altagram. After living in Paris, Ottawa and New York, she settled in Berlin in 2006. Following her studies in philosophy at La Sorbonne, Marie obtained an MBA in marketing management at Essec. In 2017, she was selected as one of the Top 10 Women in Management in Germany’s gaming industry. Passion, hard work and expertise are the driving forces behind Marie’s accomplishments. She has brought together a team of over 150 talented in-house game localization specialists who have successfully shipped over 5,000 game titles since 2006 for prestigious clients such as Square Enix, Supercell, Blizzard and SEGA, just to name a few.
Cristina Anselmi
Machine Translation LeadElectronic Arts
Cristina Anselmi is machine translation lead at Electronic Arts (EA). She takes care of everything related to machine translation (MT) implementation and maintenance within EA localization, leads a team of MT specialists, and coordinates several developments around MT. Cristina has been in the video game localization industry since 2012, managing all kinds of multilingual projects, from small mobile games to big MMORPGs, and several AAA titles. Her focus for the past four years has been implementing MT and AI technologies to automate workflows within EA localization. Cristina’s goal is to pave the way for this to be welcome in daily life and to be seen as a help rather than an enemy, a powerful tool that can enhance productivity, without jeopardizing quality and creativity.
Estelle Bailly
Localization DirectorHi Rez Studios
With over 20 years of experience in the video game localization industry, Estelle Bailly is an expert in the globalization and internationalization of creative content. She started her career in France, where she learned about the various aspects of the localization pipeline through multiple experiences which lead her to become head of localization at one of the largest video game localization agencies in Paris. In 2016, Estelle joined Hi-Rez Studios, a games-as-a-service studio, as localization director. Since then, her core focus has been to help the company to better engage and serve their international audience, offering them higher quality and enhanced support in various languages. Estelle is currently based in the UK, leading a multicultural team that translates three live games in more than eight languages.
Andrea Ballista
CEOVoiseed
Andrea Ballista has been working in the game industry for more than 25 years. Starting from his passion of music, songwriting, and singing, he holds a degree in computer music. Since cofounding Binari Sonori in 1994, Andrea has been the audio director for Keywords Studios from 2015 until the end of 2019. In 2020 he cofounded Voiseed to proceed into research and development of deep learning-based emotional virtual voices.
LinkedIn: andrea-ballista-4617912
Gérard Barnaud
Localization Project ManagerUbisoft
An industry veteran with 17 years of experience in the gaming industry, Gérard Barnaud started as a localization tester in Ireland in 2001 where he worked for Vivendi. He then moved to Atari headquarters in Lyon, France, where he started as a localization project manager on Neverwinter Nights and evolved to a position of producer for The Witcher (original). He then moved to UBISOFT Montreal and back into localization for Far Cry 2 and Brothers in Arms 3, and ended up in the south of France at the Montpellier studio. Barnaud has worked on various titles ranging from licensed games to large role playing games and intellectual properties for all audiences, and is still passionate about his work.
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz
Senior Localization DirectorElectronic Arts
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz is the senior localization director at EA, heading up all worldwide localization functions including translation, recordings, vendor management, testing and engineering for the video game developer and publisher. Originally a translator by education, she looks back at 15 years of experience in the game localization industry. Her current focus is on shaping the strategic direction of localization in the company’s shift to online service models.
Thomas Barth
Global LQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Thomas Barth (Tommy) has been working in games services for over 12 years and, like many young aspiring professionals, he started in the field of quality assurance (QA) to get a foot in the door of the industry. Since then, he leveled up from German QA tester to test lead, to project manager, to localization quality assurance (LQA) manager and most recently to LQA director at the global games services provider Keywords Studios. Throughout his career, Tommy had the chance to work with brilliant client partners from all sectors of the industry (developers, publishers and hardware manufacturers), provide and supervise testing for games of all genres and sizes, and on all platforms (from consoles to mobile, to the latest and greatest in virtual and augmented reality). He is passionate about the industry and believes that we are better together. Tommy also has a deep love for games and interactive entertainment and feels that all gamers around the world should have the same amazing and immersive experience, no matter which language they speak and play games in. Helping people succeed gives him energy and is one of his key drives as a professional.
Micaela Belluzzo
Global Resource ManagerKeywords Studios
Micaela Belluzzo is the global resource manager at Keywords Studios, focusing on project resourcing and quality control. A translator and interpreter by education, Micaela started her translation career localizing software and media content in 1998. She then joined SDL in Maidenhead as a localization project manager and in 2000 she moved to Milan to manage the EA Italy localization office. From 2003 Micaela contributed to the building of the EA integration hub in Madrid where she worked as head of localization production-integration until 2007. After a two-year break working for international cooperation in Africa and the Middle East, she joined Keywords with a focus on audio localization production and has been working on resource management for the past six years.
Teddy Bengtsson
Founder/DirectorRoundTable Studio
Teddy grew up in Sweden where he studied languages. Although his early professional career diverged into skiing, fashion and the restaurant trade, he eventually came back to languages through localization and a global journey including five home countries. Having held senior localization roles with major IT players Microsoft and Oracle, a crazy idea led him to start an LSP business in Argentina in 2003. RoundTable Studio quickly grew into a regional leader with production centers in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Porto Alegre (Brazil), and a business management unit in Spain where game localization has become one of its key vertical markets.
Mario Bergantiños
Director, Localization Analytics & Video-AudioElectronic Arts
Mario Bergantiños started his journey studying broadcasting, 3D and audio production. After working as a freelancer for several companies he started working at EA and now he has more than 16 years of experience in building high performing teams from audio and video disciplines to data analytics. As a member of EA’s Localization and Madrid leadership teams, Mario is co-responsible for the innovation and strategy of the localization business as well as managing the Audio Artist, Audio Capture, Video Loc and Data Analytics teams.
Mario Bergantiños
Senior Manager- Audio & Video LocalizationElectronic Arts
Priscilla Bermea
Cargo Localization Operations and Partner LeadRiot Games
Priscilla Bermea is the localization operations lead for Latin America at Riot Games. She is Mexican and a professional with over 10 years of experience in the gaming localization industry. Priscilla has been a fierce gamer since she can remember, and has dedicated herself to translating and interpreting videogames for friends and family. After working as a freelance translator and specialized project manager, she turned her favorite hobby into a career, becoming part of the Latin-American Riot Games team in 2016.
Miguel Bernal-Merino
LecturerUniversity of Roehampton
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
Brigitte Berner
Loc Vendor Management SupervisorElectronic Arts
Brigitte Berner is vendor management supervisor at Electronic Arts, leading a small team of vendor specialists. After being with the company for 15 years, building and shaping the vendor management function, including vendor recruitment and quality evaluation processes, her current focus is on automation, leveraging data and exploring usage of AI. Being solution driven, Brigitte is passionate about improving processes and questioning the status quo.
Chris Bewick
Regional FQA Director - EurasiaKeywords Studios
Brian Bies
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy
Managing PartnerLevsha
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy started his journey in video game localization as a freelance translator in 2005. In 2009, he became one of the founders of Levsha localization and has been a managing partner at the studio since then. Despite having a degree in computational linguistics, Fedor’s passion has always been finding new ways to facilitate efficient and joyful interaction and collaboration between different people.
Jonathan Bowring
RiversightJonathan Bowring graduated in computer science and worked for the UK Ministry of Defence and Hewlett-Packard before joining Canon. As Canon’s EMEA localization director, he built an independent services division with its own profit and loss of £15M. Jonathan trained as a mentor and coach and founded Riversight in 2016. The company intends to unlock the potential within leaders, teams and organizations, and provides coaching and facilitation to SME and corporate clients.
Virginia Boyero
Associate ProducerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Virginia Boyero is a history graduate who started a career in games localization in 2006, following a passion for working with languages and quickly getting hooked on the fast-paced tempo of the industry. She joined Massive Entertainment in 2010, and after the release of Far Cry 3 moved on to The Division team where she’s been an Associate Producer for the audio, localization and narrative departments for The Division and The Division 2. Outside of work, Virginia is often found reading travel literature, preferably while on a train.
Gaëlle Caballero
Director of Localization QATestronic
Gaëlle Caballero is a global head of localization quality assurance (LQA) with years of experience in video game QA and localization. A former lawyer, she started her career as a French LQA tester in London and developed her localization skillset working on multiple titles and platforms as a technician, lead, and project manager. Gaëlle successfully developed and delivered Testronic’s Warsaw-based LQA department and is responsible for its continued success. She is recognized for her extensive experience in team management, development, and swift delivery. A great motivator and team builder, she creates confidence and excitement across multiple Testronic global LQA facilities. An advocate for women in games, Gaëlle is involved in Testronic’s initiative aiming to mentor and promote the role of Women in the Games industry. She is also chairman of Testronic’s learning and development committee.
Gordon Campbell
Chief Executive OfficerGo Testify
Gordon Campbell is an experienced entrepreneur, having launched multiple companies in the design and gaming sectors since 2007. Over the last 13 years, Gordon has assisted companies like BBC, HBO and Zynga to produce high-quality entertainment that people want to invest time in. With a masters in human-centered design, he focuses on creating user-centric products using state-of-the-art technology.
Today, Gordon is the CEO of Testify, a company that is uses AI to transform how user testing is conducted within game development; putting players at the heart of every decision. In his current role, Gordon has worked alongside indies to top-50 mobile game studios such as Zynga to ensure they’re using the right testing methods to deliver impact and value within the development cycle.
Eric Say Chan
Program ManagerKeywords Studios
Born in Mexico City and later relocated to Canada, Eric Chan is a program manager with seven years of experience in video game quality assurance (QA). Initially a web developer, he made the jump to video games in 2011 within localization and functionality QA as a tester, test lead and later project manager. Knowledgeable in FQA, LQA, localization and audio, Eric has focused his efforts for the past two years within Keywords’ FQA department. He has since been focusing on project delivery, promoting growth and career paths for staff, and deploying improvements to internal processes.
Anastasiia Chertenkova
Marketing Creatives Team LeadPlayrix
Anastasiia Chertenkova’s path to the game development industry was rather unusual. She started her career as an officer of the police force of Ukraine/inspector of the Ukrainian Bureau of Interpol, senior officer of the criminal investigation sector, and taught administrative law and administrative procedure law in one of the state universities. Then she worked as a freelance translator for a couple of years. She joined the game development industry in 2016, starting as a customer support representative for Playrix. Since then, Anastasiia has held the positions of customer support team lead, community manager and player experience department manager. She is currently marketing creatives team lead.
Glory Choe
Program Manager, R&D LocalizationSalesforce
Before her recent move to Salesforce, Glory started her localization career as a linguist, followed by stints as LQA engineer at Linkedin and L10n producer at Zynga. In 2015, she joined an esports game studio, Super Evil Megacorp, as a Localization Manager, which was truly a dream come true for a lifelong gamer such as herself. Fascinated by different languages and cultures around the world ever since she was little, Glory studied languages and linguistics at the University of Washington in Seattle and has traveled to over 20 countries and three of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Cristian Conteduca
General ManagerYokozuna Data
Cristian Conteduca is general manager of Yokozuna Data. He has a background in scientific computing and physical modeling. Over the past few years, Cristian has developed and implemented AI/ML algorithms applied to video games and high-throughput cloud architectures. His goal is to merge AI and software engineering in a profitable and efficient way in real-life applications.
Daniele Corrado
Customer Support Engineer5th Kind
Daniele had been a consumer of the gaming industry since, well, forever. In 2010 he moved to the other side of the barricades. He began his career as a localization tester for a heterogeneous bunch of titles and platforms. While at Riot Games, Daniele worked in various capacities on every product that was released. His swansong was the global coordination for VALORANT as the Localization Producer for the title. He is currently helping DESTINYbit in developing their next title and he is working as Technical Support Engineer for 5th Kind.
Jamie Cox
Global Content Localization ProducerBlizzard Entertainment
Jamie Cox is a global content localization producer at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard is his first experience in the video game industry, but he’s been in the localization industry for over seven years, first at Gengo, then Welocalize, and then United Language Group. Over the years, Jamie has developed expertise in fast-paced environments, creating useful workflows and problem solving bottlenecks. In his spare time, he enjoys reading (currently the Wheel of Time series), playing way too much Overwatch, and he also plays the harp.
Diego Cresceri
CEO and FounderCreative Words
Diego Cresceri is CEO and founder of Creative Words, a language service provider based in Genoa. At Creative Words he is responsible for the company’s strategy and growth. His clients include multilingual translation agencies, Italian companies aiming to internationalize, and foreign companies aiming to enter the Italian market. Diego graduated from the University of Genoa in translation and interpreting and before founding Creative Words he was a translator, project manager and chief operations officer at a local translation agency. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the European Language Industry Association (ELIA). When not involved in his company, Diego holds workshops and seminars on innovation, artificial intelligence, and machine translation at universities, training schools, and language associations nationally and internationally.
Simone Crosignani
PR ManagerJinglebell Localization
Simone Crosignani worked as a video game journalist for 15 years before moving to the public relations department of Sony Computer Entertainment in Italy. At Sony he handled enthusiast and online media, working on the launch campaigns of PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and 100+ games. In 2006 Simone moved to Binari Sonori, a translation and audio production company, now part of Keywords Studios. In 2016 he joined Jinglebell Localization, the game localization spin-off of audio production powerhouse Jinglebell Communication. Simone has been a member of the International Game Developers Association localization group since day one and has been vice-chair of the group since 2013.
Mirela Cukovic Hanson
Senior Director QAElectronic Arts
Mirela Cukovic Hanson leads Mobile, Maxis and Live quality assurance (QA) teams for Electronic Art’s (EA) development teams around the world. These teams have ensured the quality of players’ experiences in some of the most popular games in the industry: The Sims, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heros; RealRacing3, The Simpsons Tapped Out, PvZ, Battlefield, Madden and others. Mirela is a change agent that has been leading the EA QA organization through several transformations and continues to set a vision for the future and inspire action from what she firmly believes is the best QA talent in the industry. Prior to her current role, Mirela held several technical and operational roles at central and global development groups. She has been at EA for ten years and before that, she held various engineering and technical leadership roles in the Silicon Valley. Mirela holds a degree in computer science from UBC.
Mariana Dadalto Schettino
Gender Inclusive Language SpecialistGame Global
Mariana Dadalto Schettino is a video game localization professional with a passion for gender inclusive language practices and is a project management enthusiast. As a localization tester at Electronic Arts (EA), she has worked to build in quality on more than 15 different titles, from AAA to mobile games. Mariana is the founder of the Gender Inclusive Taskforce for Localization at EA. As the lead stakeholder for this initiative, she creates guidelines for inclusive language for 20 different territories and improves processes regarding gender matters in the department. In addition to researching and implementing guides for a non-binary approach, Mariana works on shipping the first product from EA localization with applied non-binary language. She is currently transitioning to quality assurance testing while continuing as a researcher and adviser for diversity and inclusion practices with an inclusive language approach for localization.
Andrew Dale
KingPaul Davies
Head of Localization and Narrative DesignSocialpoint
Paul Davies manages the English game writing and localization teams at Socialpoint, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games, in sunny Barcelona. Prior to that, he held various positions at Electronic Arts in the UK and Germany, where he most recently managed the worldwide localization of EA’s mobile games portfolio. A keen gamer at heart, Paul started his career as a translator and language tester for console games at Sony Computer Entertainment in (not-so-sunny) Liverpool.
Tabea De Wille
LecturerUniversity of Limerick
Tabea De Wille holds an MA in German and English linguistics from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and an MS in multilingual computing and localization from the University of Limerick, Ireland. She has completed her PhD studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland, where she examined perceived quality in the context of crowdsourced localization. Previously, Tabea worked in the localization industry, primarily in video games localization and is currently a lecturer at the University of Limerick.
Twitter: @TabeaDeWille
LinkedIn: tabeadewille
Mason Deming
XLOCMason Deming is the chief technology officer (CTO) and system architect of XLOC. While at XLOC he has worked closely with developers on high profile titles such as League of Legends, the Call of Duty series and Borderlands. Prior to founding and serving as XLOC’s CTO, Mason enjoyed a successful career in game design, development, business-to-business e-commerce and database administration. He has performed key programming roles on numerous high profile titles while working on staff at Activision. He served as CTO for Roaring Mouse Entertainment and developed, programmed and managed Networld Exchange’s B2B e-commerce system.
Olivier Deslandes
VP Audio & TranslationSIDE Audio PTW
Olivier Deslandes is a games industry veteran, starting as a voice talent, voice director and translator in the late 1990s. He has contributed to more than 200 titles. Olivier joined Side in 2002 to establish and develop its localization department. In 2017, with Side under PTW ownership, he became senior director of global audio. He rose to vice president of audio and translation for PTW and Side in 2018. Olivier holds degrees in communication and advertising.
Diana Díaz Montón
CofounderNative Prime
Diana Díaz Montón is a game localization specialist with over 20 years of experience. She graduated in translation and interpreting, then began her career with an internship at EA Sports. Diana founded Wordlab in 2005 and in 2010 cofounded Native Prime, a company specialized in video game localization. She has been involved in the localization of reference titles such as Dragon Quest XI, Ni no Kuni, Hitman 2 & 3, Snack World, and hundreds more. Diana enjoys spreading the love for video game localization and has participated as a speaker at different events, such as GDC or Gamelab, both addressed to future localizers as well as to developers and publishers. She collaborates with different universities and institutions where she teaches game localization and project management, and has also written a series of articles about the challenges of game localization.
Twitter: maloria
LinkedIn: dianadiazmonton
Dmitry Drozdov
KingJakub Dudkowski
Senior QA Project ManagerQLOC
Jakub Dudkowski is a quality assurance (QA) professional with over eight years of experience as a functionality, localization and certification QA tester, team leader, project manager, training manager, community manager and QA manager. Currently he is a senior QA project manager at QLOC. Jakub is also a fighting game player, tournament organizer, host and community supporter with over 16 years of competitive experience. He has worked on over 100 titles including several fighting games.
Nathalie Duret
HR ManagerKeywords Studios
Nathalie Duret is the human resource manager (HR) at Keywords Studios, Paris, France, and as such, she is responsible for recruitment and training. She has worked for more than 20 years in the localization industry, including 13 years at Electronic Arts, France. Nathalie has held various positions giving her the opportunity to tackle video games localization specifics such as text and audio localization, project management, vendor management, team management and more. In 2013, she decided to move to HR to bring support to the localization teams from a different perspective, to focus on people development and to help the teams grow and adapt to constantly changing environments.
Kate Edwards
CEO / Principal ConsultantGeogrify
Kate Edwards is the CEO and principal consultant of Geogrify, a consultancy for content culturalization, a board member of Take This, and is the former executive director of the International Game Developers Association from 2012 to 2017. In addition to being an outspoken advocate that serves in several advisory/board roles, she is a geographer, writer and corporate strategist who pioneered the field of content culturalization in games. As Microsoft’s first geopolitical strategist on the geopolitical strategy team she created and managed, Edwards protected the company against political and cultural content risks across all products and locales. Since Microsoft, she has assisted many clients on a variety of geopolitical and cultural issues across many products and game franchises. Kate is also a columnist for MultiLingual magazine. Fortune magazine named her as one of the “10 most powerful women” in the game industry and she was named by GamesIndustry.biz as one of their six People of the Year. In April 2018, she was honored with Reboot Develop’s annual Hero Award.
Mario Ferrer
Senior UX WriterSenior UX Writer
Mario Ferrer is a senior (or señor) user experience (UX) writer. He designs content that guides users across digital products and services. Mario is a part of UX Writers Spain, a local community of practitioners that guide professionals on how to get into the discipline, and helps companies discover the value of the UX writer role within a product team. He’s always trying to find the best tacos in town, listens to stand-up comedy and teaches his two kids about Mexican Lucha Libre.
Stanisław Fiedor
CEOFuero
Stanisław Fiedor graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics with the master degree in finance and accounting. His adventure with interactive content started already in high school were together with the current chief technical officer he was developing flash-based multiplayer experiences. During his university times, he started an interactive agency. Stan is the chief executive officer and cofounder of Fuero Games. Stan grew the studio from a four people team to a 40 professionals big experienced team. During this time he closed deals with some of the biggest players in the industry like WarGaming, Nexon, CD Projekt or Miniclip and responsible for signing IP’s like The Witcher. Stan is also a founding member of the Polish Games Association.
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content Localization
Loquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content LocalizationLoquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck is an independent consultant who learned his trade setting up and managing localization
processes and teams for free-to-play/mobile games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games on
the publisher side. This made him develop a particular interest in seeking and trying out new language
technology and service provider models that allow for economic and quality continuous translation
workflows. Connecting the dots between the needs of product owners with the strengths of service
providers, he now supports businesses in selecting and implementing the right processes, tools and
partners for their products.
Krzysztof Fudro
FQA Team LeadKeywords Studios
Krzysztof Fudro is functionality quality assurance (QA) lead at Keywords Studios Katowice. He and his team work with clients to achieve the highest testing efficiency possible. Prior to Keywords Studios Katowice, Krzysztof worked at In-House Studio as a game designer and QA tester. That experience allows him to predict what each client needs the most, sometimes even before the client realizes it. Krzysztof’s addiction to efficiency, combined with an interest in automation, always pushes him further to improve and optimize processes.
Joshua van Gageldonk
Guerrilla GamesJoshua van Gageldonk started working as a quality assurance tester in Guerrilla Games in August 2013, at the very end stages of development of Killzone Shadow Fall. After the development of Killzone Shadow Fall was completed, he was part of the test team for Horizon Zero Dawn, where he specialized in testing Robots, World Activities (non story-driven content), Random Encounters and Living World.
Carlos Garcia-Shelton
Product ManagerXLOC
Carlos Garcia-Shelton is the product manager at XLOC and is responsible for overseeing the business and all aspects of product development. Learning game production from many different angles such as quality assurance, development, publishing and localization has led him to a love for identifying and executing ways to bring together global teams and organize their efforts in the most efficient and effective ways.
Steven Garrad
Outsourcing, Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Jaime Gine
Keywords StudiosJaime Giné is chief customer officer for Keywords Studios. He represents the voice of the customer in the Keywords global organization across all services and designs innovative and customized solutions for Keywords top clients, always within the framework of strategic partnerships. Before joining Keywords he was vice president international development services at Electronic Arts (EA). Prior to joining EA, Jaime worked at SDL, holding various positions as departmental manager, project manager and divisional director. He was also part of the executive team that led SDL during the IPO.
Natalie Gladkaya
Director of LocalizationPlarium
Natalie Gladkaya joined the game localization industry in 2011 as a translator/editor, then managed teams of game localization and localization quality assurance. During her tenure with Plarium, she has worked on localizing over ten web and mobile game titles, including Raid: Shadow Legends and Mech Arena, into a variety of languages, building localization workflow, and both in-house and remote localization teams from the ground up.
LinkedIn: natalie-gladkaya
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov
Head of LocalizationSocial Quantum
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov started in translation and adaptation of text games at local IRC networks in 2003. He then switched to software and ended up doing amateur localization of huge titles like SWAT 4 and Septerra Core. Now Mike is the head of localization at Social Quantum, one of the top ten largest game publishers in Russia and Eastern Europe. The mobile game developer has created such titles as Megapolis, Wild West: New Frontier, Dragon’s World, Ice Age World, and Poker Jet, and is in the process of creating more. The company has also been conducting successful experiments in machine translation and machine translation post-editing.
Kaysie Green
Program Manager, Games LocalizationGlyph Language Services
Kaysie Green joined Glyph in 2015 as a project manager and developed her zone of genius around the games industry. This passion was her path to becoming a project manager devoted to Glyph’s games clients. Kaysie is currently the program manager for Glyph’s games division. In this role, she ensures continuous process improvement, up-to-the-moment market research, production quality and the cultivation of Glyph’s team of top-tier, game-obsessed linguists. Before coming to Glyph, Kaysie earned her BA in international relations from Gonzaga University, in 2013.
Aditya Gupta
Cofounder & QA Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Aditya Gupta is a cofounder of Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group. Currently working as a quality assurance and release manager at Day Zero, he has over nine years of game industry experience in game production and release management. Aditya is versed in quality assurance, title certification, and the release management process for multiplatform games. Over the years, he has worked on 12 AAA titles from Ubisoft, Codemasters, Streamline Games, and various other AAA publishers. In his leisure, he loves to cook and cruise around on his motorbike.
LinkedIn: my.linkedin.com/in/aditya-gupta-64204086
Clara Gómez Pérez
Localization Lead & Vendor ManagerGoodgame Studios
Clara Gómez Pérez joined the game localization industry ten years ago. Since 2011 she has led the localization department at Goodgame Studios. She holds a BA in translation and interpreting and an MA in specialized translation. Clara’s favorite localization-related topics are content management systems, key performance indicators, localization tools, process automation and funny localization mistakes.
Patricia Gómez Jurado
Associate Director of Content DesignKing
Patricia Gómez is based in Barcelona, where she is associate director of content design at King. She is building the first content design craft at King, managing a team of content designers and leading content operations. Previously, Patricia was the head of content at eDreams Odigeo, leading a team of UX writers and localization specialists. She started her career in the localization industry and worked six years as localization manager at Google Spain and Portugal. She currently teaches localization in the UX writing course by Shifta (Elisava).
Patrick Görtjes
Localization Project ManagerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Patrick Görtjes is a Localization Project Manager at Massive Entertainment, the lead development studio behind the Tom Clancy’s The Division games. Patrick holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Communication and got his start in the industry as a translator before moving on to project management. When he’s not working, Patrick enjoys hiking, board games, and karaoke.
Lukasz Hacura
Anshar StudiosChristin Hansson
KingChristin Hansson has been working with quality assurance (QA), project management and agile methods in the mobile industry for 15 years. She is now working hands-on for two game teams at King and is successfully supporting them in their ways of working with QA. Christin is also working together with the localization team at King to improve their testing processes. She has a big passion for both games and quality.
Amanda Hawthorne
Inclusive Language SpecialistElectronic Arts IL
Amanda Jane Hawthorne is an inclusive language specialist with a background as an English teacher, trainer, and materials writer. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the area of diversity, specializing in race and LGBT+ awareness. Currently based in Madrid, Amanda works full time in the tech industry, is the founding director of The Bechdel Film Club Madrid, and volunteers with antiracism organizations. She is also an award winning researcher and recently contributed to the book How To Write Inclusive Materials by Tyson Seburn.
Ulrich Henes
PrincipalLocWorld
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.
Inés Hernández
Electronic ArtsInés Hernández is a veteran game industry professional with over 15 years of experience in video games localization. She is currently managing the localization portfolio and project management teams at Electronic Arts.
Robert Herzog
Head of LocalizationTravian Games
Robert Herzog is the of head of localization and writing at Travian Games, overseeing the strategic direction of both departments. He’s been with the company for 11 years, starting as a localization project manager in 2011. Before that, Robert earned his spurs in other video game companies as localization project manager and translator. He found his way into the gaming and localization industry as freelance translator in 2004.
Celia Hodent
Game UX ConsultantCelia Hodent
Celia Hodent is recognized as a leader in the application of user experience (UX) and cognitive science in the game industry. Celia holds a PhD in psychology and has over ten years of experience in the development of UX strategy and processes in video game studios. Through her work at Ubisoft, LucasArts, and as director of UX at Epic Games (Fortnite), she has contributed to many projects across multiple platforms, from PC to consoles, mobile, and VR. Celia is also the founder of the Game UX Summit, advisor for the GDC UX Summit, member of the Foresight Committee at CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, an independent French administrative regulatory body), author of The Gamer’s Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design and The Psychology of Video Games. She currently works as an independent consultant, helping studios increase the likelihood of their games to be engaging and successful. Celia also provides guidance on the topics of playful learning, ethics, unconscious bias, and inclusion in technology.
Twitter: @CeliaHodent
Blog: celiahodent.com
Bjorn Holste
Localization QA ManagerSQUARE ENIX
Björn Holste is localization QA manager at Square Enix, overseeing, shaping and improving the LQA for many titles and franchises including Tomb Raider, Just Cause and Life is Strange. He has worked in LQA and QA for over a decade and during this time has worked in various roles on many different titles. After a brief stint in Software/Web QA, he joined the great team at Square Enix about 2 years ago.
Echo Huang
Senior Delivery ManagerBeyondsoft Corporation
Ann Hurley
Vice President of Business DevelopmentTestronic
Ann Hurley has worked within the games industry for over 30 years, starting in sales team management within the distribution sector, then moving into publishing. For the past 12 years, she has been working in the quality assurance vendor space. Although steps have been taken to embrace diversity within our industry, Ann feels strongly about the nurturing of young women within games, to ensure they are supported through coaching in order to build their confidence to find their true potential.
Marina Ilari
CEOTerra Localizations
Marina Ilari is an ATA certified translator with 16 years of experience in the localization industry. She has worked as a translator and quality assurance specialist for many companies around the world with a special focus on video game localization. Marina is the chief executive officer of Terra Localizations and co-host of the podcast En Pantuflas. She was a 2020 recipient of the Enterprising Women of the Year award.
Marina Ilinykh
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Marina Ilinykh started her career in localization in 2011. Since then she’s been working in game localization on both the vendor and client sides. Currently Marina is the head of localization at Playrix, overseeing localization of all of the company’s titles, ensuring market-readiness and driving innovation initiatives.
Gina Jackson
Games Consultant/AdvisorGina Jackson is a games industry consultant and advisor. She started in games development in 1992 and has worked for developers, publishers, and distributors covering console, PC, and mobile games. Gina is particularly passionate about diversity, mental health, and skills development. She is treasurer of GamesAid, on the board for NextGen Skills Academy, and a visiting professor in games industry and business at Norwich University of the Arts (NUA). Gina recently received the MCV/DEVELOP Women in Games award for her outstanding contribution, a fellowship from NUA for services to the games industry, and has been honored with an Order of the British Empire for her work in education and diversity in the games industry.
Maryam Jaddoo
Localization ManagerWizards of the Coast
Maryam Jaddoo is the head of localization at Wizards of the Coast. She is responsible for leading critical product development and localization of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons and MTG Arena among others. Maryam has 10 years of localization experience. In her career, she has worked as a translator, game guide writer, game tester and project manager. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French and a master’s degree in project management and is fluent in multiple languages. Maryam is originally from Mauritius and her native language is French.
Paul Jakovlev
Customer Success Team LeadLokalise
Paul Jakovlev is a customer success team lead at Lokalise. He is an avid gamer and living the dream of learning about behind the scenes of game development by helping his favorite industry with localization challenges. In his spare time, Paul likes to binge-watch documentaries on various streaming platforms.
Rafał Jaworski
Linguistic AI ExpertXTM International
Rafał Jaworski, PhD, is an academic lecturer and scientist specializing in natural language processing techniques. His alma mater is Adam University in Poznań, Poland, where he works at the Department of Artificial Intelligence. Rafał’s scientific work concentrates around developing robust AI algorithms for the needs of computer assisted translation. These include automatic lookup of linguistic resources and computer assisted post editing, among others. Apart from the research and teaching, he works as linguistic AI expert at XTM International, leading a team of young and talented developers who put his visions and ideas into practice.
Renée Jessen
CEOCharacter Publishing & Localization
Cofounder and CEO of Character Publishing & Localization since 2010, Renée Jessen initially started working as a dubbing translator in the mid-nineties while studying rhetoric and history of ideas. The challenge of creating spoken language and personality in translations is still the favorite part of his job although business development takes up the majority of his time. Today, Character is both a global localization company focused on games and a publishing house of interactive experiences for children. Renée’s main focus is to balance the use of technologies and the translators’ need for a creative approach to their work.
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli
Head of Translation ServicesTestronic
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli was born in Argentina, has lived in several countries and has always been marked by books, games, languages and having to adapt to different cultures. Choosing to pursue studies in translation led to living in Warsaw. Around 2015, this escalated from working with Testronic’s localization quality assurance team to being involved in the development of Testronic’s translation services. He has managed the translation process for multiple game titles and tries to be involved as a translator or editor when time permits (aside from being constantly engaged with games and other forms of culture).
Alex Johnson
Dubbing ProducerPatricia Jurado
Head of Content and InsightsKing
Patricia is the current Head of Content and Insights, managing a team of content strategists and insights analysts at King Player Support. Previously, she worked at eDreams Odigeo as Head of Content and Localization, managing a team of UX writers, Content Specialists and translations providers responsible for the group websites and apps content in 20 languages. Between 2008 and 2014, Patricia worked at Google as a Language Manager driving quality product localization for Spain and Portugal. Patricia started her professional career in SDL as a translator and project manager. She holds a Master in Internet Business from ISDI and has completed Scrum Master official training. Patricia is the former manager of the Catalan Chapter of Women in Localization.
Your Job Title: Head of Content and Insights
Tomasz Juszczak
Vice President of TechnologyFuero
Tomasz Juszczak is vice president of technology at Fuero Games, where he leads and oversights all projects in the company from the technical side, including technology research and implementing programmers code quality principles. His current focus at Fuero Games is leading of the Artificial Intelligence Testing Framework R&D Project. The AITeF project is being developed as one of the selected projects under a grant from the National Center for Research and Development in Poland. His personal portfolio includes projects for different disciplines, from the medical field, car industry to sales projects in which he worked closely with Samsung and TVN. He has expertise in VR, AR, SaaS, applications, 2D/3D games for mobile, console and PC.
Alex Kang
Chief Operating OfficerBridge Translations
Alex Kisok Kang is the cofounder and chief operating officer of Bridge Translations in Seoul, Korea. He has been in the translation industry for over 15 years, working in various capacities including freelance translator, lecturer and language service provider executive. He has transformed Bridge Translations from a conventional translation company into a dedicated mobile game localization company. Alex previously oversaw all aspects of day-to-day management but with the growth of business, he now focuses on QA and client relations.
Polina Karpova
Vendor ManagerLevsha
For the past 2 ½ years, Polina Karpova has been a vendor manager at Levsha localization studio where she is responsible for seeking and recruiting new vendors as well as guiding and helping them throughout their cooperation with Levsha. Whenever vendors face an issue with payment, workload, information, or production — she is there for them. Polina studied international relations at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (English and Spanish languages) and as a student, she participated in a game localization workshop in 2016.
Dominick Kelly
Client Solution Director - Europe, Middle East and AsiaXTM International
Dominick Kelly fell into the localization industry 16 years ago as a software engineer and decided never to leave. Over time, he has been involved with the localization tool space and worked at some of the largest language service providers in the world. For the past six years, Dominick has worked at XTM International, as a key part of the team focused on driving innovation and growth at the forefront of cloud-based language technology.
Ayesha Khan
Principal Narrative DesignerDeep Silver Dambuster Studios
Ayesha Khan is an unapologetic word nerd, fascinated by the way languages change over time and influence the way their speakers think. Having moved around for most of her life, Ayesha has used her cultural adaptability and comfort with several languages to help her integrate into game development studios in four countries, where she has worked on titles including The Lord of the Rings Online, Gears Tactics, Wizard101, DarkOrbit and APB. Ayesha has been a narrative designer, writer, content designer and everything in between. Her favorite forms of amateur anthropology include sampling local food and drink wherever she can and gleefully inflicting her karaoke skills upon bar patrons around the world.
Vladimir Konoplitsky
CEORIOTLOC
Vladimir is a team lead and head of the localization studio Riotloc. He started as a games translator and editor in 2007 and worked on everything from casual indie games to AAA titles. Vladimir is a specialist in QA and translation tools and is an old fan of the Total War series, but has an affection for RPGs. He is a strong believer in handcrafting the approach and team-like relations between developers and localizers. Apart from inventing new ways of working in his team, he occasionally speaks at game conferences, organizes localization workshops and gamedav events. He failed university exams once because of Fallout 3.
Gábor Kovács
Game Localization ExpertmemoQ
As part of the memoQ gaming unit, Gábor Kovács uses his abilities to combine technical knowledge with sales skills to act as a primary contact for product demos, client needs assessment, and training along with many other duties. Using his well-honed communication skills, he can simplify and communicate complex concepts to a nontechnical audience. Gábor’s IT background also gives him the edge when it comes to technical discussion and finding the right solutions. He has been an avid gamer since childhood.
Denisse Kreeger
Head of Global Localization ProductionRiot Games
Denisse Kreeger is the head of global localization production at Riot Games, and the Los Angeles chapter manager at Women in Localization. With over 15 years of experience in the localization industry, she has also managed localization production at Blizzard Entertainment and Netflix, where she helped build much of the localization infrastructure. Denisse graduated from UCLA and has an MA from the University of Roehampton in audiovisual translation.
LinkedIn: dkreegerl10n
Mathieu Lachance
FQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Mathieu Lachance has worked in the video game industry for over 12 years on more than 400 video game titles. He currently heads Keywords’ Testing services through the Keywords, VMC, Babel and Enzyme studios, leading an international team of over 2500 spanning 15 studios. He has been a featured expert, speaker and lecturer in/at MCV magazine, Develop magazine, Gamasutra, HEC Montreal University, EA’s XDS, Oculus Connect, MIGS, NGDC and more.
Renato Laus
Lead QA CoordinatorRovio Entertainment
Renato Laus is a lead quality assurance (QA) coordinator at Rovio Entertainment. He takes pride in ensuring its games have top-notch quality, and works daily with the QA leads. Renato heads up several cross-unit initiatives engaging with internal stakeholders, and he champions localization in the company as a means to expand the market reach of its games, therefore taking steps to improve the localization processes, interfacing with internal teams and external vendors alike.
LinkedIn: renato-laus-91b506a5
Stephen Laverick
Team Experience DirectorTestronic
Stephen Laverick is the team experience director at Testronic. He is responsible for recruitment, learning and development, and the community of employees. Though he is based in Warsaw, Stephen’s current role covers the UK, Europe and the United States. He has over 20 years of recruitment and learning, and development experience. Stephen has held numerous positions across the UK and Europe at various companies ranging from start-ups to blue chip companies. From a young age he has had a passion for gaming and still plays on a number of devices, so putting his passion for gaming and developing people together is like a dream come true!
Luca Lazari
Audio Technical Operations ManagerKeywords Studios
Luca Lazari works for Keywords Studios as an audio technical operations manager. He worked for music and TV studios after graduating in sound and recording engineering, and science and technology of music communication. Luca joined the game localization industry in 2008 as an audio project lead at Binari Sonori, later acquired by Keywords Studios. After managing the audio technical part for multilanguage localization of countless games (including AAA titles) for over a decade, he moved to Keywords Studios audio localization division, operating at a global level, supervising audio technical processes and workflows.
LinkedIn: lucalazari
Tom Lee
CofounderLOVO
Tom Lee worked in sales at MuleSoft (now a Salesforce company) and digital marketing at LG prior to his time at LOVO. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UC Berkeley.
When Tom is not interacting with users or reading up on the latest trends in AI and voice, he can be found writing poems, drinking beer, training in a boxing gym, scuba diving, or playing FIFA.
LinkedIn: tomsklee
Ville Lehtinen
Senior DeveloperRovio Entertainment
With over a decade of experience working on both mobile/embedded graphics engines and games, Ville Lehtinen has worked with game studios at companies such as Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Rovio. His recently released titles include South Park Phone Destroyer (Ubisoft Redlynx) and Small Town Murders (Rovio).
LinkedIn: ville-lehtinen-99337410
Marie Leininger
Vendor SpecialistElectronic Arts
After graduating from the Cologne University of Applied Science, Marie Leininger started work as a localization project manager for marketing content. In 2017, she moved to Electronic Arts as a vendor specialist and interim multilingual localization specialist. Marie’s main focus is on evaluating and defining translation and post-editing quality, and establishing and maintaining vendor relationships.
Audrey Lepage
Senior Localization Project ManagerBigpoint GmbH
With a degree in modern languages and literature, Audrey Lepage started her career in the games industry in 2010 as a French localization tester for DTP Entertainment, Hamburg. After a year of testing fun, she moved to Bigpoint where she first worked as a French translator, then as a localization project manager (LPM) and then was promoted to senior LPM in 2017. In the constant search for more efficient and streamlined workflows, Bigpoint transitioned to XTM four years ago and has been tailoring the tool to meet their requirements with the support of the XTM team.
Michael Liu
R2GamesMichael Liu is a Chinese-Canadian English localization specialist and quality assurance at Reality Squared Games, with over 20 years of gaming experience especially in MMORPGs, MOBAs and CCGs which require an intimate understanding of game mechanics. Michael loves to play video games on a deep level with self-imposed challenges such as low-level games (beat games at the lowest level possible), naked runs (not wearing any equipment), iron man (permanent death, can only use what you find). He is responsible for highly technical translations that contain heavy gaming jargon or deep understanding of game mechanics. Has extremely accurate and creative translations.
Irina Lokshyna
Development DirectorWargaming
Federica Lusardi
Senior Translator/Editor - ItalianSQUARE ENIX
A passionate gamer since childhood, Federica Lusardi began working in the videogames industry when she moved to London in 2011 to study for an MA in audiovisual translation. After a brief time as a language tester for SEGA and translating her first game for Codemasters as a freelancer, she worked at Pole To Win as an in-house translator and team supervisor. Federica joined Square Enix in 2016, where she currently works as Italian translator/editor. Her work encompasses translation for games and marketing campaigns, and she has translated games such as Life is Strange 2, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the FINAL FANTASY Trading Card Game and Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Sílvio Macedo
Senior Localization DirectorBluelab
Sílvio Macedo has 15 years of experience in game localization and has managed dozens of AAA titles, as well as a vast variety of mobile and online games of all genres for multi-platforms. Sílvio has managed/overseen every step of the localization process, from translation to audio recording and post-production. His hands-on approach gives him a thorough knowledge of the complex localization process involved in each game title. He’s currently the senior localization director at BlueLab, where he’s been working since 2004.
Takako Maeda
Globalization Project ManagerKing
Takako Maeda is a globalization project manager at King, inspired by the Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement, Kaizen. She joined King in 2014 and recently has taken on the challenge of internationalization, working closely with game engine developers to ensure high quality in King games. She loves coming up with creative solutions to problems and working with colleagues from across the organization. She lives in Barcelona and in her free time enjoys making Japanese ceramics.
Sebastian Maeser
LQA Project ManagerKeywords Studios
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual TranslationUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron is a lecturer and a member of the research group TransMedia Catalonia at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is the director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation and has extensive experience as a translator, specializing in software and game localization. Carme’s research interests include game localization, game accessibility, audiovisual translation and accessibility to the media. She has published extensively in international journals, participated in several research projects and is one of the principal investigators of the Researching Audio Description: Translation, Delivery and New Scenarios (RAD), funded by the Spanish Government. Carme is coauthor of Game Localization: Translating for the Global Digital Entertainment Industry (O’Hagan and Mangiron, 2013) and one of the editors of Fun for All: Translation and Accessibility Practices in Video Games (Mangiron, Orero & O’Hagan, 2014).
Anca Marica
EMEA Localization ManagerUbisoft
Anca Marica is a localization professional with over ten years of experience in the video game industry. At Ubisoft, she oversees the localization operations for the EMEA region by keeping in close contact with project managers and handling various transversal topics such as loc quality, process improvement or vendor management to ensure the localized versions of Ubisoft games meet company standards.
She holds a BA in English and Spanish philology, a master’s degree in international studies and an MS in project management.
Teresa Marshall
VP Globalization & LocalizationSalesforce
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 Education. From 2014 to 2016 she was on the board of Women in Localization. Before joining Salesforce in 2009, Teresa managed localization efforts at both Google and PGP in Silicon Valley while teaching at MIIS. An active member of the localization community, she has been the organizer and cohost of the annual Localization Unconference in Silicon Valley since 2009.
Jakub Marszałkowski
GIC & Indie Games Poland FoundationJakub Marszałkowski is the cofounder and a board member of Indie Games Poland, conducting projects that provide the presence of Poland at expos and conferences, travel scholarships, game jams, or visits of foreign delegations in Poland. Jakub regularly serves as a spokesperson for the Polish game industry and the CEE region. He was recognized with the annual award of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as an organizer and promoter working for game developers. As the head of the Game Industry Conference in Poznań, Jakub developed it into one of the largest events in the CEE region. He is also a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Poznan University of Technology.
Nadine Martin
Senior Manager, Test ServicesSony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Nadine Martin has been working in the games industry and quality assurance (QA) for over 15 years. She joined Sony PlayStation’s internal QA team after completing a degree in business administration, starting initially as a localization tester for German and progressing to the management of the localization test team. In 2013 she became senior manager for test services which includes localization and functional testing. The team is responsible for testing game franchises such as Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Horizon and God of War on all PlayStation platforms, including virtual reality and mobile. Nadine has presented extensively on QA and localization topics.
Robert Masella
Senior Gameplay EngineerRare(Microsoft)
Robert Masella is a Senior Software Engineer at Rare with over 14 years of experience working of game development. He has worked on a wide variety of games including Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the Kinect Sports series, and Sea of Thieves. He’s worked on a variety of feature areas, but mostly spends time developing AI, physics and animation code. During production of Sea of Thieves, he has been heavily involved in the automated testing of gameplay code, in order to maintain the build integrity required for a service game.
Philip Mayes
Managing DirectorMighty Kingdom
Philip Mayes is the managing director of Mighty Kingdom, winner of the 2019 Australian Game Developer of the Year Award. With more than 15 years of experience, he has worked on games for many large international brands, including Star Wars, LEGO, and Disney. Founded by Philip in 2010, Mighty Kingdom is one of the largest and most diverse game developers in Australia, with over 120 people working across Australia and New Zealand. He is a passionate advocate for the industry locally, and is eager to see that industry be as inclusive, progressive, and successful as possible.
Twitter: @pjm
Fabio Minazzi
Text Localization DirectorKeywords Studios
Fabio Minazzi has been into localization of interactive media since 1992, dealing with text, audio and video contents at Philips Interctive Media. After founding Binari Sonori, he dealt with software localization projects for Sun, Oracle, Peregrine and Adobe for a decade, using CAT and WISIWIG localization tools, DTP and workflow systems. This experience has proven useful in the roaring game localization industry, where, for the past ten years, Fabio has been in charge of game localization by Codemasters, Microsoft, Capcom, Square Enix and Bandai-Namco. An active member of Games Localization SIG and cofounder of the Games Localization Round Table, he is passionate about building bridges between cultures and helping people publish great content worldwide.
Hugo Miranda
Language SpecialistBlizzard Entertainment
As a language specialist for Latin American Spanish, Hugo Miranda’s main quest is to find what serves players best. From making linguistic creative decisions on style, translation and voiceover to diving deep into the history and culture of the region, he combines a passion for video games, languages and heritage.
Anneta Mitsopoulo
Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Anneta Mitsopoulou has been with Electronic Arts (EA) since 2008. She holds a diploma in translation and is based in Cologne, Germany. Anneta’s current focus lies on workflow optimization and automation. She is also involved in machine translation research at EA and is passionate about technology and automating workflows.
Maciej Miąsik
Pixel CrowMaciej Miąsik is a veteran game developer, producer, designer, sound designer, programmer and cofounder of several gamedev studios that have been active for the past 25 years. Maciej was head of production and responsible for the first part in 2007 of the Witcher series. Other games he has participated in may be known to adventure game players: Reah: Face the Unknown, Schizm: Mysterious Journey, Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon and Sentinel: Descendants in Time, and recently, Beat Cop. One title codeveloped by him is Electro Body (1992), considered one of the first successful Polish PC games. Maciej is also actively engaged in different educational efforts such as curriculum director at Game Dev School and as a regular lecturer at Warsaw Film School and Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology. He is currently working as a member of the board at Movie Games S.A. and on his new game at Pixel Crow.
Valentina Mollica
LQA ManagerTestronic
Nadine Monschau
Senior Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Nadine Monschau is senior localization manager at EA, leading the translation, vendor management, machine translation, and desktop publishing teams. She has a background in translation and started her career at EA and in the video game localization industry in 2001. Currently, Nadine has kicked off an inclusive language initiative to ensure that players can immerse in an inclusive experience when they play EA games. She is also the local chair of EA’s Women’s Ultimate Team Employee Resource Group and passionate to help women (and her teams in general) progress in their careers.
Catherin Newmann Halebian
Localization Manager, OG Production & LATAMBlizzard Entertainment
As a localization manager, Catherin Newmann Halebian’s main objective is to support her teams and pipelines, enabling them to provide the highest level of service. She does this with tools such as neural machine translation, digital asset management and computer-assisted translation. Working with multidisciplinary stakeholders has enabled her to develop expertise in interpretation (simultaneous, consecutive and live streamed subtitles) as well as audiovisual and multimedia localization.
Kassi O’Connor
Outside Services DirectorGlu Mobile
Kassi O’Connor began her career in gaming over 11 years ago working in external development. Since then, she’s worked on over 100 titles, been a producer and has expanded the outsourcing and localization department to 11 studios worldwide. Kassi is currently the outside services director and runs all external services for Glu Mobile, including external development, localization and independent contractors. She enjoys working with external teams and using them in a way that they feel ownership of the game they are working on. Kassi has presented at numerous international and US conferences. She holds a BA in communication and an MBA.
Bazz O'Reilly
LQA Service Delivery ManagerKeywords Studios
Tony O'Dowd
KantanAI Director & Head of Localization TechnologyKeywords Studios
Tony O’Dowd is the founder and chief architect of KantanAI, a cloud-based AI and custom machine translation solutions provider which is a part of Keywords Studios. He is a serial entrepreneur and localization veteran with more than 25 years of experience working in the language industry. Tony has previously held senior positions at Lotus Development Corporation, Symantec Corporation, Corel Corporation Ltd., and Alchemy Software Development, which he founded in 2000. He holds a BS in computer science from Trinity College Dublin, and a fellowship from the Localization Research Institute at the University of Limerick. Today, Tony leads innovations in KantanAI and localization technology at Keywords Studios.
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen
Global Head, PMOKeywords Studios
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen is officially an industry veteran, having spent 20 years in different roles in testing and localization services at Square Enix. He has recently joined Keywords Studios to build cross-service programs, supporting their global development and publishing clients. He remains an active and enthusiastic member of the game localization and testing community.
Ana Paredes
Project ManagerUbisoft
Ana Paredes joined the localization and video game industries by chance after moving to Montreal. During her tenure at Keywords, she worked briefly in testing before moving to translation, in what was, at the time, one of the most secret and expected projects of the company — Starcraft 2. Following that, Ana provided for Brazilian Portuguese content management at Expedia, and subsequently moved into project management at companies such as SDL and Transperfect. Most recently she worked on Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising. Ana’s interests revolve around all things related to diversity, inclusion, skateboarding, and cats. She thinks completing games is overrated, and the last title she saw through was Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime, which doesn’t even have VO!
LinkedIn: ana-gt-paredes
Donna Parrish
PrincipalLocWorld
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 Translators without Borders.
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer
Turn 10 Quality ManagerMicrosoft
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer grew up in what was then rural Bellevue, Washington, and went to Western Washington University before joining Microsoft in 1998. He was in development for six years before joining the centralized test organization. Jimbo has been a quality manager at Microsoft for twelve years and shipped dozens of Xbox and PC games. He had a three and a half year detour as the test manager for HoloLens Experiences and is happy to be back working on games. Jimbo is currently the Turn 10 quality manager and super proud of the just released Forza Horizon.
Vlad Pomarjanschi
QC Localization Team LeadUbisoft
Vlad Pomarjanschi started his career at Ubisoft six years ago, pursuing his all-time passion for videogames. Vlad quickly got involved in localization testing, subsequently joining QC-LOC where he climbed through the ranks, becoming its team lead three years ago. This position offered him the opportunity to engage in numerous and diverse Ubisoft projects, from small-scope titles to AAAs, facing all the challenges and rewards that come with managing localization testing. Vlad considers himself very lucky to be involved in such an impactful, yet dynamic field, with talents from so many different cultures and backgrounds.
Sandra Pourmarin
Localization ConsultantUbisoft
Sandra Pourmarin’s journey in the video game localization industry started 16 years ago with Ubisoft Montreal. Initially Localization Project Manager, she has been localization consultant for ten years now, overseeing Ubisoft NCSA localization and defining Ubisoft worldwide localization strategy with key localization stakeholders. No need to say that localization is one of Sandra’s favorite topics. Very enthusiastic about constant changes in the video game industry, which she sees as an opportunity to challenge oneself and foster out-of-the-box thinking in order to optimize localization processes while always targeting high quality standards.
Chris Priestman
Business Development ManagerZA/UM
Chris Priestman has a keen interest in experimental video games after spending a decade in journalism. He now works at ZA/UM, the studio behind the award-winning, roleplaying game Disco Elysium, where he started as a writer and soon became the producer in charge of localization. Chris is now the business development manager at ZA/UM.
Twitter: @CPriestman
Liz Prince
Business ManagerAmiqus
Liz Prince is the business manager at award-winning recruitment specialist Amiqus. She is also the founder of Putting the G Into Gaming, an initiative to build more diverse and inclusive workplaces in games. Putting the G into Gaming has four focuses: attracting women into games from other industries; supporting women already working in the games sector; working with schools, universities and colleges to promote games as an attractive career option for girls and young women; and helping studios with their equity, diversity, and inclusion journey through the Empower Up program.
Elzbieta Pustul
TestronicElżbieta Pustuł is a quality assurance (QA) manager with over 10 years of experience in areas of localization, end-user support,and QA services for top-tier game publishers around the world. She started her career working for Electronic Arts as a customer support analyst where she has acquired her initial training and widened her skills. Later she worked as a localization and QA specialist for CD-Projekt, the publisher of The Witcher series of games. Her name can be spotted in credits of numerous games, including Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl, The Witcher, Mass Effect, Metro 2033 and Far Cry 5. At the end of a day, Elżbieta is usually pushing the “on” button on her favorite game console in pursuit of another platinum trophy.
Cristina Pérez Cerezo
Keywords StudiosCristina is the linguist team lead in the Barcelona office of the Keywords Studios. She graduated from the University of Granada with a B.A. in Translation and Interpreting. A couple of years later, she decided to specialize and took a master’s in audiovisual translation course at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Thanks to a collaboration program established between the university and Keywords Studios, she had the opportunity to do an internship as a Spanish language specialist at the company’s office in Dublin, where she ended up becoming part of the team.
Catalina Quijano
Localization Project ManagerMichael Radnitz
Senior Producer, LocalizationBlizzard Entertainment
Michael Radnitz is a senior producer with more than 12 years of experience in the games industry. He has shipped more than ten AAA titles (such as Diablo III and Overwatch) globally across various platforms . Planning, documentation and scheduling are words that excite Michael, and he thoroughly enjoys all aspects of production. He was involved in the localization of every Blizzard IP as well as web-based and other non-game content. Over the past five years, Michael’s focus has been on the Diablo and Overwatch franchises, including shipment of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls on console and in China, the release of Overwatch and the set up of the localization pipeline for the Overwatch League. He is currently setting up the localization pipeline for Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal.
Leilani Ramirez
Manager of DialogueSony Interactive Entertainment
Leilani Ramirez is the manager of dialogue for Sony Interactive Entertainment. An island girl from Hawaii, Leilani moved to Los Angeles (LA) and graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a BA in communications and recording arts. After dabbling in the film and TV post-production world, she fell into the interactive realm and started her game audio career at Electronic Arts — Los Angeles in 2003, working on multiple titles as the dialog lead for the Medal of Honor and Command & Conquer series. From there, Leilani jumped into the freelancing world and was the dialogue supervisor for several titles including Uncharted 3, ADR1FT and Fat Princess Adventures before landing at Sony PlayStation where she completed God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and photography, and volunteers at the Children’s Hospital of LA, with her dog, Frodo, who is a member of the dog-therapy team.
Chris Rowley
LQA Head of Division/Operations DirectorKeywords Studios
Chris Rowley, an industry veteran since 2002, spent his first five years in development as a games designer and producer. He moved to Codemasters to become their first quality assurance (QA) manager. Since then he has held various QA, localization management and director roles at publishers SCEE, Eidos, 2K and EA. Chris then moved to the vendor side in 2014 working at Testronic, PTW and now Keywords where he is currently responsible for the LQA service line and FQA operations. Chris has been a regular presenter and panelist on the conference circuit for a number of years.
Dave Ruane
Digital Content and Partnerships ManagerXTM International
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 currently manages digital content and partner strategies at XTM International. Dave 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.
Inés Rubio
Language Services Sr. Global ManagerNI
Inés Rubio is a localization veteran with experience in ecommerce, marketing and 15 years of gaming industry background. Her interest in process improvement centered around technology and outsourcing solutions drove her to research potential machine translation applications to games localization before the Google Neural Machine Translation landmark. Inés currently applies her passion to translation and localization processes at National Instruments, a leader in software defined automated testing and measurements.
Hadrien Rudich
Localization Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Hadrien Rudich is a localization project manager at Blizzard Entertainment. He started his localization journey at Blizzard eight years ago as French LQA analyst working on titles such as Diablo 3, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone. He moved on to new responsibilities after a few years as a project manager specialized in outsourcing solutions. In his current role Hadrien has been involved in numerous game releases and in 2018 he began working in a more central position on Overwatch, where his extensive knowledge and love for the game, both as an avid player and professional, are put to good use.
Isabell Rudolph
Localization Project CoordinatorGoodgame Studios
Isabell Rudolph has a BA in technical communication and an MS in software localization. She joined the localization department at Goodgame Studios in 2014, gaining experience in working with free-to-play games for mobile and web, delivering high-quality translations, optimizing workflows and continuously improving localization processes and quality.
Loreto Sanz Fueyo
Senior Director of LocalizationPTW
Loreto Sanz Fueyo, senior director of localization at PTW, graduated from King’s College in London, England, where she received her master’s degree in computational linguistics and formal grammar. She began her professional career as a games tester and translator, developing her localization knowledge and skills for over 13 years before becoming PTW’s director of translation in 2019. Loreto’s passion for communication and clear messaging has made her an invaluable part of PTW’s staff, where she provides guidance to all levels of the organization. Her latest obsession is building a house in Spain and when she’s not busy localizing, she can be found pouring over floor plans and interior design magazines!
António Saraiva
Managing PartnerGojira
António Saraiva is founder and managing partner at Gojira, a media production company that develops video games, apps and conversational characters (intelligent avatars). He taught game design and video game related subjects at Universidade Lusófona, IPA and Restart (Lisbon). Before Gojira, he was producer and game designer at Biodroid Productions and also IP Hunter and licensing manager for Biodroid Entertainment. António has worked in a multitude of media formats ranging from press to television to multimedia off and online. Starting out as a television producer and director in the late 80’s, he founded his own company, Latina-Europa, and authored many children’s, pop music and youth culture TV series. In Portugal he was a pioneer in writing on the internet’s social and creative issues, namely in Blitz, to which he still contributes.
Konstantin Savenkov
CEOIntento
After receiving a PhD in 2008, Konstantin Savenkov led research and development efforts for online content services then worked as CTO at Zvooq and as a chief operating officer at Bookmate. In 2016, he contributed his experience in artificial intelligence (AI), tech and operations to cofound Intento, Inc., where they build tools to source, evaluate and use machine translation (MT) and other cognitive AI services. Intento regularly publishes independent MT evaluation studies and aims to be a reference point for utilizing MT to solve particular business problems.
Tobias Scherf
Solution ArchitectMemsource
Tobias Scherf is a solution architect at Memsource. He draws on his 20 years of experience in the localization industry working with enterprise clients to develop innovative solutions, maximizing the value and adoption of Memsource’s machine translation and AI-based features. Prior to Memsource, Tobias worked in various roles from localization quality assurance in localization engineering to executive management on the language service provider side. He is experienced in running enterprise localization programs including language quality programs and quality analytics. Tobias has been instrumental in the design and development of proprietary solutions to effectively measure and improve translation quality.
David Schumacher
Manager, Test Services - PlayStation Studios QASony Interactive Entertainment
David Schumacher has worked in the industry for over 17 years, 12 of which have been in quality assurance. Starting his career at Sony Internal QA, David rejoined Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2020 after working alongside clients such as the BBC, Fox, and Rebellion as a producer and lead designer. He is a manager in test services, the group that coordinates functional and localization testing for franchises such as Gran Turismo, Horizon, God of War and Dreams across all PlayStation platforms, and recently including PC and mobile.
Miguel Sepúlveda
Global Localization ManagerKing
Miguel Sepúlveda started his journey in the exciting localization world in 1995. He worked as a quality assurance (QA) specialist for Microsoft for a few projects such as Microsoft Project, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. Early in his career, Miguel worked on the vendor side, mainly working for Lionbridge as localization QA manager for different clients. In 2007 he had the opportunity to enter the gaming industry thanks to Electronic Arts where he was responsible for setting up the technical team to provide automated localization QA services to games such as FIFA, Harry Potter or Need for Speed among others. Then Miguel moved the buyer side giving him the opportunity to complete his vision of how the localization industry worked from both sides. In 2014 he joined the King Candy Crush world where his role is to lead the globalization efforts of a very talented team.
Vanessa Shallcross
Head of LocalizationSEGA Europe
Having been in the games industry since 1996, Vanessa Shallcross is an experienced manager of computer game localization on a global basis. In her early years, she worked for Psygnosis, then moved to Sony Computer Entertainment and more recently Bigpoint GmbH based in Hamburg. Since November 2020 Vanessa was honored to be appointed as the Head of Localisation for Sega Europe overseeing all Localisation, Audio, LQA, and Engineering, part of the wider Operations Team, located in Brentford HQ. Her current focus is on getting to know her team and all the stakeholders across the Sega business, as well as planning the strategic direction of the Localisation Department.
Shwetank Sharma
CEOLocNapps Media
Shwetank Sharma is a seasoned management professional with experience across game localization business consulting, business development and localization project management. In his past professional pursuits, international experience in client relationship and project management for localization services stand out. Shwetank founded Locnapps Media in 2014 which has been instrumental in servicing videogame developers/publishers and language service providers for South East Asian, Middle Eastern and Indian Languages.
Kseniya Shorokhova
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Kseniya Shorokhova has an educational background in linguistics but she got into the language industry just five years ago when she found herself working as a Russian-English translator at Playrix. At that time, their localization team consisted of only three people. Kseniya has grown together with the team and the company, gradually making her way to team lead and ultimately becoming the head of localization. She now oversees more than 40 people and is responsible for Playrix’s localization strategy.
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck
Senior Manager, VO ProductionRiot Games
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck is senior manager of voiceover production at Riot Games, leading the team that produces the voiceover for League of Legends, Wild Rift, VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, and Riot Forge’s upcoming titles. Prior to Riot, she was at the helm of Side LA, where her team worked on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, Riot Games’ Legends of Runeterra, Epic Games’ Fortnite: Save the World, Splash Damage’s Gears: Tactics, and Dontnod Entertainment’s Tell Me Why, among hundreds of other titles. At the start of her career, Jacquie spent a decade with Sony PlayStation, coordinating dialog for projects from Socom 3 to God of War 3. She then went on to manage talent and casting for the Worldwide Studios product development services group, including titles such as The Order: 1886, Spiderman, and 2018’s God of War. Jacquie and her husband live with their cat, Bruce, in Los Angeles, California.
IMDb: Jacquie Shriver
Yumi Okubo-Shuman
Localization Engineering ManagerBig Fish
Yumi Shuman is a localization engineering manager in the International team at Big Fish. She is passionate about the integration of language and modern technologies with game products. Her current focus is driving cloud-based CAT technology with the mix of machine translation and TM program strategy. This is a key component in widening content availability for game and marketing localization. When she’s not working, Yumi enjoys playing with her 5-year-old twins.
Harald Simon
Localization DirectorBethesda
Harald Simon is localization director at Bethesda. He has been in the localization industry since the early 1990s, both on the vendor and the client side. In the video games industry he has held senior positions with Virgin Interactive and Electronic Arts, before joining Bethesda in 2011.
Kaushal Singh
QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Kirill Soloviev
CEO & Co-FounderContentQuo
Kirill Soloviev is the CEO and co-founder at ContentQuo, an Estonian translation technology company that helps global LSPs, enterprise localization teams and government agencies reduce their linguistic quality risk, improve vendor performance and boost machine translation quality at scale with a data-driven approach. During his 18 years in the industry, Kirill has served in diverse buyer-side and vendor-side roles, most recently as global director of localization at Acronis. Kirill has also co-organized the Localization Unconference in Tallinn and regularly mentors both new and seasoned localization professionals.
Kirill Soloviev
ContentQuoKirill Soloviev is the cofounder and head of product at ContentQuo, an Estonian tech startup helping localization teams and language service providers manage and reduce localization quality risk at any scale, with any translation management system. With 15 years of experience in localization across diverse buyer and vendor roles, Kirill served most recently as global director of localization at Acronis, a category-leading software product company, where his team was responsible for both linguistic quality assurance (QA) and software QA. Kirill also organizes the Localization unconference in Tallinn and collaborates with TAUS.
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference ManagerGame Global
Francesca has been in the video game localization industry since 2010, covering various roles: from marketing intern and translator for online games at Wooga and Bigpoint, to Senior Multilingual Localization Specialist at Electronic Arts managing large, multilingual titles, to Program Manager for the Games department at Alpha CRC.
Having experienced both the client and the service provider side of the industry, Francesca recently decided to become a freelance translator and consultant and is currently working as Conference Manager for Game Global and video game localization instructor for the Localization Institute.
Mike Souto
Business Development DirectorGridly
Mike Souto has over 20 years of experience in game and app development and localization. He’s a producer of AAA titles, including the Commandos series, TimeSplitters 2, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and many more. With experience of internal and external development teams, Mike’s been involved in game development at various touchpoints in the process.
LinkedIn: michael-souto-287a131
Niall Spooner-Harvey
Account ManagerGlyph Language Services
Niall Spooner-Harvey has over seven years of experience in the localization industry. He is very happy to be back at Glyph after three years away, most recently working as a project manager in the consumer robotics sector. A classics graduate from the UK, Niall is as passionate about gaming as he is about languages, both living and dead. When not talking at great length about the differences between British and American English or being a two-time Pun Slam champion, he can be found playing Cricket Captain 2020 and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Karen Stevens
Sports Accessibility LeadElectronic Arts
Karen Stevens is the Electronic Arts (EA) sports accessibility lead. She strives to improve the user experience for those with interactive differences. Stevens has been in the game industry for over 13 years and has first-hand experience of what it’s like living with disabilities. She has spoken at several conferences on the topic, and has been featured in magazines, television programs and radio shows.
Nate Stoddard
QA Discipline PrincipalEpic Games
Nate Stoddard has been working in quality assurance (QA), testing, hardware development and game development for more than 12 years. In that time, he has worked on over 34 titles, on almost as many platforms. Nate recently moved from Boston to North Carolina to work at Epic Games and is now a senior QA lead on Fortnite.
Leticia Sáenz Murga
Keywords StudiosCurrently, the localization lead at Keywords Studios Barcelona, Leticia Sáenz Murga manages a team of project managers, coordinators, and linguists specializing in the challenges of localizing market leading games. Leticia has over 11 years of experience in video games localization in different roles, from translator to senior project manager, giving her insight of the whole development and localization process as well as in-depth knowledge of game development and design.
Blanca Sánchez Joplin
Game WriterSocialpoint
Blanca Joplin has been working for over five years as a game writer at Socialpoint, one of Spain’s most vibrant game developers. During this time, she has worked on some very successful titles, including Monster Legends (her main focus and love of her life), Dragon City, World Chef and Word Life. Blanca’s background is in translation, having spent two years as a freelance translator and subtitler prior to arriving at Socialpoint, which has been her home ever since.
Andrea Tabacchi
VP Customer SuccessMemsource
Andrea Tabacchi is the vice president of customer success at Memsource where he utilizes his extensive experience in building customer-centric language technology solutions for multinational corporations and global translation companies. He and his team work with clients to develop solutions to address their translation technology needs, including innovative ways to optimize the Memsource platform, and liaise between clients and internal teams to suggest tool improvements. Prior to Memsource, Andrea spent over ten years on the language service provider side where he served in several roles in language technology, from localization engineering to technology director.
LinkedIn: andreatabacchi
Tülay Tetiker McNally
Director, Inclusive Design & Product DevelopmentElectronic Arts
Tülay Tetiker McNally is director, inclusive design and product development at Electronic Arts, and is responsible for establishing EA Studio’s global approach to creating inclusive products and features that put players first, partnering with EA development teams worldwide. Beginning her career in the video games industry more than 15 years ago at SEGA and Square Enix, she later joined Electronic Arts to head up central development operations at BioWare Edmonton. More recently Tülay was a senior development director at DICE Stockholm. Tülay is originally from Turkey and was raised in Munich, Germany. She has had the opportunity to live and work in countries across Europe and North America. An experienced public speaker and mentor of students and young professionals, she connects with gamers to listen to what makes them feel excluded or marginalized. For the future Tülay wants players to engage with games in safe, fun, and positive ways regardless of who they are or where they are from, to bring inclusive design and thinking to the core of game design. Tülay holds an MA in American studies, with specializations in the history of immigration and civil rights movement, and a BA in psychology from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 2020 she was selected as an inaugural member of TGA’s Future Class.
Mette Tingey
DirectorAlpha CRC
Mette Tingey is the director of Alpha Games, responsible for the revenue, accounts and commercial side of all games business within Alpha. Alpha is a mature LSP with 30+ years of experience providing end-to-end localization solutions to games developers and publishers across the globe.
Tamara Tirjak
Senior Localization ManagerFrontier Developments
Tamara Tirjak is the senior localization manager of Frontier Developments, a self-publishing video game developer based in Cambridge, UK. She is responsible for coordinating all localization-related activities across the organization, focusing on establishing reproducible, automated processes in order to streamline translation efforts and support the company’s international presence. Tamara’s previous experience includes working as an in-house linguist, project manager, translation tool support engineer, and technical trainer for various leading language service providers. She is a certified memoQ trainer, a qualified English-Hungarian translator and interpreter, and holds an MS degree in technology management.
Demid Tishin
All Correct GroupDemid Tishin is a game designer, entrepreneur and mentor. In 2006, he founded Allcorrect Group, a language services business and won a good name with customers such as EA, Ubisoft, Bandai Namco and Gaijin. He also founded Translation Forum Russia, a major convention for the translation industry, and helped to develop ISO 11669, the first ISO standard on translation services. Since 2016, Demid has been the full-time CEO of Funbakers, a game development studio.
To Be Announced
Sony Interactive EntertainmentGeorge Tong
Senior DirectorBeyondsoft Corporation
George Tong has nearly 19 years of IT and business management experience in the product globalization industry. Since 2016, George has worked in the US as senior engineering director, using his globalization industry knowledge, leading Beyondsoft’s onshore/offshore team to globalize clients’ products portfolios. Prior to that, in Nov 2005, George was the general manager and chief technical lead of Product G11N Services Business Unit at Beyondsoft, overseeing project management, technology innovation, personnel management, and business operations.
Charles Ulbig
LT LeadElectronic Arts
Charles Ulbig’s first role in 2002 at Electronic Arts was as QA tester for Football Manager in Cologne, Germany. One day the localization supervisor asked if he was interested in traveling around the world for free — well, almost free. Back in the day, localization testers were sent directly to the development studios to test the games and Charles’ first project abroad was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in Chertsey, UK. For him, it was an incredible experience to work on the same game with so many different people from around Europe. What motivates Charles, besides working with games, is the creativity behind the process of localization. Nothing is more gratifying to him than finding solutions to localization problems and seeing them later in-game. In 2007, Charles moved with EA to Madrid, Spain, took the position of senior tester and then became the localization testing team lead for German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. He is responsible for three permanent linguistic experts and up to 50 temporary employees during peak times.
Ulises Uno
Content & Localization ManagerEtermax
Ulises Uno is content and localization manager at etermax, leading a strategic area for the company’s gaming division which is focused on developing and publishing worldwide social games that entertain, connect and foster knowledge in up to 34 languages. With an educational background in social sciences and translation, he joined the gaming industry as a translator and copywriter. Ulises currently leads a team of language specialists, user experience writers and content producers, guiding them toward a product-centric mindset.
Jeferson Valadares
CEODoppio Games
Jeferson Valadares is CEO and cofounder of Doppio Games, a voice-first game studio based in Lisbon, Portugal. He was also the lead designer on the studio’s debut title The Vortex, available for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. He is also a member of the board of directors at Rovio. In past lives he was VP/GM of Mobile at Bandai Namco; Studio GM at Electronic Arts and Executive Producer at BioWare in San Francisco; Studio Director at Playfish and Creative Director at EA Mobile in London; and Game Development Director at Digital Chocolate’s Sumea studio in Helsinki.
Andrew Vestal
Senior Localization Program ManagerAmazon Game Studios
Andrew Vestal got his start in games localization in 2004, turning Japanese RPGs into English at Tokyo’s 8-4, Ltd. He moved back to the United States in 2006 to work at Blizzard Entertainment, where he oversaw the localization of the first two World of Warcraft expansions, Diablo III, and Battle.net. In 2013, he took a brief break from games to join Microsoft to focus on localization tooling and pipeline design. At Amazon Game Studios since 2017, Andrew currently oversees translation and translation testing of all first-party AGS titles, Twitch Prime, and Lumberyard. He loves retro games and has accidentally started a collection of CRT monitors in his garage.
Brandon Victor
Keywords StudiosJanet Weddle
Technical QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Janet Weddle is a technical QA manager with 15 years of experience in game development, project management, test management and automation. She started her career as a game developer at KnowWonder, Inc. which became Amaze Entertainment. Janet’s development experience there and her later roles in test management and project management led to her strong appreciation of great tools. Throughout her career she saw the benefit of tools and automation in test, development, art and management. Success in these areas led to Janet current position as a technical QA manager and an automation advocate.
Ben Wibberley
Managing PartnerDAQA
Ben Wibberley has over 20 years of experience in the video game industry, specializing in executive strategy, global production support, external development, international production and live operations. Having signed, grown and managed $100M’s of multi-service deals, he has an intimate knowledge of industry best practices, working with some of the most well-known companies in the business. Ben founded DAQA as an independent, new generation video games support agency. DAQA provides strategic consultancy, evaluation and implementation of operations for AAA studios, alongside representation of unique, disruptive, technology-based service companies.
Matt Wilson
Global Head of Format QASony Interactive Entertainment
Matt Wilson is a leader in the software and hardware industry with over 20 years of specialist quality assurance (QA) and testing experience. He is currently the global head of format QA within Sony Interactive Entertainment which handles all compliance for PlayStation globally. Matt has experience leading and building a large (250+) co-located team that deals with 30,000+ products globally annually, each with very short service-level agreements. He recently transitioned four separate regional QA teams to a single co-located global QA team. Matt lives in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Hayato Wada Wong
Cofounder & Localization Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Hayato Wada Wong is a ten-year video game and localization industry veteran, trilingual in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Having shipped titles and work experience in AAA game titles with Sega, as well as working in the outsourcing/gaming-as-a-service industry at Pole to Win and Streamline Studios, Hayato is versed in game production, quality assurance (QA) and localization. Currently, he is a localization manager and cofounder for Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group, a business division involved in rejuvenating the post development process of localization, culturalization marketing, QA, and compliance testing into something fit for the modern times. Hayato hopes to make game development as enjoyable as playing games.
LinkedIn: hayato-wada-wong-b909537
Christine Xaysakda
International Account ManagerLBS Suite
At LBS Suite, Christine Xaysakda is responsible for developing international business, participating in company strategies, and (what she loves the most) advising language service providers on the optimization of clients’ internal processes through technologies. She is passionate about technology, languages, and cultures. Christine loves brainstorming: talking about new business, projects, and ideas. Perhaps you can try speak with her in Mandarin, Cantonese, English or French.
Jingyu Zhang
KingVladimir Zhdanov
Vladimir has been in game localization since 2010. He started as an undergraduate Mandarin-to-Russian translator. He graduated in 2012 with a thesis on Chinese MMORPG translations, and gradually improved his skills until he ended up managing a team of in-house translators for a Chinese mobile gaming company in Beijing in 2015. He lives a life of a passionate localizator: in his spare time he localizes the webcomics series Zen Pencils, and in early 2017 he and his wife volunteered to localize the Indian comic book Menstrupedia into Russian.
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk
QA DirectorQLOC
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk graduated in Japanese studies and public relations but as soon as he started his adventure with functional and compliance testing in 2010, he knew there was no going back. After moving to Madrid, he gathered professional experience in localization quality assurance (QA) while working for Electronic Arts on IPs like Battlefield, FIFA, Sims and Need for Speed. He continued his career at QLOC as a team leader and project manager (PM). As a PM Sergiusz oversaw projects for external clients and the QA process for in-house porting projects, including titles like Resident Evil 6, DmC: Devil May Cry, Ultra Street Fighter IV and more. As a QA director since 2014, he manages QLOC’s QA department that employs over 170 specialists, supervises the work of managers and leads, and is responsible for the coordination of all department activities.
Game Global
Game GlobalNick Adams
Director of Transgender RepresentationGLAAD
Nick Adams is the director of transgender representation at GLAAD. He is a resource for media content creators who are telling stories about transgender people. Nick has consulted on hundreds of films and TV shows to help them create authentic transgender characters and stories. He has also worked with Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, DONTNOD, and other gaming companies to create trans-inclusive video games. Nick joined GLAAD in 1998, and transitioned himself at that time.
Belén Agulló García
FounderAccessibility Warriors
Belén Agulló García holds a BA in translation and interpreting studies, an MA in audiovisual translation, and a PhD in multimedia accessibility. The topic of her dissertation was accessible subtitles for virtual reality and that was the beginning of her journey as an accessibility advocate. Previously, Belén worked for more than five years in the game localization industry, holding different leadership positions. She combined her years in this industry with her true calling, training others. Currently, Belén is the VP of learning and lead media researcher at Nimdzi Insights and the founder of Accessibility Warriors.
Pedro Alfageme
Audio Artist ManagerElectronic Arts
Pedro Alfageme is audio artist manager at Electronic Arts. He is responsible for the technical quality of the localized dialogue and the continuous improvement of processes and tools. Pedro leads a team that delivers over a million dialogue files across 11 languages with high-quality standards every year. He has been working in the video game industry since 2004. His experience goes from voiceover recording, editing, and post processing to product owner of EA’s content management system for localization. Pedro is currently involved in voice technologies research and development as a localization stakeholder.
Marie Amigues
CEOAltagram
Marie Amigues is the CEO and founder of Altagram. After living in Paris, Ottawa and New York, she settled in Berlin in 2006. Following her studies in philosophy at La Sorbonne, Marie obtained an MBA in marketing management at Essec. In 2017, she was selected as one of the Top 10 Women in Management in Germany’s gaming industry. Passion, hard work and expertise are the driving forces behind Marie’s accomplishments. She has brought together a team of over 150 talented in-house game localization specialists who have successfully shipped over 5,000 game titles since 2006 for prestigious clients such as Square Enix, Supercell, Blizzard and SEGA, just to name a few.
Cristina Anselmi
Machine Translation LeadElectronic Arts
Cristina Anselmi is machine translation lead at Electronic Arts (EA). She takes care of everything related to machine translation (MT) implementation and maintenance within EA localization, leads a team of MT specialists, and coordinates several developments around MT. Cristina has been in the video game localization industry since 2012, managing all kinds of multilingual projects, from small mobile games to big MMORPGs, and several AAA titles. Her focus for the past four years has been implementing MT and AI technologies to automate workflows within EA localization. Cristina’s goal is to pave the way for this to be welcome in daily life and to be seen as a help rather than an enemy, a powerful tool that can enhance productivity, without jeopardizing quality and creativity.
Estelle Bailly
Localization DirectorHi Rez Studios
With over 20 years of experience in the video game localization industry, Estelle Bailly is an expert in the globalization and internationalization of creative content. She started her career in France, where she learned about the various aspects of the localization pipeline through multiple experiences which lead her to become head of localization at one of the largest video game localization agencies in Paris. In 2016, Estelle joined Hi-Rez Studios, a games-as-a-service studio, as localization director. Since then, her core focus has been to help the company to better engage and serve their international audience, offering them higher quality and enhanced support in various languages. Estelle is currently based in the UK, leading a multicultural team that translates three live games in more than eight languages.
Andrea Ballista
CEOVoiseed
Andrea Ballista has been working in the game industry for more than 25 years. Starting from his passion of music, songwriting, and singing, he holds a degree in computer music. Since cofounding Binari Sonori in 1994, Andrea has been the audio director for Keywords Studios from 2015 until the end of 2019. In 2020 he cofounded Voiseed to proceed into research and development of deep learning-based emotional virtual voices.
LinkedIn: andrea-ballista-4617912
Gérard Barnaud
Localization Project ManagerUbisoft
An industry veteran with 17 years of experience in the gaming industry, Gérard Barnaud started as a localization tester in Ireland in 2001 where he worked for Vivendi. He then moved to Atari headquarters in Lyon, France, where he started as a localization project manager on Neverwinter Nights and evolved to a position of producer for The Witcher (original). He then moved to UBISOFT Montreal and back into localization for Far Cry 2 and Brothers in Arms 3, and ended up in the south of France at the Montpellier studio. Barnaud has worked on various titles ranging from licensed games to large role playing games and intellectual properties for all audiences, and is still passionate about his work.
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz
Senior Localization DirectorElectronic Arts
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz is the senior localization director at EA, heading up all worldwide localization functions including translation, recordings, vendor management, testing and engineering for the video game developer and publisher. Originally a translator by education, she looks back at 15 years of experience in the game localization industry. Her current focus is on shaping the strategic direction of localization in the company’s shift to online service models.
Thomas Barth
Global LQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Thomas Barth (Tommy) has been working in games services for over 12 years and, like many young aspiring professionals, he started in the field of quality assurance (QA) to get a foot in the door of the industry. Since then, he leveled up from German QA tester to test lead, to project manager, to localization quality assurance (LQA) manager and most recently to LQA director at the global games services provider Keywords Studios. Throughout his career, Tommy had the chance to work with brilliant client partners from all sectors of the industry (developers, publishers and hardware manufacturers), provide and supervise testing for games of all genres and sizes, and on all platforms (from consoles to mobile, to the latest and greatest in virtual and augmented reality). He is passionate about the industry and believes that we are better together. Tommy also has a deep love for games and interactive entertainment and feels that all gamers around the world should have the same amazing and immersive experience, no matter which language they speak and play games in. Helping people succeed gives him energy and is one of his key drives as a professional.
Micaela Belluzzo
Global Resource ManagerKeywords Studios
Micaela Belluzzo is the global resource manager at Keywords Studios, focusing on project resourcing and quality control. A translator and interpreter by education, Micaela started her translation career localizing software and media content in 1998. She then joined SDL in Maidenhead as a localization project manager and in 2000 she moved to Milan to manage the EA Italy localization office. From 2003 Micaela contributed to the building of the EA integration hub in Madrid where she worked as head of localization production-integration until 2007. After a two-year break working for international cooperation in Africa and the Middle East, she joined Keywords with a focus on audio localization production and has been working on resource management for the past six years.
Teddy Bengtsson
Founder/DirectorRoundTable Studio
Teddy grew up in Sweden where he studied languages. Although his early professional career diverged into skiing, fashion and the restaurant trade, he eventually came back to languages through localization and a global journey including five home countries. Having held senior localization roles with major IT players Microsoft and Oracle, a crazy idea led him to start an LSP business in Argentina in 2003. RoundTable Studio quickly grew into a regional leader with production centers in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Porto Alegre (Brazil), and a business management unit in Spain where game localization has become one of its key vertical markets.
Mario Bergantiños
Director, Localization Analytics & Video-AudioElectronic Arts
Mario Bergantiños started his journey studying broadcasting, 3D and audio production. After working as a freelancer for several companies he started working at EA and now he has more than 16 years of experience in building high performing teams from audio and video disciplines to data analytics. As a member of EA’s Localization and Madrid leadership teams, Mario is co-responsible for the innovation and strategy of the localization business as well as managing the Audio Artist, Audio Capture, Video Loc and Data Analytics teams.
Mario Bergantiños
Senior Manager- Audio & Video LocalizationElectronic Arts
Priscilla Bermea
Cargo Localization Operations and Partner LeadRiot Games
Priscilla Bermea is the localization operations lead for Latin America at Riot Games. She is Mexican and a professional with over 10 years of experience in the gaming localization industry. Priscilla has been a fierce gamer since she can remember, and has dedicated herself to translating and interpreting videogames for friends and family. After working as a freelance translator and specialized project manager, she turned her favorite hobby into a career, becoming part of the Latin-American Riot Games team in 2016.
Miguel Bernal-Merino
LecturerUniversity of Roehampton
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
Brigitte Berner
Loc Vendor Management SupervisorElectronic Arts
Brigitte Berner is vendor management supervisor at Electronic Arts, leading a small team of vendor specialists. After being with the company for 15 years, building and shaping the vendor management function, including vendor recruitment and quality evaluation processes, her current focus is on automation, leveraging data and exploring usage of AI. Being solution driven, Brigitte is passionate about improving processes and questioning the status quo.
Chris Bewick
Regional FQA Director - EurasiaKeywords Studios
Brian Bies
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy
Managing PartnerLevsha
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy started his journey in video game localization as a freelance translator in 2005. In 2009, he became one of the founders of Levsha localization and has been a managing partner at the studio since then. Despite having a degree in computational linguistics, Fedor’s passion has always been finding new ways to facilitate efficient and joyful interaction and collaboration between different people.
Jonathan Bowring
RiversightJonathan Bowring graduated in computer science and worked for the UK Ministry of Defence and Hewlett-Packard before joining Canon. As Canon’s EMEA localization director, he built an independent services division with its own profit and loss of £15M. Jonathan trained as a mentor and coach and founded Riversight in 2016. The company intends to unlock the potential within leaders, teams and organizations, and provides coaching and facilitation to SME and corporate clients.
Virginia Boyero
Associate ProducerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Virginia Boyero is a history graduate who started a career in games localization in 2006, following a passion for working with languages and quickly getting hooked on the fast-paced tempo of the industry. She joined Massive Entertainment in 2010, and after the release of Far Cry 3 moved on to The Division team where she’s been an Associate Producer for the audio, localization and narrative departments for The Division and The Division 2. Outside of work, Virginia is often found reading travel literature, preferably while on a train.
Gaëlle Caballero
Director of Localization QATestronic
Gaëlle Caballero is a global head of localization quality assurance (LQA) with years of experience in video game QA and localization. A former lawyer, she started her career as a French LQA tester in London and developed her localization skillset working on multiple titles and platforms as a technician, lead, and project manager. Gaëlle successfully developed and delivered Testronic’s Warsaw-based LQA department and is responsible for its continued success. She is recognized for her extensive experience in team management, development, and swift delivery. A great motivator and team builder, she creates confidence and excitement across multiple Testronic global LQA facilities. An advocate for women in games, Gaëlle is involved in Testronic’s initiative aiming to mentor and promote the role of Women in the Games industry. She is also chairman of Testronic’s learning and development committee.
Gordon Campbell
Chief Executive OfficerGo Testify
Gordon Campbell is an experienced entrepreneur, having launched multiple companies in the design and gaming sectors since 2007. Over the last 13 years, Gordon has assisted companies like BBC, HBO and Zynga to produce high-quality entertainment that people want to invest time in. With a masters in human-centered design, he focuses on creating user-centric products using state-of-the-art technology.
Today, Gordon is the CEO of Testify, a company that is uses AI to transform how user testing is conducted within game development; putting players at the heart of every decision. In his current role, Gordon has worked alongside indies to top-50 mobile game studios such as Zynga to ensure they’re using the right testing methods to deliver impact and value within the development cycle.
Eric Say Chan
Program ManagerKeywords Studios
Born in Mexico City and later relocated to Canada, Eric Chan is a program manager with seven years of experience in video game quality assurance (QA). Initially a web developer, he made the jump to video games in 2011 within localization and functionality QA as a tester, test lead and later project manager. Knowledgeable in FQA, LQA, localization and audio, Eric has focused his efforts for the past two years within Keywords’ FQA department. He has since been focusing on project delivery, promoting growth and career paths for staff, and deploying improvements to internal processes.
Anastasiia Chertenkova
Marketing Creatives Team LeadPlayrix
Anastasiia Chertenkova’s path to the game development industry was rather unusual. She started her career as an officer of the police force of Ukraine/inspector of the Ukrainian Bureau of Interpol, senior officer of the criminal investigation sector, and taught administrative law and administrative procedure law in one of the state universities. Then she worked as a freelance translator for a couple of years. She joined the game development industry in 2016, starting as a customer support representative for Playrix. Since then, Anastasiia has held the positions of customer support team lead, community manager and player experience department manager. She is currently marketing creatives team lead.
Glory Choe
Program Manager, R&D LocalizationSalesforce
Before her recent move to Salesforce, Glory started her localization career as a linguist, followed by stints as LQA engineer at Linkedin and L10n producer at Zynga. In 2015, she joined an esports game studio, Super Evil Megacorp, as a Localization Manager, which was truly a dream come true for a lifelong gamer such as herself. Fascinated by different languages and cultures around the world ever since she was little, Glory studied languages and linguistics at the University of Washington in Seattle and has traveled to over 20 countries and three of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Cristian Conteduca
General ManagerYokozuna Data
Cristian Conteduca is general manager of Yokozuna Data. He has a background in scientific computing and physical modeling. Over the past few years, Cristian has developed and implemented AI/ML algorithms applied to video games and high-throughput cloud architectures. His goal is to merge AI and software engineering in a profitable and efficient way in real-life applications.
Daniele Corrado
Customer Support Engineer5th Kind
Daniele had been a consumer of the gaming industry since, well, forever. In 2010 he moved to the other side of the barricades. He began his career as a localization tester for a heterogeneous bunch of titles and platforms. While at Riot Games, Daniele worked in various capacities on every product that was released. His swansong was the global coordination for VALORANT as the Localization Producer for the title. He is currently helping DESTINYbit in developing their next title and he is working as Technical Support Engineer for 5th Kind.
Jamie Cox
Global Content Localization ProducerBlizzard Entertainment
Jamie Cox is a global content localization producer at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard is his first experience in the video game industry, but he’s been in the localization industry for over seven years, first at Gengo, then Welocalize, and then United Language Group. Over the years, Jamie has developed expertise in fast-paced environments, creating useful workflows and problem solving bottlenecks. In his spare time, he enjoys reading (currently the Wheel of Time series), playing way too much Overwatch, and he also plays the harp.
Diego Cresceri
CEO and FounderCreative Words
Diego Cresceri is CEO and founder of Creative Words, a language service provider based in Genoa. At Creative Words he is responsible for the company’s strategy and growth. His clients include multilingual translation agencies, Italian companies aiming to internationalize, and foreign companies aiming to enter the Italian market. Diego graduated from the University of Genoa in translation and interpreting and before founding Creative Words he was a translator, project manager and chief operations officer at a local translation agency. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the European Language Industry Association (ELIA). When not involved in his company, Diego holds workshops and seminars on innovation, artificial intelligence, and machine translation at universities, training schools, and language associations nationally and internationally.
Simone Crosignani
PR ManagerJinglebell Localization
Simone Crosignani worked as a video game journalist for 15 years before moving to the public relations department of Sony Computer Entertainment in Italy. At Sony he handled enthusiast and online media, working on the launch campaigns of PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and 100+ games. In 2006 Simone moved to Binari Sonori, a translation and audio production company, now part of Keywords Studios. In 2016 he joined Jinglebell Localization, the game localization spin-off of audio production powerhouse Jinglebell Communication. Simone has been a member of the International Game Developers Association localization group since day one and has been vice-chair of the group since 2013.
Mirela Cukovic Hanson
Senior Director QAElectronic Arts
Mirela Cukovic Hanson leads Mobile, Maxis and Live quality assurance (QA) teams for Electronic Art’s (EA) development teams around the world. These teams have ensured the quality of players’ experiences in some of the most popular games in the industry: The Sims, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heros; RealRacing3, The Simpsons Tapped Out, PvZ, Battlefield, Madden and others. Mirela is a change agent that has been leading the EA QA organization through several transformations and continues to set a vision for the future and inspire action from what she firmly believes is the best QA talent in the industry. Prior to her current role, Mirela held several technical and operational roles at central and global development groups. She has been at EA for ten years and before that, she held various engineering and technical leadership roles in the Silicon Valley. Mirela holds a degree in computer science from UBC.
Mariana Dadalto Schettino
Gender Inclusive Language SpecialistGame Global
Mariana Dadalto Schettino is a video game localization professional with a passion for gender inclusive language practices and is a project management enthusiast. As a localization tester at Electronic Arts (EA), she has worked to build in quality on more than 15 different titles, from AAA to mobile games. Mariana is the founder of the Gender Inclusive Taskforce for Localization at EA. As the lead stakeholder for this initiative, she creates guidelines for inclusive language for 20 different territories and improves processes regarding gender matters in the department. In addition to researching and implementing guides for a non-binary approach, Mariana works on shipping the first product from EA localization with applied non-binary language. She is currently transitioning to quality assurance testing while continuing as a researcher and adviser for diversity and inclusion practices with an inclusive language approach for localization.
Andrew Dale
KingPaul Davies
Head of Localization and Narrative DesignSocialpoint
Paul Davies manages the English game writing and localization teams at Socialpoint, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games, in sunny Barcelona. Prior to that, he held various positions at Electronic Arts in the UK and Germany, where he most recently managed the worldwide localization of EA’s mobile games portfolio. A keen gamer at heart, Paul started his career as a translator and language tester for console games at Sony Computer Entertainment in (not-so-sunny) Liverpool.
Tabea De Wille
LecturerUniversity of Limerick
Tabea De Wille holds an MA in German and English linguistics from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and an MS in multilingual computing and localization from the University of Limerick, Ireland. She has completed her PhD studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland, where she examined perceived quality in the context of crowdsourced localization. Previously, Tabea worked in the localization industry, primarily in video games localization and is currently a lecturer at the University of Limerick.
Twitter: @TabeaDeWille
LinkedIn: tabeadewille
Mason Deming
XLOCMason Deming is the chief technology officer (CTO) and system architect of XLOC. While at XLOC he has worked closely with developers on high profile titles such as League of Legends, the Call of Duty series and Borderlands. Prior to founding and serving as XLOC’s CTO, Mason enjoyed a successful career in game design, development, business-to-business e-commerce and database administration. He has performed key programming roles on numerous high profile titles while working on staff at Activision. He served as CTO for Roaring Mouse Entertainment and developed, programmed and managed Networld Exchange’s B2B e-commerce system.
Olivier Deslandes
VP Audio & TranslationSIDE Audio PTW
Olivier Deslandes is a games industry veteran, starting as a voice talent, voice director and translator in the late 1990s. He has contributed to more than 200 titles. Olivier joined Side in 2002 to establish and develop its localization department. In 2017, with Side under PTW ownership, he became senior director of global audio. He rose to vice president of audio and translation for PTW and Side in 2018. Olivier holds degrees in communication and advertising.
Diana Díaz Montón
CofounderNative Prime
Diana Díaz Montón is a game localization specialist with over 20 years of experience. She graduated in translation and interpreting, then began her career with an internship at EA Sports. Diana founded Wordlab in 2005 and in 2010 cofounded Native Prime, a company specialized in video game localization. She has been involved in the localization of reference titles such as Dragon Quest XI, Ni no Kuni, Hitman 2 & 3, Snack World, and hundreds more. Diana enjoys spreading the love for video game localization and has participated as a speaker at different events, such as GDC or Gamelab, both addressed to future localizers as well as to developers and publishers. She collaborates with different universities and institutions where she teaches game localization and project management, and has also written a series of articles about the challenges of game localization.
Twitter: maloria
LinkedIn: dianadiazmonton
Dmitry Drozdov
KingJakub Dudkowski
Senior QA Project ManagerQLOC
Jakub Dudkowski is a quality assurance (QA) professional with over eight years of experience as a functionality, localization and certification QA tester, team leader, project manager, training manager, community manager and QA manager. Currently he is a senior QA project manager at QLOC. Jakub is also a fighting game player, tournament organizer, host and community supporter with over 16 years of competitive experience. He has worked on over 100 titles including several fighting games.
Nathalie Duret
HR ManagerKeywords Studios
Nathalie Duret is the human resource manager (HR) at Keywords Studios, Paris, France, and as such, she is responsible for recruitment and training. She has worked for more than 20 years in the localization industry, including 13 years at Electronic Arts, France. Nathalie has held various positions giving her the opportunity to tackle video games localization specifics such as text and audio localization, project management, vendor management, team management and more. In 2013, she decided to move to HR to bring support to the localization teams from a different perspective, to focus on people development and to help the teams grow and adapt to constantly changing environments.
Kate Edwards
CEO / Principal ConsultantGeogrify
Kate Edwards is the CEO and principal consultant of Geogrify, a consultancy for content culturalization, a board member of Take This, and is the former executive director of the International Game Developers Association from 2012 to 2017. In addition to being an outspoken advocate that serves in several advisory/board roles, she is a geographer, writer and corporate strategist who pioneered the field of content culturalization in games. As Microsoft’s first geopolitical strategist on the geopolitical strategy team she created and managed, Edwards protected the company against political and cultural content risks across all products and locales. Since Microsoft, she has assisted many clients on a variety of geopolitical and cultural issues across many products and game franchises. Kate is also a columnist for MultiLingual magazine. Fortune magazine named her as one of the “10 most powerful women” in the game industry and she was named by GamesIndustry.biz as one of their six People of the Year. In April 2018, she was honored with Reboot Develop’s annual Hero Award.
Mario Ferrer
Senior UX WriterSenior UX Writer
Mario Ferrer is a senior (or señor) user experience (UX) writer. He designs content that guides users across digital products and services. Mario is a part of UX Writers Spain, a local community of practitioners that guide professionals on how to get into the discipline, and helps companies discover the value of the UX writer role within a product team. He’s always trying to find the best tacos in town, listens to stand-up comedy and teaches his two kids about Mexican Lucha Libre.
Stanisław Fiedor
CEOFuero
Stanisław Fiedor graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics with the master degree in finance and accounting. His adventure with interactive content started already in high school were together with the current chief technical officer he was developing flash-based multiplayer experiences. During his university times, he started an interactive agency. Stan is the chief executive officer and cofounder of Fuero Games. Stan grew the studio from a four people team to a 40 professionals big experienced team. During this time he closed deals with some of the biggest players in the industry like WarGaming, Nexon, CD Projekt or Miniclip and responsible for signing IP’s like The Witcher. Stan is also a founding member of the Polish Games Association.
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content Localization
Loquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content LocalizationLoquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck is an independent consultant who learned his trade setting up and managing localization
processes and teams for free-to-play/mobile games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games on
the publisher side. This made him develop a particular interest in seeking and trying out new language
technology and service provider models that allow for economic and quality continuous translation
workflows. Connecting the dots between the needs of product owners with the strengths of service
providers, he now supports businesses in selecting and implementing the right processes, tools and
partners for their products.
Krzysztof Fudro
FQA Team LeadKeywords Studios
Krzysztof Fudro is functionality quality assurance (QA) lead at Keywords Studios Katowice. He and his team work with clients to achieve the highest testing efficiency possible. Prior to Keywords Studios Katowice, Krzysztof worked at In-House Studio as a game designer and QA tester. That experience allows him to predict what each client needs the most, sometimes even before the client realizes it. Krzysztof’s addiction to efficiency, combined with an interest in automation, always pushes him further to improve and optimize processes.
Joshua van Gageldonk
Guerrilla GamesJoshua van Gageldonk started working as a quality assurance tester in Guerrilla Games in August 2013, at the very end stages of development of Killzone Shadow Fall. After the development of Killzone Shadow Fall was completed, he was part of the test team for Horizon Zero Dawn, where he specialized in testing Robots, World Activities (non story-driven content), Random Encounters and Living World.
Carlos Garcia-Shelton
Product ManagerXLOC
Carlos Garcia-Shelton is the product manager at XLOC and is responsible for overseeing the business and all aspects of product development. Learning game production from many different angles such as quality assurance, development, publishing and localization has led him to a love for identifying and executing ways to bring together global teams and organize their efforts in the most efficient and effective ways.
Steven Garrad
Outsourcing, Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Jaime Gine
Keywords StudiosJaime Giné is chief customer officer for Keywords Studios. He represents the voice of the customer in the Keywords global organization across all services and designs innovative and customized solutions for Keywords top clients, always within the framework of strategic partnerships. Before joining Keywords he was vice president international development services at Electronic Arts (EA). Prior to joining EA, Jaime worked at SDL, holding various positions as departmental manager, project manager and divisional director. He was also part of the executive team that led SDL during the IPO.
Natalie Gladkaya
Director of LocalizationPlarium
Natalie Gladkaya joined the game localization industry in 2011 as a translator/editor, then managed teams of game localization and localization quality assurance. During her tenure with Plarium, she has worked on localizing over ten web and mobile game titles, including Raid: Shadow Legends and Mech Arena, into a variety of languages, building localization workflow, and both in-house and remote localization teams from the ground up.
LinkedIn: natalie-gladkaya
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov
Head of LocalizationSocial Quantum
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov started in translation and adaptation of text games at local IRC networks in 2003. He then switched to software and ended up doing amateur localization of huge titles like SWAT 4 and Septerra Core. Now Mike is the head of localization at Social Quantum, one of the top ten largest game publishers in Russia and Eastern Europe. The mobile game developer has created such titles as Megapolis, Wild West: New Frontier, Dragon’s World, Ice Age World, and Poker Jet, and is in the process of creating more. The company has also been conducting successful experiments in machine translation and machine translation post-editing.
Kaysie Green
Program Manager, Games LocalizationGlyph Language Services
Kaysie Green joined Glyph in 2015 as a project manager and developed her zone of genius around the games industry. This passion was her path to becoming a project manager devoted to Glyph’s games clients. Kaysie is currently the program manager for Glyph’s games division. In this role, she ensures continuous process improvement, up-to-the-moment market research, production quality and the cultivation of Glyph’s team of top-tier, game-obsessed linguists. Before coming to Glyph, Kaysie earned her BA in international relations from Gonzaga University, in 2013.
Aditya Gupta
Cofounder & QA Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Aditya Gupta is a cofounder of Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group. Currently working as a quality assurance and release manager at Day Zero, he has over nine years of game industry experience in game production and release management. Aditya is versed in quality assurance, title certification, and the release management process for multiplatform games. Over the years, he has worked on 12 AAA titles from Ubisoft, Codemasters, Streamline Games, and various other AAA publishers. In his leisure, he loves to cook and cruise around on his motorbike.
LinkedIn: my.linkedin.com/in/aditya-gupta-64204086
Clara Gómez Pérez
Localization Lead & Vendor ManagerGoodgame Studios
Clara Gómez Pérez joined the game localization industry ten years ago. Since 2011 she has led the localization department at Goodgame Studios. She holds a BA in translation and interpreting and an MA in specialized translation. Clara’s favorite localization-related topics are content management systems, key performance indicators, localization tools, process automation and funny localization mistakes.
Patricia Gómez Jurado
Associate Director of Content DesignKing
Patricia Gómez is based in Barcelona, where she is associate director of content design at King. She is building the first content design craft at King, managing a team of content designers and leading content operations. Previously, Patricia was the head of content at eDreams Odigeo, leading a team of UX writers and localization specialists. She started her career in the localization industry and worked six years as localization manager at Google Spain and Portugal. She currently teaches localization in the UX writing course by Shifta (Elisava).
Patrick Görtjes
Localization Project ManagerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Patrick Görtjes is a Localization Project Manager at Massive Entertainment, the lead development studio behind the Tom Clancy’s The Division games. Patrick holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Communication and got his start in the industry as a translator before moving on to project management. When he’s not working, Patrick enjoys hiking, board games, and karaoke.
Lukasz Hacura
Anshar StudiosChristin Hansson
KingChristin Hansson has been working with quality assurance (QA), project management and agile methods in the mobile industry for 15 years. She is now working hands-on for two game teams at King and is successfully supporting them in their ways of working with QA. Christin is also working together with the localization team at King to improve their testing processes. She has a big passion for both games and quality.
Amanda Hawthorne
Inclusive Language SpecialistElectronic Arts IL
Amanda Jane Hawthorne is an inclusive language specialist with a background as an English teacher, trainer, and materials writer. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the area of diversity, specializing in race and LGBT+ awareness. Currently based in Madrid, Amanda works full time in the tech industry, is the founding director of The Bechdel Film Club Madrid, and volunteers with antiracism organizations. She is also an award winning researcher and recently contributed to the book How To Write Inclusive Materials by Tyson Seburn.
Ulrich Henes
PrincipalLocWorld
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.
Inés Hernández
Electronic ArtsInés Hernández is a veteran game industry professional with over 15 years of experience in video games localization. She is currently managing the localization portfolio and project management teams at Electronic Arts.
Robert Herzog
Head of LocalizationTravian Games
Robert Herzog is the of head of localization and writing at Travian Games, overseeing the strategic direction of both departments. He’s been with the company for 11 years, starting as a localization project manager in 2011. Before that, Robert earned his spurs in other video game companies as localization project manager and translator. He found his way into the gaming and localization industry as freelance translator in 2004.
Celia Hodent
Game UX ConsultantCelia Hodent
Celia Hodent is recognized as a leader in the application of user experience (UX) and cognitive science in the game industry. Celia holds a PhD in psychology and has over ten years of experience in the development of UX strategy and processes in video game studios. Through her work at Ubisoft, LucasArts, and as director of UX at Epic Games (Fortnite), she has contributed to many projects across multiple platforms, from PC to consoles, mobile, and VR. Celia is also the founder of the Game UX Summit, advisor for the GDC UX Summit, member of the Foresight Committee at CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, an independent French administrative regulatory body), author of The Gamer’s Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design and The Psychology of Video Games. She currently works as an independent consultant, helping studios increase the likelihood of their games to be engaging and successful. Celia also provides guidance on the topics of playful learning, ethics, unconscious bias, and inclusion in technology.
Twitter: @CeliaHodent
Blog: celiahodent.com
Bjorn Holste
Localization QA ManagerSQUARE ENIX
Björn Holste is localization QA manager at Square Enix, overseeing, shaping and improving the LQA for many titles and franchises including Tomb Raider, Just Cause and Life is Strange. He has worked in LQA and QA for over a decade and during this time has worked in various roles on many different titles. After a brief stint in Software/Web QA, he joined the great team at Square Enix about 2 years ago.
Echo Huang
Senior Delivery ManagerBeyondsoft Corporation
Ann Hurley
Vice President of Business DevelopmentTestronic
Ann Hurley has worked within the games industry for over 30 years, starting in sales team management within the distribution sector, then moving into publishing. For the past 12 years, she has been working in the quality assurance vendor space. Although steps have been taken to embrace diversity within our industry, Ann feels strongly about the nurturing of young women within games, to ensure they are supported through coaching in order to build their confidence to find their true potential.
Marina Ilari
CEOTerra Localizations
Marina Ilari is an ATA certified translator with 16 years of experience in the localization industry. She has worked as a translator and quality assurance specialist for many companies around the world with a special focus on video game localization. Marina is the chief executive officer of Terra Localizations and co-host of the podcast En Pantuflas. She was a 2020 recipient of the Enterprising Women of the Year award.
Marina Ilinykh
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Marina Ilinykh started her career in localization in 2011. Since then she’s been working in game localization on both the vendor and client sides. Currently Marina is the head of localization at Playrix, overseeing localization of all of the company’s titles, ensuring market-readiness and driving innovation initiatives.
Gina Jackson
Games Consultant/AdvisorGina Jackson is a games industry consultant and advisor. She started in games development in 1992 and has worked for developers, publishers, and distributors covering console, PC, and mobile games. Gina is particularly passionate about diversity, mental health, and skills development. She is treasurer of GamesAid, on the board for NextGen Skills Academy, and a visiting professor in games industry and business at Norwich University of the Arts (NUA). Gina recently received the MCV/DEVELOP Women in Games award for her outstanding contribution, a fellowship from NUA for services to the games industry, and has been honored with an Order of the British Empire for her work in education and diversity in the games industry.
Maryam Jaddoo
Localization ManagerWizards of the Coast
Maryam Jaddoo is the head of localization at Wizards of the Coast. She is responsible for leading critical product development and localization of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons and MTG Arena among others. Maryam has 10 years of localization experience. In her career, she has worked as a translator, game guide writer, game tester and project manager. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French and a master’s degree in project management and is fluent in multiple languages. Maryam is originally from Mauritius and her native language is French.
Paul Jakovlev
Customer Success Team LeadLokalise
Paul Jakovlev is a customer success team lead at Lokalise. He is an avid gamer and living the dream of learning about behind the scenes of game development by helping his favorite industry with localization challenges. In his spare time, Paul likes to binge-watch documentaries on various streaming platforms.
Rafał Jaworski
Linguistic AI ExpertXTM International
Rafał Jaworski, PhD, is an academic lecturer and scientist specializing in natural language processing techniques. His alma mater is Adam University in Poznań, Poland, where he works at the Department of Artificial Intelligence. Rafał’s scientific work concentrates around developing robust AI algorithms for the needs of computer assisted translation. These include automatic lookup of linguistic resources and computer assisted post editing, among others. Apart from the research and teaching, he works as linguistic AI expert at XTM International, leading a team of young and talented developers who put his visions and ideas into practice.
Renée Jessen
CEOCharacter Publishing & Localization
Cofounder and CEO of Character Publishing & Localization since 2010, Renée Jessen initially started working as a dubbing translator in the mid-nineties while studying rhetoric and history of ideas. The challenge of creating spoken language and personality in translations is still the favorite part of his job although business development takes up the majority of his time. Today, Character is both a global localization company focused on games and a publishing house of interactive experiences for children. Renée’s main focus is to balance the use of technologies and the translators’ need for a creative approach to their work.
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli
Head of Translation ServicesTestronic
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli was born in Argentina, has lived in several countries and has always been marked by books, games, languages and having to adapt to different cultures. Choosing to pursue studies in translation led to living in Warsaw. Around 2015, this escalated from working with Testronic’s localization quality assurance team to being involved in the development of Testronic’s translation services. He has managed the translation process for multiple game titles and tries to be involved as a translator or editor when time permits (aside from being constantly engaged with games and other forms of culture).
Alex Johnson
Dubbing ProducerPatricia Jurado
Head of Content and InsightsKing
Patricia is the current Head of Content and Insights, managing a team of content strategists and insights analysts at King Player Support. Previously, she worked at eDreams Odigeo as Head of Content and Localization, managing a team of UX writers, Content Specialists and translations providers responsible for the group websites and apps content in 20 languages. Between 2008 and 2014, Patricia worked at Google as a Language Manager driving quality product localization for Spain and Portugal. Patricia started her professional career in SDL as a translator and project manager. She holds a Master in Internet Business from ISDI and has completed Scrum Master official training. Patricia is the former manager of the Catalan Chapter of Women in Localization.
Your Job Title: Head of Content and Insights
Tomasz Juszczak
Vice President of TechnologyFuero
Tomasz Juszczak is vice president of technology at Fuero Games, where he leads and oversights all projects in the company from the technical side, including technology research and implementing programmers code quality principles. His current focus at Fuero Games is leading of the Artificial Intelligence Testing Framework R&D Project. The AITeF project is being developed as one of the selected projects under a grant from the National Center for Research and Development in Poland. His personal portfolio includes projects for different disciplines, from the medical field, car industry to sales projects in which he worked closely with Samsung and TVN. He has expertise in VR, AR, SaaS, applications, 2D/3D games for mobile, console and PC.
Alex Kang
Chief Operating OfficerBridge Translations
Alex Kisok Kang is the cofounder and chief operating officer of Bridge Translations in Seoul, Korea. He has been in the translation industry for over 15 years, working in various capacities including freelance translator, lecturer and language service provider executive. He has transformed Bridge Translations from a conventional translation company into a dedicated mobile game localization company. Alex previously oversaw all aspects of day-to-day management but with the growth of business, he now focuses on QA and client relations.
Polina Karpova
Vendor ManagerLevsha
For the past 2 ½ years, Polina Karpova has been a vendor manager at Levsha localization studio where she is responsible for seeking and recruiting new vendors as well as guiding and helping them throughout their cooperation with Levsha. Whenever vendors face an issue with payment, workload, information, or production — she is there for them. Polina studied international relations at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (English and Spanish languages) and as a student, she participated in a game localization workshop in 2016.
Dominick Kelly
Client Solution Director - Europe, Middle East and AsiaXTM International
Dominick Kelly fell into the localization industry 16 years ago as a software engineer and decided never to leave. Over time, he has been involved with the localization tool space and worked at some of the largest language service providers in the world. For the past six years, Dominick has worked at XTM International, as a key part of the team focused on driving innovation and growth at the forefront of cloud-based language technology.
Ayesha Khan
Principal Narrative DesignerDeep Silver Dambuster Studios
Ayesha Khan is an unapologetic word nerd, fascinated by the way languages change over time and influence the way their speakers think. Having moved around for most of her life, Ayesha has used her cultural adaptability and comfort with several languages to help her integrate into game development studios in four countries, where she has worked on titles including The Lord of the Rings Online, Gears Tactics, Wizard101, DarkOrbit and APB. Ayesha has been a narrative designer, writer, content designer and everything in between. Her favorite forms of amateur anthropology include sampling local food and drink wherever she can and gleefully inflicting her karaoke skills upon bar patrons around the world.
Vladimir Konoplitsky
CEORIOTLOC
Vladimir is a team lead and head of the localization studio Riotloc. He started as a games translator and editor in 2007 and worked on everything from casual indie games to AAA titles. Vladimir is a specialist in QA and translation tools and is an old fan of the Total War series, but has an affection for RPGs. He is a strong believer in handcrafting the approach and team-like relations between developers and localizers. Apart from inventing new ways of working in his team, he occasionally speaks at game conferences, organizes localization workshops and gamedav events. He failed university exams once because of Fallout 3.
Gábor Kovács
Game Localization ExpertmemoQ
As part of the memoQ gaming unit, Gábor Kovács uses his abilities to combine technical knowledge with sales skills to act as a primary contact for product demos, client needs assessment, and training along with many other duties. Using his well-honed communication skills, he can simplify and communicate complex concepts to a nontechnical audience. Gábor’s IT background also gives him the edge when it comes to technical discussion and finding the right solutions. He has been an avid gamer since childhood.
Denisse Kreeger
Head of Global Localization ProductionRiot Games
Denisse Kreeger is the head of global localization production at Riot Games, and the Los Angeles chapter manager at Women in Localization. With over 15 years of experience in the localization industry, she has also managed localization production at Blizzard Entertainment and Netflix, where she helped build much of the localization infrastructure. Denisse graduated from UCLA and has an MA from the University of Roehampton in audiovisual translation.
LinkedIn: dkreegerl10n
Mathieu Lachance
FQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Mathieu Lachance has worked in the video game industry for over 12 years on more than 400 video game titles. He currently heads Keywords’ Testing services through the Keywords, VMC, Babel and Enzyme studios, leading an international team of over 2500 spanning 15 studios. He has been a featured expert, speaker and lecturer in/at MCV magazine, Develop magazine, Gamasutra, HEC Montreal University, EA’s XDS, Oculus Connect, MIGS, NGDC and more.
Renato Laus
Lead QA CoordinatorRovio Entertainment
Renato Laus is a lead quality assurance (QA) coordinator at Rovio Entertainment. He takes pride in ensuring its games have top-notch quality, and works daily with the QA leads. Renato heads up several cross-unit initiatives engaging with internal stakeholders, and he champions localization in the company as a means to expand the market reach of its games, therefore taking steps to improve the localization processes, interfacing with internal teams and external vendors alike.
LinkedIn: renato-laus-91b506a5
Stephen Laverick
Team Experience DirectorTestronic
Stephen Laverick is the team experience director at Testronic. He is responsible for recruitment, learning and development, and the community of employees. Though he is based in Warsaw, Stephen’s current role covers the UK, Europe and the United States. He has over 20 years of recruitment and learning, and development experience. Stephen has held numerous positions across the UK and Europe at various companies ranging from start-ups to blue chip companies. From a young age he has had a passion for gaming and still plays on a number of devices, so putting his passion for gaming and developing people together is like a dream come true!
Luca Lazari
Audio Technical Operations ManagerKeywords Studios
Luca Lazari works for Keywords Studios as an audio technical operations manager. He worked for music and TV studios after graduating in sound and recording engineering, and science and technology of music communication. Luca joined the game localization industry in 2008 as an audio project lead at Binari Sonori, later acquired by Keywords Studios. After managing the audio technical part for multilanguage localization of countless games (including AAA titles) for over a decade, he moved to Keywords Studios audio localization division, operating at a global level, supervising audio technical processes and workflows.
LinkedIn: lucalazari
Tom Lee
CofounderLOVO
Tom Lee worked in sales at MuleSoft (now a Salesforce company) and digital marketing at LG prior to his time at LOVO. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UC Berkeley.
When Tom is not interacting with users or reading up on the latest trends in AI and voice, he can be found writing poems, drinking beer, training in a boxing gym, scuba diving, or playing FIFA.
LinkedIn: tomsklee
Ville Lehtinen
Senior DeveloperRovio Entertainment
With over a decade of experience working on both mobile/embedded graphics engines and games, Ville Lehtinen has worked with game studios at companies such as Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Rovio. His recently released titles include South Park Phone Destroyer (Ubisoft Redlynx) and Small Town Murders (Rovio).
LinkedIn: ville-lehtinen-99337410
Marie Leininger
Vendor SpecialistElectronic Arts
After graduating from the Cologne University of Applied Science, Marie Leininger started work as a localization project manager for marketing content. In 2017, she moved to Electronic Arts as a vendor specialist and interim multilingual localization specialist. Marie’s main focus is on evaluating and defining translation and post-editing quality, and establishing and maintaining vendor relationships.
Audrey Lepage
Senior Localization Project ManagerBigpoint GmbH
With a degree in modern languages and literature, Audrey Lepage started her career in the games industry in 2010 as a French localization tester for DTP Entertainment, Hamburg. After a year of testing fun, she moved to Bigpoint where she first worked as a French translator, then as a localization project manager (LPM) and then was promoted to senior LPM in 2017. In the constant search for more efficient and streamlined workflows, Bigpoint transitioned to XTM four years ago and has been tailoring the tool to meet their requirements with the support of the XTM team.
Michael Liu
R2GamesMichael Liu is a Chinese-Canadian English localization specialist and quality assurance at Reality Squared Games, with over 20 years of gaming experience especially in MMORPGs, MOBAs and CCGs which require an intimate understanding of game mechanics. Michael loves to play video games on a deep level with self-imposed challenges such as low-level games (beat games at the lowest level possible), naked runs (not wearing any equipment), iron man (permanent death, can only use what you find). He is responsible for highly technical translations that contain heavy gaming jargon or deep understanding of game mechanics. Has extremely accurate and creative translations.
Irina Lokshyna
Development DirectorWargaming
Federica Lusardi
Senior Translator/Editor - ItalianSQUARE ENIX
A passionate gamer since childhood, Federica Lusardi began working in the videogames industry when she moved to London in 2011 to study for an MA in audiovisual translation. After a brief time as a language tester for SEGA and translating her first game for Codemasters as a freelancer, she worked at Pole To Win as an in-house translator and team supervisor. Federica joined Square Enix in 2016, where she currently works as Italian translator/editor. Her work encompasses translation for games and marketing campaigns, and she has translated games such as Life is Strange 2, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the FINAL FANTASY Trading Card Game and Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Sílvio Macedo
Senior Localization DirectorBluelab
Sílvio Macedo has 15 years of experience in game localization and has managed dozens of AAA titles, as well as a vast variety of mobile and online games of all genres for multi-platforms. Sílvio has managed/overseen every step of the localization process, from translation to audio recording and post-production. His hands-on approach gives him a thorough knowledge of the complex localization process involved in each game title. He’s currently the senior localization director at BlueLab, where he’s been working since 2004.
Takako Maeda
Globalization Project ManagerKing
Takako Maeda is a globalization project manager at King, inspired by the Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement, Kaizen. She joined King in 2014 and recently has taken on the challenge of internationalization, working closely with game engine developers to ensure high quality in King games. She loves coming up with creative solutions to problems and working with colleagues from across the organization. She lives in Barcelona and in her free time enjoys making Japanese ceramics.
Sebastian Maeser
LQA Project ManagerKeywords Studios
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual TranslationUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron is a lecturer and a member of the research group TransMedia Catalonia at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is the director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation and has extensive experience as a translator, specializing in software and game localization. Carme’s research interests include game localization, game accessibility, audiovisual translation and accessibility to the media. She has published extensively in international journals, participated in several research projects and is one of the principal investigators of the Researching Audio Description: Translation, Delivery and New Scenarios (RAD), funded by the Spanish Government. Carme is coauthor of Game Localization: Translating for the Global Digital Entertainment Industry (O’Hagan and Mangiron, 2013) and one of the editors of Fun for All: Translation and Accessibility Practices in Video Games (Mangiron, Orero & O’Hagan, 2014).
Anca Marica
EMEA Localization ManagerUbisoft
Anca Marica is a localization professional with over ten years of experience in the video game industry. At Ubisoft, she oversees the localization operations for the EMEA region by keeping in close contact with project managers and handling various transversal topics such as loc quality, process improvement or vendor management to ensure the localized versions of Ubisoft games meet company standards.
She holds a BA in English and Spanish philology, a master’s degree in international studies and an MS in project management.
Teresa Marshall
VP Globalization & LocalizationSalesforce
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 Education. From 2014 to 2016 she was on the board of Women in Localization. Before joining Salesforce in 2009, Teresa managed localization efforts at both Google and PGP in Silicon Valley while teaching at MIIS. An active member of the localization community, she has been the organizer and cohost of the annual Localization Unconference in Silicon Valley since 2009.
Jakub Marszałkowski
GIC & Indie Games Poland FoundationJakub Marszałkowski is the cofounder and a board member of Indie Games Poland, conducting projects that provide the presence of Poland at expos and conferences, travel scholarships, game jams, or visits of foreign delegations in Poland. Jakub regularly serves as a spokesperson for the Polish game industry and the CEE region. He was recognized with the annual award of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as an organizer and promoter working for game developers. As the head of the Game Industry Conference in Poznań, Jakub developed it into one of the largest events in the CEE region. He is also a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Poznan University of Technology.
Nadine Martin
Senior Manager, Test ServicesSony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Nadine Martin has been working in the games industry and quality assurance (QA) for over 15 years. She joined Sony PlayStation’s internal QA team after completing a degree in business administration, starting initially as a localization tester for German and progressing to the management of the localization test team. In 2013 she became senior manager for test services which includes localization and functional testing. The team is responsible for testing game franchises such as Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Horizon and God of War on all PlayStation platforms, including virtual reality and mobile. Nadine has presented extensively on QA and localization topics.
Robert Masella
Senior Gameplay EngineerRare(Microsoft)
Robert Masella is a Senior Software Engineer at Rare with over 14 years of experience working of game development. He has worked on a wide variety of games including Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the Kinect Sports series, and Sea of Thieves. He’s worked on a variety of feature areas, but mostly spends time developing AI, physics and animation code. During production of Sea of Thieves, he has been heavily involved in the automated testing of gameplay code, in order to maintain the build integrity required for a service game.
Philip Mayes
Managing DirectorMighty Kingdom
Philip Mayes is the managing director of Mighty Kingdom, winner of the 2019 Australian Game Developer of the Year Award. With more than 15 years of experience, he has worked on games for many large international brands, including Star Wars, LEGO, and Disney. Founded by Philip in 2010, Mighty Kingdom is one of the largest and most diverse game developers in Australia, with over 120 people working across Australia and New Zealand. He is a passionate advocate for the industry locally, and is eager to see that industry be as inclusive, progressive, and successful as possible.
Twitter: @pjm
Fabio Minazzi
Text Localization DirectorKeywords Studios
Fabio Minazzi has been into localization of interactive media since 1992, dealing with text, audio and video contents at Philips Interctive Media. After founding Binari Sonori, he dealt with software localization projects for Sun, Oracle, Peregrine and Adobe for a decade, using CAT and WISIWIG localization tools, DTP and workflow systems. This experience has proven useful in the roaring game localization industry, where, for the past ten years, Fabio has been in charge of game localization by Codemasters, Microsoft, Capcom, Square Enix and Bandai-Namco. An active member of Games Localization SIG and cofounder of the Games Localization Round Table, he is passionate about building bridges between cultures and helping people publish great content worldwide.
Hugo Miranda
Language SpecialistBlizzard Entertainment
As a language specialist for Latin American Spanish, Hugo Miranda’s main quest is to find what serves players best. From making linguistic creative decisions on style, translation and voiceover to diving deep into the history and culture of the region, he combines a passion for video games, languages and heritage.
Anneta Mitsopoulo
Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Anneta Mitsopoulou has been with Electronic Arts (EA) since 2008. She holds a diploma in translation and is based in Cologne, Germany. Anneta’s current focus lies on workflow optimization and automation. She is also involved in machine translation research at EA and is passionate about technology and automating workflows.
Maciej Miąsik
Pixel CrowMaciej Miąsik is a veteran game developer, producer, designer, sound designer, programmer and cofounder of several gamedev studios that have been active for the past 25 years. Maciej was head of production and responsible for the first part in 2007 of the Witcher series. Other games he has participated in may be known to adventure game players: Reah: Face the Unknown, Schizm: Mysterious Journey, Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon and Sentinel: Descendants in Time, and recently, Beat Cop. One title codeveloped by him is Electro Body (1992), considered one of the first successful Polish PC games. Maciej is also actively engaged in different educational efforts such as curriculum director at Game Dev School and as a regular lecturer at Warsaw Film School and Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology. He is currently working as a member of the board at Movie Games S.A. and on his new game at Pixel Crow.
Valentina Mollica
LQA ManagerTestronic
Nadine Monschau
Senior Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Nadine Monschau is senior localization manager at EA, leading the translation, vendor management, machine translation, and desktop publishing teams. She has a background in translation and started her career at EA and in the video game localization industry in 2001. Currently, Nadine has kicked off an inclusive language initiative to ensure that players can immerse in an inclusive experience when they play EA games. She is also the local chair of EA’s Women’s Ultimate Team Employee Resource Group and passionate to help women (and her teams in general) progress in their careers.
Catherin Newmann Halebian
Localization Manager, OG Production & LATAMBlizzard Entertainment
As a localization manager, Catherin Newmann Halebian’s main objective is to support her teams and pipelines, enabling them to provide the highest level of service. She does this with tools such as neural machine translation, digital asset management and computer-assisted translation. Working with multidisciplinary stakeholders has enabled her to develop expertise in interpretation (simultaneous, consecutive and live streamed subtitles) as well as audiovisual and multimedia localization.
Kassi O’Connor
Outside Services DirectorGlu Mobile
Kassi O’Connor began her career in gaming over 11 years ago working in external development. Since then, she’s worked on over 100 titles, been a producer and has expanded the outsourcing and localization department to 11 studios worldwide. Kassi is currently the outside services director and runs all external services for Glu Mobile, including external development, localization and independent contractors. She enjoys working with external teams and using them in a way that they feel ownership of the game they are working on. Kassi has presented at numerous international and US conferences. She holds a BA in communication and an MBA.
Bazz O'Reilly
LQA Service Delivery ManagerKeywords Studios
Tony O'Dowd
KantanAI Director & Head of Localization TechnologyKeywords Studios
Tony O’Dowd is the founder and chief architect of KantanAI, a cloud-based AI and custom machine translation solutions provider which is a part of Keywords Studios. He is a serial entrepreneur and localization veteran with more than 25 years of experience working in the language industry. Tony has previously held senior positions at Lotus Development Corporation, Symantec Corporation, Corel Corporation Ltd., and Alchemy Software Development, which he founded in 2000. He holds a BS in computer science from Trinity College Dublin, and a fellowship from the Localization Research Institute at the University of Limerick. Today, Tony leads innovations in KantanAI and localization technology at Keywords Studios.
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen
Global Head, PMOKeywords Studios
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen is officially an industry veteran, having spent 20 years in different roles in testing and localization services at Square Enix. He has recently joined Keywords Studios to build cross-service programs, supporting their global development and publishing clients. He remains an active and enthusiastic member of the game localization and testing community.
Ana Paredes
Project ManagerUbisoft
Ana Paredes joined the localization and video game industries by chance after moving to Montreal. During her tenure at Keywords, she worked briefly in testing before moving to translation, in what was, at the time, one of the most secret and expected projects of the company — Starcraft 2. Following that, Ana provided for Brazilian Portuguese content management at Expedia, and subsequently moved into project management at companies such as SDL and Transperfect. Most recently she worked on Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising. Ana’s interests revolve around all things related to diversity, inclusion, skateboarding, and cats. She thinks completing games is overrated, and the last title she saw through was Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime, which doesn’t even have VO!
LinkedIn: ana-gt-paredes
Donna Parrish
PrincipalLocWorld
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 Translators without Borders.
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer
Turn 10 Quality ManagerMicrosoft
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer grew up in what was then rural Bellevue, Washington, and went to Western Washington University before joining Microsoft in 1998. He was in development for six years before joining the centralized test organization. Jimbo has been a quality manager at Microsoft for twelve years and shipped dozens of Xbox and PC games. He had a three and a half year detour as the test manager for HoloLens Experiences and is happy to be back working on games. Jimbo is currently the Turn 10 quality manager and super proud of the just released Forza Horizon.
Vlad Pomarjanschi
QC Localization Team LeadUbisoft
Vlad Pomarjanschi started his career at Ubisoft six years ago, pursuing his all-time passion for videogames. Vlad quickly got involved in localization testing, subsequently joining QC-LOC where he climbed through the ranks, becoming its team lead three years ago. This position offered him the opportunity to engage in numerous and diverse Ubisoft projects, from small-scope titles to AAAs, facing all the challenges and rewards that come with managing localization testing. Vlad considers himself very lucky to be involved in such an impactful, yet dynamic field, with talents from so many different cultures and backgrounds.
Sandra Pourmarin
Localization ConsultantUbisoft
Sandra Pourmarin’s journey in the video game localization industry started 16 years ago with Ubisoft Montreal. Initially Localization Project Manager, she has been localization consultant for ten years now, overseeing Ubisoft NCSA localization and defining Ubisoft worldwide localization strategy with key localization stakeholders. No need to say that localization is one of Sandra’s favorite topics. Very enthusiastic about constant changes in the video game industry, which she sees as an opportunity to challenge oneself and foster out-of-the-box thinking in order to optimize localization processes while always targeting high quality standards.
Chris Priestman
Business Development ManagerZA/UM
Chris Priestman has a keen interest in experimental video games after spending a decade in journalism. He now works at ZA/UM, the studio behind the award-winning, roleplaying game Disco Elysium, where he started as a writer and soon became the producer in charge of localization. Chris is now the business development manager at ZA/UM.
Twitter: @CPriestman
Liz Prince
Business ManagerAmiqus
Liz Prince is the business manager at award-winning recruitment specialist Amiqus. She is also the founder of Putting the G Into Gaming, an initiative to build more diverse and inclusive workplaces in games. Putting the G into Gaming has four focuses: attracting women into games from other industries; supporting women already working in the games sector; working with schools, universities and colleges to promote games as an attractive career option for girls and young women; and helping studios with their equity, diversity, and inclusion journey through the Empower Up program.
Elzbieta Pustul
TestronicElżbieta Pustuł is a quality assurance (QA) manager with over 10 years of experience in areas of localization, end-user support,and QA services for top-tier game publishers around the world. She started her career working for Electronic Arts as a customer support analyst where she has acquired her initial training and widened her skills. Later she worked as a localization and QA specialist for CD-Projekt, the publisher of The Witcher series of games. Her name can be spotted in credits of numerous games, including Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl, The Witcher, Mass Effect, Metro 2033 and Far Cry 5. At the end of a day, Elżbieta is usually pushing the “on” button on her favorite game console in pursuit of another platinum trophy.
Cristina Pérez Cerezo
Keywords StudiosCristina is the linguist team lead in the Barcelona office of the Keywords Studios. She graduated from the University of Granada with a B.A. in Translation and Interpreting. A couple of years later, she decided to specialize and took a master’s in audiovisual translation course at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Thanks to a collaboration program established between the university and Keywords Studios, she had the opportunity to do an internship as a Spanish language specialist at the company’s office in Dublin, where she ended up becoming part of the team.
Catalina Quijano
Localization Project ManagerMichael Radnitz
Senior Producer, LocalizationBlizzard Entertainment
Michael Radnitz is a senior producer with more than 12 years of experience in the games industry. He has shipped more than ten AAA titles (such as Diablo III and Overwatch) globally across various platforms . Planning, documentation and scheduling are words that excite Michael, and he thoroughly enjoys all aspects of production. He was involved in the localization of every Blizzard IP as well as web-based and other non-game content. Over the past five years, Michael’s focus has been on the Diablo and Overwatch franchises, including shipment of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls on console and in China, the release of Overwatch and the set up of the localization pipeline for the Overwatch League. He is currently setting up the localization pipeline for Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal.
Leilani Ramirez
Manager of DialogueSony Interactive Entertainment
Leilani Ramirez is the manager of dialogue for Sony Interactive Entertainment. An island girl from Hawaii, Leilani moved to Los Angeles (LA) and graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a BA in communications and recording arts. After dabbling in the film and TV post-production world, she fell into the interactive realm and started her game audio career at Electronic Arts — Los Angeles in 2003, working on multiple titles as the dialog lead for the Medal of Honor and Command & Conquer series. From there, Leilani jumped into the freelancing world and was the dialogue supervisor for several titles including Uncharted 3, ADR1FT and Fat Princess Adventures before landing at Sony PlayStation where she completed God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and photography, and volunteers at the Children’s Hospital of LA, with her dog, Frodo, who is a member of the dog-therapy team.
Chris Rowley
LQA Head of Division/Operations DirectorKeywords Studios
Chris Rowley, an industry veteran since 2002, spent his first five years in development as a games designer and producer. He moved to Codemasters to become their first quality assurance (QA) manager. Since then he has held various QA, localization management and director roles at publishers SCEE, Eidos, 2K and EA. Chris then moved to the vendor side in 2014 working at Testronic, PTW and now Keywords where he is currently responsible for the LQA service line and FQA operations. Chris has been a regular presenter and panelist on the conference circuit for a number of years.
Dave Ruane
Digital Content and Partnerships ManagerXTM International
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 currently manages digital content and partner strategies at XTM International. Dave 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.
Inés Rubio
Language Services Sr. Global ManagerNI
Inés Rubio is a localization veteran with experience in ecommerce, marketing and 15 years of gaming industry background. Her interest in process improvement centered around technology and outsourcing solutions drove her to research potential machine translation applications to games localization before the Google Neural Machine Translation landmark. Inés currently applies her passion to translation and localization processes at National Instruments, a leader in software defined automated testing and measurements.
Hadrien Rudich
Localization Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Hadrien Rudich is a localization project manager at Blizzard Entertainment. He started his localization journey at Blizzard eight years ago as French LQA analyst working on titles such as Diablo 3, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone. He moved on to new responsibilities after a few years as a project manager specialized in outsourcing solutions. In his current role Hadrien has been involved in numerous game releases and in 2018 he began working in a more central position on Overwatch, where his extensive knowledge and love for the game, both as an avid player and professional, are put to good use.
Isabell Rudolph
Localization Project CoordinatorGoodgame Studios
Isabell Rudolph has a BA in technical communication and an MS in software localization. She joined the localization department at Goodgame Studios in 2014, gaining experience in working with free-to-play games for mobile and web, delivering high-quality translations, optimizing workflows and continuously improving localization processes and quality.
Loreto Sanz Fueyo
Senior Director of LocalizationPTW
Loreto Sanz Fueyo, senior director of localization at PTW, graduated from King’s College in London, England, where she received her master’s degree in computational linguistics and formal grammar. She began her professional career as a games tester and translator, developing her localization knowledge and skills for over 13 years before becoming PTW’s director of translation in 2019. Loreto’s passion for communication and clear messaging has made her an invaluable part of PTW’s staff, where she provides guidance to all levels of the organization. Her latest obsession is building a house in Spain and when she’s not busy localizing, she can be found pouring over floor plans and interior design magazines!
António Saraiva
Managing PartnerGojira
António Saraiva is founder and managing partner at Gojira, a media production company that develops video games, apps and conversational characters (intelligent avatars). He taught game design and video game related subjects at Universidade Lusófona, IPA and Restart (Lisbon). Before Gojira, he was producer and game designer at Biodroid Productions and also IP Hunter and licensing manager for Biodroid Entertainment. António has worked in a multitude of media formats ranging from press to television to multimedia off and online. Starting out as a television producer and director in the late 80’s, he founded his own company, Latina-Europa, and authored many children’s, pop music and youth culture TV series. In Portugal he was a pioneer in writing on the internet’s social and creative issues, namely in Blitz, to which he still contributes.
Konstantin Savenkov
CEOIntento
After receiving a PhD in 2008, Konstantin Savenkov led research and development efforts for online content services then worked as CTO at Zvooq and as a chief operating officer at Bookmate. In 2016, he contributed his experience in artificial intelligence (AI), tech and operations to cofound Intento, Inc., where they build tools to source, evaluate and use machine translation (MT) and other cognitive AI services. Intento regularly publishes independent MT evaluation studies and aims to be a reference point for utilizing MT to solve particular business problems.
Tobias Scherf
Solution ArchitectMemsource
Tobias Scherf is a solution architect at Memsource. He draws on his 20 years of experience in the localization industry working with enterprise clients to develop innovative solutions, maximizing the value and adoption of Memsource’s machine translation and AI-based features. Prior to Memsource, Tobias worked in various roles from localization quality assurance in localization engineering to executive management on the language service provider side. He is experienced in running enterprise localization programs including language quality programs and quality analytics. Tobias has been instrumental in the design and development of proprietary solutions to effectively measure and improve translation quality.
David Schumacher
Manager, Test Services - PlayStation Studios QASony Interactive Entertainment
David Schumacher has worked in the industry for over 17 years, 12 of which have been in quality assurance. Starting his career at Sony Internal QA, David rejoined Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2020 after working alongside clients such as the BBC, Fox, and Rebellion as a producer and lead designer. He is a manager in test services, the group that coordinates functional and localization testing for franchises such as Gran Turismo, Horizon, God of War and Dreams across all PlayStation platforms, and recently including PC and mobile.
Miguel Sepúlveda
Global Localization ManagerKing
Miguel Sepúlveda started his journey in the exciting localization world in 1995. He worked as a quality assurance (QA) specialist for Microsoft for a few projects such as Microsoft Project, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. Early in his career, Miguel worked on the vendor side, mainly working for Lionbridge as localization QA manager for different clients. In 2007 he had the opportunity to enter the gaming industry thanks to Electronic Arts where he was responsible for setting up the technical team to provide automated localization QA services to games such as FIFA, Harry Potter or Need for Speed among others. Then Miguel moved the buyer side giving him the opportunity to complete his vision of how the localization industry worked from both sides. In 2014 he joined the King Candy Crush world where his role is to lead the globalization efforts of a very talented team.
Vanessa Shallcross
Head of LocalizationSEGA Europe
Having been in the games industry since 1996, Vanessa Shallcross is an experienced manager of computer game localization on a global basis. In her early years, she worked for Psygnosis, then moved to Sony Computer Entertainment and more recently Bigpoint GmbH based in Hamburg. Since November 2020 Vanessa was honored to be appointed as the Head of Localisation for Sega Europe overseeing all Localisation, Audio, LQA, and Engineering, part of the wider Operations Team, located in Brentford HQ. Her current focus is on getting to know her team and all the stakeholders across the Sega business, as well as planning the strategic direction of the Localisation Department.
Shwetank Sharma
CEOLocNapps Media
Shwetank Sharma is a seasoned management professional with experience across game localization business consulting, business development and localization project management. In his past professional pursuits, international experience in client relationship and project management for localization services stand out. Shwetank founded Locnapps Media in 2014 which has been instrumental in servicing videogame developers/publishers and language service providers for South East Asian, Middle Eastern and Indian Languages.
Kseniya Shorokhova
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Kseniya Shorokhova has an educational background in linguistics but she got into the language industry just five years ago when she found herself working as a Russian-English translator at Playrix. At that time, their localization team consisted of only three people. Kseniya has grown together with the team and the company, gradually making her way to team lead and ultimately becoming the head of localization. She now oversees more than 40 people and is responsible for Playrix’s localization strategy.
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck
Senior Manager, VO ProductionRiot Games
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck is senior manager of voiceover production at Riot Games, leading the team that produces the voiceover for League of Legends, Wild Rift, VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, and Riot Forge’s upcoming titles. Prior to Riot, she was at the helm of Side LA, where her team worked on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, Riot Games’ Legends of Runeterra, Epic Games’ Fortnite: Save the World, Splash Damage’s Gears: Tactics, and Dontnod Entertainment’s Tell Me Why, among hundreds of other titles. At the start of her career, Jacquie spent a decade with Sony PlayStation, coordinating dialog for projects from Socom 3 to God of War 3. She then went on to manage talent and casting for the Worldwide Studios product development services group, including titles such as The Order: 1886, Spiderman, and 2018’s God of War. Jacquie and her husband live with their cat, Bruce, in Los Angeles, California.
IMDb: Jacquie Shriver
Yumi Okubo-Shuman
Localization Engineering ManagerBig Fish
Yumi Shuman is a localization engineering manager in the International team at Big Fish. She is passionate about the integration of language and modern technologies with game products. Her current focus is driving cloud-based CAT technology with the mix of machine translation and TM program strategy. This is a key component in widening content availability for game and marketing localization. When she’s not working, Yumi enjoys playing with her 5-year-old twins.
Harald Simon
Localization DirectorBethesda
Harald Simon is localization director at Bethesda. He has been in the localization industry since the early 1990s, both on the vendor and the client side. In the video games industry he has held senior positions with Virgin Interactive and Electronic Arts, before joining Bethesda in 2011.
Kaushal Singh
QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Kirill Soloviev
CEO & Co-FounderContentQuo
Kirill Soloviev is the CEO and co-founder at ContentQuo, an Estonian translation technology company that helps global LSPs, enterprise localization teams and government agencies reduce their linguistic quality risk, improve vendor performance and boost machine translation quality at scale with a data-driven approach. During his 18 years in the industry, Kirill has served in diverse buyer-side and vendor-side roles, most recently as global director of localization at Acronis. Kirill has also co-organized the Localization Unconference in Tallinn and regularly mentors both new and seasoned localization professionals.
Kirill Soloviev
ContentQuoKirill Soloviev is the cofounder and head of product at ContentQuo, an Estonian tech startup helping localization teams and language service providers manage and reduce localization quality risk at any scale, with any translation management system. With 15 years of experience in localization across diverse buyer and vendor roles, Kirill served most recently as global director of localization at Acronis, a category-leading software product company, where his team was responsible for both linguistic quality assurance (QA) and software QA. Kirill also organizes the Localization unconference in Tallinn and collaborates with TAUS.
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference ManagerGame Global
Francesca has been in the video game localization industry since 2010, covering various roles: from marketing intern and translator for online games at Wooga and Bigpoint, to Senior Multilingual Localization Specialist at Electronic Arts managing large, multilingual titles, to Program Manager for the Games department at Alpha CRC.
Having experienced both the client and the service provider side of the industry, Francesca recently decided to become a freelance translator and consultant and is currently working as Conference Manager for Game Global and video game localization instructor for the Localization Institute.
Mike Souto
Business Development DirectorGridly
Mike Souto has over 20 years of experience in game and app development and localization. He’s a producer of AAA titles, including the Commandos series, TimeSplitters 2, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and many more. With experience of internal and external development teams, Mike’s been involved in game development at various touchpoints in the process.
LinkedIn: michael-souto-287a131
Niall Spooner-Harvey
Account ManagerGlyph Language Services
Niall Spooner-Harvey has over seven years of experience in the localization industry. He is very happy to be back at Glyph after three years away, most recently working as a project manager in the consumer robotics sector. A classics graduate from the UK, Niall is as passionate about gaming as he is about languages, both living and dead. When not talking at great length about the differences between British and American English or being a two-time Pun Slam champion, he can be found playing Cricket Captain 2020 and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Karen Stevens
Sports Accessibility LeadElectronic Arts
Karen Stevens is the Electronic Arts (EA) sports accessibility lead. She strives to improve the user experience for those with interactive differences. Stevens has been in the game industry for over 13 years and has first-hand experience of what it’s like living with disabilities. She has spoken at several conferences on the topic, and has been featured in magazines, television programs and radio shows.
Nate Stoddard
QA Discipline PrincipalEpic Games
Nate Stoddard has been working in quality assurance (QA), testing, hardware development and game development for more than 12 years. In that time, he has worked on over 34 titles, on almost as many platforms. Nate recently moved from Boston to North Carolina to work at Epic Games and is now a senior QA lead on Fortnite.
Leticia Sáenz Murga
Keywords StudiosCurrently, the localization lead at Keywords Studios Barcelona, Leticia Sáenz Murga manages a team of project managers, coordinators, and linguists specializing in the challenges of localizing market leading games. Leticia has over 11 years of experience in video games localization in different roles, from translator to senior project manager, giving her insight of the whole development and localization process as well as in-depth knowledge of game development and design.
Blanca Sánchez Joplin
Game WriterSocialpoint
Blanca Joplin has been working for over five years as a game writer at Socialpoint, one of Spain’s most vibrant game developers. During this time, she has worked on some very successful titles, including Monster Legends (her main focus and love of her life), Dragon City, World Chef and Word Life. Blanca’s background is in translation, having spent two years as a freelance translator and subtitler prior to arriving at Socialpoint, which has been her home ever since.
Andrea Tabacchi
VP Customer SuccessMemsource
Andrea Tabacchi is the vice president of customer success at Memsource where he utilizes his extensive experience in building customer-centric language technology solutions for multinational corporations and global translation companies. He and his team work with clients to develop solutions to address their translation technology needs, including innovative ways to optimize the Memsource platform, and liaise between clients and internal teams to suggest tool improvements. Prior to Memsource, Andrea spent over ten years on the language service provider side where he served in several roles in language technology, from localization engineering to technology director.
LinkedIn: andreatabacchi
Tülay Tetiker McNally
Director, Inclusive Design & Product DevelopmentElectronic Arts
Tülay Tetiker McNally is director, inclusive design and product development at Electronic Arts, and is responsible for establishing EA Studio’s global approach to creating inclusive products and features that put players first, partnering with EA development teams worldwide. Beginning her career in the video games industry more than 15 years ago at SEGA and Square Enix, she later joined Electronic Arts to head up central development operations at BioWare Edmonton. More recently Tülay was a senior development director at DICE Stockholm. Tülay is originally from Turkey and was raised in Munich, Germany. She has had the opportunity to live and work in countries across Europe and North America. An experienced public speaker and mentor of students and young professionals, she connects with gamers to listen to what makes them feel excluded or marginalized. For the future Tülay wants players to engage with games in safe, fun, and positive ways regardless of who they are or where they are from, to bring inclusive design and thinking to the core of game design. Tülay holds an MA in American studies, with specializations in the history of immigration and civil rights movement, and a BA in psychology from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 2020 she was selected as an inaugural member of TGA’s Future Class.
Mette Tingey
DirectorAlpha CRC
Mette Tingey is the director of Alpha Games, responsible for the revenue, accounts and commercial side of all games business within Alpha. Alpha is a mature LSP with 30+ years of experience providing end-to-end localization solutions to games developers and publishers across the globe.
Tamara Tirjak
Senior Localization ManagerFrontier Developments
Tamara Tirjak is the senior localization manager of Frontier Developments, a self-publishing video game developer based in Cambridge, UK. She is responsible for coordinating all localization-related activities across the organization, focusing on establishing reproducible, automated processes in order to streamline translation efforts and support the company’s international presence. Tamara’s previous experience includes working as an in-house linguist, project manager, translation tool support engineer, and technical trainer for various leading language service providers. She is a certified memoQ trainer, a qualified English-Hungarian translator and interpreter, and holds an MS degree in technology management.
Demid Tishin
All Correct GroupDemid Tishin is a game designer, entrepreneur and mentor. In 2006, he founded Allcorrect Group, a language services business and won a good name with customers such as EA, Ubisoft, Bandai Namco and Gaijin. He also founded Translation Forum Russia, a major convention for the translation industry, and helped to develop ISO 11669, the first ISO standard on translation services. Since 2016, Demid has been the full-time CEO of Funbakers, a game development studio.
To Be Announced
Sony Interactive EntertainmentGeorge Tong
Senior DirectorBeyondsoft Corporation
George Tong has nearly 19 years of IT and business management experience in the product globalization industry. Since 2016, George has worked in the US as senior engineering director, using his globalization industry knowledge, leading Beyondsoft’s onshore/offshore team to globalize clients’ products portfolios. Prior to that, in Nov 2005, George was the general manager and chief technical lead of Product G11N Services Business Unit at Beyondsoft, overseeing project management, technology innovation, personnel management, and business operations.
Charles Ulbig
LT LeadElectronic Arts
Charles Ulbig’s first role in 2002 at Electronic Arts was as QA tester for Football Manager in Cologne, Germany. One day the localization supervisor asked if he was interested in traveling around the world for free — well, almost free. Back in the day, localization testers were sent directly to the development studios to test the games and Charles’ first project abroad was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in Chertsey, UK. For him, it was an incredible experience to work on the same game with so many different people from around Europe. What motivates Charles, besides working with games, is the creativity behind the process of localization. Nothing is more gratifying to him than finding solutions to localization problems and seeing them later in-game. In 2007, Charles moved with EA to Madrid, Spain, took the position of senior tester and then became the localization testing team lead for German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. He is responsible for three permanent linguistic experts and up to 50 temporary employees during peak times.
Ulises Uno
Content & Localization ManagerEtermax
Ulises Uno is content and localization manager at etermax, leading a strategic area for the company’s gaming division which is focused on developing and publishing worldwide social games that entertain, connect and foster knowledge in up to 34 languages. With an educational background in social sciences and translation, he joined the gaming industry as a translator and copywriter. Ulises currently leads a team of language specialists, user experience writers and content producers, guiding them toward a product-centric mindset.
Jeferson Valadares
CEODoppio Games
Jeferson Valadares is CEO and cofounder of Doppio Games, a voice-first game studio based in Lisbon, Portugal. He was also the lead designer on the studio’s debut title The Vortex, available for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. He is also a member of the board of directors at Rovio. In past lives he was VP/GM of Mobile at Bandai Namco; Studio GM at Electronic Arts and Executive Producer at BioWare in San Francisco; Studio Director at Playfish and Creative Director at EA Mobile in London; and Game Development Director at Digital Chocolate’s Sumea studio in Helsinki.
Andrew Vestal
Senior Localization Program ManagerAmazon Game Studios
Andrew Vestal got his start in games localization in 2004, turning Japanese RPGs into English at Tokyo’s 8-4, Ltd. He moved back to the United States in 2006 to work at Blizzard Entertainment, where he oversaw the localization of the first two World of Warcraft expansions, Diablo III, and Battle.net. In 2013, he took a brief break from games to join Microsoft to focus on localization tooling and pipeline design. At Amazon Game Studios since 2017, Andrew currently oversees translation and translation testing of all first-party AGS titles, Twitch Prime, and Lumberyard. He loves retro games and has accidentally started a collection of CRT monitors in his garage.
Brandon Victor
Keywords StudiosJanet Weddle
Technical QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Janet Weddle is a technical QA manager with 15 years of experience in game development, project management, test management and automation. She started her career as a game developer at KnowWonder, Inc. which became Amaze Entertainment. Janet’s development experience there and her later roles in test management and project management led to her strong appreciation of great tools. Throughout her career she saw the benefit of tools and automation in test, development, art and management. Success in these areas led to Janet current position as a technical QA manager and an automation advocate.
Ben Wibberley
Managing PartnerDAQA
Ben Wibberley has over 20 years of experience in the video game industry, specializing in executive strategy, global production support, external development, international production and live operations. Having signed, grown and managed $100M’s of multi-service deals, he has an intimate knowledge of industry best practices, working with some of the most well-known companies in the business. Ben founded DAQA as an independent, new generation video games support agency. DAQA provides strategic consultancy, evaluation and implementation of operations for AAA studios, alongside representation of unique, disruptive, technology-based service companies.
Matt Wilson
Global Head of Format QASony Interactive Entertainment
Matt Wilson is a leader in the software and hardware industry with over 20 years of specialist quality assurance (QA) and testing experience. He is currently the global head of format QA within Sony Interactive Entertainment which handles all compliance for PlayStation globally. Matt has experience leading and building a large (250+) co-located team that deals with 30,000+ products globally annually, each with very short service-level agreements. He recently transitioned four separate regional QA teams to a single co-located global QA team. Matt lives in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Hayato Wada Wong
Cofounder & Localization Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Hayato Wada Wong is a ten-year video game and localization industry veteran, trilingual in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Having shipped titles and work experience in AAA game titles with Sega, as well as working in the outsourcing/gaming-as-a-service industry at Pole to Win and Streamline Studios, Hayato is versed in game production, quality assurance (QA) and localization. Currently, he is a localization manager and cofounder for Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group, a business division involved in rejuvenating the post development process of localization, culturalization marketing, QA, and compliance testing into something fit for the modern times. Hayato hopes to make game development as enjoyable as playing games.
LinkedIn: hayato-wada-wong-b909537
Christine Xaysakda
International Account ManagerLBS Suite
At LBS Suite, Christine Xaysakda is responsible for developing international business, participating in company strategies, and (what she loves the most) advising language service providers on the optimization of clients’ internal processes through technologies. She is passionate about technology, languages, and cultures. Christine loves brainstorming: talking about new business, projects, and ideas. Perhaps you can try speak with her in Mandarin, Cantonese, English or French.
Jingyu Zhang
KingVladimir Zhdanov
Vladimir has been in game localization since 2010. He started as an undergraduate Mandarin-to-Russian translator. He graduated in 2012 with a thesis on Chinese MMORPG translations, and gradually improved his skills until he ended up managing a team of in-house translators for a Chinese mobile gaming company in Beijing in 2015. He lives a life of a passionate localizator: in his spare time he localizes the webcomics series Zen Pencils, and in early 2017 he and his wife volunteered to localize the Indian comic book Menstrupedia into Russian.
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk
QA DirectorQLOC
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk graduated in Japanese studies and public relations but as soon as he started his adventure with functional and compliance testing in 2010, he knew there was no going back. After moving to Madrid, he gathered professional experience in localization quality assurance (QA) while working for Electronic Arts on IPs like Battlefield, FIFA, Sims and Need for Speed. He continued his career at QLOC as a team leader and project manager (PM). As a PM Sergiusz oversaw projects for external clients and the QA process for in-house porting projects, including titles like Resident Evil 6, DmC: Devil May Cry, Ultra Street Fighter IV and more. As a QA director since 2014, he manages QLOC’s QA department that employs over 170 specialists, supervises the work of managers and leads, and is responsible for the coordination of all department activities.
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Going Global Fast and Cost-efficiently Through Optimized Localization Management
Continuous localization has been one of the buzzwords of 2021 and even more so for video games. All stakeholders in the industry are still looking for the best solutions to streamline their workflows to remain agile and cost-effective. In this session, we will address the latest challenges for the video game localization industry, focusing on central issues like dealing with constant updates, managing integrations and automation, as well as keeping terminology on track through the entire process.
Gábor Kovács
Game Localization ExpertmemoQ
As part of the memoQ gaming unit, Gábor Kovács uses his abilities to combine technical knowledge with sales skills to act as a primary contact for product demos, client needs assessment, and training along with many other duties. Using his well-honed communication skills, he can simplify and communicate complex concepts to a nontechnical audience. Gábor’s IT background also gives him the edge when it comes to technical discussion and finding the right solutions. He has been an avid gamer since childhood.
Loreto Sanz Fueyo
Senior Director of LocalizationPTW
Loreto Sanz Fueyo, senior director of localization at PTW, graduated from King’s College in London, England, where she received her master’s degree in computational linguistics and formal grammar. She began her professional career as a games tester and translator, developing her localization knowledge and skills for over 13 years before becoming PTW’s director of translation in 2019. Loreto’s passion for communication and clear messaging has made her an invaluable part of PTW’s staff, where she provides guidance to all levels of the organization. Her latest obsession is building a house in Spain and when she’s not busy localizing, she can be found pouring over floor plans and interior design magazines!
NetworkingPending Confirmation
Visit our sponsors, exchange messages with other attendees, schedule a video meeting or find a group discussion you would like to join or create.
Game Global
Game GlobalNick Adams
Director of Transgender RepresentationGLAAD
Nick Adams is the director of transgender representation at GLAAD. He is a resource for media content creators who are telling stories about transgender people. Nick has consulted on hundreds of films and TV shows to help them create authentic transgender characters and stories. He has also worked with Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, DONTNOD, and other gaming companies to create trans-inclusive video games. Nick joined GLAAD in 1998, and transitioned himself at that time.
Belén Agulló García
FounderAccessibility Warriors
Belén Agulló García holds a BA in translation and interpreting studies, an MA in audiovisual translation, and a PhD in multimedia accessibility. The topic of her dissertation was accessible subtitles for virtual reality and that was the beginning of her journey as an accessibility advocate. Previously, Belén worked for more than five years in the game localization industry, holding different leadership positions. She combined her years in this industry with her true calling, training others. Currently, Belén is the VP of learning and lead media researcher at Nimdzi Insights and the founder of Accessibility Warriors.
Pedro Alfageme
Audio Artist ManagerElectronic Arts
Pedro Alfageme is audio artist manager at Electronic Arts. He is responsible for the technical quality of the localized dialogue and the continuous improvement of processes and tools. Pedro leads a team that delivers over a million dialogue files across 11 languages with high-quality standards every year. He has been working in the video game industry since 2004. His experience goes from voiceover recording, editing, and post processing to product owner of EA’s content management system for localization. Pedro is currently involved in voice technologies research and development as a localization stakeholder.
Marie Amigues
CEOAltagram
Marie Amigues is the CEO and founder of Altagram. After living in Paris, Ottawa and New York, she settled in Berlin in 2006. Following her studies in philosophy at La Sorbonne, Marie obtained an MBA in marketing management at Essec. In 2017, she was selected as one of the Top 10 Women in Management in Germany’s gaming industry. Passion, hard work and expertise are the driving forces behind Marie’s accomplishments. She has brought together a team of over 150 talented in-house game localization specialists who have successfully shipped over 5,000 game titles since 2006 for prestigious clients such as Square Enix, Supercell, Blizzard and SEGA, just to name a few.
Cristina Anselmi
Machine Translation LeadElectronic Arts
Cristina Anselmi is machine translation lead at Electronic Arts (EA). She takes care of everything related to machine translation (MT) implementation and maintenance within EA localization, leads a team of MT specialists, and coordinates several developments around MT. Cristina has been in the video game localization industry since 2012, managing all kinds of multilingual projects, from small mobile games to big MMORPGs, and several AAA titles. Her focus for the past four years has been implementing MT and AI technologies to automate workflows within EA localization. Cristina’s goal is to pave the way for this to be welcome in daily life and to be seen as a help rather than an enemy, a powerful tool that can enhance productivity, without jeopardizing quality and creativity.
Estelle Bailly
Localization DirectorHi Rez Studios
With over 20 years of experience in the video game localization industry, Estelle Bailly is an expert in the globalization and internationalization of creative content. She started her career in France, where she learned about the various aspects of the localization pipeline through multiple experiences which lead her to become head of localization at one of the largest video game localization agencies in Paris. In 2016, Estelle joined Hi-Rez Studios, a games-as-a-service studio, as localization director. Since then, her core focus has been to help the company to better engage and serve their international audience, offering them higher quality and enhanced support in various languages. Estelle is currently based in the UK, leading a multicultural team that translates three live games in more than eight languages.
Andrea Ballista
CEOVoiseed
Andrea Ballista has been working in the game industry for more than 25 years. Starting from his passion of music, songwriting, and singing, he holds a degree in computer music. Since cofounding Binari Sonori in 1994, Andrea has been the audio director for Keywords Studios from 2015 until the end of 2019. In 2020 he cofounded Voiseed to proceed into research and development of deep learning-based emotional virtual voices.
LinkedIn: andrea-ballista-4617912
Gérard Barnaud
Localization Project ManagerUbisoft
An industry veteran with 17 years of experience in the gaming industry, Gérard Barnaud started as a localization tester in Ireland in 2001 where he worked for Vivendi. He then moved to Atari headquarters in Lyon, France, where he started as a localization project manager on Neverwinter Nights and evolved to a position of producer for The Witcher (original). He then moved to UBISOFT Montreal and back into localization for Far Cry 2 and Brothers in Arms 3, and ended up in the south of France at the Montpellier studio. Barnaud has worked on various titles ranging from licensed games to large role playing games and intellectual properties for all audiences, and is still passionate about his work.
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz
Senior Localization DirectorElectronic Arts
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz is the senior localization director at EA, heading up all worldwide localization functions including translation, recordings, vendor management, testing and engineering for the video game developer and publisher. Originally a translator by education, she looks back at 15 years of experience in the game localization industry. Her current focus is on shaping the strategic direction of localization in the company’s shift to online service models.
Thomas Barth
Global LQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Thomas Barth (Tommy) has been working in games services for over 12 years and, like many young aspiring professionals, he started in the field of quality assurance (QA) to get a foot in the door of the industry. Since then, he leveled up from German QA tester to test lead, to project manager, to localization quality assurance (LQA) manager and most recently to LQA director at the global games services provider Keywords Studios. Throughout his career, Tommy had the chance to work with brilliant client partners from all sectors of the industry (developers, publishers and hardware manufacturers), provide and supervise testing for games of all genres and sizes, and on all platforms (from consoles to mobile, to the latest and greatest in virtual and augmented reality). He is passionate about the industry and believes that we are better together. Tommy also has a deep love for games and interactive entertainment and feels that all gamers around the world should have the same amazing and immersive experience, no matter which language they speak and play games in. Helping people succeed gives him energy and is one of his key drives as a professional.
Micaela Belluzzo
Global Resource ManagerKeywords Studios
Micaela Belluzzo is the global resource manager at Keywords Studios, focusing on project resourcing and quality control. A translator and interpreter by education, Micaela started her translation career localizing software and media content in 1998. She then joined SDL in Maidenhead as a localization project manager and in 2000 she moved to Milan to manage the EA Italy localization office. From 2003 Micaela contributed to the building of the EA integration hub in Madrid where she worked as head of localization production-integration until 2007. After a two-year break working for international cooperation in Africa and the Middle East, she joined Keywords with a focus on audio localization production and has been working on resource management for the past six years.
Teddy Bengtsson
Founder/DirectorRoundTable Studio
Teddy grew up in Sweden where he studied languages. Although his early professional career diverged into skiing, fashion and the restaurant trade, he eventually came back to languages through localization and a global journey including five home countries. Having held senior localization roles with major IT players Microsoft and Oracle, a crazy idea led him to start an LSP business in Argentina in 2003. RoundTable Studio quickly grew into a regional leader with production centers in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Porto Alegre (Brazil), and a business management unit in Spain where game localization has become one of its key vertical markets.
Mario Bergantiños
Director, Localization Analytics & Video-AudioElectronic Arts
Mario Bergantiños started his journey studying broadcasting, 3D and audio production. After working as a freelancer for several companies he started working at EA and now he has more than 16 years of experience in building high performing teams from audio and video disciplines to data analytics. As a member of EA’s Localization and Madrid leadership teams, Mario is co-responsible for the innovation and strategy of the localization business as well as managing the Audio Artist, Audio Capture, Video Loc and Data Analytics teams.
Mario Bergantiños
Senior Manager- Audio & Video LocalizationElectronic Arts
Priscilla Bermea
Cargo Localization Operations and Partner LeadRiot Games
Priscilla Bermea is the localization operations lead for Latin America at Riot Games. She is Mexican and a professional with over 10 years of experience in the gaming localization industry. Priscilla has been a fierce gamer since she can remember, and has dedicated herself to translating and interpreting videogames for friends and family. After working as a freelance translator and specialized project manager, she turned her favorite hobby into a career, becoming part of the Latin-American Riot Games team in 2016.
Miguel Bernal-Merino
LecturerUniversity of Roehampton
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
Brigitte Berner
Loc Vendor Management SupervisorElectronic Arts
Brigitte Berner is vendor management supervisor at Electronic Arts, leading a small team of vendor specialists. After being with the company for 15 years, building and shaping the vendor management function, including vendor recruitment and quality evaluation processes, her current focus is on automation, leveraging data and exploring usage of AI. Being solution driven, Brigitte is passionate about improving processes and questioning the status quo.
Chris Bewick
Regional FQA Director - EurasiaKeywords Studios
Brian Bies
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy
Managing PartnerLevsha
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy started his journey in video game localization as a freelance translator in 2005. In 2009, he became one of the founders of Levsha localization and has been a managing partner at the studio since then. Despite having a degree in computational linguistics, Fedor’s passion has always been finding new ways to facilitate efficient and joyful interaction and collaboration between different people.
Jonathan Bowring
RiversightJonathan Bowring graduated in computer science and worked for the UK Ministry of Defence and Hewlett-Packard before joining Canon. As Canon’s EMEA localization director, he built an independent services division with its own profit and loss of £15M. Jonathan trained as a mentor and coach and founded Riversight in 2016. The company intends to unlock the potential within leaders, teams and organizations, and provides coaching and facilitation to SME and corporate clients.
Virginia Boyero
Associate ProducerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Virginia Boyero is a history graduate who started a career in games localization in 2006, following a passion for working with languages and quickly getting hooked on the fast-paced tempo of the industry. She joined Massive Entertainment in 2010, and after the release of Far Cry 3 moved on to The Division team where she’s been an Associate Producer for the audio, localization and narrative departments for The Division and The Division 2. Outside of work, Virginia is often found reading travel literature, preferably while on a train.
Gaëlle Caballero
Director of Localization QATestronic
Gaëlle Caballero is a global head of localization quality assurance (LQA) with years of experience in video game QA and localization. A former lawyer, she started her career as a French LQA tester in London and developed her localization skillset working on multiple titles and platforms as a technician, lead, and project manager. Gaëlle successfully developed and delivered Testronic’s Warsaw-based LQA department and is responsible for its continued success. She is recognized for her extensive experience in team management, development, and swift delivery. A great motivator and team builder, she creates confidence and excitement across multiple Testronic global LQA facilities. An advocate for women in games, Gaëlle is involved in Testronic’s initiative aiming to mentor and promote the role of Women in the Games industry. She is also chairman of Testronic’s learning and development committee.
Gordon Campbell
Chief Executive OfficerGo Testify
Gordon Campbell is an experienced entrepreneur, having launched multiple companies in the design and gaming sectors since 2007. Over the last 13 years, Gordon has assisted companies like BBC, HBO and Zynga to produce high-quality entertainment that people want to invest time in. With a masters in human-centered design, he focuses on creating user-centric products using state-of-the-art technology.
Today, Gordon is the CEO of Testify, a company that is uses AI to transform how user testing is conducted within game development; putting players at the heart of every decision. In his current role, Gordon has worked alongside indies to top-50 mobile game studios such as Zynga to ensure they’re using the right testing methods to deliver impact and value within the development cycle.
Eric Say Chan
Program ManagerKeywords Studios
Born in Mexico City and later relocated to Canada, Eric Chan is a program manager with seven years of experience in video game quality assurance (QA). Initially a web developer, he made the jump to video games in 2011 within localization and functionality QA as a tester, test lead and later project manager. Knowledgeable in FQA, LQA, localization and audio, Eric has focused his efforts for the past two years within Keywords’ FQA department. He has since been focusing on project delivery, promoting growth and career paths for staff, and deploying improvements to internal processes.
Anastasiia Chertenkova
Marketing Creatives Team LeadPlayrix
Anastasiia Chertenkova’s path to the game development industry was rather unusual. She started her career as an officer of the police force of Ukraine/inspector of the Ukrainian Bureau of Interpol, senior officer of the criminal investigation sector, and taught administrative law and administrative procedure law in one of the state universities. Then she worked as a freelance translator for a couple of years. She joined the game development industry in 2016, starting as a customer support representative for Playrix. Since then, Anastasiia has held the positions of customer support team lead, community manager and player experience department manager. She is currently marketing creatives team lead.
Glory Choe
Program Manager, R&D LocalizationSalesforce
Before her recent move to Salesforce, Glory started her localization career as a linguist, followed by stints as LQA engineer at Linkedin and L10n producer at Zynga. In 2015, she joined an esports game studio, Super Evil Megacorp, as a Localization Manager, which was truly a dream come true for a lifelong gamer such as herself. Fascinated by different languages and cultures around the world ever since she was little, Glory studied languages and linguistics at the University of Washington in Seattle and has traveled to over 20 countries and three of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Cristian Conteduca
General ManagerYokozuna Data
Cristian Conteduca is general manager of Yokozuna Data. He has a background in scientific computing and physical modeling. Over the past few years, Cristian has developed and implemented AI/ML algorithms applied to video games and high-throughput cloud architectures. His goal is to merge AI and software engineering in a profitable and efficient way in real-life applications.
Daniele Corrado
Customer Support Engineer5th Kind
Daniele had been a consumer of the gaming industry since, well, forever. In 2010 he moved to the other side of the barricades. He began his career as a localization tester for a heterogeneous bunch of titles and platforms. While at Riot Games, Daniele worked in various capacities on every product that was released. His swansong was the global coordination for VALORANT as the Localization Producer for the title. He is currently helping DESTINYbit in developing their next title and he is working as Technical Support Engineer for 5th Kind.
Jamie Cox
Global Content Localization ProducerBlizzard Entertainment
Jamie Cox is a global content localization producer at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard is his first experience in the video game industry, but he’s been in the localization industry for over seven years, first at Gengo, then Welocalize, and then United Language Group. Over the years, Jamie has developed expertise in fast-paced environments, creating useful workflows and problem solving bottlenecks. In his spare time, he enjoys reading (currently the Wheel of Time series), playing way too much Overwatch, and he also plays the harp.
Diego Cresceri
CEO and FounderCreative Words
Diego Cresceri is CEO and founder of Creative Words, a language service provider based in Genoa. At Creative Words he is responsible for the company’s strategy and growth. His clients include multilingual translation agencies, Italian companies aiming to internationalize, and foreign companies aiming to enter the Italian market. Diego graduated from the University of Genoa in translation and interpreting and before founding Creative Words he was a translator, project manager and chief operations officer at a local translation agency. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the European Language Industry Association (ELIA). When not involved in his company, Diego holds workshops and seminars on innovation, artificial intelligence, and machine translation at universities, training schools, and language associations nationally and internationally.
Simone Crosignani
PR ManagerJinglebell Localization
Simone Crosignani worked as a video game journalist for 15 years before moving to the public relations department of Sony Computer Entertainment in Italy. At Sony he handled enthusiast and online media, working on the launch campaigns of PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and 100+ games. In 2006 Simone moved to Binari Sonori, a translation and audio production company, now part of Keywords Studios. In 2016 he joined Jinglebell Localization, the game localization spin-off of audio production powerhouse Jinglebell Communication. Simone has been a member of the International Game Developers Association localization group since day one and has been vice-chair of the group since 2013.
Mirela Cukovic Hanson
Senior Director QAElectronic Arts
Mirela Cukovic Hanson leads Mobile, Maxis and Live quality assurance (QA) teams for Electronic Art’s (EA) development teams around the world. These teams have ensured the quality of players’ experiences in some of the most popular games in the industry: The Sims, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heros; RealRacing3, The Simpsons Tapped Out, PvZ, Battlefield, Madden and others. Mirela is a change agent that has been leading the EA QA organization through several transformations and continues to set a vision for the future and inspire action from what she firmly believes is the best QA talent in the industry. Prior to her current role, Mirela held several technical and operational roles at central and global development groups. She has been at EA for ten years and before that, she held various engineering and technical leadership roles in the Silicon Valley. Mirela holds a degree in computer science from UBC.
Mariana Dadalto Schettino
Gender Inclusive Language SpecialistGame Global
Mariana Dadalto Schettino is a video game localization professional with a passion for gender inclusive language practices and is a project management enthusiast. As a localization tester at Electronic Arts (EA), she has worked to build in quality on more than 15 different titles, from AAA to mobile games. Mariana is the founder of the Gender Inclusive Taskforce for Localization at EA. As the lead stakeholder for this initiative, she creates guidelines for inclusive language for 20 different territories and improves processes regarding gender matters in the department. In addition to researching and implementing guides for a non-binary approach, Mariana works on shipping the first product from EA localization with applied non-binary language. She is currently transitioning to quality assurance testing while continuing as a researcher and adviser for diversity and inclusion practices with an inclusive language approach for localization.
Andrew Dale
KingPaul Davies
Head of Localization and Narrative DesignSocialpoint
Paul Davies manages the English game writing and localization teams at Socialpoint, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games, in sunny Barcelona. Prior to that, he held various positions at Electronic Arts in the UK and Germany, where he most recently managed the worldwide localization of EA’s mobile games portfolio. A keen gamer at heart, Paul started his career as a translator and language tester for console games at Sony Computer Entertainment in (not-so-sunny) Liverpool.
Tabea De Wille
LecturerUniversity of Limerick
Tabea De Wille holds an MA in German and English linguistics from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and an MS in multilingual computing and localization from the University of Limerick, Ireland. She has completed her PhD studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland, where she examined perceived quality in the context of crowdsourced localization. Previously, Tabea worked in the localization industry, primarily in video games localization and is currently a lecturer at the University of Limerick.
Twitter: @TabeaDeWille
LinkedIn: tabeadewille
Mason Deming
XLOCMason Deming is the chief technology officer (CTO) and system architect of XLOC. While at XLOC he has worked closely with developers on high profile titles such as League of Legends, the Call of Duty series and Borderlands. Prior to founding and serving as XLOC’s CTO, Mason enjoyed a successful career in game design, development, business-to-business e-commerce and database administration. He has performed key programming roles on numerous high profile titles while working on staff at Activision. He served as CTO for Roaring Mouse Entertainment and developed, programmed and managed Networld Exchange’s B2B e-commerce system.
Olivier Deslandes
VP Audio & TranslationSIDE Audio PTW
Olivier Deslandes is a games industry veteran, starting as a voice talent, voice director and translator in the late 1990s. He has contributed to more than 200 titles. Olivier joined Side in 2002 to establish and develop its localization department. In 2017, with Side under PTW ownership, he became senior director of global audio. He rose to vice president of audio and translation for PTW and Side in 2018. Olivier holds degrees in communication and advertising.
Diana Díaz Montón
CofounderNative Prime
Diana Díaz Montón is a game localization specialist with over 20 years of experience. She graduated in translation and interpreting, then began her career with an internship at EA Sports. Diana founded Wordlab in 2005 and in 2010 cofounded Native Prime, a company specialized in video game localization. She has been involved in the localization of reference titles such as Dragon Quest XI, Ni no Kuni, Hitman 2 & 3, Snack World, and hundreds more. Diana enjoys spreading the love for video game localization and has participated as a speaker at different events, such as GDC or Gamelab, both addressed to future localizers as well as to developers and publishers. She collaborates with different universities and institutions where she teaches game localization and project management, and has also written a series of articles about the challenges of game localization.
Twitter: maloria
LinkedIn: dianadiazmonton
Dmitry Drozdov
KingJakub Dudkowski
Senior QA Project ManagerQLOC
Jakub Dudkowski is a quality assurance (QA) professional with over eight years of experience as a functionality, localization and certification QA tester, team leader, project manager, training manager, community manager and QA manager. Currently he is a senior QA project manager at QLOC. Jakub is also a fighting game player, tournament organizer, host and community supporter with over 16 years of competitive experience. He has worked on over 100 titles including several fighting games.
Nathalie Duret
HR ManagerKeywords Studios
Nathalie Duret is the human resource manager (HR) at Keywords Studios, Paris, France, and as such, she is responsible for recruitment and training. She has worked for more than 20 years in the localization industry, including 13 years at Electronic Arts, France. Nathalie has held various positions giving her the opportunity to tackle video games localization specifics such as text and audio localization, project management, vendor management, team management and more. In 2013, she decided to move to HR to bring support to the localization teams from a different perspective, to focus on people development and to help the teams grow and adapt to constantly changing environments.
Kate Edwards
CEO / Principal ConsultantGeogrify
Kate Edwards is the CEO and principal consultant of Geogrify, a consultancy for content culturalization, a board member of Take This, and is the former executive director of the International Game Developers Association from 2012 to 2017. In addition to being an outspoken advocate that serves in several advisory/board roles, she is a geographer, writer and corporate strategist who pioneered the field of content culturalization in games. As Microsoft’s first geopolitical strategist on the geopolitical strategy team she created and managed, Edwards protected the company against political and cultural content risks across all products and locales. Since Microsoft, she has assisted many clients on a variety of geopolitical and cultural issues across many products and game franchises. Kate is also a columnist for MultiLingual magazine. Fortune magazine named her as one of the “10 most powerful women” in the game industry and she was named by GamesIndustry.biz as one of their six People of the Year. In April 2018, she was honored with Reboot Develop’s annual Hero Award.
Mario Ferrer
Senior UX WriterSenior UX Writer
Mario Ferrer is a senior (or señor) user experience (UX) writer. He designs content that guides users across digital products and services. Mario is a part of UX Writers Spain, a local community of practitioners that guide professionals on how to get into the discipline, and helps companies discover the value of the UX writer role within a product team. He’s always trying to find the best tacos in town, listens to stand-up comedy and teaches his two kids about Mexican Lucha Libre.
Stanisław Fiedor
CEOFuero
Stanisław Fiedor graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics with the master degree in finance and accounting. His adventure with interactive content started already in high school were together with the current chief technical officer he was developing flash-based multiplayer experiences. During his university times, he started an interactive agency. Stan is the chief executive officer and cofounder of Fuero Games. Stan grew the studio from a four people team to a 40 professionals big experienced team. During this time he closed deals with some of the biggest players in the industry like WarGaming, Nexon, CD Projekt or Miniclip and responsible for signing IP’s like The Witcher. Stan is also a founding member of the Polish Games Association.
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content Localization
Loquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content LocalizationLoquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck is an independent consultant who learned his trade setting up and managing localization
processes and teams for free-to-play/mobile games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games on
the publisher side. This made him develop a particular interest in seeking and trying out new language
technology and service provider models that allow for economic and quality continuous translation
workflows. Connecting the dots between the needs of product owners with the strengths of service
providers, he now supports businesses in selecting and implementing the right processes, tools and
partners for their products.
Krzysztof Fudro
FQA Team LeadKeywords Studios
Krzysztof Fudro is functionality quality assurance (QA) lead at Keywords Studios Katowice. He and his team work with clients to achieve the highest testing efficiency possible. Prior to Keywords Studios Katowice, Krzysztof worked at In-House Studio as a game designer and QA tester. That experience allows him to predict what each client needs the most, sometimes even before the client realizes it. Krzysztof’s addiction to efficiency, combined with an interest in automation, always pushes him further to improve and optimize processes.
Joshua van Gageldonk
Guerrilla GamesJoshua van Gageldonk started working as a quality assurance tester in Guerrilla Games in August 2013, at the very end stages of development of Killzone Shadow Fall. After the development of Killzone Shadow Fall was completed, he was part of the test team for Horizon Zero Dawn, where he specialized in testing Robots, World Activities (non story-driven content), Random Encounters and Living World.
Carlos Garcia-Shelton
Product ManagerXLOC
Carlos Garcia-Shelton is the product manager at XLOC and is responsible for overseeing the business and all aspects of product development. Learning game production from many different angles such as quality assurance, development, publishing and localization has led him to a love for identifying and executing ways to bring together global teams and organize their efforts in the most efficient and effective ways.
Steven Garrad
Outsourcing, Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Jaime Gine
Keywords StudiosJaime Giné is chief customer officer for Keywords Studios. He represents the voice of the customer in the Keywords global organization across all services and designs innovative and customized solutions for Keywords top clients, always within the framework of strategic partnerships. Before joining Keywords he was vice president international development services at Electronic Arts (EA). Prior to joining EA, Jaime worked at SDL, holding various positions as departmental manager, project manager and divisional director. He was also part of the executive team that led SDL during the IPO.
Natalie Gladkaya
Director of LocalizationPlarium
Natalie Gladkaya joined the game localization industry in 2011 as a translator/editor, then managed teams of game localization and localization quality assurance. During her tenure with Plarium, she has worked on localizing over ten web and mobile game titles, including Raid: Shadow Legends and Mech Arena, into a variety of languages, building localization workflow, and both in-house and remote localization teams from the ground up.
LinkedIn: natalie-gladkaya
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov
Head of LocalizationSocial Quantum
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov started in translation and adaptation of text games at local IRC networks in 2003. He then switched to software and ended up doing amateur localization of huge titles like SWAT 4 and Septerra Core. Now Mike is the head of localization at Social Quantum, one of the top ten largest game publishers in Russia and Eastern Europe. The mobile game developer has created such titles as Megapolis, Wild West: New Frontier, Dragon’s World, Ice Age World, and Poker Jet, and is in the process of creating more. The company has also been conducting successful experiments in machine translation and machine translation post-editing.
Kaysie Green
Program Manager, Games LocalizationGlyph Language Services
Kaysie Green joined Glyph in 2015 as a project manager and developed her zone of genius around the games industry. This passion was her path to becoming a project manager devoted to Glyph’s games clients. Kaysie is currently the program manager for Glyph’s games division. In this role, she ensures continuous process improvement, up-to-the-moment market research, production quality and the cultivation of Glyph’s team of top-tier, game-obsessed linguists. Before coming to Glyph, Kaysie earned her BA in international relations from Gonzaga University, in 2013.
Aditya Gupta
Cofounder & QA Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Aditya Gupta is a cofounder of Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group. Currently working as a quality assurance and release manager at Day Zero, he has over nine years of game industry experience in game production and release management. Aditya is versed in quality assurance, title certification, and the release management process for multiplatform games. Over the years, he has worked on 12 AAA titles from Ubisoft, Codemasters, Streamline Games, and various other AAA publishers. In his leisure, he loves to cook and cruise around on his motorbike.
LinkedIn: my.linkedin.com/in/aditya-gupta-64204086
Clara Gómez Pérez
Localization Lead & Vendor ManagerGoodgame Studios
Clara Gómez Pérez joined the game localization industry ten years ago. Since 2011 she has led the localization department at Goodgame Studios. She holds a BA in translation and interpreting and an MA in specialized translation. Clara’s favorite localization-related topics are content management systems, key performance indicators, localization tools, process automation and funny localization mistakes.
Patricia Gómez Jurado
Associate Director of Content DesignKing
Patricia Gómez is based in Barcelona, where she is associate director of content design at King. She is building the first content design craft at King, managing a team of content designers and leading content operations. Previously, Patricia was the head of content at eDreams Odigeo, leading a team of UX writers and localization specialists. She started her career in the localization industry and worked six years as localization manager at Google Spain and Portugal. She currently teaches localization in the UX writing course by Shifta (Elisava).
Patrick Görtjes
Localization Project ManagerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Patrick Görtjes is a Localization Project Manager at Massive Entertainment, the lead development studio behind the Tom Clancy’s The Division games. Patrick holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Communication and got his start in the industry as a translator before moving on to project management. When he’s not working, Patrick enjoys hiking, board games, and karaoke.
Lukasz Hacura
Anshar StudiosChristin Hansson
KingChristin Hansson has been working with quality assurance (QA), project management and agile methods in the mobile industry for 15 years. She is now working hands-on for two game teams at King and is successfully supporting them in their ways of working with QA. Christin is also working together with the localization team at King to improve their testing processes. She has a big passion for both games and quality.
Amanda Hawthorne
Inclusive Language SpecialistElectronic Arts IL
Amanda Jane Hawthorne is an inclusive language specialist with a background as an English teacher, trainer, and materials writer. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the area of diversity, specializing in race and LGBT+ awareness. Currently based in Madrid, Amanda works full time in the tech industry, is the founding director of The Bechdel Film Club Madrid, and volunteers with antiracism organizations. She is also an award winning researcher and recently contributed to the book How To Write Inclusive Materials by Tyson Seburn.
Ulrich Henes
PrincipalLocWorld
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.
Inés Hernández
Electronic ArtsInés Hernández is a veteran game industry professional with over 15 years of experience in video games localization. She is currently managing the localization portfolio and project management teams at Electronic Arts.
Robert Herzog
Head of LocalizationTravian Games
Robert Herzog is the of head of localization and writing at Travian Games, overseeing the strategic direction of both departments. He’s been with the company for 11 years, starting as a localization project manager in 2011. Before that, Robert earned his spurs in other video game companies as localization project manager and translator. He found his way into the gaming and localization industry as freelance translator in 2004.
Celia Hodent
Game UX ConsultantCelia Hodent
Celia Hodent is recognized as a leader in the application of user experience (UX) and cognitive science in the game industry. Celia holds a PhD in psychology and has over ten years of experience in the development of UX strategy and processes in video game studios. Through her work at Ubisoft, LucasArts, and as director of UX at Epic Games (Fortnite), she has contributed to many projects across multiple platforms, from PC to consoles, mobile, and VR. Celia is also the founder of the Game UX Summit, advisor for the GDC UX Summit, member of the Foresight Committee at CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, an independent French administrative regulatory body), author of The Gamer’s Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design and The Psychology of Video Games. She currently works as an independent consultant, helping studios increase the likelihood of their games to be engaging and successful. Celia also provides guidance on the topics of playful learning, ethics, unconscious bias, and inclusion in technology.
Twitter: @CeliaHodent
Blog: celiahodent.com
Bjorn Holste
Localization QA ManagerSQUARE ENIX
Björn Holste is localization QA manager at Square Enix, overseeing, shaping and improving the LQA for many titles and franchises including Tomb Raider, Just Cause and Life is Strange. He has worked in LQA and QA for over a decade and during this time has worked in various roles on many different titles. After a brief stint in Software/Web QA, he joined the great team at Square Enix about 2 years ago.
Echo Huang
Senior Delivery ManagerBeyondsoft Corporation
Ann Hurley
Vice President of Business DevelopmentTestronic
Ann Hurley has worked within the games industry for over 30 years, starting in sales team management within the distribution sector, then moving into publishing. For the past 12 years, she has been working in the quality assurance vendor space. Although steps have been taken to embrace diversity within our industry, Ann feels strongly about the nurturing of young women within games, to ensure they are supported through coaching in order to build their confidence to find their true potential.
Marina Ilari
CEOTerra Localizations
Marina Ilari is an ATA certified translator with 16 years of experience in the localization industry. She has worked as a translator and quality assurance specialist for many companies around the world with a special focus on video game localization. Marina is the chief executive officer of Terra Localizations and co-host of the podcast En Pantuflas. She was a 2020 recipient of the Enterprising Women of the Year award.
Marina Ilinykh
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Marina Ilinykh started her career in localization in 2011. Since then she’s been working in game localization on both the vendor and client sides. Currently Marina is the head of localization at Playrix, overseeing localization of all of the company’s titles, ensuring market-readiness and driving innovation initiatives.
Gina Jackson
Games Consultant/AdvisorGina Jackson is a games industry consultant and advisor. She started in games development in 1992 and has worked for developers, publishers, and distributors covering console, PC, and mobile games. Gina is particularly passionate about diversity, mental health, and skills development. She is treasurer of GamesAid, on the board for NextGen Skills Academy, and a visiting professor in games industry and business at Norwich University of the Arts (NUA). Gina recently received the MCV/DEVELOP Women in Games award for her outstanding contribution, a fellowship from NUA for services to the games industry, and has been honored with an Order of the British Empire for her work in education and diversity in the games industry.
Maryam Jaddoo
Localization ManagerWizards of the Coast
Maryam Jaddoo is the head of localization at Wizards of the Coast. She is responsible for leading critical product development and localization of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons and MTG Arena among others. Maryam has 10 years of localization experience. In her career, she has worked as a translator, game guide writer, game tester and project manager. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French and a master’s degree in project management and is fluent in multiple languages. Maryam is originally from Mauritius and her native language is French.
Paul Jakovlev
Customer Success Team LeadLokalise
Paul Jakovlev is a customer success team lead at Lokalise. He is an avid gamer and living the dream of learning about behind the scenes of game development by helping his favorite industry with localization challenges. In his spare time, Paul likes to binge-watch documentaries on various streaming platforms.
Rafał Jaworski
Linguistic AI ExpertXTM International
Rafał Jaworski, PhD, is an academic lecturer and scientist specializing in natural language processing techniques. His alma mater is Adam University in Poznań, Poland, where he works at the Department of Artificial Intelligence. Rafał’s scientific work concentrates around developing robust AI algorithms for the needs of computer assisted translation. These include automatic lookup of linguistic resources and computer assisted post editing, among others. Apart from the research and teaching, he works as linguistic AI expert at XTM International, leading a team of young and talented developers who put his visions and ideas into practice.
Renée Jessen
CEOCharacter Publishing & Localization
Cofounder and CEO of Character Publishing & Localization since 2010, Renée Jessen initially started working as a dubbing translator in the mid-nineties while studying rhetoric and history of ideas. The challenge of creating spoken language and personality in translations is still the favorite part of his job although business development takes up the majority of his time. Today, Character is both a global localization company focused on games and a publishing house of interactive experiences for children. Renée’s main focus is to balance the use of technologies and the translators’ need for a creative approach to their work.
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli
Head of Translation ServicesTestronic
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli was born in Argentina, has lived in several countries and has always been marked by books, games, languages and having to adapt to different cultures. Choosing to pursue studies in translation led to living in Warsaw. Around 2015, this escalated from working with Testronic’s localization quality assurance team to being involved in the development of Testronic’s translation services. He has managed the translation process for multiple game titles and tries to be involved as a translator or editor when time permits (aside from being constantly engaged with games and other forms of culture).
Alex Johnson
Dubbing ProducerPatricia Jurado
Head of Content and InsightsKing
Patricia is the current Head of Content and Insights, managing a team of content strategists and insights analysts at King Player Support. Previously, she worked at eDreams Odigeo as Head of Content and Localization, managing a team of UX writers, Content Specialists and translations providers responsible for the group websites and apps content in 20 languages. Between 2008 and 2014, Patricia worked at Google as a Language Manager driving quality product localization for Spain and Portugal. Patricia started her professional career in SDL as a translator and project manager. She holds a Master in Internet Business from ISDI and has completed Scrum Master official training. Patricia is the former manager of the Catalan Chapter of Women in Localization.
Your Job Title: Head of Content and Insights
Tomasz Juszczak
Vice President of TechnologyFuero
Tomasz Juszczak is vice president of technology at Fuero Games, where he leads and oversights all projects in the company from the technical side, including technology research and implementing programmers code quality principles. His current focus at Fuero Games is leading of the Artificial Intelligence Testing Framework R&D Project. The AITeF project is being developed as one of the selected projects under a grant from the National Center for Research and Development in Poland. His personal portfolio includes projects for different disciplines, from the medical field, car industry to sales projects in which he worked closely with Samsung and TVN. He has expertise in VR, AR, SaaS, applications, 2D/3D games for mobile, console and PC.
Alex Kang
Chief Operating OfficerBridge Translations
Alex Kisok Kang is the cofounder and chief operating officer of Bridge Translations in Seoul, Korea. He has been in the translation industry for over 15 years, working in various capacities including freelance translator, lecturer and language service provider executive. He has transformed Bridge Translations from a conventional translation company into a dedicated mobile game localization company. Alex previously oversaw all aspects of day-to-day management but with the growth of business, he now focuses on QA and client relations.
Polina Karpova
Vendor ManagerLevsha
For the past 2 ½ years, Polina Karpova has been a vendor manager at Levsha localization studio where she is responsible for seeking and recruiting new vendors as well as guiding and helping them throughout their cooperation with Levsha. Whenever vendors face an issue with payment, workload, information, or production — she is there for them. Polina studied international relations at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (English and Spanish languages) and as a student, she participated in a game localization workshop in 2016.
Dominick Kelly
Client Solution Director - Europe, Middle East and AsiaXTM International
Dominick Kelly fell into the localization industry 16 years ago as a software engineer and decided never to leave. Over time, he has been involved with the localization tool space and worked at some of the largest language service providers in the world. For the past six years, Dominick has worked at XTM International, as a key part of the team focused on driving innovation and growth at the forefront of cloud-based language technology.
Ayesha Khan
Principal Narrative DesignerDeep Silver Dambuster Studios
Ayesha Khan is an unapologetic word nerd, fascinated by the way languages change over time and influence the way their speakers think. Having moved around for most of her life, Ayesha has used her cultural adaptability and comfort with several languages to help her integrate into game development studios in four countries, where she has worked on titles including The Lord of the Rings Online, Gears Tactics, Wizard101, DarkOrbit and APB. Ayesha has been a narrative designer, writer, content designer and everything in between. Her favorite forms of amateur anthropology include sampling local food and drink wherever she can and gleefully inflicting her karaoke skills upon bar patrons around the world.
Vladimir Konoplitsky
CEORIOTLOC
Vladimir is a team lead and head of the localization studio Riotloc. He started as a games translator and editor in 2007 and worked on everything from casual indie games to AAA titles. Vladimir is a specialist in QA and translation tools and is an old fan of the Total War series, but has an affection for RPGs. He is a strong believer in handcrafting the approach and team-like relations between developers and localizers. Apart from inventing new ways of working in his team, he occasionally speaks at game conferences, organizes localization workshops and gamedav events. He failed university exams once because of Fallout 3.
Gábor Kovács
Game Localization ExpertmemoQ
As part of the memoQ gaming unit, Gábor Kovács uses his abilities to combine technical knowledge with sales skills to act as a primary contact for product demos, client needs assessment, and training along with many other duties. Using his well-honed communication skills, he can simplify and communicate complex concepts to a nontechnical audience. Gábor’s IT background also gives him the edge when it comes to technical discussion and finding the right solutions. He has been an avid gamer since childhood.
Denisse Kreeger
Head of Global Localization ProductionRiot Games
Denisse Kreeger is the head of global localization production at Riot Games, and the Los Angeles chapter manager at Women in Localization. With over 15 years of experience in the localization industry, she has also managed localization production at Blizzard Entertainment and Netflix, where she helped build much of the localization infrastructure. Denisse graduated from UCLA and has an MA from the University of Roehampton in audiovisual translation.
LinkedIn: dkreegerl10n
Mathieu Lachance
FQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Mathieu Lachance has worked in the video game industry for over 12 years on more than 400 video game titles. He currently heads Keywords’ Testing services through the Keywords, VMC, Babel and Enzyme studios, leading an international team of over 2500 spanning 15 studios. He has been a featured expert, speaker and lecturer in/at MCV magazine, Develop magazine, Gamasutra, HEC Montreal University, EA’s XDS, Oculus Connect, MIGS, NGDC and more.
Renato Laus
Lead QA CoordinatorRovio Entertainment
Renato Laus is a lead quality assurance (QA) coordinator at Rovio Entertainment. He takes pride in ensuring its games have top-notch quality, and works daily with the QA leads. Renato heads up several cross-unit initiatives engaging with internal stakeholders, and he champions localization in the company as a means to expand the market reach of its games, therefore taking steps to improve the localization processes, interfacing with internal teams and external vendors alike.
LinkedIn: renato-laus-91b506a5
Stephen Laverick
Team Experience DirectorTestronic
Stephen Laverick is the team experience director at Testronic. He is responsible for recruitment, learning and development, and the community of employees. Though he is based in Warsaw, Stephen’s current role covers the UK, Europe and the United States. He has over 20 years of recruitment and learning, and development experience. Stephen has held numerous positions across the UK and Europe at various companies ranging from start-ups to blue chip companies. From a young age he has had a passion for gaming and still plays on a number of devices, so putting his passion for gaming and developing people together is like a dream come true!
Luca Lazari
Audio Technical Operations ManagerKeywords Studios
Luca Lazari works for Keywords Studios as an audio technical operations manager. He worked for music and TV studios after graduating in sound and recording engineering, and science and technology of music communication. Luca joined the game localization industry in 2008 as an audio project lead at Binari Sonori, later acquired by Keywords Studios. After managing the audio technical part for multilanguage localization of countless games (including AAA titles) for over a decade, he moved to Keywords Studios audio localization division, operating at a global level, supervising audio technical processes and workflows.
LinkedIn: lucalazari
Tom Lee
CofounderLOVO
Tom Lee worked in sales at MuleSoft (now a Salesforce company) and digital marketing at LG prior to his time at LOVO. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UC Berkeley.
When Tom is not interacting with users or reading up on the latest trends in AI and voice, he can be found writing poems, drinking beer, training in a boxing gym, scuba diving, or playing FIFA.
LinkedIn: tomsklee
Ville Lehtinen
Senior DeveloperRovio Entertainment
With over a decade of experience working on both mobile/embedded graphics engines and games, Ville Lehtinen has worked with game studios at companies such as Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Rovio. His recently released titles include South Park Phone Destroyer (Ubisoft Redlynx) and Small Town Murders (Rovio).
LinkedIn: ville-lehtinen-99337410
Marie Leininger
Vendor SpecialistElectronic Arts
After graduating from the Cologne University of Applied Science, Marie Leininger started work as a localization project manager for marketing content. In 2017, she moved to Electronic Arts as a vendor specialist and interim multilingual localization specialist. Marie’s main focus is on evaluating and defining translation and post-editing quality, and establishing and maintaining vendor relationships.
Audrey Lepage
Senior Localization Project ManagerBigpoint GmbH
With a degree in modern languages and literature, Audrey Lepage started her career in the games industry in 2010 as a French localization tester for DTP Entertainment, Hamburg. After a year of testing fun, she moved to Bigpoint where she first worked as a French translator, then as a localization project manager (LPM) and then was promoted to senior LPM in 2017. In the constant search for more efficient and streamlined workflows, Bigpoint transitioned to XTM four years ago and has been tailoring the tool to meet their requirements with the support of the XTM team.
Michael Liu
R2GamesMichael Liu is a Chinese-Canadian English localization specialist and quality assurance at Reality Squared Games, with over 20 years of gaming experience especially in MMORPGs, MOBAs and CCGs which require an intimate understanding of game mechanics. Michael loves to play video games on a deep level with self-imposed challenges such as low-level games (beat games at the lowest level possible), naked runs (not wearing any equipment), iron man (permanent death, can only use what you find). He is responsible for highly technical translations that contain heavy gaming jargon or deep understanding of game mechanics. Has extremely accurate and creative translations.
Irina Lokshyna
Development DirectorWargaming
Federica Lusardi
Senior Translator/Editor - ItalianSQUARE ENIX
A passionate gamer since childhood, Federica Lusardi began working in the videogames industry when she moved to London in 2011 to study for an MA in audiovisual translation. After a brief time as a language tester for SEGA and translating her first game for Codemasters as a freelancer, she worked at Pole To Win as an in-house translator and team supervisor. Federica joined Square Enix in 2016, where she currently works as Italian translator/editor. Her work encompasses translation for games and marketing campaigns, and she has translated games such as Life is Strange 2, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the FINAL FANTASY Trading Card Game and Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Sílvio Macedo
Senior Localization DirectorBluelab
Sílvio Macedo has 15 years of experience in game localization and has managed dozens of AAA titles, as well as a vast variety of mobile and online games of all genres for multi-platforms. Sílvio has managed/overseen every step of the localization process, from translation to audio recording and post-production. His hands-on approach gives him a thorough knowledge of the complex localization process involved in each game title. He’s currently the senior localization director at BlueLab, where he’s been working since 2004.
Takako Maeda
Globalization Project ManagerKing
Takako Maeda is a globalization project manager at King, inspired by the Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement, Kaizen. She joined King in 2014 and recently has taken on the challenge of internationalization, working closely with game engine developers to ensure high quality in King games. She loves coming up with creative solutions to problems and working with colleagues from across the organization. She lives in Barcelona and in her free time enjoys making Japanese ceramics.
Sebastian Maeser
LQA Project ManagerKeywords Studios
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual TranslationUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron is a lecturer and a member of the research group TransMedia Catalonia at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is the director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation and has extensive experience as a translator, specializing in software and game localization. Carme’s research interests include game localization, game accessibility, audiovisual translation and accessibility to the media. She has published extensively in international journals, participated in several research projects and is one of the principal investigators of the Researching Audio Description: Translation, Delivery and New Scenarios (RAD), funded by the Spanish Government. Carme is coauthor of Game Localization: Translating for the Global Digital Entertainment Industry (O’Hagan and Mangiron, 2013) and one of the editors of Fun for All: Translation and Accessibility Practices in Video Games (Mangiron, Orero & O’Hagan, 2014).
Anca Marica
EMEA Localization ManagerUbisoft
Anca Marica is a localization professional with over ten years of experience in the video game industry. At Ubisoft, she oversees the localization operations for the EMEA region by keeping in close contact with project managers and handling various transversal topics such as loc quality, process improvement or vendor management to ensure the localized versions of Ubisoft games meet company standards.
She holds a BA in English and Spanish philology, a master’s degree in international studies and an MS in project management.
Teresa Marshall
VP Globalization & LocalizationSalesforce
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 Education. From 2014 to 2016 she was on the board of Women in Localization. Before joining Salesforce in 2009, Teresa managed localization efforts at both Google and PGP in Silicon Valley while teaching at MIIS. An active member of the localization community, she has been the organizer and cohost of the annual Localization Unconference in Silicon Valley since 2009.
Jakub Marszałkowski
GIC & Indie Games Poland FoundationJakub Marszałkowski is the cofounder and a board member of Indie Games Poland, conducting projects that provide the presence of Poland at expos and conferences, travel scholarships, game jams, or visits of foreign delegations in Poland. Jakub regularly serves as a spokesperson for the Polish game industry and the CEE region. He was recognized with the annual award of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as an organizer and promoter working for game developers. As the head of the Game Industry Conference in Poznań, Jakub developed it into one of the largest events in the CEE region. He is also a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Poznan University of Technology.
Nadine Martin
Senior Manager, Test ServicesSony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Nadine Martin has been working in the games industry and quality assurance (QA) for over 15 years. She joined Sony PlayStation’s internal QA team after completing a degree in business administration, starting initially as a localization tester for German and progressing to the management of the localization test team. In 2013 she became senior manager for test services which includes localization and functional testing. The team is responsible for testing game franchises such as Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Horizon and God of War on all PlayStation platforms, including virtual reality and mobile. Nadine has presented extensively on QA and localization topics.
Robert Masella
Senior Gameplay EngineerRare(Microsoft)
Robert Masella is a Senior Software Engineer at Rare with over 14 years of experience working of game development. He has worked on a wide variety of games including Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the Kinect Sports series, and Sea of Thieves. He’s worked on a variety of feature areas, but mostly spends time developing AI, physics and animation code. During production of Sea of Thieves, he has been heavily involved in the automated testing of gameplay code, in order to maintain the build integrity required for a service game.
Philip Mayes
Managing DirectorMighty Kingdom
Philip Mayes is the managing director of Mighty Kingdom, winner of the 2019 Australian Game Developer of the Year Award. With more than 15 years of experience, he has worked on games for many large international brands, including Star Wars, LEGO, and Disney. Founded by Philip in 2010, Mighty Kingdom is one of the largest and most diverse game developers in Australia, with over 120 people working across Australia and New Zealand. He is a passionate advocate for the industry locally, and is eager to see that industry be as inclusive, progressive, and successful as possible.
Twitter: @pjm
Fabio Minazzi
Text Localization DirectorKeywords Studios
Fabio Minazzi has been into localization of interactive media since 1992, dealing with text, audio and video contents at Philips Interctive Media. After founding Binari Sonori, he dealt with software localization projects for Sun, Oracle, Peregrine and Adobe for a decade, using CAT and WISIWIG localization tools, DTP and workflow systems. This experience has proven useful in the roaring game localization industry, where, for the past ten years, Fabio has been in charge of game localization by Codemasters, Microsoft, Capcom, Square Enix and Bandai-Namco. An active member of Games Localization SIG and cofounder of the Games Localization Round Table, he is passionate about building bridges between cultures and helping people publish great content worldwide.
Hugo Miranda
Language SpecialistBlizzard Entertainment
As a language specialist for Latin American Spanish, Hugo Miranda’s main quest is to find what serves players best. From making linguistic creative decisions on style, translation and voiceover to diving deep into the history and culture of the region, he combines a passion for video games, languages and heritage.
Anneta Mitsopoulo
Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Anneta Mitsopoulou has been with Electronic Arts (EA) since 2008. She holds a diploma in translation and is based in Cologne, Germany. Anneta’s current focus lies on workflow optimization and automation. She is also involved in machine translation research at EA and is passionate about technology and automating workflows.
Maciej Miąsik
Pixel CrowMaciej Miąsik is a veteran game developer, producer, designer, sound designer, programmer and cofounder of several gamedev studios that have been active for the past 25 years. Maciej was head of production and responsible for the first part in 2007 of the Witcher series. Other games he has participated in may be known to adventure game players: Reah: Face the Unknown, Schizm: Mysterious Journey, Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon and Sentinel: Descendants in Time, and recently, Beat Cop. One title codeveloped by him is Electro Body (1992), considered one of the first successful Polish PC games. Maciej is also actively engaged in different educational efforts such as curriculum director at Game Dev School and as a regular lecturer at Warsaw Film School and Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology. He is currently working as a member of the board at Movie Games S.A. and on his new game at Pixel Crow.
Valentina Mollica
LQA ManagerTestronic
Nadine Monschau
Senior Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Nadine Monschau is senior localization manager at EA, leading the translation, vendor management, machine translation, and desktop publishing teams. She has a background in translation and started her career at EA and in the video game localization industry in 2001. Currently, Nadine has kicked off an inclusive language initiative to ensure that players can immerse in an inclusive experience when they play EA games. She is also the local chair of EA’s Women’s Ultimate Team Employee Resource Group and passionate to help women (and her teams in general) progress in their careers.
Catherin Newmann Halebian
Localization Manager, OG Production & LATAMBlizzard Entertainment
As a localization manager, Catherin Newmann Halebian’s main objective is to support her teams and pipelines, enabling them to provide the highest level of service. She does this with tools such as neural machine translation, digital asset management and computer-assisted translation. Working with multidisciplinary stakeholders has enabled her to develop expertise in interpretation (simultaneous, consecutive and live streamed subtitles) as well as audiovisual and multimedia localization.
Kassi O’Connor
Outside Services DirectorGlu Mobile
Kassi O’Connor began her career in gaming over 11 years ago working in external development. Since then, she’s worked on over 100 titles, been a producer and has expanded the outsourcing and localization department to 11 studios worldwide. Kassi is currently the outside services director and runs all external services for Glu Mobile, including external development, localization and independent contractors. She enjoys working with external teams and using them in a way that they feel ownership of the game they are working on. Kassi has presented at numerous international and US conferences. She holds a BA in communication and an MBA.
Bazz O'Reilly
LQA Service Delivery ManagerKeywords Studios
Tony O'Dowd
KantanAI Director & Head of Localization TechnologyKeywords Studios
Tony O’Dowd is the founder and chief architect of KantanAI, a cloud-based AI and custom machine translation solutions provider which is a part of Keywords Studios. He is a serial entrepreneur and localization veteran with more than 25 years of experience working in the language industry. Tony has previously held senior positions at Lotus Development Corporation, Symantec Corporation, Corel Corporation Ltd., and Alchemy Software Development, which he founded in 2000. He holds a BS in computer science from Trinity College Dublin, and a fellowship from the Localization Research Institute at the University of Limerick. Today, Tony leads innovations in KantanAI and localization technology at Keywords Studios.
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen
Global Head, PMOKeywords Studios
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen is officially an industry veteran, having spent 20 years in different roles in testing and localization services at Square Enix. He has recently joined Keywords Studios to build cross-service programs, supporting their global development and publishing clients. He remains an active and enthusiastic member of the game localization and testing community.
Ana Paredes
Project ManagerUbisoft
Ana Paredes joined the localization and video game industries by chance after moving to Montreal. During her tenure at Keywords, she worked briefly in testing before moving to translation, in what was, at the time, one of the most secret and expected projects of the company — Starcraft 2. Following that, Ana provided for Brazilian Portuguese content management at Expedia, and subsequently moved into project management at companies such as SDL and Transperfect. Most recently she worked on Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising. Ana’s interests revolve around all things related to diversity, inclusion, skateboarding, and cats. She thinks completing games is overrated, and the last title she saw through was Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime, which doesn’t even have VO!
LinkedIn: ana-gt-paredes
Donna Parrish
PrincipalLocWorld
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 Translators without Borders.
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer
Turn 10 Quality ManagerMicrosoft
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer grew up in what was then rural Bellevue, Washington, and went to Western Washington University before joining Microsoft in 1998. He was in development for six years before joining the centralized test organization. Jimbo has been a quality manager at Microsoft for twelve years and shipped dozens of Xbox and PC games. He had a three and a half year detour as the test manager for HoloLens Experiences and is happy to be back working on games. Jimbo is currently the Turn 10 quality manager and super proud of the just released Forza Horizon.
Vlad Pomarjanschi
QC Localization Team LeadUbisoft
Vlad Pomarjanschi started his career at Ubisoft six years ago, pursuing his all-time passion for videogames. Vlad quickly got involved in localization testing, subsequently joining QC-LOC where he climbed through the ranks, becoming its team lead three years ago. This position offered him the opportunity to engage in numerous and diverse Ubisoft projects, from small-scope titles to AAAs, facing all the challenges and rewards that come with managing localization testing. Vlad considers himself very lucky to be involved in such an impactful, yet dynamic field, with talents from so many different cultures and backgrounds.
Sandra Pourmarin
Localization ConsultantUbisoft
Sandra Pourmarin’s journey in the video game localization industry started 16 years ago with Ubisoft Montreal. Initially Localization Project Manager, she has been localization consultant for ten years now, overseeing Ubisoft NCSA localization and defining Ubisoft worldwide localization strategy with key localization stakeholders. No need to say that localization is one of Sandra’s favorite topics. Very enthusiastic about constant changes in the video game industry, which she sees as an opportunity to challenge oneself and foster out-of-the-box thinking in order to optimize localization processes while always targeting high quality standards.
Chris Priestman
Business Development ManagerZA/UM
Chris Priestman has a keen interest in experimental video games after spending a decade in journalism. He now works at ZA/UM, the studio behind the award-winning, roleplaying game Disco Elysium, where he started as a writer and soon became the producer in charge of localization. Chris is now the business development manager at ZA/UM.
Twitter: @CPriestman
Liz Prince
Business ManagerAmiqus
Liz Prince is the business manager at award-winning recruitment specialist Amiqus. She is also the founder of Putting the G Into Gaming, an initiative to build more diverse and inclusive workplaces in games. Putting the G into Gaming has four focuses: attracting women into games from other industries; supporting women already working in the games sector; working with schools, universities and colleges to promote games as an attractive career option for girls and young women; and helping studios with their equity, diversity, and inclusion journey through the Empower Up program.
Elzbieta Pustul
TestronicElżbieta Pustuł is a quality assurance (QA) manager with over 10 years of experience in areas of localization, end-user support,and QA services for top-tier game publishers around the world. She started her career working for Electronic Arts as a customer support analyst where she has acquired her initial training and widened her skills. Later she worked as a localization and QA specialist for CD-Projekt, the publisher of The Witcher series of games. Her name can be spotted in credits of numerous games, including Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl, The Witcher, Mass Effect, Metro 2033 and Far Cry 5. At the end of a day, Elżbieta is usually pushing the “on” button on her favorite game console in pursuit of another platinum trophy.
Cristina Pérez Cerezo
Keywords StudiosCristina is the linguist team lead in the Barcelona office of the Keywords Studios. She graduated from the University of Granada with a B.A. in Translation and Interpreting. A couple of years later, she decided to specialize and took a master’s in audiovisual translation course at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Thanks to a collaboration program established between the university and Keywords Studios, she had the opportunity to do an internship as a Spanish language specialist at the company’s office in Dublin, where she ended up becoming part of the team.
Catalina Quijano
Localization Project ManagerMichael Radnitz
Senior Producer, LocalizationBlizzard Entertainment
Michael Radnitz is a senior producer with more than 12 years of experience in the games industry. He has shipped more than ten AAA titles (such as Diablo III and Overwatch) globally across various platforms . Planning, documentation and scheduling are words that excite Michael, and he thoroughly enjoys all aspects of production. He was involved in the localization of every Blizzard IP as well as web-based and other non-game content. Over the past five years, Michael’s focus has been on the Diablo and Overwatch franchises, including shipment of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls on console and in China, the release of Overwatch and the set up of the localization pipeline for the Overwatch League. He is currently setting up the localization pipeline for Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal.
Leilani Ramirez
Manager of DialogueSony Interactive Entertainment
Leilani Ramirez is the manager of dialogue for Sony Interactive Entertainment. An island girl from Hawaii, Leilani moved to Los Angeles (LA) and graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a BA in communications and recording arts. After dabbling in the film and TV post-production world, she fell into the interactive realm and started her game audio career at Electronic Arts — Los Angeles in 2003, working on multiple titles as the dialog lead for the Medal of Honor and Command & Conquer series. From there, Leilani jumped into the freelancing world and was the dialogue supervisor for several titles including Uncharted 3, ADR1FT and Fat Princess Adventures before landing at Sony PlayStation where she completed God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and photography, and volunteers at the Children’s Hospital of LA, with her dog, Frodo, who is a member of the dog-therapy team.
Chris Rowley
LQA Head of Division/Operations DirectorKeywords Studios
Chris Rowley, an industry veteran since 2002, spent his first five years in development as a games designer and producer. He moved to Codemasters to become their first quality assurance (QA) manager. Since then he has held various QA, localization management and director roles at publishers SCEE, Eidos, 2K and EA. Chris then moved to the vendor side in 2014 working at Testronic, PTW and now Keywords where he is currently responsible for the LQA service line and FQA operations. Chris has been a regular presenter and panelist on the conference circuit for a number of years.
Dave Ruane
Digital Content and Partnerships ManagerXTM International
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 currently manages digital content and partner strategies at XTM International. Dave 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.
Inés Rubio
Language Services Sr. Global ManagerNI
Inés Rubio is a localization veteran with experience in ecommerce, marketing and 15 years of gaming industry background. Her interest in process improvement centered around technology and outsourcing solutions drove her to research potential machine translation applications to games localization before the Google Neural Machine Translation landmark. Inés currently applies her passion to translation and localization processes at National Instruments, a leader in software defined automated testing and measurements.
Hadrien Rudich
Localization Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Hadrien Rudich is a localization project manager at Blizzard Entertainment. He started his localization journey at Blizzard eight years ago as French LQA analyst working on titles such as Diablo 3, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone. He moved on to new responsibilities after a few years as a project manager specialized in outsourcing solutions. In his current role Hadrien has been involved in numerous game releases and in 2018 he began working in a more central position on Overwatch, where his extensive knowledge and love for the game, both as an avid player and professional, are put to good use.
Isabell Rudolph
Localization Project CoordinatorGoodgame Studios
Isabell Rudolph has a BA in technical communication and an MS in software localization. She joined the localization department at Goodgame Studios in 2014, gaining experience in working with free-to-play games for mobile and web, delivering high-quality translations, optimizing workflows and continuously improving localization processes and quality.
Loreto Sanz Fueyo
Senior Director of LocalizationPTW
Loreto Sanz Fueyo, senior director of localization at PTW, graduated from King’s College in London, England, where she received her master’s degree in computational linguistics and formal grammar. She began her professional career as a games tester and translator, developing her localization knowledge and skills for over 13 years before becoming PTW’s director of translation in 2019. Loreto’s passion for communication and clear messaging has made her an invaluable part of PTW’s staff, where she provides guidance to all levels of the organization. Her latest obsession is building a house in Spain and when she’s not busy localizing, she can be found pouring over floor plans and interior design magazines!
António Saraiva
Managing PartnerGojira
António Saraiva is founder and managing partner at Gojira, a media production company that develops video games, apps and conversational characters (intelligent avatars). He taught game design and video game related subjects at Universidade Lusófona, IPA and Restart (Lisbon). Before Gojira, he was producer and game designer at Biodroid Productions and also IP Hunter and licensing manager for Biodroid Entertainment. António has worked in a multitude of media formats ranging from press to television to multimedia off and online. Starting out as a television producer and director in the late 80’s, he founded his own company, Latina-Europa, and authored many children’s, pop music and youth culture TV series. In Portugal he was a pioneer in writing on the internet’s social and creative issues, namely in Blitz, to which he still contributes.
Konstantin Savenkov
CEOIntento
After receiving a PhD in 2008, Konstantin Savenkov led research and development efforts for online content services then worked as CTO at Zvooq and as a chief operating officer at Bookmate. In 2016, he contributed his experience in artificial intelligence (AI), tech and operations to cofound Intento, Inc., where they build tools to source, evaluate and use machine translation (MT) and other cognitive AI services. Intento regularly publishes independent MT evaluation studies and aims to be a reference point for utilizing MT to solve particular business problems.
Tobias Scherf
Solution ArchitectMemsource
Tobias Scherf is a solution architect at Memsource. He draws on his 20 years of experience in the localization industry working with enterprise clients to develop innovative solutions, maximizing the value and adoption of Memsource’s machine translation and AI-based features. Prior to Memsource, Tobias worked in various roles from localization quality assurance in localization engineering to executive management on the language service provider side. He is experienced in running enterprise localization programs including language quality programs and quality analytics. Tobias has been instrumental in the design and development of proprietary solutions to effectively measure and improve translation quality.
David Schumacher
Manager, Test Services - PlayStation Studios QASony Interactive Entertainment
David Schumacher has worked in the industry for over 17 years, 12 of which have been in quality assurance. Starting his career at Sony Internal QA, David rejoined Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2020 after working alongside clients such as the BBC, Fox, and Rebellion as a producer and lead designer. He is a manager in test services, the group that coordinates functional and localization testing for franchises such as Gran Turismo, Horizon, God of War and Dreams across all PlayStation platforms, and recently including PC and mobile.
Miguel Sepúlveda
Global Localization ManagerKing
Miguel Sepúlveda started his journey in the exciting localization world in 1995. He worked as a quality assurance (QA) specialist for Microsoft for a few projects such as Microsoft Project, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. Early in his career, Miguel worked on the vendor side, mainly working for Lionbridge as localization QA manager for different clients. In 2007 he had the opportunity to enter the gaming industry thanks to Electronic Arts where he was responsible for setting up the technical team to provide automated localization QA services to games such as FIFA, Harry Potter or Need for Speed among others. Then Miguel moved the buyer side giving him the opportunity to complete his vision of how the localization industry worked from both sides. In 2014 he joined the King Candy Crush world where his role is to lead the globalization efforts of a very talented team.
Vanessa Shallcross
Head of LocalizationSEGA Europe
Having been in the games industry since 1996, Vanessa Shallcross is an experienced manager of computer game localization on a global basis. In her early years, she worked for Psygnosis, then moved to Sony Computer Entertainment and more recently Bigpoint GmbH based in Hamburg. Since November 2020 Vanessa was honored to be appointed as the Head of Localisation for Sega Europe overseeing all Localisation, Audio, LQA, and Engineering, part of the wider Operations Team, located in Brentford HQ. Her current focus is on getting to know her team and all the stakeholders across the Sega business, as well as planning the strategic direction of the Localisation Department.
Shwetank Sharma
CEOLocNapps Media
Shwetank Sharma is a seasoned management professional with experience across game localization business consulting, business development and localization project management. In his past professional pursuits, international experience in client relationship and project management for localization services stand out. Shwetank founded Locnapps Media in 2014 which has been instrumental in servicing videogame developers/publishers and language service providers for South East Asian, Middle Eastern and Indian Languages.
Kseniya Shorokhova
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Kseniya Shorokhova has an educational background in linguistics but she got into the language industry just five years ago when she found herself working as a Russian-English translator at Playrix. At that time, their localization team consisted of only three people. Kseniya has grown together with the team and the company, gradually making her way to team lead and ultimately becoming the head of localization. She now oversees more than 40 people and is responsible for Playrix’s localization strategy.
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck
Senior Manager, VO ProductionRiot Games
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck is senior manager of voiceover production at Riot Games, leading the team that produces the voiceover for League of Legends, Wild Rift, VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, and Riot Forge’s upcoming titles. Prior to Riot, she was at the helm of Side LA, where her team worked on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, Riot Games’ Legends of Runeterra, Epic Games’ Fortnite: Save the World, Splash Damage’s Gears: Tactics, and Dontnod Entertainment’s Tell Me Why, among hundreds of other titles. At the start of her career, Jacquie spent a decade with Sony PlayStation, coordinating dialog for projects from Socom 3 to God of War 3. She then went on to manage talent and casting for the Worldwide Studios product development services group, including titles such as The Order: 1886, Spiderman, and 2018’s God of War. Jacquie and her husband live with their cat, Bruce, in Los Angeles, California.
IMDb: Jacquie Shriver
Yumi Okubo-Shuman
Localization Engineering ManagerBig Fish
Yumi Shuman is a localization engineering manager in the International team at Big Fish. She is passionate about the integration of language and modern technologies with game products. Her current focus is driving cloud-based CAT technology with the mix of machine translation and TM program strategy. This is a key component in widening content availability for game and marketing localization. When she’s not working, Yumi enjoys playing with her 5-year-old twins.
Harald Simon
Localization DirectorBethesda
Harald Simon is localization director at Bethesda. He has been in the localization industry since the early 1990s, both on the vendor and the client side. In the video games industry he has held senior positions with Virgin Interactive and Electronic Arts, before joining Bethesda in 2011.
Kaushal Singh
QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Kirill Soloviev
CEO & Co-FounderContentQuo
Kirill Soloviev is the CEO and co-founder at ContentQuo, an Estonian translation technology company that helps global LSPs, enterprise localization teams and government agencies reduce their linguistic quality risk, improve vendor performance and boost machine translation quality at scale with a data-driven approach. During his 18 years in the industry, Kirill has served in diverse buyer-side and vendor-side roles, most recently as global director of localization at Acronis. Kirill has also co-organized the Localization Unconference in Tallinn and regularly mentors both new and seasoned localization professionals.
Kirill Soloviev
ContentQuoKirill Soloviev is the cofounder and head of product at ContentQuo, an Estonian tech startup helping localization teams and language service providers manage and reduce localization quality risk at any scale, with any translation management system. With 15 years of experience in localization across diverse buyer and vendor roles, Kirill served most recently as global director of localization at Acronis, a category-leading software product company, where his team was responsible for both linguistic quality assurance (QA) and software QA. Kirill also organizes the Localization unconference in Tallinn and collaborates with TAUS.
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference ManagerGame Global
Francesca has been in the video game localization industry since 2010, covering various roles: from marketing intern and translator for online games at Wooga and Bigpoint, to Senior Multilingual Localization Specialist at Electronic Arts managing large, multilingual titles, to Program Manager for the Games department at Alpha CRC.
Having experienced both the client and the service provider side of the industry, Francesca recently decided to become a freelance translator and consultant and is currently working as Conference Manager for Game Global and video game localization instructor for the Localization Institute.
Mike Souto
Business Development DirectorGridly
Mike Souto has over 20 years of experience in game and app development and localization. He’s a producer of AAA titles, including the Commandos series, TimeSplitters 2, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and many more. With experience of internal and external development teams, Mike’s been involved in game development at various touchpoints in the process.
LinkedIn: michael-souto-287a131
Niall Spooner-Harvey
Account ManagerGlyph Language Services
Niall Spooner-Harvey has over seven years of experience in the localization industry. He is very happy to be back at Glyph after three years away, most recently working as a project manager in the consumer robotics sector. A classics graduate from the UK, Niall is as passionate about gaming as he is about languages, both living and dead. When not talking at great length about the differences between British and American English or being a two-time Pun Slam champion, he can be found playing Cricket Captain 2020 and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Karen Stevens
Sports Accessibility LeadElectronic Arts
Karen Stevens is the Electronic Arts (EA) sports accessibility lead. She strives to improve the user experience for those with interactive differences. Stevens has been in the game industry for over 13 years and has first-hand experience of what it’s like living with disabilities. She has spoken at several conferences on the topic, and has been featured in magazines, television programs and radio shows.
Nate Stoddard
QA Discipline PrincipalEpic Games
Nate Stoddard has been working in quality assurance (QA), testing, hardware development and game development for more than 12 years. In that time, he has worked on over 34 titles, on almost as many platforms. Nate recently moved from Boston to North Carolina to work at Epic Games and is now a senior QA lead on Fortnite.
Leticia Sáenz Murga
Keywords StudiosCurrently, the localization lead at Keywords Studios Barcelona, Leticia Sáenz Murga manages a team of project managers, coordinators, and linguists specializing in the challenges of localizing market leading games. Leticia has over 11 years of experience in video games localization in different roles, from translator to senior project manager, giving her insight of the whole development and localization process as well as in-depth knowledge of game development and design.
Blanca Sánchez Joplin
Game WriterSocialpoint
Blanca Joplin has been working for over five years as a game writer at Socialpoint, one of Spain’s most vibrant game developers. During this time, she has worked on some very successful titles, including Monster Legends (her main focus and love of her life), Dragon City, World Chef and Word Life. Blanca’s background is in translation, having spent two years as a freelance translator and subtitler prior to arriving at Socialpoint, which has been her home ever since.
Andrea Tabacchi
VP Customer SuccessMemsource
Andrea Tabacchi is the vice president of customer success at Memsource where he utilizes his extensive experience in building customer-centric language technology solutions for multinational corporations and global translation companies. He and his team work with clients to develop solutions to address their translation technology needs, including innovative ways to optimize the Memsource platform, and liaise between clients and internal teams to suggest tool improvements. Prior to Memsource, Andrea spent over ten years on the language service provider side where he served in several roles in language technology, from localization engineering to technology director.
LinkedIn: andreatabacchi
Tülay Tetiker McNally
Director, Inclusive Design & Product DevelopmentElectronic Arts
Tülay Tetiker McNally is director, inclusive design and product development at Electronic Arts, and is responsible for establishing EA Studio’s global approach to creating inclusive products and features that put players first, partnering with EA development teams worldwide. Beginning her career in the video games industry more than 15 years ago at SEGA and Square Enix, she later joined Electronic Arts to head up central development operations at BioWare Edmonton. More recently Tülay was a senior development director at DICE Stockholm. Tülay is originally from Turkey and was raised in Munich, Germany. She has had the opportunity to live and work in countries across Europe and North America. An experienced public speaker and mentor of students and young professionals, she connects with gamers to listen to what makes them feel excluded or marginalized. For the future Tülay wants players to engage with games in safe, fun, and positive ways regardless of who they are or where they are from, to bring inclusive design and thinking to the core of game design. Tülay holds an MA in American studies, with specializations in the history of immigration and civil rights movement, and a BA in psychology from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 2020 she was selected as an inaugural member of TGA’s Future Class.
Mette Tingey
DirectorAlpha CRC
Mette Tingey is the director of Alpha Games, responsible for the revenue, accounts and commercial side of all games business within Alpha. Alpha is a mature LSP with 30+ years of experience providing end-to-end localization solutions to games developers and publishers across the globe.
Tamara Tirjak
Senior Localization ManagerFrontier Developments
Tamara Tirjak is the senior localization manager of Frontier Developments, a self-publishing video game developer based in Cambridge, UK. She is responsible for coordinating all localization-related activities across the organization, focusing on establishing reproducible, automated processes in order to streamline translation efforts and support the company’s international presence. Tamara’s previous experience includes working as an in-house linguist, project manager, translation tool support engineer, and technical trainer for various leading language service providers. She is a certified memoQ trainer, a qualified English-Hungarian translator and interpreter, and holds an MS degree in technology management.
Demid Tishin
All Correct GroupDemid Tishin is a game designer, entrepreneur and mentor. In 2006, he founded Allcorrect Group, a language services business and won a good name with customers such as EA, Ubisoft, Bandai Namco and Gaijin. He also founded Translation Forum Russia, a major convention for the translation industry, and helped to develop ISO 11669, the first ISO standard on translation services. Since 2016, Demid has been the full-time CEO of Funbakers, a game development studio.
To Be Announced
Sony Interactive EntertainmentGeorge Tong
Senior DirectorBeyondsoft Corporation
George Tong has nearly 19 years of IT and business management experience in the product globalization industry. Since 2016, George has worked in the US as senior engineering director, using his globalization industry knowledge, leading Beyondsoft’s onshore/offshore team to globalize clients’ products portfolios. Prior to that, in Nov 2005, George was the general manager and chief technical lead of Product G11N Services Business Unit at Beyondsoft, overseeing project management, technology innovation, personnel management, and business operations.
Charles Ulbig
LT LeadElectronic Arts
Charles Ulbig’s first role in 2002 at Electronic Arts was as QA tester for Football Manager in Cologne, Germany. One day the localization supervisor asked if he was interested in traveling around the world for free — well, almost free. Back in the day, localization testers were sent directly to the development studios to test the games and Charles’ first project abroad was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in Chertsey, UK. For him, it was an incredible experience to work on the same game with so many different people from around Europe. What motivates Charles, besides working with games, is the creativity behind the process of localization. Nothing is more gratifying to him than finding solutions to localization problems and seeing them later in-game. In 2007, Charles moved with EA to Madrid, Spain, took the position of senior tester and then became the localization testing team lead for German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. He is responsible for three permanent linguistic experts and up to 50 temporary employees during peak times.
Ulises Uno
Content & Localization ManagerEtermax
Ulises Uno is content and localization manager at etermax, leading a strategic area for the company’s gaming division which is focused on developing and publishing worldwide social games that entertain, connect and foster knowledge in up to 34 languages. With an educational background in social sciences and translation, he joined the gaming industry as a translator and copywriter. Ulises currently leads a team of language specialists, user experience writers and content producers, guiding them toward a product-centric mindset.
Jeferson Valadares
CEODoppio Games
Jeferson Valadares is CEO and cofounder of Doppio Games, a voice-first game studio based in Lisbon, Portugal. He was also the lead designer on the studio’s debut title The Vortex, available for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. He is also a member of the board of directors at Rovio. In past lives he was VP/GM of Mobile at Bandai Namco; Studio GM at Electronic Arts and Executive Producer at BioWare in San Francisco; Studio Director at Playfish and Creative Director at EA Mobile in London; and Game Development Director at Digital Chocolate’s Sumea studio in Helsinki.
Andrew Vestal
Senior Localization Program ManagerAmazon Game Studios
Andrew Vestal got his start in games localization in 2004, turning Japanese RPGs into English at Tokyo’s 8-4, Ltd. He moved back to the United States in 2006 to work at Blizzard Entertainment, where he oversaw the localization of the first two World of Warcraft expansions, Diablo III, and Battle.net. In 2013, he took a brief break from games to join Microsoft to focus on localization tooling and pipeline design. At Amazon Game Studios since 2017, Andrew currently oversees translation and translation testing of all first-party AGS titles, Twitch Prime, and Lumberyard. He loves retro games and has accidentally started a collection of CRT monitors in his garage.
Brandon Victor
Keywords StudiosJanet Weddle
Technical QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Janet Weddle is a technical QA manager with 15 years of experience in game development, project management, test management and automation. She started her career as a game developer at KnowWonder, Inc. which became Amaze Entertainment. Janet’s development experience there and her later roles in test management and project management led to her strong appreciation of great tools. Throughout her career she saw the benefit of tools and automation in test, development, art and management. Success in these areas led to Janet current position as a technical QA manager and an automation advocate.
Ben Wibberley
Managing PartnerDAQA
Ben Wibberley has over 20 years of experience in the video game industry, specializing in executive strategy, global production support, external development, international production and live operations. Having signed, grown and managed $100M’s of multi-service deals, he has an intimate knowledge of industry best practices, working with some of the most well-known companies in the business. Ben founded DAQA as an independent, new generation video games support agency. DAQA provides strategic consultancy, evaluation and implementation of operations for AAA studios, alongside representation of unique, disruptive, technology-based service companies.
Matt Wilson
Global Head of Format QASony Interactive Entertainment
Matt Wilson is a leader in the software and hardware industry with over 20 years of specialist quality assurance (QA) and testing experience. He is currently the global head of format QA within Sony Interactive Entertainment which handles all compliance for PlayStation globally. Matt has experience leading and building a large (250+) co-located team that deals with 30,000+ products globally annually, each with very short service-level agreements. He recently transitioned four separate regional QA teams to a single co-located global QA team. Matt lives in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Hayato Wada Wong
Cofounder & Localization Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Hayato Wada Wong is a ten-year video game and localization industry veteran, trilingual in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Having shipped titles and work experience in AAA game titles with Sega, as well as working in the outsourcing/gaming-as-a-service industry at Pole to Win and Streamline Studios, Hayato is versed in game production, quality assurance (QA) and localization. Currently, he is a localization manager and cofounder for Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group, a business division involved in rejuvenating the post development process of localization, culturalization marketing, QA, and compliance testing into something fit for the modern times. Hayato hopes to make game development as enjoyable as playing games.
LinkedIn: hayato-wada-wong-b909537
Christine Xaysakda
International Account ManagerLBS Suite
At LBS Suite, Christine Xaysakda is responsible for developing international business, participating in company strategies, and (what she loves the most) advising language service providers on the optimization of clients’ internal processes through technologies. She is passionate about technology, languages, and cultures. Christine loves brainstorming: talking about new business, projects, and ideas. Perhaps you can try speak with her in Mandarin, Cantonese, English or French.
Jingyu Zhang
KingVladimir Zhdanov
Vladimir has been in game localization since 2010. He started as an undergraduate Mandarin-to-Russian translator. He graduated in 2012 with a thesis on Chinese MMORPG translations, and gradually improved his skills until he ended up managing a team of in-house translators for a Chinese mobile gaming company in Beijing in 2015. He lives a life of a passionate localizator: in his spare time he localizes the webcomics series Zen Pencils, and in early 2017 he and his wife volunteered to localize the Indian comic book Menstrupedia into Russian.
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk
QA DirectorQLOC
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk graduated in Japanese studies and public relations but as soon as he started his adventure with functional and compliance testing in 2010, he knew there was no going back. After moving to Madrid, he gathered professional experience in localization quality assurance (QA) while working for Electronic Arts on IPs like Battlefield, FIFA, Sims and Need for Speed. He continued his career at QLOC as a team leader and project manager (PM). As a PM Sergiusz oversaw projects for external clients and the QA process for in-house porting projects, including titles like Resident Evil 6, DmC: Devil May Cry, Ultra Street Fighter IV and more. As a QA director since 2014, he manages QLOC’s QA department that employs over 170 specialists, supervises the work of managers and leads, and is responsible for the coordination of all department activities.
Game Global
Game GlobalNick Adams
Director of Transgender RepresentationGLAAD
Nick Adams is the director of transgender representation at GLAAD. He is a resource for media content creators who are telling stories about transgender people. Nick has consulted on hundreds of films and TV shows to help them create authentic transgender characters and stories. He has also worked with Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, DONTNOD, and other gaming companies to create trans-inclusive video games. Nick joined GLAAD in 1998, and transitioned himself at that time.
Belén Agulló García
FounderAccessibility Warriors
Belén Agulló García holds a BA in translation and interpreting studies, an MA in audiovisual translation, and a PhD in multimedia accessibility. The topic of her dissertation was accessible subtitles for virtual reality and that was the beginning of her journey as an accessibility advocate. Previously, Belén worked for more than five years in the game localization industry, holding different leadership positions. She combined her years in this industry with her true calling, training others. Currently, Belén is the VP of learning and lead media researcher at Nimdzi Insights and the founder of Accessibility Warriors.
Pedro Alfageme
Audio Artist ManagerElectronic Arts
Pedro Alfageme is audio artist manager at Electronic Arts. He is responsible for the technical quality of the localized dialogue and the continuous improvement of processes and tools. Pedro leads a team that delivers over a million dialogue files across 11 languages with high-quality standards every year. He has been working in the video game industry since 2004. His experience goes from voiceover recording, editing, and post processing to product owner of EA’s content management system for localization. Pedro is currently involved in voice technologies research and development as a localization stakeholder.
Marie Amigues
CEOAltagram
Marie Amigues is the CEO and founder of Altagram. After living in Paris, Ottawa and New York, she settled in Berlin in 2006. Following her studies in philosophy at La Sorbonne, Marie obtained an MBA in marketing management at Essec. In 2017, she was selected as one of the Top 10 Women in Management in Germany’s gaming industry. Passion, hard work and expertise are the driving forces behind Marie’s accomplishments. She has brought together a team of over 150 talented in-house game localization specialists who have successfully shipped over 5,000 game titles since 2006 for prestigious clients such as Square Enix, Supercell, Blizzard and SEGA, just to name a few.
Cristina Anselmi
Machine Translation LeadElectronic Arts
Cristina Anselmi is machine translation lead at Electronic Arts (EA). She takes care of everything related to machine translation (MT) implementation and maintenance within EA localization, leads a team of MT specialists, and coordinates several developments around MT. Cristina has been in the video game localization industry since 2012, managing all kinds of multilingual projects, from small mobile games to big MMORPGs, and several AAA titles. Her focus for the past four years has been implementing MT and AI technologies to automate workflows within EA localization. Cristina’s goal is to pave the way for this to be welcome in daily life and to be seen as a help rather than an enemy, a powerful tool that can enhance productivity, without jeopardizing quality and creativity.
Estelle Bailly
Localization DirectorHi Rez Studios
With over 20 years of experience in the video game localization industry, Estelle Bailly is an expert in the globalization and internationalization of creative content. She started her career in France, where she learned about the various aspects of the localization pipeline through multiple experiences which lead her to become head of localization at one of the largest video game localization agencies in Paris. In 2016, Estelle joined Hi-Rez Studios, a games-as-a-service studio, as localization director. Since then, her core focus has been to help the company to better engage and serve their international audience, offering them higher quality and enhanced support in various languages. Estelle is currently based in the UK, leading a multicultural team that translates three live games in more than eight languages.
Andrea Ballista
CEOVoiseed
Andrea Ballista has been working in the game industry for more than 25 years. Starting from his passion of music, songwriting, and singing, he holds a degree in computer music. Since cofounding Binari Sonori in 1994, Andrea has been the audio director for Keywords Studios from 2015 until the end of 2019. In 2020 he cofounded Voiseed to proceed into research and development of deep learning-based emotional virtual voices.
LinkedIn: andrea-ballista-4617912
Gérard Barnaud
Localization Project ManagerUbisoft
An industry veteran with 17 years of experience in the gaming industry, Gérard Barnaud started as a localization tester in Ireland in 2001 where he worked for Vivendi. He then moved to Atari headquarters in Lyon, France, where he started as a localization project manager on Neverwinter Nights and evolved to a position of producer for The Witcher (original). He then moved to UBISOFT Montreal and back into localization for Far Cry 2 and Brothers in Arms 3, and ended up in the south of France at the Montpellier studio. Barnaud has worked on various titles ranging from licensed games to large role playing games and intellectual properties for all audiences, and is still passionate about his work.
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz
Senior Localization DirectorElectronic Arts
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz is the senior localization director at EA, heading up all worldwide localization functions including translation, recordings, vendor management, testing and engineering for the video game developer and publisher. Originally a translator by education, she looks back at 15 years of experience in the game localization industry. Her current focus is on shaping the strategic direction of localization in the company’s shift to online service models.
Thomas Barth
Global LQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Thomas Barth (Tommy) has been working in games services for over 12 years and, like many young aspiring professionals, he started in the field of quality assurance (QA) to get a foot in the door of the industry. Since then, he leveled up from German QA tester to test lead, to project manager, to localization quality assurance (LQA) manager and most recently to LQA director at the global games services provider Keywords Studios. Throughout his career, Tommy had the chance to work with brilliant client partners from all sectors of the industry (developers, publishers and hardware manufacturers), provide and supervise testing for games of all genres and sizes, and on all platforms (from consoles to mobile, to the latest and greatest in virtual and augmented reality). He is passionate about the industry and believes that we are better together. Tommy also has a deep love for games and interactive entertainment and feels that all gamers around the world should have the same amazing and immersive experience, no matter which language they speak and play games in. Helping people succeed gives him energy and is one of his key drives as a professional.
Micaela Belluzzo
Global Resource ManagerKeywords Studios
Micaela Belluzzo is the global resource manager at Keywords Studios, focusing on project resourcing and quality control. A translator and interpreter by education, Micaela started her translation career localizing software and media content in 1998. She then joined SDL in Maidenhead as a localization project manager and in 2000 she moved to Milan to manage the EA Italy localization office. From 2003 Micaela contributed to the building of the EA integration hub in Madrid where she worked as head of localization production-integration until 2007. After a two-year break working for international cooperation in Africa and the Middle East, she joined Keywords with a focus on audio localization production and has been working on resource management for the past six years.
Teddy Bengtsson
Founder/DirectorRoundTable Studio
Teddy grew up in Sweden where he studied languages. Although his early professional career diverged into skiing, fashion and the restaurant trade, he eventually came back to languages through localization and a global journey including five home countries. Having held senior localization roles with major IT players Microsoft and Oracle, a crazy idea led him to start an LSP business in Argentina in 2003. RoundTable Studio quickly grew into a regional leader with production centers in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Porto Alegre (Brazil), and a business management unit in Spain where game localization has become one of its key vertical markets.
Mario Bergantiños
Director, Localization Analytics & Video-AudioElectronic Arts
Mario Bergantiños started his journey studying broadcasting, 3D and audio production. After working as a freelancer for several companies he started working at EA and now he has more than 16 years of experience in building high performing teams from audio and video disciplines to data analytics. As a member of EA’s Localization and Madrid leadership teams, Mario is co-responsible for the innovation and strategy of the localization business as well as managing the Audio Artist, Audio Capture, Video Loc and Data Analytics teams.
Mario Bergantiños
Senior Manager- Audio & Video LocalizationElectronic Arts
Priscilla Bermea
Cargo Localization Operations and Partner LeadRiot Games
Priscilla Bermea is the localization operations lead for Latin America at Riot Games. She is Mexican and a professional with over 10 years of experience in the gaming localization industry. Priscilla has been a fierce gamer since she can remember, and has dedicated herself to translating and interpreting videogames for friends and family. After working as a freelance translator and specialized project manager, she turned her favorite hobby into a career, becoming part of the Latin-American Riot Games team in 2016.
Miguel Bernal-Merino
LecturerUniversity of Roehampton
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
Brigitte Berner
Loc Vendor Management SupervisorElectronic Arts
Brigitte Berner is vendor management supervisor at Electronic Arts, leading a small team of vendor specialists. After being with the company for 15 years, building and shaping the vendor management function, including vendor recruitment and quality evaluation processes, her current focus is on automation, leveraging data and exploring usage of AI. Being solution driven, Brigitte is passionate about improving processes and questioning the status quo.
Chris Bewick
Regional FQA Director - EurasiaKeywords Studios
Brian Bies
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy
Managing PartnerLevsha
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy started his journey in video game localization as a freelance translator in 2005. In 2009, he became one of the founders of Levsha localization and has been a managing partner at the studio since then. Despite having a degree in computational linguistics, Fedor’s passion has always been finding new ways to facilitate efficient and joyful interaction and collaboration between different people.
Jonathan Bowring
RiversightJonathan Bowring graduated in computer science and worked for the UK Ministry of Defence and Hewlett-Packard before joining Canon. As Canon’s EMEA localization director, he built an independent services division with its own profit and loss of £15M. Jonathan trained as a mentor and coach and founded Riversight in 2016. The company intends to unlock the potential within leaders, teams and organizations, and provides coaching and facilitation to SME and corporate clients.
Virginia Boyero
Associate ProducerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Virginia Boyero is a history graduate who started a career in games localization in 2006, following a passion for working with languages and quickly getting hooked on the fast-paced tempo of the industry. She joined Massive Entertainment in 2010, and after the release of Far Cry 3 moved on to The Division team where she’s been an Associate Producer for the audio, localization and narrative departments for The Division and The Division 2. Outside of work, Virginia is often found reading travel literature, preferably while on a train.
Gaëlle Caballero
Director of Localization QATestronic
Gaëlle Caballero is a global head of localization quality assurance (LQA) with years of experience in video game QA and localization. A former lawyer, she started her career as a French LQA tester in London and developed her localization skillset working on multiple titles and platforms as a technician, lead, and project manager. Gaëlle successfully developed and delivered Testronic’s Warsaw-based LQA department and is responsible for its continued success. She is recognized for her extensive experience in team management, development, and swift delivery. A great motivator and team builder, she creates confidence and excitement across multiple Testronic global LQA facilities. An advocate for women in games, Gaëlle is involved in Testronic’s initiative aiming to mentor and promote the role of Women in the Games industry. She is also chairman of Testronic’s learning and development committee.
Gordon Campbell
Chief Executive OfficerGo Testify
Gordon Campbell is an experienced entrepreneur, having launched multiple companies in the design and gaming sectors since 2007. Over the last 13 years, Gordon has assisted companies like BBC, HBO and Zynga to produce high-quality entertainment that people want to invest time in. With a masters in human-centered design, he focuses on creating user-centric products using state-of-the-art technology.
Today, Gordon is the CEO of Testify, a company that is uses AI to transform how user testing is conducted within game development; putting players at the heart of every decision. In his current role, Gordon has worked alongside indies to top-50 mobile game studios such as Zynga to ensure they’re using the right testing methods to deliver impact and value within the development cycle.
Eric Say Chan
Program ManagerKeywords Studios
Born in Mexico City and later relocated to Canada, Eric Chan is a program manager with seven years of experience in video game quality assurance (QA). Initially a web developer, he made the jump to video games in 2011 within localization and functionality QA as a tester, test lead and later project manager. Knowledgeable in FQA, LQA, localization and audio, Eric has focused his efforts for the past two years within Keywords’ FQA department. He has since been focusing on project delivery, promoting growth and career paths for staff, and deploying improvements to internal processes.
Anastasiia Chertenkova
Marketing Creatives Team LeadPlayrix
Anastasiia Chertenkova’s path to the game development industry was rather unusual. She started her career as an officer of the police force of Ukraine/inspector of the Ukrainian Bureau of Interpol, senior officer of the criminal investigation sector, and taught administrative law and administrative procedure law in one of the state universities. Then she worked as a freelance translator for a couple of years. She joined the game development industry in 2016, starting as a customer support representative for Playrix. Since then, Anastasiia has held the positions of customer support team lead, community manager and player experience department manager. She is currently marketing creatives team lead.
Glory Choe
Program Manager, R&D LocalizationSalesforce
Before her recent move to Salesforce, Glory started her localization career as a linguist, followed by stints as LQA engineer at Linkedin and L10n producer at Zynga. In 2015, she joined an esports game studio, Super Evil Megacorp, as a Localization Manager, which was truly a dream come true for a lifelong gamer such as herself. Fascinated by different languages and cultures around the world ever since she was little, Glory studied languages and linguistics at the University of Washington in Seattle and has traveled to over 20 countries and three of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Cristian Conteduca
General ManagerYokozuna Data
Cristian Conteduca is general manager of Yokozuna Data. He has a background in scientific computing and physical modeling. Over the past few years, Cristian has developed and implemented AI/ML algorithms applied to video games and high-throughput cloud architectures. His goal is to merge AI and software engineering in a profitable and efficient way in real-life applications.
Daniele Corrado
Customer Support Engineer5th Kind
Daniele had been a consumer of the gaming industry since, well, forever. In 2010 he moved to the other side of the barricades. He began his career as a localization tester for a heterogeneous bunch of titles and platforms. While at Riot Games, Daniele worked in various capacities on every product that was released. His swansong was the global coordination for VALORANT as the Localization Producer for the title. He is currently helping DESTINYbit in developing their next title and he is working as Technical Support Engineer for 5th Kind.
Jamie Cox
Global Content Localization ProducerBlizzard Entertainment
Jamie Cox is a global content localization producer at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard is his first experience in the video game industry, but he’s been in the localization industry for over seven years, first at Gengo, then Welocalize, and then United Language Group. Over the years, Jamie has developed expertise in fast-paced environments, creating useful workflows and problem solving bottlenecks. In his spare time, he enjoys reading (currently the Wheel of Time series), playing way too much Overwatch, and he also plays the harp.
Diego Cresceri
CEO and FounderCreative Words
Diego Cresceri is CEO and founder of Creative Words, a language service provider based in Genoa. At Creative Words he is responsible for the company’s strategy and growth. His clients include multilingual translation agencies, Italian companies aiming to internationalize, and foreign companies aiming to enter the Italian market. Diego graduated from the University of Genoa in translation and interpreting and before founding Creative Words he was a translator, project manager and chief operations officer at a local translation agency. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the European Language Industry Association (ELIA). When not involved in his company, Diego holds workshops and seminars on innovation, artificial intelligence, and machine translation at universities, training schools, and language associations nationally and internationally.
Simone Crosignani
PR ManagerJinglebell Localization
Simone Crosignani worked as a video game journalist for 15 years before moving to the public relations department of Sony Computer Entertainment in Italy. At Sony he handled enthusiast and online media, working on the launch campaigns of PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and 100+ games. In 2006 Simone moved to Binari Sonori, a translation and audio production company, now part of Keywords Studios. In 2016 he joined Jinglebell Localization, the game localization spin-off of audio production powerhouse Jinglebell Communication. Simone has been a member of the International Game Developers Association localization group since day one and has been vice-chair of the group since 2013.
Mirela Cukovic Hanson
Senior Director QAElectronic Arts
Mirela Cukovic Hanson leads Mobile, Maxis and Live quality assurance (QA) teams for Electronic Art’s (EA) development teams around the world. These teams have ensured the quality of players’ experiences in some of the most popular games in the industry: The Sims, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heros; RealRacing3, The Simpsons Tapped Out, PvZ, Battlefield, Madden and others. Mirela is a change agent that has been leading the EA QA organization through several transformations and continues to set a vision for the future and inspire action from what she firmly believes is the best QA talent in the industry. Prior to her current role, Mirela held several technical and operational roles at central and global development groups. She has been at EA for ten years and before that, she held various engineering and technical leadership roles in the Silicon Valley. Mirela holds a degree in computer science from UBC.
Mariana Dadalto Schettino
Gender Inclusive Language SpecialistGame Global
Mariana Dadalto Schettino is a video game localization professional with a passion for gender inclusive language practices and is a project management enthusiast. As a localization tester at Electronic Arts (EA), she has worked to build in quality on more than 15 different titles, from AAA to mobile games. Mariana is the founder of the Gender Inclusive Taskforce for Localization at EA. As the lead stakeholder for this initiative, she creates guidelines for inclusive language for 20 different territories and improves processes regarding gender matters in the department. In addition to researching and implementing guides for a non-binary approach, Mariana works on shipping the first product from EA localization with applied non-binary language. She is currently transitioning to quality assurance testing while continuing as a researcher and adviser for diversity and inclusion practices with an inclusive language approach for localization.
Andrew Dale
KingPaul Davies
Head of Localization and Narrative DesignSocialpoint
Paul Davies manages the English game writing and localization teams at Socialpoint, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games, in sunny Barcelona. Prior to that, he held various positions at Electronic Arts in the UK and Germany, where he most recently managed the worldwide localization of EA’s mobile games portfolio. A keen gamer at heart, Paul started his career as a translator and language tester for console games at Sony Computer Entertainment in (not-so-sunny) Liverpool.
Tabea De Wille
LecturerUniversity of Limerick
Tabea De Wille holds an MA in German and English linguistics from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and an MS in multilingual computing and localization from the University of Limerick, Ireland. She has completed her PhD studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland, where she examined perceived quality in the context of crowdsourced localization. Previously, Tabea worked in the localization industry, primarily in video games localization and is currently a lecturer at the University of Limerick.
Twitter: @TabeaDeWille
LinkedIn: tabeadewille
Mason Deming
XLOCMason Deming is the chief technology officer (CTO) and system architect of XLOC. While at XLOC he has worked closely with developers on high profile titles such as League of Legends, the Call of Duty series and Borderlands. Prior to founding and serving as XLOC’s CTO, Mason enjoyed a successful career in game design, development, business-to-business e-commerce and database administration. He has performed key programming roles on numerous high profile titles while working on staff at Activision. He served as CTO for Roaring Mouse Entertainment and developed, programmed and managed Networld Exchange’s B2B e-commerce system.
Olivier Deslandes
VP Audio & TranslationSIDE Audio PTW
Olivier Deslandes is a games industry veteran, starting as a voice talent, voice director and translator in the late 1990s. He has contributed to more than 200 titles. Olivier joined Side in 2002 to establish and develop its localization department. In 2017, with Side under PTW ownership, he became senior director of global audio. He rose to vice president of audio and translation for PTW and Side in 2018. Olivier holds degrees in communication and advertising.
Diana Díaz Montón
CofounderNative Prime
Diana Díaz Montón is a game localization specialist with over 20 years of experience. She graduated in translation and interpreting, then began her career with an internship at EA Sports. Diana founded Wordlab in 2005 and in 2010 cofounded Native Prime, a company specialized in video game localization. She has been involved in the localization of reference titles such as Dragon Quest XI, Ni no Kuni, Hitman 2 & 3, Snack World, and hundreds more. Diana enjoys spreading the love for video game localization and has participated as a speaker at different events, such as GDC or Gamelab, both addressed to future localizers as well as to developers and publishers. She collaborates with different universities and institutions where she teaches game localization and project management, and has also written a series of articles about the challenges of game localization.
Twitter: maloria
LinkedIn: dianadiazmonton
Dmitry Drozdov
KingJakub Dudkowski
Senior QA Project ManagerQLOC
Jakub Dudkowski is a quality assurance (QA) professional with over eight years of experience as a functionality, localization and certification QA tester, team leader, project manager, training manager, community manager and QA manager. Currently he is a senior QA project manager at QLOC. Jakub is also a fighting game player, tournament organizer, host and community supporter with over 16 years of competitive experience. He has worked on over 100 titles including several fighting games.
Nathalie Duret
HR ManagerKeywords Studios
Nathalie Duret is the human resource manager (HR) at Keywords Studios, Paris, France, and as such, she is responsible for recruitment and training. She has worked for more than 20 years in the localization industry, including 13 years at Electronic Arts, France. Nathalie has held various positions giving her the opportunity to tackle video games localization specifics such as text and audio localization, project management, vendor management, team management and more. In 2013, she decided to move to HR to bring support to the localization teams from a different perspective, to focus on people development and to help the teams grow and adapt to constantly changing environments.
Kate Edwards
CEO / Principal ConsultantGeogrify
Kate Edwards is the CEO and principal consultant of Geogrify, a consultancy for content culturalization, a board member of Take This, and is the former executive director of the International Game Developers Association from 2012 to 2017. In addition to being an outspoken advocate that serves in several advisory/board roles, she is a geographer, writer and corporate strategist who pioneered the field of content culturalization in games. As Microsoft’s first geopolitical strategist on the geopolitical strategy team she created and managed, Edwards protected the company against political and cultural content risks across all products and locales. Since Microsoft, she has assisted many clients on a variety of geopolitical and cultural issues across many products and game franchises. Kate is also a columnist for MultiLingual magazine. Fortune magazine named her as one of the “10 most powerful women” in the game industry and she was named by GamesIndustry.biz as one of their six People of the Year. In April 2018, she was honored with Reboot Develop’s annual Hero Award.
Mario Ferrer
Senior UX WriterSenior UX Writer
Mario Ferrer is a senior (or señor) user experience (UX) writer. He designs content that guides users across digital products and services. Mario is a part of UX Writers Spain, a local community of practitioners that guide professionals on how to get into the discipline, and helps companies discover the value of the UX writer role within a product team. He’s always trying to find the best tacos in town, listens to stand-up comedy and teaches his two kids about Mexican Lucha Libre.
Stanisław Fiedor
CEOFuero
Stanisław Fiedor graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics with the master degree in finance and accounting. His adventure with interactive content started already in high school were together with the current chief technical officer he was developing flash-based multiplayer experiences. During his university times, he started an interactive agency. Stan is the chief executive officer and cofounder of Fuero Games. Stan grew the studio from a four people team to a 40 professionals big experienced team. During this time he closed deals with some of the biggest players in the industry like WarGaming, Nexon, CD Projekt or Miniclip and responsible for signing IP’s like The Witcher. Stan is also a founding member of the Polish Games Association.
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content Localization
Loquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content LocalizationLoquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck is an independent consultant who learned his trade setting up and managing localization
processes and teams for free-to-play/mobile games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games on
the publisher side. This made him develop a particular interest in seeking and trying out new language
technology and service provider models that allow for economic and quality continuous translation
workflows. Connecting the dots between the needs of product owners with the strengths of service
providers, he now supports businesses in selecting and implementing the right processes, tools and
partners for their products.
Krzysztof Fudro
FQA Team LeadKeywords Studios
Krzysztof Fudro is functionality quality assurance (QA) lead at Keywords Studios Katowice. He and his team work with clients to achieve the highest testing efficiency possible. Prior to Keywords Studios Katowice, Krzysztof worked at In-House Studio as a game designer and QA tester. That experience allows him to predict what each client needs the most, sometimes even before the client realizes it. Krzysztof’s addiction to efficiency, combined with an interest in automation, always pushes him further to improve and optimize processes.
Joshua van Gageldonk
Guerrilla GamesJoshua van Gageldonk started working as a quality assurance tester in Guerrilla Games in August 2013, at the very end stages of development of Killzone Shadow Fall. After the development of Killzone Shadow Fall was completed, he was part of the test team for Horizon Zero Dawn, where he specialized in testing Robots, World Activities (non story-driven content), Random Encounters and Living World.
Carlos Garcia-Shelton
Product ManagerXLOC
Carlos Garcia-Shelton is the product manager at XLOC and is responsible for overseeing the business and all aspects of product development. Learning game production from many different angles such as quality assurance, development, publishing and localization has led him to a love for identifying and executing ways to bring together global teams and organize their efforts in the most efficient and effective ways.
Steven Garrad
Outsourcing, Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Jaime Gine
Keywords StudiosJaime Giné is chief customer officer for Keywords Studios. He represents the voice of the customer in the Keywords global organization across all services and designs innovative and customized solutions for Keywords top clients, always within the framework of strategic partnerships. Before joining Keywords he was vice president international development services at Electronic Arts (EA). Prior to joining EA, Jaime worked at SDL, holding various positions as departmental manager, project manager and divisional director. He was also part of the executive team that led SDL during the IPO.
Natalie Gladkaya
Director of LocalizationPlarium
Natalie Gladkaya joined the game localization industry in 2011 as a translator/editor, then managed teams of game localization and localization quality assurance. During her tenure with Plarium, she has worked on localizing over ten web and mobile game titles, including Raid: Shadow Legends and Mech Arena, into a variety of languages, building localization workflow, and both in-house and remote localization teams from the ground up.
LinkedIn: natalie-gladkaya
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov
Head of LocalizationSocial Quantum
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov started in translation and adaptation of text games at local IRC networks in 2003. He then switched to software and ended up doing amateur localization of huge titles like SWAT 4 and Septerra Core. Now Mike is the head of localization at Social Quantum, one of the top ten largest game publishers in Russia and Eastern Europe. The mobile game developer has created such titles as Megapolis, Wild West: New Frontier, Dragon’s World, Ice Age World, and Poker Jet, and is in the process of creating more. The company has also been conducting successful experiments in machine translation and machine translation post-editing.
Kaysie Green
Program Manager, Games LocalizationGlyph Language Services
Kaysie Green joined Glyph in 2015 as a project manager and developed her zone of genius around the games industry. This passion was her path to becoming a project manager devoted to Glyph’s games clients. Kaysie is currently the program manager for Glyph’s games division. In this role, she ensures continuous process improvement, up-to-the-moment market research, production quality and the cultivation of Glyph’s team of top-tier, game-obsessed linguists. Before coming to Glyph, Kaysie earned her BA in international relations from Gonzaga University, in 2013.
Aditya Gupta
Cofounder & QA Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Aditya Gupta is a cofounder of Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group. Currently working as a quality assurance and release manager at Day Zero, he has over nine years of game industry experience in game production and release management. Aditya is versed in quality assurance, title certification, and the release management process for multiplatform games. Over the years, he has worked on 12 AAA titles from Ubisoft, Codemasters, Streamline Games, and various other AAA publishers. In his leisure, he loves to cook and cruise around on his motorbike.
LinkedIn: my.linkedin.com/in/aditya-gupta-64204086
Clara Gómez Pérez
Localization Lead & Vendor ManagerGoodgame Studios
Clara Gómez Pérez joined the game localization industry ten years ago. Since 2011 she has led the localization department at Goodgame Studios. She holds a BA in translation and interpreting and an MA in specialized translation. Clara’s favorite localization-related topics are content management systems, key performance indicators, localization tools, process automation and funny localization mistakes.
Patricia Gómez Jurado
Associate Director of Content DesignKing
Patricia Gómez is based in Barcelona, where she is associate director of content design at King. She is building the first content design craft at King, managing a team of content designers and leading content operations. Previously, Patricia was the head of content at eDreams Odigeo, leading a team of UX writers and localization specialists. She started her career in the localization industry and worked six years as localization manager at Google Spain and Portugal. She currently teaches localization in the UX writing course by Shifta (Elisava).
Patrick Görtjes
Localization Project ManagerMassive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio
Patrick Görtjes is a Localization Project Manager at Massive Entertainment, the lead development studio behind the Tom Clancy’s The Division games. Patrick holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Communication and got his start in the industry as a translator before moving on to project management. When he’s not working, Patrick enjoys hiking, board games, and karaoke.
Lukasz Hacura
Anshar StudiosChristin Hansson
KingChristin Hansson has been working with quality assurance (QA), project management and agile methods in the mobile industry for 15 years. She is now working hands-on for two game teams at King and is successfully supporting them in their ways of working with QA. Christin is also working together with the localization team at King to improve their testing processes. She has a big passion for both games and quality.
Amanda Hawthorne
Inclusive Language SpecialistElectronic Arts IL
Amanda Jane Hawthorne is an inclusive language specialist with a background as an English teacher, trainer, and materials writer. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the area of diversity, specializing in race and LGBT+ awareness. Currently based in Madrid, Amanda works full time in the tech industry, is the founding director of The Bechdel Film Club Madrid, and volunteers with antiracism organizations. She is also an award winning researcher and recently contributed to the book How To Write Inclusive Materials by Tyson Seburn.
Ulrich Henes
PrincipalLocWorld
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.
Inés Hernández
Electronic ArtsInés Hernández is a veteran game industry professional with over 15 years of experience in video games localization. She is currently managing the localization portfolio and project management teams at Electronic Arts.
Robert Herzog
Head of LocalizationTravian Games
Robert Herzog is the of head of localization and writing at Travian Games, overseeing the strategic direction of both departments. He’s been with the company for 11 years, starting as a localization project manager in 2011. Before that, Robert earned his spurs in other video game companies as localization project manager and translator. He found his way into the gaming and localization industry as freelance translator in 2004.
Celia Hodent
Game UX ConsultantCelia Hodent
Celia Hodent is recognized as a leader in the application of user experience (UX) and cognitive science in the game industry. Celia holds a PhD in psychology and has over ten years of experience in the development of UX strategy and processes in video game studios. Through her work at Ubisoft, LucasArts, and as director of UX at Epic Games (Fortnite), she has contributed to many projects across multiple platforms, from PC to consoles, mobile, and VR. Celia is also the founder of the Game UX Summit, advisor for the GDC UX Summit, member of the Foresight Committee at CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, an independent French administrative regulatory body), author of The Gamer’s Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design and The Psychology of Video Games. She currently works as an independent consultant, helping studios increase the likelihood of their games to be engaging and successful. Celia also provides guidance on the topics of playful learning, ethics, unconscious bias, and inclusion in technology.
Twitter: @CeliaHodent
Blog: celiahodent.com
Bjorn Holste
Localization QA ManagerSQUARE ENIX
Björn Holste is localization QA manager at Square Enix, overseeing, shaping and improving the LQA for many titles and franchises including Tomb Raider, Just Cause and Life is Strange. He has worked in LQA and QA for over a decade and during this time has worked in various roles on many different titles. After a brief stint in Software/Web QA, he joined the great team at Square Enix about 2 years ago.
Echo Huang
Senior Delivery ManagerBeyondsoft Corporation
Ann Hurley
Vice President of Business DevelopmentTestronic
Ann Hurley has worked within the games industry for over 30 years, starting in sales team management within the distribution sector, then moving into publishing. For the past 12 years, she has been working in the quality assurance vendor space. Although steps have been taken to embrace diversity within our industry, Ann feels strongly about the nurturing of young women within games, to ensure they are supported through coaching in order to build their confidence to find their true potential.
Marina Ilari
CEOTerra Localizations
Marina Ilari is an ATA certified translator with 16 years of experience in the localization industry. She has worked as a translator and quality assurance specialist for many companies around the world with a special focus on video game localization. Marina is the chief executive officer of Terra Localizations and co-host of the podcast En Pantuflas. She was a 2020 recipient of the Enterprising Women of the Year award.
Marina Ilinykh
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Marina Ilinykh started her career in localization in 2011. Since then she’s been working in game localization on both the vendor and client sides. Currently Marina is the head of localization at Playrix, overseeing localization of all of the company’s titles, ensuring market-readiness and driving innovation initiatives.
Gina Jackson
Games Consultant/AdvisorGina Jackson is a games industry consultant and advisor. She started in games development in 1992 and has worked for developers, publishers, and distributors covering console, PC, and mobile games. Gina is particularly passionate about diversity, mental health, and skills development. She is treasurer of GamesAid, on the board for NextGen Skills Academy, and a visiting professor in games industry and business at Norwich University of the Arts (NUA). Gina recently received the MCV/DEVELOP Women in Games award for her outstanding contribution, a fellowship from NUA for services to the games industry, and has been honored with an Order of the British Empire for her work in education and diversity in the games industry.
Maryam Jaddoo
Localization ManagerWizards of the Coast
Maryam Jaddoo is the head of localization at Wizards of the Coast. She is responsible for leading critical product development and localization of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons and MTG Arena among others. Maryam has 10 years of localization experience. In her career, she has worked as a translator, game guide writer, game tester and project manager. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French and a master’s degree in project management and is fluent in multiple languages. Maryam is originally from Mauritius and her native language is French.
Paul Jakovlev
Customer Success Team LeadLokalise
Paul Jakovlev is a customer success team lead at Lokalise. He is an avid gamer and living the dream of learning about behind the scenes of game development by helping his favorite industry with localization challenges. In his spare time, Paul likes to binge-watch documentaries on various streaming platforms.
Rafał Jaworski
Linguistic AI ExpertXTM International
Rafał Jaworski, PhD, is an academic lecturer and scientist specializing in natural language processing techniques. His alma mater is Adam University in Poznań, Poland, where he works at the Department of Artificial Intelligence. Rafał’s scientific work concentrates around developing robust AI algorithms for the needs of computer assisted translation. These include automatic lookup of linguistic resources and computer assisted post editing, among others. Apart from the research and teaching, he works as linguistic AI expert at XTM International, leading a team of young and talented developers who put his visions and ideas into practice.
Renée Jessen
CEOCharacter Publishing & Localization
Cofounder and CEO of Character Publishing & Localization since 2010, Renée Jessen initially started working as a dubbing translator in the mid-nineties while studying rhetoric and history of ideas. The challenge of creating spoken language and personality in translations is still the favorite part of his job although business development takes up the majority of his time. Today, Character is both a global localization company focused on games and a publishing house of interactive experiences for children. Renée’s main focus is to balance the use of technologies and the translators’ need for a creative approach to their work.
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli
Head of Translation ServicesTestronic
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli was born in Argentina, has lived in several countries and has always been marked by books, games, languages and having to adapt to different cultures. Choosing to pursue studies in translation led to living in Warsaw. Around 2015, this escalated from working with Testronic’s localization quality assurance team to being involved in the development of Testronic’s translation services. He has managed the translation process for multiple game titles and tries to be involved as a translator or editor when time permits (aside from being constantly engaged with games and other forms of culture).
Alex Johnson
Dubbing ProducerPatricia Jurado
Head of Content and InsightsKing
Patricia is the current Head of Content and Insights, managing a team of content strategists and insights analysts at King Player Support. Previously, she worked at eDreams Odigeo as Head of Content and Localization, managing a team of UX writers, Content Specialists and translations providers responsible for the group websites and apps content in 20 languages. Between 2008 and 2014, Patricia worked at Google as a Language Manager driving quality product localization for Spain and Portugal. Patricia started her professional career in SDL as a translator and project manager. She holds a Master in Internet Business from ISDI and has completed Scrum Master official training. Patricia is the former manager of the Catalan Chapter of Women in Localization.
Your Job Title: Head of Content and Insights
Tomasz Juszczak
Vice President of TechnologyFuero
Tomasz Juszczak is vice president of technology at Fuero Games, where he leads and oversights all projects in the company from the technical side, including technology research and implementing programmers code quality principles. His current focus at Fuero Games is leading of the Artificial Intelligence Testing Framework R&D Project. The AITeF project is being developed as one of the selected projects under a grant from the National Center for Research and Development in Poland. His personal portfolio includes projects for different disciplines, from the medical field, car industry to sales projects in which he worked closely with Samsung and TVN. He has expertise in VR, AR, SaaS, applications, 2D/3D games for mobile, console and PC.
Alex Kang
Chief Operating OfficerBridge Translations
Alex Kisok Kang is the cofounder and chief operating officer of Bridge Translations in Seoul, Korea. He has been in the translation industry for over 15 years, working in various capacities including freelance translator, lecturer and language service provider executive. He has transformed Bridge Translations from a conventional translation company into a dedicated mobile game localization company. Alex previously oversaw all aspects of day-to-day management but with the growth of business, he now focuses on QA and client relations.
Polina Karpova
Vendor ManagerLevsha
For the past 2 ½ years, Polina Karpova has been a vendor manager at Levsha localization studio where she is responsible for seeking and recruiting new vendors as well as guiding and helping them throughout their cooperation with Levsha. Whenever vendors face an issue with payment, workload, information, or production — she is there for them. Polina studied international relations at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (English and Spanish languages) and as a student, she participated in a game localization workshop in 2016.
Dominick Kelly
Client Solution Director - Europe, Middle East and AsiaXTM International
Dominick Kelly fell into the localization industry 16 years ago as a software engineer and decided never to leave. Over time, he has been involved with the localization tool space and worked at some of the largest language service providers in the world. For the past six years, Dominick has worked at XTM International, as a key part of the team focused on driving innovation and growth at the forefront of cloud-based language technology.
Ayesha Khan
Principal Narrative DesignerDeep Silver Dambuster Studios
Ayesha Khan is an unapologetic word nerd, fascinated by the way languages change over time and influence the way their speakers think. Having moved around for most of her life, Ayesha has used her cultural adaptability and comfort with several languages to help her integrate into game development studios in four countries, where she has worked on titles including The Lord of the Rings Online, Gears Tactics, Wizard101, DarkOrbit and APB. Ayesha has been a narrative designer, writer, content designer and everything in between. Her favorite forms of amateur anthropology include sampling local food and drink wherever she can and gleefully inflicting her karaoke skills upon bar patrons around the world.
Vladimir Konoplitsky
CEORIOTLOC
Vladimir is a team lead and head of the localization studio Riotloc. He started as a games translator and editor in 2007 and worked on everything from casual indie games to AAA titles. Vladimir is a specialist in QA and translation tools and is an old fan of the Total War series, but has an affection for RPGs. He is a strong believer in handcrafting the approach and team-like relations between developers and localizers. Apart from inventing new ways of working in his team, he occasionally speaks at game conferences, organizes localization workshops and gamedav events. He failed university exams once because of Fallout 3.
Gábor Kovács
Game Localization ExpertmemoQ
As part of the memoQ gaming unit, Gábor Kovács uses his abilities to combine technical knowledge with sales skills to act as a primary contact for product demos, client needs assessment, and training along with many other duties. Using his well-honed communication skills, he can simplify and communicate complex concepts to a nontechnical audience. Gábor’s IT background also gives him the edge when it comes to technical discussion and finding the right solutions. He has been an avid gamer since childhood.
Denisse Kreeger
Head of Global Localization ProductionRiot Games
Denisse Kreeger is the head of global localization production at Riot Games, and the Los Angeles chapter manager at Women in Localization. With over 15 years of experience in the localization industry, she has also managed localization production at Blizzard Entertainment and Netflix, where she helped build much of the localization infrastructure. Denisse graduated from UCLA and has an MA from the University of Roehampton in audiovisual translation.
LinkedIn: dkreegerl10n
Mathieu Lachance
FQA DirectorKeywords Studios
Mathieu Lachance has worked in the video game industry for over 12 years on more than 400 video game titles. He currently heads Keywords’ Testing services through the Keywords, VMC, Babel and Enzyme studios, leading an international team of over 2500 spanning 15 studios. He has been a featured expert, speaker and lecturer in/at MCV magazine, Develop magazine, Gamasutra, HEC Montreal University, EA’s XDS, Oculus Connect, MIGS, NGDC and more.
Renato Laus
Lead QA CoordinatorRovio Entertainment
Renato Laus is a lead quality assurance (QA) coordinator at Rovio Entertainment. He takes pride in ensuring its games have top-notch quality, and works daily with the QA leads. Renato heads up several cross-unit initiatives engaging with internal stakeholders, and he champions localization in the company as a means to expand the market reach of its games, therefore taking steps to improve the localization processes, interfacing with internal teams and external vendors alike.
LinkedIn: renato-laus-91b506a5
Stephen Laverick
Team Experience DirectorTestronic
Stephen Laverick is the team experience director at Testronic. He is responsible for recruitment, learning and development, and the community of employees. Though he is based in Warsaw, Stephen’s current role covers the UK, Europe and the United States. He has over 20 years of recruitment and learning, and development experience. Stephen has held numerous positions across the UK and Europe at various companies ranging from start-ups to blue chip companies. From a young age he has had a passion for gaming and still plays on a number of devices, so putting his passion for gaming and developing people together is like a dream come true!
Luca Lazari
Audio Technical Operations ManagerKeywords Studios
Luca Lazari works for Keywords Studios as an audio technical operations manager. He worked for music and TV studios after graduating in sound and recording engineering, and science and technology of music communication. Luca joined the game localization industry in 2008 as an audio project lead at Binari Sonori, later acquired by Keywords Studios. After managing the audio technical part for multilanguage localization of countless games (including AAA titles) for over a decade, he moved to Keywords Studios audio localization division, operating at a global level, supervising audio technical processes and workflows.
LinkedIn: lucalazari
Tom Lee
CofounderLOVO
Tom Lee worked in sales at MuleSoft (now a Salesforce company) and digital marketing at LG prior to his time at LOVO. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UC Berkeley.
When Tom is not interacting with users or reading up on the latest trends in AI and voice, he can be found writing poems, drinking beer, training in a boxing gym, scuba diving, or playing FIFA.
LinkedIn: tomsklee
Ville Lehtinen
Senior DeveloperRovio Entertainment
With over a decade of experience working on both mobile/embedded graphics engines and games, Ville Lehtinen has worked with game studios at companies such as Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Rovio. His recently released titles include South Park Phone Destroyer (Ubisoft Redlynx) and Small Town Murders (Rovio).
LinkedIn: ville-lehtinen-99337410
Marie Leininger
Vendor SpecialistElectronic Arts
After graduating from the Cologne University of Applied Science, Marie Leininger started work as a localization project manager for marketing content. In 2017, she moved to Electronic Arts as a vendor specialist and interim multilingual localization specialist. Marie’s main focus is on evaluating and defining translation and post-editing quality, and establishing and maintaining vendor relationships.
Audrey Lepage
Senior Localization Project ManagerBigpoint GmbH
With a degree in modern languages and literature, Audrey Lepage started her career in the games industry in 2010 as a French localization tester for DTP Entertainment, Hamburg. After a year of testing fun, she moved to Bigpoint where she first worked as a French translator, then as a localization project manager (LPM) and then was promoted to senior LPM in 2017. In the constant search for more efficient and streamlined workflows, Bigpoint transitioned to XTM four years ago and has been tailoring the tool to meet their requirements with the support of the XTM team.
Michael Liu
R2GamesMichael Liu is a Chinese-Canadian English localization specialist and quality assurance at Reality Squared Games, with over 20 years of gaming experience especially in MMORPGs, MOBAs and CCGs which require an intimate understanding of game mechanics. Michael loves to play video games on a deep level with self-imposed challenges such as low-level games (beat games at the lowest level possible), naked runs (not wearing any equipment), iron man (permanent death, can only use what you find). He is responsible for highly technical translations that contain heavy gaming jargon or deep understanding of game mechanics. Has extremely accurate and creative translations.
Irina Lokshyna
Development DirectorWargaming
Federica Lusardi
Senior Translator/Editor - ItalianSQUARE ENIX
A passionate gamer since childhood, Federica Lusardi began working in the videogames industry when she moved to London in 2011 to study for an MA in audiovisual translation. After a brief time as a language tester for SEGA and translating her first game for Codemasters as a freelancer, she worked at Pole To Win as an in-house translator and team supervisor. Federica joined Square Enix in 2016, where she currently works as Italian translator/editor. Her work encompasses translation for games and marketing campaigns, and she has translated games such as Life is Strange 2, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the FINAL FANTASY Trading Card Game and Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Sílvio Macedo
Senior Localization DirectorBluelab
Sílvio Macedo has 15 years of experience in game localization and has managed dozens of AAA titles, as well as a vast variety of mobile and online games of all genres for multi-platforms. Sílvio has managed/overseen every step of the localization process, from translation to audio recording and post-production. His hands-on approach gives him a thorough knowledge of the complex localization process involved in each game title. He’s currently the senior localization director at BlueLab, where he’s been working since 2004.
Takako Maeda
Globalization Project ManagerKing
Takako Maeda is a globalization project manager at King, inspired by the Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement, Kaizen. She joined King in 2014 and recently has taken on the challenge of internationalization, working closely with game engine developers to ensure high quality in King games. She loves coming up with creative solutions to problems and working with colleagues from across the organization. She lives in Barcelona and in her free time enjoys making Japanese ceramics.
Sebastian Maeser
LQA Project ManagerKeywords Studios
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron
Lecturer and Program Director of the MA in Audiovisual TranslationUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carme Mangiron is a lecturer and a member of the research group TransMedia Catalonia at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is the director of the MA in Audiovisual Translation and has extensive experience as a translator, specializing in software and game localization. Carme’s research interests include game localization, game accessibility, audiovisual translation and accessibility to the media. She has published extensively in international journals, participated in several research projects and is one of the principal investigators of the Researching Audio Description: Translation, Delivery and New Scenarios (RAD), funded by the Spanish Government. Carme is coauthor of Game Localization: Translating for the Global Digital Entertainment Industry (O’Hagan and Mangiron, 2013) and one of the editors of Fun for All: Translation and Accessibility Practices in Video Games (Mangiron, Orero & O’Hagan, 2014).
Anca Marica
EMEA Localization ManagerUbisoft
Anca Marica is a localization professional with over ten years of experience in the video game industry. At Ubisoft, she oversees the localization operations for the EMEA region by keeping in close contact with project managers and handling various transversal topics such as loc quality, process improvement or vendor management to ensure the localized versions of Ubisoft games meet company standards.
She holds a BA in English and Spanish philology, a master’s degree in international studies and an MS in project management.
Teresa Marshall
VP Globalization & LocalizationSalesforce
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 Education. From 2014 to 2016 she was on the board of Women in Localization. Before joining Salesforce in 2009, Teresa managed localization efforts at both Google and PGP in Silicon Valley while teaching at MIIS. An active member of the localization community, she has been the organizer and cohost of the annual Localization Unconference in Silicon Valley since 2009.
Jakub Marszałkowski
GIC & Indie Games Poland FoundationJakub Marszałkowski is the cofounder and a board member of Indie Games Poland, conducting projects that provide the presence of Poland at expos and conferences, travel scholarships, game jams, or visits of foreign delegations in Poland. Jakub regularly serves as a spokesperson for the Polish game industry and the CEE region. He was recognized with the annual award of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as an organizer and promoter working for game developers. As the head of the Game Industry Conference in Poznań, Jakub developed it into one of the largest events in the CEE region. He is also a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Poznan University of Technology.
Nadine Martin
Senior Manager, Test ServicesSony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Nadine Martin has been working in the games industry and quality assurance (QA) for over 15 years. She joined Sony PlayStation’s internal QA team after completing a degree in business administration, starting initially as a localization tester for German and progressing to the management of the localization test team. In 2013 she became senior manager for test services which includes localization and functional testing. The team is responsible for testing game franchises such as Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Horizon and God of War on all PlayStation platforms, including virtual reality and mobile. Nadine has presented extensively on QA and localization topics.
Robert Masella
Senior Gameplay EngineerRare(Microsoft)
Robert Masella is a Senior Software Engineer at Rare with over 14 years of experience working of game development. He has worked on a wide variety of games including Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the Kinect Sports series, and Sea of Thieves. He’s worked on a variety of feature areas, but mostly spends time developing AI, physics and animation code. During production of Sea of Thieves, he has been heavily involved in the automated testing of gameplay code, in order to maintain the build integrity required for a service game.
Philip Mayes
Managing DirectorMighty Kingdom
Philip Mayes is the managing director of Mighty Kingdom, winner of the 2019 Australian Game Developer of the Year Award. With more than 15 years of experience, he has worked on games for many large international brands, including Star Wars, LEGO, and Disney. Founded by Philip in 2010, Mighty Kingdom is one of the largest and most diverse game developers in Australia, with over 120 people working across Australia and New Zealand. He is a passionate advocate for the industry locally, and is eager to see that industry be as inclusive, progressive, and successful as possible.
Twitter: @pjm
Fabio Minazzi
Text Localization DirectorKeywords Studios
Fabio Minazzi has been into localization of interactive media since 1992, dealing with text, audio and video contents at Philips Interctive Media. After founding Binari Sonori, he dealt with software localization projects for Sun, Oracle, Peregrine and Adobe for a decade, using CAT and WISIWIG localization tools, DTP and workflow systems. This experience has proven useful in the roaring game localization industry, where, for the past ten years, Fabio has been in charge of game localization by Codemasters, Microsoft, Capcom, Square Enix and Bandai-Namco. An active member of Games Localization SIG and cofounder of the Games Localization Round Table, he is passionate about building bridges between cultures and helping people publish great content worldwide.
Hugo Miranda
Language SpecialistBlizzard Entertainment
As a language specialist for Latin American Spanish, Hugo Miranda’s main quest is to find what serves players best. From making linguistic creative decisions on style, translation and voiceover to diving deep into the history and culture of the region, he combines a passion for video games, languages and heritage.
Anneta Mitsopoulo
Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Anneta Mitsopoulou has been with Electronic Arts (EA) since 2008. She holds a diploma in translation and is based in Cologne, Germany. Anneta’s current focus lies on workflow optimization and automation. She is also involved in machine translation research at EA and is passionate about technology and automating workflows.
Maciej Miąsik
Pixel CrowMaciej Miąsik is a veteran game developer, producer, designer, sound designer, programmer and cofounder of several gamedev studios that have been active for the past 25 years. Maciej was head of production and responsible for the first part in 2007 of the Witcher series. Other games he has participated in may be known to adventure game players: Reah: Face the Unknown, Schizm: Mysterious Journey, Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon and Sentinel: Descendants in Time, and recently, Beat Cop. One title codeveloped by him is Electro Body (1992), considered one of the first successful Polish PC games. Maciej is also actively engaged in different educational efforts such as curriculum director at Game Dev School and as a regular lecturer at Warsaw Film School and Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology. He is currently working as a member of the board at Movie Games S.A. and on his new game at Pixel Crow.
Valentina Mollica
LQA ManagerTestronic
Nadine Monschau
Senior Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Nadine Monschau is senior localization manager at EA, leading the translation, vendor management, machine translation, and desktop publishing teams. She has a background in translation and started her career at EA and in the video game localization industry in 2001. Currently, Nadine has kicked off an inclusive language initiative to ensure that players can immerse in an inclusive experience when they play EA games. She is also the local chair of EA’s Women’s Ultimate Team Employee Resource Group and passionate to help women (and her teams in general) progress in their careers.
Catherin Newmann Halebian
Localization Manager, OG Production & LATAMBlizzard Entertainment
As a localization manager, Catherin Newmann Halebian’s main objective is to support her teams and pipelines, enabling them to provide the highest level of service. She does this with tools such as neural machine translation, digital asset management and computer-assisted translation. Working with multidisciplinary stakeholders has enabled her to develop expertise in interpretation (simultaneous, consecutive and live streamed subtitles) as well as audiovisual and multimedia localization.
Kassi O’Connor
Outside Services DirectorGlu Mobile
Kassi O’Connor began her career in gaming over 11 years ago working in external development. Since then, she’s worked on over 100 titles, been a producer and has expanded the outsourcing and localization department to 11 studios worldwide. Kassi is currently the outside services director and runs all external services for Glu Mobile, including external development, localization and independent contractors. She enjoys working with external teams and using them in a way that they feel ownership of the game they are working on. Kassi has presented at numerous international and US conferences. She holds a BA in communication and an MBA.
Bazz O'Reilly
LQA Service Delivery ManagerKeywords Studios
Tony O'Dowd
KantanAI Director & Head of Localization TechnologyKeywords Studios
Tony O’Dowd is the founder and chief architect of KantanAI, a cloud-based AI and custom machine translation solutions provider which is a part of Keywords Studios. He is a serial entrepreneur and localization veteran with more than 25 years of experience working in the language industry. Tony has previously held senior positions at Lotus Development Corporation, Symantec Corporation, Corel Corporation Ltd., and Alchemy Software Development, which he founded in 2000. He holds a BS in computer science from Trinity College Dublin, and a fellowship from the Localization Research Institute at the University of Limerick. Today, Tony leads innovations in KantanAI and localization technology at Keywords Studios.
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen
Global Head, PMOKeywords Studios
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen is officially an industry veteran, having spent 20 years in different roles in testing and localization services at Square Enix. He has recently joined Keywords Studios to build cross-service programs, supporting their global development and publishing clients. He remains an active and enthusiastic member of the game localization and testing community.
Ana Paredes
Project ManagerUbisoft
Ana Paredes joined the localization and video game industries by chance after moving to Montreal. During her tenure at Keywords, she worked briefly in testing before moving to translation, in what was, at the time, one of the most secret and expected projects of the company — Starcraft 2. Following that, Ana provided for Brazilian Portuguese content management at Expedia, and subsequently moved into project management at companies such as SDL and Transperfect. Most recently she worked on Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising. Ana’s interests revolve around all things related to diversity, inclusion, skateboarding, and cats. She thinks completing games is overrated, and the last title she saw through was Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime, which doesn’t even have VO!
LinkedIn: ana-gt-paredes
Donna Parrish
PrincipalLocWorld
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 Translators without Borders.
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer
Turn 10 Quality ManagerMicrosoft
James (Jimbo) Pfeiffer grew up in what was then rural Bellevue, Washington, and went to Western Washington University before joining Microsoft in 1998. He was in development for six years before joining the centralized test organization. Jimbo has been a quality manager at Microsoft for twelve years and shipped dozens of Xbox and PC games. He had a three and a half year detour as the test manager for HoloLens Experiences and is happy to be back working on games. Jimbo is currently the Turn 10 quality manager and super proud of the just released Forza Horizon.
Vlad Pomarjanschi
QC Localization Team LeadUbisoft
Vlad Pomarjanschi started his career at Ubisoft six years ago, pursuing his all-time passion for videogames. Vlad quickly got involved in localization testing, subsequently joining QC-LOC where he climbed through the ranks, becoming its team lead three years ago. This position offered him the opportunity to engage in numerous and diverse Ubisoft projects, from small-scope titles to AAAs, facing all the challenges and rewards that come with managing localization testing. Vlad considers himself very lucky to be involved in such an impactful, yet dynamic field, with talents from so many different cultures and backgrounds.
Sandra Pourmarin
Localization ConsultantUbisoft
Sandra Pourmarin’s journey in the video game localization industry started 16 years ago with Ubisoft Montreal. Initially Localization Project Manager, she has been localization consultant for ten years now, overseeing Ubisoft NCSA localization and defining Ubisoft worldwide localization strategy with key localization stakeholders. No need to say that localization is one of Sandra’s favorite topics. Very enthusiastic about constant changes in the video game industry, which she sees as an opportunity to challenge oneself and foster out-of-the-box thinking in order to optimize localization processes while always targeting high quality standards.
Chris Priestman
Business Development ManagerZA/UM
Chris Priestman has a keen interest in experimental video games after spending a decade in journalism. He now works at ZA/UM, the studio behind the award-winning, roleplaying game Disco Elysium, where he started as a writer and soon became the producer in charge of localization. Chris is now the business development manager at ZA/UM.
Twitter: @CPriestman
Liz Prince
Business ManagerAmiqus
Liz Prince is the business manager at award-winning recruitment specialist Amiqus. She is also the founder of Putting the G Into Gaming, an initiative to build more diverse and inclusive workplaces in games. Putting the G into Gaming has four focuses: attracting women into games from other industries; supporting women already working in the games sector; working with schools, universities and colleges to promote games as an attractive career option for girls and young women; and helping studios with their equity, diversity, and inclusion journey through the Empower Up program.
Elzbieta Pustul
TestronicElżbieta Pustuł is a quality assurance (QA) manager with over 10 years of experience in areas of localization, end-user support,and QA services for top-tier game publishers around the world. She started her career working for Electronic Arts as a customer support analyst where she has acquired her initial training and widened her skills. Later she worked as a localization and QA specialist for CD-Projekt, the publisher of The Witcher series of games. Her name can be spotted in credits of numerous games, including Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl, The Witcher, Mass Effect, Metro 2033 and Far Cry 5. At the end of a day, Elżbieta is usually pushing the “on” button on her favorite game console in pursuit of another platinum trophy.
Cristina Pérez Cerezo
Keywords StudiosCristina is the linguist team lead in the Barcelona office of the Keywords Studios. She graduated from the University of Granada with a B.A. in Translation and Interpreting. A couple of years later, she decided to specialize and took a master’s in audiovisual translation course at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Thanks to a collaboration program established between the university and Keywords Studios, she had the opportunity to do an internship as a Spanish language specialist at the company’s office in Dublin, where she ended up becoming part of the team.
Catalina Quijano
Localization Project ManagerMichael Radnitz
Senior Producer, LocalizationBlizzard Entertainment
Michael Radnitz is a senior producer with more than 12 years of experience in the games industry. He has shipped more than ten AAA titles (such as Diablo III and Overwatch) globally across various platforms . Planning, documentation and scheduling are words that excite Michael, and he thoroughly enjoys all aspects of production. He was involved in the localization of every Blizzard IP as well as web-based and other non-game content. Over the past five years, Michael’s focus has been on the Diablo and Overwatch franchises, including shipment of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls on console and in China, the release of Overwatch and the set up of the localization pipeline for the Overwatch League. He is currently setting up the localization pipeline for Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal.
Leilani Ramirez
Manager of DialogueSony Interactive Entertainment
Leilani Ramirez is the manager of dialogue for Sony Interactive Entertainment. An island girl from Hawaii, Leilani moved to Los Angeles (LA) and graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a BA in communications and recording arts. After dabbling in the film and TV post-production world, she fell into the interactive realm and started her game audio career at Electronic Arts — Los Angeles in 2003, working on multiple titles as the dialog lead for the Medal of Honor and Command & Conquer series. From there, Leilani jumped into the freelancing world and was the dialogue supervisor for several titles including Uncharted 3, ADR1FT and Fat Princess Adventures before landing at Sony PlayStation where she completed God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and photography, and volunteers at the Children’s Hospital of LA, with her dog, Frodo, who is a member of the dog-therapy team.
Chris Rowley
LQA Head of Division/Operations DirectorKeywords Studios
Chris Rowley, an industry veteran since 2002, spent his first five years in development as a games designer and producer. He moved to Codemasters to become their first quality assurance (QA) manager. Since then he has held various QA, localization management and director roles at publishers SCEE, Eidos, 2K and EA. Chris then moved to the vendor side in 2014 working at Testronic, PTW and now Keywords where he is currently responsible for the LQA service line and FQA operations. Chris has been a regular presenter and panelist on the conference circuit for a number of years.
Dave Ruane
Digital Content and Partnerships ManagerXTM International
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 currently manages digital content and partner strategies at XTM International. Dave 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.
Inés Rubio
Language Services Sr. Global ManagerNI
Inés Rubio is a localization veteran with experience in ecommerce, marketing and 15 years of gaming industry background. Her interest in process improvement centered around technology and outsourcing solutions drove her to research potential machine translation applications to games localization before the Google Neural Machine Translation landmark. Inés currently applies her passion to translation and localization processes at National Instruments, a leader in software defined automated testing and measurements.
Hadrien Rudich
Localization Project ManagerBlizzard Entertainment
Hadrien Rudich is a localization project manager at Blizzard Entertainment. He started his localization journey at Blizzard eight years ago as French LQA analyst working on titles such as Diablo 3, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone. He moved on to new responsibilities after a few years as a project manager specialized in outsourcing solutions. In his current role Hadrien has been involved in numerous game releases and in 2018 he began working in a more central position on Overwatch, where his extensive knowledge and love for the game, both as an avid player and professional, are put to good use.
Isabell Rudolph
Localization Project CoordinatorGoodgame Studios
Isabell Rudolph has a BA in technical communication and an MS in software localization. She joined the localization department at Goodgame Studios in 2014, gaining experience in working with free-to-play games for mobile and web, delivering high-quality translations, optimizing workflows and continuously improving localization processes and quality.
Loreto Sanz Fueyo
Senior Director of LocalizationPTW
Loreto Sanz Fueyo, senior director of localization at PTW, graduated from King’s College in London, England, where she received her master’s degree in computational linguistics and formal grammar. She began her professional career as a games tester and translator, developing her localization knowledge and skills for over 13 years before becoming PTW’s director of translation in 2019. Loreto’s passion for communication and clear messaging has made her an invaluable part of PTW’s staff, where she provides guidance to all levels of the organization. Her latest obsession is building a house in Spain and when she’s not busy localizing, she can be found pouring over floor plans and interior design magazines!
António Saraiva
Managing PartnerGojira
António Saraiva is founder and managing partner at Gojira, a media production company that develops video games, apps and conversational characters (intelligent avatars). He taught game design and video game related subjects at Universidade Lusófona, IPA and Restart (Lisbon). Before Gojira, he was producer and game designer at Biodroid Productions and also IP Hunter and licensing manager for Biodroid Entertainment. António has worked in a multitude of media formats ranging from press to television to multimedia off and online. Starting out as a television producer and director in the late 80’s, he founded his own company, Latina-Europa, and authored many children’s, pop music and youth culture TV series. In Portugal he was a pioneer in writing on the internet’s social and creative issues, namely in Blitz, to which he still contributes.
Konstantin Savenkov
CEOIntento
After receiving a PhD in 2008, Konstantin Savenkov led research and development efforts for online content services then worked as CTO at Zvooq and as a chief operating officer at Bookmate. In 2016, he contributed his experience in artificial intelligence (AI), tech and operations to cofound Intento, Inc., where they build tools to source, evaluate and use machine translation (MT) and other cognitive AI services. Intento regularly publishes independent MT evaluation studies and aims to be a reference point for utilizing MT to solve particular business problems.
Tobias Scherf
Solution ArchitectMemsource
Tobias Scherf is a solution architect at Memsource. He draws on his 20 years of experience in the localization industry working with enterprise clients to develop innovative solutions, maximizing the value and adoption of Memsource’s machine translation and AI-based features. Prior to Memsource, Tobias worked in various roles from localization quality assurance in localization engineering to executive management on the language service provider side. He is experienced in running enterprise localization programs including language quality programs and quality analytics. Tobias has been instrumental in the design and development of proprietary solutions to effectively measure and improve translation quality.
David Schumacher
Manager, Test Services - PlayStation Studios QASony Interactive Entertainment
David Schumacher has worked in the industry for over 17 years, 12 of which have been in quality assurance. Starting his career at Sony Internal QA, David rejoined Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2020 after working alongside clients such as the BBC, Fox, and Rebellion as a producer and lead designer. He is a manager in test services, the group that coordinates functional and localization testing for franchises such as Gran Turismo, Horizon, God of War and Dreams across all PlayStation platforms, and recently including PC and mobile.
Miguel Sepúlveda
Global Localization ManagerKing
Miguel Sepúlveda started his journey in the exciting localization world in 1995. He worked as a quality assurance (QA) specialist for Microsoft for a few projects such as Microsoft Project, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. Early in his career, Miguel worked on the vendor side, mainly working for Lionbridge as localization QA manager for different clients. In 2007 he had the opportunity to enter the gaming industry thanks to Electronic Arts where he was responsible for setting up the technical team to provide automated localization QA services to games such as FIFA, Harry Potter or Need for Speed among others. Then Miguel moved the buyer side giving him the opportunity to complete his vision of how the localization industry worked from both sides. In 2014 he joined the King Candy Crush world where his role is to lead the globalization efforts of a very talented team.
Vanessa Shallcross
Head of LocalizationSEGA Europe
Having been in the games industry since 1996, Vanessa Shallcross is an experienced manager of computer game localization on a global basis. In her early years, she worked for Psygnosis, then moved to Sony Computer Entertainment and more recently Bigpoint GmbH based in Hamburg. Since November 2020 Vanessa was honored to be appointed as the Head of Localisation for Sega Europe overseeing all Localisation, Audio, LQA, and Engineering, part of the wider Operations Team, located in Brentford HQ. Her current focus is on getting to know her team and all the stakeholders across the Sega business, as well as planning the strategic direction of the Localisation Department.
Shwetank Sharma
CEOLocNapps Media
Shwetank Sharma is a seasoned management professional with experience across game localization business consulting, business development and localization project management. In his past professional pursuits, international experience in client relationship and project management for localization services stand out. Shwetank founded Locnapps Media in 2014 which has been instrumental in servicing videogame developers/publishers and language service providers for South East Asian, Middle Eastern and Indian Languages.
Kseniya Shorokhova
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Kseniya Shorokhova has an educational background in linguistics but she got into the language industry just five years ago when she found herself working as a Russian-English translator at Playrix. At that time, their localization team consisted of only three people. Kseniya has grown together with the team and the company, gradually making her way to team lead and ultimately becoming the head of localization. She now oversees more than 40 people and is responsible for Playrix’s localization strategy.
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck
Senior Manager, VO ProductionRiot Games
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck is senior manager of voiceover production at Riot Games, leading the team that produces the voiceover for League of Legends, Wild Rift, VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, and Riot Forge’s upcoming titles. Prior to Riot, she was at the helm of Side LA, where her team worked on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, Riot Games’ Legends of Runeterra, Epic Games’ Fortnite: Save the World, Splash Damage’s Gears: Tactics, and Dontnod Entertainment’s Tell Me Why, among hundreds of other titles. At the start of her career, Jacquie spent a decade with Sony PlayStation, coordinating dialog for projects from Socom 3 to God of War 3. She then went on to manage talent and casting for the Worldwide Studios product development services group, including titles such as The Order: 1886, Spiderman, and 2018’s God of War. Jacquie and her husband live with their cat, Bruce, in Los Angeles, California.
IMDb: Jacquie Shriver
Yumi Okubo-Shuman
Localization Engineering ManagerBig Fish
Yumi Shuman is a localization engineering manager in the International team at Big Fish. She is passionate about the integration of language and modern technologies with game products. Her current focus is driving cloud-based CAT technology with the mix of machine translation and TM program strategy. This is a key component in widening content availability for game and marketing localization. When she’s not working, Yumi enjoys playing with her 5-year-old twins.
Harald Simon
Localization DirectorBethesda
Harald Simon is localization director at Bethesda. He has been in the localization industry since the early 1990s, both on the vendor and the client side. In the video games industry he has held senior positions with Virgin Interactive and Electronic Arts, before joining Bethesda in 2011.
Kaushal Singh
QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Kirill Soloviev
CEO & Co-FounderContentQuo
Kirill Soloviev is the CEO and co-founder at ContentQuo, an Estonian translation technology company that helps global LSPs, enterprise localization teams and government agencies reduce their linguistic quality risk, improve vendor performance and boost machine translation quality at scale with a data-driven approach. During his 18 years in the industry, Kirill has served in diverse buyer-side and vendor-side roles, most recently as global director of localization at Acronis. Kirill has also co-organized the Localization Unconference in Tallinn and regularly mentors both new and seasoned localization professionals.
Kirill Soloviev
ContentQuoKirill Soloviev is the cofounder and head of product at ContentQuo, an Estonian tech startup helping localization teams and language service providers manage and reduce localization quality risk at any scale, with any translation management system. With 15 years of experience in localization across diverse buyer and vendor roles, Kirill served most recently as global director of localization at Acronis, a category-leading software product company, where his team was responsible for both linguistic quality assurance (QA) and software QA. Kirill also organizes the Localization unconference in Tallinn and collaborates with TAUS.
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference ManagerGame Global
Francesca has been in the video game localization industry since 2010, covering various roles: from marketing intern and translator for online games at Wooga and Bigpoint, to Senior Multilingual Localization Specialist at Electronic Arts managing large, multilingual titles, to Program Manager for the Games department at Alpha CRC.
Having experienced both the client and the service provider side of the industry, Francesca recently decided to become a freelance translator and consultant and is currently working as Conference Manager for Game Global and video game localization instructor for the Localization Institute.
Mike Souto
Business Development DirectorGridly
Mike Souto has over 20 years of experience in game and app development and localization. He’s a producer of AAA titles, including the Commandos series, TimeSplitters 2, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and many more. With experience of internal and external development teams, Mike’s been involved in game development at various touchpoints in the process.
LinkedIn: michael-souto-287a131
Niall Spooner-Harvey
Account ManagerGlyph Language Services
Niall Spooner-Harvey has over seven years of experience in the localization industry. He is very happy to be back at Glyph after three years away, most recently working as a project manager in the consumer robotics sector. A classics graduate from the UK, Niall is as passionate about gaming as he is about languages, both living and dead. When not talking at great length about the differences between British and American English or being a two-time Pun Slam champion, he can be found playing Cricket Captain 2020 and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Karen Stevens
Sports Accessibility LeadElectronic Arts
Karen Stevens is the Electronic Arts (EA) sports accessibility lead. She strives to improve the user experience for those with interactive differences. Stevens has been in the game industry for over 13 years and has first-hand experience of what it’s like living with disabilities. She has spoken at several conferences on the topic, and has been featured in magazines, television programs and radio shows.
Nate Stoddard
QA Discipline PrincipalEpic Games
Nate Stoddard has been working in quality assurance (QA), testing, hardware development and game development for more than 12 years. In that time, he has worked on over 34 titles, on almost as many platforms. Nate recently moved from Boston to North Carolina to work at Epic Games and is now a senior QA lead on Fortnite.
Leticia Sáenz Murga
Keywords StudiosCurrently, the localization lead at Keywords Studios Barcelona, Leticia Sáenz Murga manages a team of project managers, coordinators, and linguists specializing in the challenges of localizing market leading games. Leticia has over 11 years of experience in video games localization in different roles, from translator to senior project manager, giving her insight of the whole development and localization process as well as in-depth knowledge of game development and design.
Blanca Sánchez Joplin
Game WriterSocialpoint
Blanca Joplin has been working for over five years as a game writer at Socialpoint, one of Spain’s most vibrant game developers. During this time, she has worked on some very successful titles, including Monster Legends (her main focus and love of her life), Dragon City, World Chef and Word Life. Blanca’s background is in translation, having spent two years as a freelance translator and subtitler prior to arriving at Socialpoint, which has been her home ever since.
Andrea Tabacchi
VP Customer SuccessMemsource
Andrea Tabacchi is the vice president of customer success at Memsource where he utilizes his extensive experience in building customer-centric language technology solutions for multinational corporations and global translation companies. He and his team work with clients to develop solutions to address their translation technology needs, including innovative ways to optimize the Memsource platform, and liaise between clients and internal teams to suggest tool improvements. Prior to Memsource, Andrea spent over ten years on the language service provider side where he served in several roles in language technology, from localization engineering to technology director.
LinkedIn: andreatabacchi
Tülay Tetiker McNally
Director, Inclusive Design & Product DevelopmentElectronic Arts
Tülay Tetiker McNally is director, inclusive design and product development at Electronic Arts, and is responsible for establishing EA Studio’s global approach to creating inclusive products and features that put players first, partnering with EA development teams worldwide. Beginning her career in the video games industry more than 15 years ago at SEGA and Square Enix, she later joined Electronic Arts to head up central development operations at BioWare Edmonton. More recently Tülay was a senior development director at DICE Stockholm. Tülay is originally from Turkey and was raised in Munich, Germany. She has had the opportunity to live and work in countries across Europe and North America. An experienced public speaker and mentor of students and young professionals, she connects with gamers to listen to what makes them feel excluded or marginalized. For the future Tülay wants players to engage with games in safe, fun, and positive ways regardless of who they are or where they are from, to bring inclusive design and thinking to the core of game design. Tülay holds an MA in American studies, with specializations in the history of immigration and civil rights movement, and a BA in psychology from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 2020 she was selected as an inaugural member of TGA’s Future Class.
Mette Tingey
DirectorAlpha CRC
Mette Tingey is the director of Alpha Games, responsible for the revenue, accounts and commercial side of all games business within Alpha. Alpha is a mature LSP with 30+ years of experience providing end-to-end localization solutions to games developers and publishers across the globe.
Tamara Tirjak
Senior Localization ManagerFrontier Developments
Tamara Tirjak is the senior localization manager of Frontier Developments, a self-publishing video game developer based in Cambridge, UK. She is responsible for coordinating all localization-related activities across the organization, focusing on establishing reproducible, automated processes in order to streamline translation efforts and support the company’s international presence. Tamara’s previous experience includes working as an in-house linguist, project manager, translation tool support engineer, and technical trainer for various leading language service providers. She is a certified memoQ trainer, a qualified English-Hungarian translator and interpreter, and holds an MS degree in technology management.
Demid Tishin
All Correct GroupDemid Tishin is a game designer, entrepreneur and mentor. In 2006, he founded Allcorrect Group, a language services business and won a good name with customers such as EA, Ubisoft, Bandai Namco and Gaijin. He also founded Translation Forum Russia, a major convention for the translation industry, and helped to develop ISO 11669, the first ISO standard on translation services. Since 2016, Demid has been the full-time CEO of Funbakers, a game development studio.
To Be Announced
Sony Interactive EntertainmentGeorge Tong
Senior DirectorBeyondsoft Corporation
George Tong has nearly 19 years of IT and business management experience in the product globalization industry. Since 2016, George has worked in the US as senior engineering director, using his globalization industry knowledge, leading Beyondsoft’s onshore/offshore team to globalize clients’ products portfolios. Prior to that, in Nov 2005, George was the general manager and chief technical lead of Product G11N Services Business Unit at Beyondsoft, overseeing project management, technology innovation, personnel management, and business operations.
Charles Ulbig
LT LeadElectronic Arts
Charles Ulbig’s first role in 2002 at Electronic Arts was as QA tester for Football Manager in Cologne, Germany. One day the localization supervisor asked if he was interested in traveling around the world for free — well, almost free. Back in the day, localization testers were sent directly to the development studios to test the games and Charles’ first project abroad was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in Chertsey, UK. For him, it was an incredible experience to work on the same game with so many different people from around Europe. What motivates Charles, besides working with games, is the creativity behind the process of localization. Nothing is more gratifying to him than finding solutions to localization problems and seeing them later in-game. In 2007, Charles moved with EA to Madrid, Spain, took the position of senior tester and then became the localization testing team lead for German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. He is responsible for three permanent linguistic experts and up to 50 temporary employees during peak times.
Ulises Uno
Content & Localization ManagerEtermax
Ulises Uno is content and localization manager at etermax, leading a strategic area for the company’s gaming division which is focused on developing and publishing worldwide social games that entertain, connect and foster knowledge in up to 34 languages. With an educational background in social sciences and translation, he joined the gaming industry as a translator and copywriter. Ulises currently leads a team of language specialists, user experience writers and content producers, guiding them toward a product-centric mindset.
Jeferson Valadares
CEODoppio Games
Jeferson Valadares is CEO and cofounder of Doppio Games, a voice-first game studio based in Lisbon, Portugal. He was also the lead designer on the studio’s debut title The Vortex, available for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. He is also a member of the board of directors at Rovio. In past lives he was VP/GM of Mobile at Bandai Namco; Studio GM at Electronic Arts and Executive Producer at BioWare in San Francisco; Studio Director at Playfish and Creative Director at EA Mobile in London; and Game Development Director at Digital Chocolate’s Sumea studio in Helsinki.
Andrew Vestal
Senior Localization Program ManagerAmazon Game Studios
Andrew Vestal got his start in games localization in 2004, turning Japanese RPGs into English at Tokyo’s 8-4, Ltd. He moved back to the United States in 2006 to work at Blizzard Entertainment, where he oversaw the localization of the first two World of Warcraft expansions, Diablo III, and Battle.net. In 2013, he took a brief break from games to join Microsoft to focus on localization tooling and pipeline design. At Amazon Game Studios since 2017, Andrew currently oversees translation and translation testing of all first-party AGS titles, Twitch Prime, and Lumberyard. He loves retro games and has accidentally started a collection of CRT monitors in his garage.
Brandon Victor
Keywords StudiosJanet Weddle
Technical QA ManagerKeywords Studios
Janet Weddle is a technical QA manager with 15 years of experience in game development, project management, test management and automation. She started her career as a game developer at KnowWonder, Inc. which became Amaze Entertainment. Janet’s development experience there and her later roles in test management and project management led to her strong appreciation of great tools. Throughout her career she saw the benefit of tools and automation in test, development, art and management. Success in these areas led to Janet current position as a technical QA manager and an automation advocate.
Ben Wibberley
Managing PartnerDAQA
Ben Wibberley has over 20 years of experience in the video game industry, specializing in executive strategy, global production support, external development, international production and live operations. Having signed, grown and managed $100M’s of multi-service deals, he has an intimate knowledge of industry best practices, working with some of the most well-known companies in the business. Ben founded DAQA as an independent, new generation video games support agency. DAQA provides strategic consultancy, evaluation and implementation of operations for AAA studios, alongside representation of unique, disruptive, technology-based service companies.
Matt Wilson
Global Head of Format QASony Interactive Entertainment
Matt Wilson is a leader in the software and hardware industry with over 20 years of specialist quality assurance (QA) and testing experience. He is currently the global head of format QA within Sony Interactive Entertainment which handles all compliance for PlayStation globally. Matt has experience leading and building a large (250+) co-located team that deals with 30,000+ products globally annually, each with very short service-level agreements. He recently transitioned four separate regional QA teams to a single co-located global QA team. Matt lives in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Hayato Wada Wong
Cofounder & Localization Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Hayato Wada Wong is a ten-year video game and localization industry veteran, trilingual in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Having shipped titles and work experience in AAA game titles with Sega, as well as working in the outsourcing/gaming-as-a-service industry at Pole to Win and Streamline Studios, Hayato is versed in game production, quality assurance (QA) and localization. Currently, he is a localization manager and cofounder for Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group, a business division involved in rejuvenating the post development process of localization, culturalization marketing, QA, and compliance testing into something fit for the modern times. Hayato hopes to make game development as enjoyable as playing games.
LinkedIn: hayato-wada-wong-b909537
Christine Xaysakda
International Account ManagerLBS Suite
At LBS Suite, Christine Xaysakda is responsible for developing international business, participating in company strategies, and (what she loves the most) advising language service providers on the optimization of clients’ internal processes through technologies. She is passionate about technology, languages, and cultures. Christine loves brainstorming: talking about new business, projects, and ideas. Perhaps you can try speak with her in Mandarin, Cantonese, English or French.
Jingyu Zhang
KingVladimir Zhdanov
Vladimir has been in game localization since 2010. He started as an undergraduate Mandarin-to-Russian translator. He graduated in 2012 with a thesis on Chinese MMORPG translations, and gradually improved his skills until he ended up managing a team of in-house translators for a Chinese mobile gaming company in Beijing in 2015. He lives a life of a passionate localizator: in his spare time he localizes the webcomics series Zen Pencils, and in early 2017 he and his wife volunteered to localize the Indian comic book Menstrupedia into Russian.
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk
QA DirectorQLOC
Sergiusz Ślosarczyk graduated in Japanese studies and public relations but as soon as he started his adventure with functional and compliance testing in 2010, he knew there was no going back. After moving to Madrid, he gathered professional experience in localization quality assurance (QA) while working for Electronic Arts on IPs like Battlefield, FIFA, Sims and Need for Speed. He continued his career at QLOC as a team leader and project manager (PM). As a PM Sergiusz oversaw projects for external clients and the QA process for in-house porting projects, including titles like Resident Evil 6, DmC: Devil May Cry, Ultra Street Fighter IV and more. As a QA director since 2014, he manages QLOC’s QA department that employs over 170 specialists, supervises the work of managers and leads, and is responsible for the coordination of all department activities.
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Attendees will be able to ask more detailed questions during this live Q&A for all of the on-demand presentations.
Diana Díaz Montón
CofounderNative Prime
Diana Díaz Montón is a game localization specialist with over 20 years of experience. She graduated in translation and interpreting, then began her career with an internship at EA Sports. Diana founded Wordlab in 2005 and in 2010 cofounded Native Prime, a company specialized in video game localization. She has been involved in the localization of reference titles such as Dragon Quest XI, Ni no Kuni, Hitman 2 & 3, Snack World, and hundreds more. Diana enjoys spreading the love for video game localization and has participated as a speaker at different events, such as GDC or Gamelab, both addressed to future localizers as well as to developers and publishers. She collaborates with different universities and institutions where she teaches game localization and project management, and has also written a series of articles about the challenges of game localization.
Twitter: maloria
LinkedIn: dianadiazmonton
Aditya Gupta
Cofounder & QA Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Aditya Gupta is a cofounder of Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group. Currently working as a quality assurance and release manager at Day Zero, he has over nine years of game industry experience in game production and release management. Aditya is versed in quality assurance, title certification, and the release management process for multiplatform games. Over the years, he has worked on 12 AAA titles from Ubisoft, Codemasters, Streamline Games, and various other AAA publishers. In his leisure, he loves to cook and cruise around on his motorbike.
LinkedIn: my.linkedin.com/in/aditya-gupta-64204086
Hayato Wada Wong
Cofounder & Localization Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Hayato Wada Wong is a ten-year video game and localization industry veteran, trilingual in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Having shipped titles and work experience in AAA game titles with Sega, as well as working in the outsourcing/gaming-as-a-service industry at Pole to Win and Streamline Studios, Hayato is versed in game production, quality assurance (QA) and localization. Currently, he is a localization manager and cofounder for Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group, a business division involved in rejuvenating the post development process of localization, culturalization marketing, QA, and compliance testing into something fit for the modern times. Hayato hopes to make game development as enjoyable as playing games.
LinkedIn: hayato-wada-wong-b909537
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference ManagerGame Global
Francesca has been in the video game localization industry since 2010, covering various roles: from marketing intern and translator for online games at Wooga and Bigpoint, to Senior Multilingual Localization Specialist at Electronic Arts managing large, multilingual titles, to Program Manager for the Games department at Alpha CRC.
Having experienced both the client and the service provider side of the industry, Francesca recently decided to become a freelance translator and consultant and is currently working as Conference Manager for Game Global and video game localization instructor for the Localization Institute.
Intro
Join Game Global conference manager, Francesca Sorrentino, to learn about what to expect from Game Global Digital Summit 2021!
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference ManagerGame Global
Francesca has been in the video game localization industry since 2010, covering various roles: from marketing intern and translator for online games at Wooga and Bigpoint, to Senior Multilingual Localization Specialist at Electronic Arts managing large, multilingual titles, to Program Manager for the Games department at Alpha CRC.
Having experienced both the client and the service provider side of the industry, Francesca recently decided to become a freelance translator and consultant and is currently working as Conference Manager for Game Global and video game localization instructor for the Localization Institute.
Streamlining the LQA Process — Test and Fix in Minutes, Rather than Days
Rovio Entertainment has dramatically streamlined its localization quality assurance (LQA) process and wants to share its findings. Localized screenshots are autogenerated from code, pushed into Gridly spreadsheet software, and are shared with LQA. Edits are made alongside the shots and pushed back into code on the fly. This streamlined pipeline removes the need for manual movement of assets and introduces quick and simple LQA bug fixing in Gridly. Those fixes are then immediately available to Rovio who can integrate, regenerate the screenshots, push to Gridly, and then the LQA provider can regress.
Takeaways:
Attendees will learn how Rovio accomplishes this streamlined LQA process and can begin to implement changes into their own work.
Ville Lehtinen
Senior DeveloperRovio Entertainment
With over a decade of experience working on both mobile/embedded graphics engines and games, Ville Lehtinen has worked with game studios at companies such as Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Rovio. His recently released titles include South Park Phone Destroyer (Ubisoft Redlynx) and Small Town Murders (Rovio).
LinkedIn: ville-lehtinen-99337410
Mike Souto
Business Development DirectorGridly
Mike Souto has over 20 years of experience in game and app development and localization. He’s a producer of AAA titles, including the Commandos series, TimeSplitters 2, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and many more. With experience of internal and external development teams, Mike’s been involved in game development at various touchpoints in the process.
LinkedIn: michael-souto-287a131
The Challenges and Lessons of Localizing the Intricate and Unique Disco Elysium
ZA/UM Studios’ breakout success Disco Elysium made a statement through its heavy emphasis on text with over a million words, and its sharp, creative vision. Its skill system is based on the inner dialogues of a fragmented psyche and its branching quest design touches on social, political, and metaphysical topics among many others, making it a localization challenge noticeably beyond the usual. In this session, we will elaborate on the titanic effort required to bring Disco Elysium into French, German, and Russian. We will look behind-the-scenes to provide further context, examples, key learnings, and tips for anyone dealing with projects of comparable complexity.
Takeaways:
Attendees will learn how to plan for high-complexity localization projects, managing quality, and efficiency; linguists will gain ideas on creative translation inspiration and research behind projects; and game developers and publishers will learn how to ensure the localization process support is strong if they are working on text-based, branching, or comparable games.
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli
Head of Translation ServicesTestronic
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli was born in Argentina, has lived in several countries and has always been marked by books, games, languages and having to adapt to different cultures. Choosing to pursue studies in translation led to living in Warsaw. Around 2015, this escalated from working with Testronic’s localization quality assurance team to being involved in the development of Testronic’s translation services. He has managed the translation process for multiple game titles and tries to be involved as a translator or editor when time permits (aside from being constantly engaged with games and other forms of culture).
Daniele Corrado
Customer Support Engineer5th Kind
Daniele had been a consumer of the gaming industry since, well, forever. In 2010 he moved to the other side of the barricades. He began his career as a localization tester for a heterogeneous bunch of titles and platforms. While at Riot Games, Daniele worked in various capacities on every product that was released. His swansong was the global coordination for VALORANT as the Localization Producer for the title. He is currently helping DESTINYbit in developing their next title and he is working as Technical Support Engineer for 5th Kind.
Round Table Discussion: Text-to-speech Technology in the Video Game Industry
By now, most language professionals in the video game localization industry have embraced machine translation technology. We have accepted that it is here to stay, it’s not after our jobs, and it can actually be very useful once we learn how to use it. There are, however, other technologies such as text-to-speech that haven’t been explored as much. Slightly less in the limelight of linguists, neural synthesized speech has evolved into a fascinating field, and it can be tremendously useful for various applications including video games. In this round table discussion, we will explore the current use of this technology in our industry, including the challenges associated with it from production, technology, and ethical points of view. Our speakers will cover different roles in video game localization and audio production, and will offer a broad overview of the current use of text-to-speech technology, and ideas for the future.
Pedro Alfageme
Audio Artist ManagerElectronic Arts
Pedro Alfageme is audio artist manager at Electronic Arts. He is responsible for the technical quality of the localized dialogue and the continuous improvement of processes and tools. Pedro leads a team that delivers over a million dialogue files across 11 languages with high-quality standards every year. He has been working in the video game industry since 2004. His experience goes from voiceover recording, editing, and post processing to product owner of EA’s content management system for localization. Pedro is currently involved in voice technologies research and development as a localization stakeholder.
Luca Lazari
Audio Technical Operations ManagerKeywords Studios
Luca Lazari works for Keywords Studios as an audio technical operations manager. He worked for music and TV studios after graduating in sound and recording engineering, and science and technology of music communication. Luca joined the game localization industry in 2008 as an audio project lead at Binari Sonori, later acquired by Keywords Studios. After managing the audio technical part for multilanguage localization of countless games (including AAA titles) for over a decade, he moved to Keywords Studios audio localization division, operating at a global level, supervising audio technical processes and workflows.
LinkedIn: lucalazari
Tom Lee
CofounderLOVO
Tom Lee worked in sales at MuleSoft (now a Salesforce company) and digital marketing at LG prior to his time at LOVO. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UC Berkeley.
When Tom is not interacting with users or reading up on the latest trends in AI and voice, he can be found writing poems, drinking beer, training in a boxing gym, scuba diving, or playing FIFA.
LinkedIn: tomsklee
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck
Senior Manager, VO ProductionRiot Games
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck is senior manager of voiceover production at Riot Games, leading the team that produces the voiceover for League of Legends, Wild Rift, VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, and Riot Forge’s upcoming titles. Prior to Riot, she was at the helm of Side LA, where her team worked on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, Riot Games’ Legends of Runeterra, Epic Games’ Fortnite: Save the World, Splash Damage’s Gears: Tactics, and Dontnod Entertainment’s Tell Me Why, among hundreds of other titles. At the start of her career, Jacquie spent a decade with Sony PlayStation, coordinating dialog for projects from Socom 3 to God of War 3. She then went on to manage talent and casting for the Worldwide Studios product development services group, including titles such as The Order: 1886, Spiderman, and 2018’s God of War. Jacquie and her husband live with their cat, Bruce, in Los Angeles, California.
IMDb: Jacquie Shriver
Tamara Tirjak
Senior Localization ManagerFrontier Developments
Tamara Tirjak is the senior localization manager of Frontier Developments, a self-publishing video game developer based in Cambridge, UK. She is responsible for coordinating all localization-related activities across the organization, focusing on establishing reproducible, automated processes in order to streamline translation efforts and support the company’s international presence. Tamara’s previous experience includes working as an in-house linguist, project manager, translation tool support engineer, and technical trainer for various leading language service providers. She is a certified memoQ trainer, a qualified English-Hungarian translator and interpreter, and holds an MS degree in technology management.
Andrea Ballista
CEOVoiseed
Andrea Ballista has been working in the game industry for more than 25 years. Starting from his passion of music, songwriting, and singing, he holds a degree in computer music. Since cofounding Binari Sonori in 1994, Andrea has been the audio director for Keywords Studios from 2015 until the end of 2019. In 2020 he cofounded Voiseed to proceed into research and development of deep learning-based emotional virtual voices.
LinkedIn: andrea-ballista-4617912
Implicit Biases and Inclusion
Oftentimes, humans do not think rationally. We believe that we have an accurate perception, an accurate memory, or that we can multitask efficiently. We believe that we are in full control of our decisions according to our values, that we have free will, that we can understand others, that we are logical beings. Sadly, this is a fallacy. In this session, we propose to explore some of the most common cognitive and social unconscious biases that trick us into making bad decisions in everyday life and prevent us from building a more inclusive environment, even if we understand the importance of diversity.
Celia Hodent
Game UX ConsultantCelia Hodent
Celia Hodent is recognized as a leader in the application of user experience (UX) and cognitive science in the game industry. Celia holds a PhD in psychology and has over ten years of experience in the development of UX strategy and processes in video game studios. Through her work at Ubisoft, LucasArts, and as director of UX at Epic Games (Fortnite), she has contributed to many projects across multiple platforms, from PC to consoles, mobile, and VR. Celia is also the founder of the Game UX Summit, advisor for the GDC UX Summit, member of the Foresight Committee at CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, an independent French administrative regulatory body), author of The Gamer’s Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design and The Psychology of Video Games. She currently works as an independent consultant, helping studios increase the likelihood of their games to be engaging and successful. Celia also provides guidance on the topics of playful learning, ethics, unconscious bias, and inclusion in technology.
Twitter: @CeliaHodent
Blog: celiahodent.com
Round Table Discussion: Introducing Nonbinary Language into Video Games
Following up on the conversation that we started during the March 2021 event, we will discuss which steps developers, publishers, and vendors are taking to implement nonbinary language in video games. Our speakers will compare notes about the current status of conversations at their companies, including challenges in terms of ownership and decision making. We want the discussion about nonbinary characters and languages to get more visibility, and start to develop standards and guidelines so more companies can use them as reference.
Nick Adams
Director of Transgender RepresentationGLAAD
Nick Adams is the director of transgender representation at GLAAD. He is a resource for media content creators who are telling stories about transgender people. Nick has consulted on hundreds of films and TV shows to help them create authentic transgender characters and stories. He has also worked with Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, DONTNOD, and other gaming companies to create trans-inclusive video games. Nick joined GLAAD in 1998, and transitioned himself at that time.
Jamie Cox
Global Content Localization ProducerBlizzard Entertainment
Jamie Cox is a global content localization producer at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard is his first experience in the video game industry, but he’s been in the localization industry for over seven years, first at Gengo, then Welocalize, and then United Language Group. Over the years, Jamie has developed expertise in fast-paced environments, creating useful workflows and problem solving bottlenecks. In his spare time, he enjoys reading (currently the Wheel of Time series), playing way too much Overwatch, and he also plays the harp.
Diana Díaz Montón
CofounderNative Prime
Diana Díaz Montón is a game localization specialist with over 20 years of experience. She graduated in translation and interpreting, then began her career with an internship at EA Sports. Diana founded Wordlab in 2005 and in 2010 cofounded Native Prime, a company specialized in video game localization. She has been involved in the localization of reference titles such as Dragon Quest XI, Ni no Kuni, Hitman 2 & 3, Snack World, and hundreds more. Diana enjoys spreading the love for video game localization and has participated as a speaker at different events, such as GDC or Gamelab, both addressed to future localizers as well as to developers and publishers. She collaborates with different universities and institutions where she teaches game localization and project management, and has also written a series of articles about the challenges of game localization.
Twitter: maloria
LinkedIn: dianadiazmonton
Denisse Kreeger
Head of Global Localization ProductionRiot Games
Denisse Kreeger is the head of global localization production at Riot Games, and the Los Angeles chapter manager at Women in Localization. With over 15 years of experience in the localization industry, she has also managed localization production at Blizzard Entertainment and Netflix, where she helped build much of the localization infrastructure. Denisse graduated from UCLA and has an MA from the University of Roehampton in audiovisual translation.
LinkedIn: dkreegerl10n
Nadine Monschau
Senior Localization ManagerElectronic Arts
Nadine Monschau is senior localization manager at EA, leading the translation, vendor management, machine translation, and desktop publishing teams. She has a background in translation and started her career at EA and in the video game localization industry in 2001. Currently, Nadine has kicked off an inclusive language initiative to ensure that players can immerse in an inclusive experience when they play EA games. She is also the local chair of EA’s Women’s Ultimate Team Employee Resource Group and passionate to help women (and her teams in general) progress in their careers.
Ana Paredes
Project ManagerUbisoft
Ana Paredes joined the localization and video game industries by chance after moving to Montreal. During her tenure at Keywords, she worked briefly in testing before moving to translation, in what was, at the time, one of the most secret and expected projects of the company — Starcraft 2. Following that, Ana provided for Brazilian Portuguese content management at Expedia, and subsequently moved into project management at companies such as SDL and Transperfect. Most recently she worked on Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising. Ana’s interests revolve around all things related to diversity, inclusion, skateboarding, and cats. She thinks completing games is overrated, and the last title she saw through was Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime, which doesn’t even have VO!
LinkedIn: ana-gt-paredes
Tülay Tetiker McNally
Director, Inclusive Design & Product DevelopmentElectronic Arts
Tülay Tetiker McNally is director, inclusive design and product development at Electronic Arts, and is responsible for establishing EA Studio’s global approach to creating inclusive products and features that put players first, partnering with EA development teams worldwide. Beginning her career in the video games industry more than 15 years ago at SEGA and Square Enix, she later joined Electronic Arts to head up central development operations at BioWare Edmonton. More recently Tülay was a senior development director at DICE Stockholm. Tülay is originally from Turkey and was raised in Munich, Germany. She has had the opportunity to live and work in countries across Europe and North America. An experienced public speaker and mentor of students and young professionals, she connects with gamers to listen to what makes them feel excluded or marginalized. For the future Tülay wants players to engage with games in safe, fun, and positive ways regardless of who they are or where they are from, to bring inclusive design and thinking to the core of game design. Tülay holds an MA in American studies, with specializations in the history of immigration and civil rights movement, and a BA in psychology from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 2020 she was selected as an inaugural member of TGA’s Future Class.
Closing
Join us for some final words as we bid farewell to Game Global Digital Summit 2021!
Ulrich Henes
PrincipalLocWorld
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.
Donna Parrish
PrincipalLocWorld
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 Translators without Borders.
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference ManagerGame Global
Francesca has been in the video game localization industry since 2010, covering various roles: from marketing intern and translator for online games at Wooga and Bigpoint, to Senior Multilingual Localization Specialist at Electronic Arts managing large, multilingual titles, to Program Manager for the Games department at Alpha CRC.
Having experienced both the client and the service provider side of the industry, Francesca recently decided to become a freelance translator and consultant and is currently working as Conference Manager for Game Global and video game localization instructor for the Localization Institute.
Happy Hour
Do you want to find fellow attendees to chat with? Drop by, bring your own libation, and let’s chat!
Successfully Integrate Localization and QA into Your Game Development Pipeline
In this presentation, we will show detailed examples of how and why integrating your localization and quality assurance (QA) team into your game development pipeline at the early stages of production will save you time, resources, and cost. Day Zero is an international localization and QA service provider for AA and AAA productions, and a licensed developer for Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony (including PS5). We will share working examples from recent projects such as Sniper Ghost Warrior (CI Games) and Bake ‘n Switch (Streamline Games) to provide context, clarity, and results of choosing this development method. Attendees will walk away with tried and tested methods, and strategies to adopt into their pipeline, and can ask more detailed questions in the post-presentation, live Q&A.
Takeaways:
Attendees will learn how the localization and QA pipeline can fully integrate into a game codevelopment pipeline; what experiences they can expect when outsourcing game development to codevelopers in emerging game markets and clear up myths and preconceived notions; and why a good experience with close-knit collaborations turn into repeat customers, even when compared to competitors with lower prices.
Aditya Gupta
Cofounder & QA Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Aditya Gupta is a cofounder of Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group. Currently working as a quality assurance and release manager at Day Zero, he has over nine years of game industry experience in game production and release management. Aditya is versed in quality assurance, title certification, and the release management process for multiplatform games. Over the years, he has worked on 12 AAA titles from Ubisoft, Codemasters, Streamline Games, and various other AAA publishers. In his leisure, he loves to cook and cruise around on his motorbike.
LinkedIn: my.linkedin.com/in/aditya-gupta-64204086
Hayato Wada Wong
Cofounder & Localization Manager at Day ZeroStreamline Media Group
Hayato Wada Wong is a ten-year video game and localization industry veteran, trilingual in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Having shipped titles and work experience in AAA game titles with Sega, as well as working in the outsourcing/gaming-as-a-service industry at Pole to Win and Streamline Studios, Hayato is versed in game production, quality assurance (QA) and localization. Currently, he is a localization manager and cofounder for Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group, a business division involved in rejuvenating the post development process of localization, culturalization marketing, QA, and compliance testing into something fit for the modern times. Hayato hopes to make game development as enjoyable as playing games.
LinkedIn: hayato-wada-wong-b909537
Making Temtem Gender-inclusive Across Languages
Gender-neutral language is quickly gaining ground and the video game industry must catch up with an audience craving representation. Women players want to feel represented, and they want to be referred to with their feminine pronouns. Furthermore, nonbinary people must be included. Temtem is a pioneer in terms of using gender-inclusive language. In this session, we will review how nonbinary language has been used in Temtem to include a masculine, feminine and nonbinary form in all dialogue addressed to players, depending on the pronouns of their choice. Temtem uses nonbinary language in French, German, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese, but when they first started working on the localization, all existing French and German translations had not used nonbinary language, so they had to review which strategy was best and implement it in the entire game. This led to a design change in the game, so for players to benefit from this update, they could choose their pronouns again.
Takeaways:
Attendees will understand both the relevance and importance of using inclusive language; learn how gender-neutral language is expressed and perceived in different languages; and understand the challenges of inclusive language in localization.
Diana Díaz Montón
CofounderNative Prime
Diana Díaz Montón is a game localization specialist with over 20 years of experience. She graduated in translation and interpreting, then began her career with an internship at EA Sports. Diana founded Wordlab in 2005 and in 2010 cofounded Native Prime, a company specialized in video game localization. She has been involved in the localization of reference titles such as Dragon Quest XI, Ni no Kuni, Hitman 2 & 3, Snack World, and hundreds more. Diana enjoys spreading the love for video game localization and has participated as a speaker at different events, such as GDC or Gamelab, both addressed to future localizers as well as to developers and publishers. She collaborates with different universities and institutions where she teaches game localization and project management, and has also written a series of articles about the challenges of game localization.
Twitter: maloria
LinkedIn: dianadiazmonton
Select a session from the program list to learn more.
SPEAKERS
Nick Adams
Director of Transgender Representation
GLAAD
Nick Adams is the director of transgender representation at GLAAD. He is a resource for media content creators who are telling stories about transgender people. Nick has consulted on hundreds of films and TV shows to help them create authentic transgender characters and stories. He has also worked with Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, DONTNOD, and other gaming companies to create trans-inclusive video games. Nick joined GLAAD in 1998, and transitioned himself at that time.
Belén Agulló García
Founder
Accessibility Warriors
Belén Agulló García
FounderAccessibility Warriors
Belén Agulló García holds a BA in translation and interpreting studies, an MA in audiovisual translation, and a PhD in multimedia accessibility. The topic of her dissertation was accessible subtitles for virtual reality and that was the beginning of her journey as an accessibility advocate. Previously, Belén worked for more than five years in the game localization industry, holding different leadership positions. She combined her years in this industry with her true calling, training others. Currently, Belén is the VP of learning and lead media researcher at Nimdzi Insights and the founder of Accessibility Warriors.
Pedro Alfageme
Audio Artist Manager
Electronic Arts
Pedro Alfageme is audio artist manager at Electronic Arts. He is responsible for the technical quality of the localized dialogue and the continuous improvement of processes and tools. Pedro leads a team that delivers over a million dialogue files across 11 languages with high-quality standards every year. He has been working in the video game industry since 2004. His experience goes from voiceover recording, editing, and post processing to product owner of EA’s content management system for localization. Pedro is currently involved in voice technologies research and development as a localization stakeholder.
Andrea Ballista has been working in the game industry for more than 25 years. Starting from his passion of music, songwriting, and singing, he holds a degree in computer music. Since cofounding Binari Sonori in 1994, Andrea has been the audio director for Keywords Studios from 2015 until the end of 2019. In 2020 he cofounded Voiseed to proceed into research and development of deep learning-based emotional virtual voices.
LinkedIn: andrea-ballista-4617912
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz
Senior Localization Director
Electronic Arts
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz is the senior localization director at EA, heading up all worldwide localization functions including translation, recordings, vendor management, testing and engineering for the video game developer and publisher. Originally a translator by education, she looks back at 15 years of experience in the game localization industry. Her current focus is on shaping the strategic direction of localization in the company’s shift to online service models.
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
Gaëlle Caballero
Director of Localization QA
Testronic
Gaëlle Caballero is a global head of localization quality assurance (LQA) with years of experience in video game QA and localization. A former lawyer, she started her career as a French LQA tester in London and developed her localization skillset working on multiple titles and platforms as a technician, lead, and project manager. Gaëlle successfully developed and delivered Testronic’s Warsaw-based LQA department and is responsible for its continued success. She is recognized for her extensive experience in team management, development, and swift delivery. A great motivator and team builder, she creates confidence and excitement across multiple Testronic global LQA facilities. An advocate for women in games, Gaëlle is involved in Testronic’s initiative aiming to mentor and promote the role of Women in the Games industry. She is also chairman of Testronic’s learning and development committee.
Daniele Corrado
Customer Support Engineer
5th Kind
Daniele had been a consumer of the gaming industry since, well, forever. In 2010 he moved to the other side of the barricades. He began his career as a localization tester for a heterogeneous bunch of titles and platforms. While at Riot Games, Daniele worked in various capacities on every product that was released. His swansong was the global coordination for VALORANT as the Localization Producer for the title. He is currently helping DESTINYbit in developing their next title and he is working as Technical Support Engineer for 5th Kind.
Jamie Cox
Global Content Localization Producer
Blizzard Entertainment
Jamie Cox is a global content localization producer at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard is his first experience in the video game industry, but he’s been in the localization industry for over seven years, first at Gengo, then Welocalize, and then United Language Group. Over the years, Jamie has developed expertise in fast-paced environments, creating useful workflows and problem solving bottlenecks. In his spare time, he enjoys reading (currently the Wheel of Time series), playing way too much Overwatch, and he also plays the harp.
Tabea De Wille holds an MA in German and English linguistics from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and an MS in multilingual computing and localization from the University of Limerick, Ireland. She has completed her PhD studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland, where she examined perceived quality in the context of crowdsourced localization. Previously, Tabea worked in the localization industry, primarily in video games localization and is currently a lecturer at the University of Limerick.
Twitter: @TabeaDeWille
LinkedIn: tabeadewille
Diana Díaz Montón
Cofounder
Native Prime
Diana Díaz Montón is a game localization specialist with over 20 years of experience. She graduated in translation and interpreting, then began her career with an internship at EA Sports. Diana founded Wordlab in 2005 and in 2010 cofounded Native Prime, a company specialized in video game localization. She has been involved in the localization of reference titles such as Dragon Quest XI, Ni no Kuni, Hitman 2 & 3, Snack World, and hundreds more. Diana enjoys spreading the love for video game localization and has participated as a speaker at different events, such as GDC or Gamelab, both addressed to future localizers as well as to developers and publishers. She collaborates with different universities and institutions where she teaches game localization and project management, and has also written a series of articles about the challenges of game localization.
Twitter: maloria
LinkedIn: dianadiazmonton
Natalie Gladkaya
Director of Localization
Plarium
Natalie Gladkaya joined the game localization industry in 2011 as a translator/editor, then managed teams of game localization and localization quality assurance. During her tenure with Plarium, she has worked on localizing over ten web and mobile game titles, including Raid: Shadow Legends and Mech Arena, into a variety of languages, building localization workflow, and both in-house and remote localization teams from the ground up.
LinkedIn: natalie-gladkaya
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov
Head of Localization
Social Quantum
Mikhail (Mike) Gorbunov started in translation and adaptation of text games at local IRC networks in 2003. He then switched to software and ended up doing amateur localization of huge titles like SWAT 4 and Septerra Core. Now Mike is the head of localization at Social Quantum, one of the top ten largest game publishers in Russia and Eastern Europe. The mobile game developer has created such titles as Megapolis, Wild West: New Frontier, Dragon’s World, Ice Age World, and Poker Jet, and is in the process of creating more. The company has also been conducting successful experiments in machine translation and machine translation post-editing.
Aditya Gupta
Cofounder & QA Manager at Day Zero
Streamline Media Group
Aditya Gupta is a cofounder of Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group. Currently working as a quality assurance and release manager at Day Zero, he has over nine years of game industry experience in game production and release management. Aditya is versed in quality assurance, title certification, and the release management process for multiplatform games. Over the years, he has worked on 12 AAA titles from Ubisoft, Codemasters, Streamline Games, and various other AAA publishers. In his leisure, he loves to cook and cruise around on his motorbike.
LinkedIn: my.linkedin.com/in/aditya-gupta-64204086
Ulrich Henes
Principal
LocWorld
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.
Celia Hodent
Game UX Consultant
Celia Hodent
Celia Hodent is recognized as a leader in the application of user experience (UX) and cognitive science in the game industry. Celia holds a PhD in psychology and has over ten years of experience in the development of UX strategy and processes in video game studios. Through her work at Ubisoft, LucasArts, and as director of UX at Epic Games (Fortnite), she has contributed to many projects across multiple platforms, from PC to consoles, mobile, and VR. Celia is also the founder of the Game UX Summit, advisor for the GDC UX Summit, member of the Foresight Committee at CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, an independent French administrative regulatory body), author of The Gamer’s Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design and The Psychology of Video Games. She currently works as an independent consultant, helping studios increase the likelihood of their games to be engaging and successful. Celia also provides guidance on the topics of playful learning, ethics, unconscious bias, and inclusion in technology.
Twitter: @CeliaHodent
Blog: celiahodent.com
Ann Hurley
Vice President of Business Development
Testronic
Ann Hurley has worked within the games industry for over 30 years, starting in sales team management within the distribution sector, then moving into publishing. For the past 12 years, she has been working in the quality assurance vendor space. Although steps have been taken to embrace diversity within our industry, Ann feels strongly about the nurturing of young women within games, to ensure they are supported through coaching in order to build their confidence to find their true potential.
Gina Jackson
Games Consultant/Advisor
Gina Jackson
Games Consultant/AdvisorGina Jackson is a games industry consultant and advisor. She started in games development in 1992 and has worked for developers, publishers, and distributors covering console, PC, and mobile games. Gina is particularly passionate about diversity, mental health, and skills development. She is treasurer of GamesAid, on the board for NextGen Skills Academy, and a visiting professor in games industry and business at Norwich University of the Arts (NUA). Gina recently received the MCV/DEVELOP Women in Games award for her outstanding contribution, a fellowship from NUA for services to the games industry, and has been honored with an Order of the British Empire for her work in education and diversity in the games industry.
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli
Head of Translation Services
Testronic
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli was born in Argentina, has lived in several countries and has always been marked by books, games, languages and having to adapt to different cultures. Choosing to pursue studies in translation led to living in Warsaw. Around 2015, this escalated from working with Testronic’s localization quality assurance team to being involved in the development of Testronic’s translation services. He has managed the translation process for multiple game titles and tries to be involved as a translator or editor when time permits (aside from being constantly engaged with games and other forms of culture).
Gábor Kovács
Game Localization Expert
memoQ
Gábor Kovács
Game Localization ExpertmemoQ
As part of the memoQ gaming unit, Gábor Kovács uses his abilities to combine technical knowledge with sales skills to act as a primary contact for product demos, client needs assessment, and training along with many other duties. Using his well-honed communication skills, he can simplify and communicate complex concepts to a nontechnical audience. Gábor’s IT background also gives him the edge when it comes to technical discussion and finding the right solutions. He has been an avid gamer since childhood.
Denisse Kreeger
Head of Global Localization Production
Riot Games
Denisse Kreeger is the head of global localization production at Riot Games, and the Los Angeles chapter manager at Women in Localization. With over 15 years of experience in the localization industry, she has also managed localization production at Blizzard Entertainment and Netflix, where she helped build much of the localization infrastructure. Denisse graduated from UCLA and has an MA from the University of Roehampton in audiovisual translation.
LinkedIn: dkreegerl10n
Luca Lazari
Audio Technical Operations Manager
Keywords Studios
Luca Lazari works for Keywords Studios as an audio technical operations manager. He worked for music and TV studios after graduating in sound and recording engineering, and science and technology of music communication. Luca joined the game localization industry in 2008 as an audio project lead at Binari Sonori, later acquired by Keywords Studios. After managing the audio technical part for multilanguage localization of countless games (including AAA titles) for over a decade, he moved to Keywords Studios audio localization division, operating at a global level, supervising audio technical processes and workflows.
LinkedIn: lucalazari
Tom Lee worked in sales at MuleSoft (now a Salesforce company) and digital marketing at LG prior to his time at LOVO. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UC Berkeley.
When Tom is not interacting with users or reading up on the latest trends in AI and voice, he can be found writing poems, drinking beer, training in a boxing gym, scuba diving, or playing FIFA.
LinkedIn: tomsklee
Ville Lehtinen
Senior Developer
Rovio Entertainment
With over a decade of experience working on both mobile/embedded graphics engines and games, Ville Lehtinen has worked with game studios at companies such as Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Rovio. His recently released titles include South Park Phone Destroyer (Ubisoft Redlynx) and Small Town Murders (Rovio).
LinkedIn: ville-lehtinen-99337410
Philip Mayes
Managing Director
Mighty Kingdom
Philip Mayes is the managing director of Mighty Kingdom, winner of the 2019 Australian Game Developer of the Year Award. With more than 15 years of experience, he has worked on games for many large international brands, including Star Wars, LEGO, and Disney. Founded by Philip in 2010, Mighty Kingdom is one of the largest and most diverse game developers in Australia, with over 120 people working across Australia and New Zealand. He is a passionate advocate for the industry locally, and is eager to see that industry be as inclusive, progressive, and successful as possible.
Twitter: @pjm
Nadine Monschau
Senior Localization Manager
Electronic Arts
Nadine Monschau is senior localization manager at EA, leading the translation, vendor management, machine translation, and desktop publishing teams. She has a background in translation and started her career at EA and in the video game localization industry in 2001. Currently, Nadine has kicked off an inclusive language initiative to ensure that players can immerse in an inclusive experience when they play EA games. She is also the local chair of EA’s Women’s Ultimate Team Employee Resource Group and passionate to help women (and her teams in general) progress in their careers.
Ana Paredes
Project Manager
Ubisoft
Ana Paredes joined the localization and video game industries by chance after moving to Montreal. During her tenure at Keywords, she worked briefly in testing before moving to translation, in what was, at the time, one of the most secret and expected projects of the company — Starcraft 2. Following that, Ana provided for Brazilian Portuguese content management at Expedia, and subsequently moved into project management at companies such as SDL and Transperfect. Most recently she worked on Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising. Ana’s interests revolve around all things related to diversity, inclusion, skateboarding, and cats. She thinks completing games is overrated, and the last title she saw through was Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime, which doesn’t even have VO!
LinkedIn: ana-gt-paredes
Donna Parrish
Principal
LocWorld
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 Translators without Borders.
Chris Priestman
Business Development Manager
ZA/UM
Chris Priestman has a keen interest in experimental video games after spending a decade in journalism. He now works at ZA/UM, the studio behind the award-winning, roleplaying game Disco Elysium, where he started as a writer and soon became the producer in charge of localization. Chris is now the business development manager at ZA/UM.
Twitter: @CPriestman
Loreto Sanz Fueyo
Senior Director of Localization
PTW
Loreto Sanz Fueyo, senior director of localization at PTW, graduated from King’s College in London, England, where she received her master’s degree in computational linguistics and formal grammar. She began her professional career as a games tester and translator, developing her localization knowledge and skills for over 13 years before becoming PTW’s director of translation in 2019. Loreto’s passion for communication and clear messaging has made her an invaluable part of PTW’s staff, where she provides guidance to all levels of the organization. Her latest obsession is building a house in Spain and when she’s not busy localizing, she can be found pouring over floor plans and interior design magazines!
Kseniya Shorokhova
Head of Localization
Playrix
Kseniya Shorokhova has an educational background in linguistics but she got into the language industry just five years ago when she found herself working as a Russian-English translator at Playrix. At that time, their localization team consisted of only three people. Kseniya has grown together with the team and the company, gradually making her way to team lead and ultimately becoming the head of localization. She now oversees more than 40 people and is responsible for Playrix’s localization strategy.
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck
Senior Manager, VO Production
Riot Games
Jacquie Shriver Sladeck is senior manager of voiceover production at Riot Games, leading the team that produces the voiceover for League of Legends, Wild Rift, VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, and Riot Forge’s upcoming titles. Prior to Riot, she was at the helm of Side LA, where her team worked on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, Riot Games’ Legends of Runeterra, Epic Games’ Fortnite: Save the World, Splash Damage’s Gears: Tactics, and Dontnod Entertainment’s Tell Me Why, among hundreds of other titles. At the start of her career, Jacquie spent a decade with Sony PlayStation, coordinating dialog for projects from Socom 3 to God of War 3. She then went on to manage talent and casting for the Worldwide Studios product development services group, including titles such as The Order: 1886, Spiderman, and 2018’s God of War. Jacquie and her husband live with their cat, Bruce, in Los Angeles, California.
IMDb: Jacquie Shriver
Mike Souto
Business Development Director
Gridly
Mike Souto has over 20 years of experience in game and app development and localization. He’s a producer of AAA titles, including the Commandos series, TimeSplitters 2, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and many more. With experience of internal and external development teams, Mike’s been involved in game development at various touchpoints in the process.
LinkedIn: michael-souto-287a131
Andrea Tabacchi
VP Customer Success
Memsource
Andrea Tabacchi
VP Customer SuccessMemsource
Andrea Tabacchi is the vice president of customer success at Memsource where he utilizes his extensive experience in building customer-centric language technology solutions for multinational corporations and global translation companies. He and his team work with clients to develop solutions to address their translation technology needs, including innovative ways to optimize the Memsource platform, and liaise between clients and internal teams to suggest tool improvements. Prior to Memsource, Andrea spent over ten years on the language service provider side where he served in several roles in language technology, from localization engineering to technology director.
LinkedIn: andreatabacchi
Tülay Tetiker McNally
Director, Inclusive Design & Product Development
Electronic Arts
Tülay Tetiker McNally is director, inclusive design and product development at Electronic Arts, and is responsible for establishing EA Studio’s global approach to creating inclusive products and features that put players first, partnering with EA development teams worldwide. Beginning her career in the video games industry more than 15 years ago at SEGA and Square Enix, she later joined Electronic Arts to head up central development operations at BioWare Edmonton. More recently Tülay was a senior development director at DICE Stockholm. Tülay is originally from Turkey and was raised in Munich, Germany. She has had the opportunity to live and work in countries across Europe and North America. An experienced public speaker and mentor of students and young professionals, she connects with gamers to listen to what makes them feel excluded or marginalized. For the future Tülay wants players to engage with games in safe, fun, and positive ways regardless of who they are or where they are from, to bring inclusive design and thinking to the core of game design. Tülay holds an MA in American studies, with specializations in the history of immigration and civil rights movement, and a BA in psychology from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 2020 she was selected as an inaugural member of TGA’s Future Class.
Tamara Tirjak
Senior Localization Manager
Frontier Developments
Tamara Tirjak is the senior localization manager of Frontier Developments, a self-publishing video game developer based in Cambridge, UK. She is responsible for coordinating all localization-related activities across the organization, focusing on establishing reproducible, automated processes in order to streamline translation efforts and support the company’s international presence. Tamara’s previous experience includes working as an in-house linguist, project manager, translation tool support engineer, and technical trainer for various leading language service providers. She is a certified memoQ trainer, a qualified English-Hungarian translator and interpreter, and holds an MS degree in technology management.
Hayato Wada Wong
Cofounder & Localization Manager at Day Zero
Streamline Media Group
Hayato Wada Wong is a ten-year video game and localization industry veteran, trilingual in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Having shipped titles and work experience in AAA game titles with Sega, as well as working in the outsourcing/gaming-as-a-service industry at Pole to Win and Streamline Studios, Hayato is versed in game production, quality assurance (QA) and localization. Currently, he is a localization manager and cofounder for Day Zero by Streamline at Streamline Media Group, a business division involved in rejuvenating the post development process of localization, culturalization marketing, QA, and compliance testing into something fit for the modern times. Hayato hopes to make game development as enjoyable as playing games.
LinkedIn: hayato-wada-wong-b909537
ADVISORY BOARD
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
Gaëlle Caballero
Director of Localization QA
Testronic
Gaëlle Caballero is a global head of localization quality assurance (LQA) with years of experience in video game QA and localization. A former lawyer, she started her career as a French LQA tester in London and developed her localization skillset working on multiple titles and platforms as a technician, lead, and project manager. Gaëlle successfully developed and delivered Testronic’s Warsaw-based LQA department and is responsible for its continued success. She is recognized for her extensive experience in team management, development, and swift delivery. A great motivator and team builder, she creates confidence and excitement across multiple Testronic global LQA facilities. An advocate for women in games, Gaëlle is involved in Testronic’s initiative aiming to mentor and promote the role of Women in the Games industry. She is also chairman of Testronic’s learning and development committee.
Simone Crosignani
PR Manager
Jinglebell Localization
Simone Crosignani worked as a video game journalist for 15 years before moving to the public relations department of Sony Computer Entertainment in Italy. At Sony he handled enthusiast and online media, working on the launch campaigns of PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and 100+ games. In 2006 Simone moved to Binari Sonori, a translation and audio production company, now part of Keywords Studios. In 2016 he joined Jinglebell Localization, the game localization spin-off of audio production powerhouse Jinglebell Communication. Simone has been a member of the International Game Developers Association localization group since day one and has been vice-chair of the group since 2013.
Anca Marica
EMEA Localization Manager
Ubisoft
Anca Marica is a localization professional with over ten years of experience in the video game industry. At Ubisoft, she oversees the localization operations for the EMEA region by keeping in close contact with project managers and handling various transversal topics such as loc quality, process improvement or vendor management to ensure the localized versions of Ubisoft games meet company standards.
She holds a BA in English and Spanish philology, a master’s degree in international studies and an MS in project management.
Nadine Martin
Senior Manager, Test Services
Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Nadine Martin has been working in the games industry and quality assurance (QA) for over 15 years. She joined Sony PlayStation’s internal QA team after completing a degree in business administration, starting initially as a localization tester for German and progressing to the management of the localization test team. In 2013 she became senior manager for test services which includes localization and functional testing. The team is responsible for testing game franchises such as Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Horizon and God of War on all PlayStation platforms, including virtual reality and mobile. Nadine has presented extensively on QA and localization topics.
Nadine Monschau
Senior Localization Manager
Electronic Arts
Nadine Monschau is senior localization manager at EA, leading the translation, vendor management, machine translation, and desktop publishing teams. She has a background in translation and started her career at EA and in the video game localization industry in 2001. Currently, Nadine has kicked off an inclusive language initiative to ensure that players can immerse in an inclusive experience when they play EA games. She is also the local chair of EA’s Women’s Ultimate Team Employee Resource Group and passionate to help women (and her teams in general) progress in their careers.
PREMIUM SPONSORS
memoQ
LBS
Created for the exclusive requirements of a translation company owned by the same group, LBS quickly earned its independence. The decision to sell the LBS Suite product to the entire translation market was a natural progression. LBS Suite became an independent product specifically dedicated to companies in the sector. Over time, it adapted to the requirements of its client companies. Today with a strong and complete tool, LBS Suite has successfully won over highly renowned translation agencies and other major translation groups, in particular thanks to its user-friendly operation and intuitive interface.
LBS Suite is a software designed and adapted for translation agencies. Our R&D department is constantly programming improvements and innovations. We are open to your new ideas and functionalities. Your suggestions are investigated as a priority and whenever possible they are integrated into our development schedule. We enjoy complete interactivity with our clients. With LBS Suite, you are no longer merely a customer. You are a full partner and your opinion is very important to our developers.
Lilt
Lilt helps the modern gaming company deliver an immersive experience that resonates with all audiences, regardless of native language.
At Lilt, we want your gaming platform and storylines to be understood by everyone, at all times. Our human-driven, AI-powered approach to translations saves localization professionals time, stress, and money. Whether localizing a website, game, support content, documentation, or something else, Lilt’s here to make translations easy.
EXHIBITORS
RoundTable Studio
RoundTable Studio – your game localization partner for success in Latin America! With its own production centers in Argentina and Brazil, and a complete range of translation/audio recording services for Spanish and Portuguese, RTS combines top quality standards and cost efficiency to bring you unbeatable overall value. ISO 27001 certified for information security.
Alpha Games
Alpha Games are industry leaders in supplying the world’s largest game publishers and developers with a range of specialized best-in-class localization services. Having worked on many of the most epic and iconic titles of the past 30 years, we’re specialists in delivering bespoke localization solutions for projects ranging from AAA multi-platform blockbusters to hyper-casual mobile games.
Keywords Studios
We work with the world’s leading video games publishers and developers to provide Art, Development, Audio, QA, Localization, Customer Support and Marketing services.
Keywords has 65+ studios, in more than 40 cities, across 20+ different countries. We enable content creators and publishers to leverage our expertise across the lifecycle of interactive content.
Gridly
Developed by the game localization company LocalizeDirect, now Gridly is used by Rovio, The Pokémon Company, Scopely, Starbreeze, Hazelight, and other game development studios.
SPONSORS
Testronic
Testronic is an international Quality Assurance and Localization company providing award-winning services to the video game industry. Established in 1998, and headquartered in London, Testronic employs nearly 1,000 testers and has grown its operations to facilities in Warsaw, New Orleans, Bucharest, Belgrade, and Burbank.
A trusted partner for leading video game publishers across the globe. Quality matters to Testronic: It has for over 20 years.
Consoltec
FlowFit provides fully customizable web portals for clients, providers and project managers to give them an accurate real time overview of their teams’ workload using task assignment, timesheets and a new CRM feature to manage contacts.
To make work easier, FlowFit integrates the management functionality of different translation support tools (MemoQ, LogiTerm, SDL Studio, etc.) into a single system to help translation teams control projects on the same platform and reduce administrative costs.
Blend
BLEND (formerly known as OneHourTranslation) is a leading AI-powered localization company that aims to remove cross-border barriers for global businesses. As an end-to-end multi-market enabler, BLEND empowers global brands to establish a native presence in fundamentally different markets, worldwide. BLEND’s strength lies in the power of its AI-driven technology stack, its team diversity, and the strength of its global linguist and voice talent community.
Alongside its enterprise-grade all-in-one localization platform, BLEND also provides self-service on-demand translation services via BLEND Express. BLEND, founded in 2008, is a privately held company with offices in Tel Aviv, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Kyiv, and Bucharest.
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