Sudheen M

President, CITLoB
Founder of Crystal Hues Limited

Sudheen M is the President at CITLoB and Founder of Crystal Hues Limited, one of the pioneers integrating the marketing communication services and localization services, delivering unparalleled solutions to clients for more than three decades now. He is a die-hard start-up enthusiast, philanthropic at heart and his expertise includes marketing communications, localization, translation, strategic planning, branding, positioning and media.

Sandeep Nulkar

CEO, BITS Private Limited

Sandeep Nulkar is one of the Founding Members of CITLoB and also its immediate Past President. Besides being the Founder of BITS Private Limited, he is also a Member of the Executive Committee of the National Language Translation Mission, the Chairman of FICCI's Indic Internet & Language Technology Subcommittee, a Member of Regional Language Committee, India Internet Governance Forum, the Vice President of the Alliance Française de Pune and a Member of ICANN's Universal Acceptance Local India Chapter Working Group.

Biraj Rath

CEO, BRAAHMAM

Biraj Rath is one of the founding members of Braahmam International Limited with offices in US, Ireland and India. Based in Dublin, he specializes in helping customers with design and delivery of products and services for the Middle-East, Indian and South East Asian markets. Biraj has been instrumental in growing Braahmam with a global presence. With over 20 years of dedication to the language industry, he is an authority on localization and digital learning technologies. Biraj has delivered papers at several Translation industry forums, such as industry Globalization and Localization Association (GALA), Localization World, LISA, British Council Forums, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). He has been a judge on the prestigious Brandon-Hall panel to review technically innovative e-learning products. He has also served as a program committee member for several industry events. Biraj has served as an ambassador for GALA from 2015-17. Currently, he serves as the CEO of Braahmam and is also one of the founding members of the Indian Language Association (CITLOB).

Cédric Sigoire

Owner, DEMAN Translations

Cédric Sigoire is the owner of the DEMAN Translations with headquarter in Düsseldorf, Germany. He is a French citizen residing in Germany and is trilingual with proficiency in French, German and English. After a successful career in sales and management positions, he decided to run his own company in 2015 and bought the German LSP DEMAN Übersetzungen specialized in high-quality B2B translations with EUR 1.5M in annual revenues. The "Buy and Build" strategy that he put in place allowed him to quickly grow the revenues. After acquiring 10 LSPs, the DEMAN group now has its presence in Germany, France, Switzerland and South Korea with annual turnover of over EUR 6M for the fiscal year 2021. His company is on track for the next milestone and is expected to hit EURO 10M by the end of 2022.

Sunil Kulkarni

President, Fidel Technologies

Sunil Kulkarni is the VP West Zone @CITLoB and the CEO of Fidel Softech Pvt Ltd (www.fidelsoftech.com) & LinguaSol Pvt. Ltd (www.linguasol.net) . Sunil has been active in the field of Languages & Technologies for past 20+ years and works closely between Japan & India. He is very passionate about upskilling, creating job opportunities, entrepreneurship and LangTech. Meet Sunil @Samwad 2021.

Vidushi Kapoor

Co-founder at Process9, VP-North at CITLoB, Chapter Manager at Women in Localization India, SME Council Member at Nasscom

Vidushi is a second generation problem solver and the co-founder of Process Nine Technologies. Having spent around 10 years in Indian Language and Localization industry, her current mission is to bring language equality on the internet through scalable and efficient technology solutions.

Jan Hinrichs

Founder and CEO, Beluga and LocLunch community

Jan Hinrichs is the founder and CEO of Beluga, a language service company that powers scale-ups and global organizations with strong translation and localization teams to run smoothly in over 40 languages. He is a professional multitasker - especially when participating in online conferences while walking the dogs. Jan is the founder of the LocLunch community, which enables conversations and knowledge sharing in and around the translation, localization, and globalization industry. He is also studying about carbon removal and carbon credits.

Afaf Steiert

President, AFAF TRANSLATIONS

Afaf Steiert is President and founder of Afaf Translations, works as a conference Arabic interpreter, and oversees all medical /pharmaceutical translation services at Afaf Translations. She speaks 5 languages and has good knowledge of all Arabic dialects. She obtained her MSc in plant molecular biology from University of Basel, Switzerland.

Matthias Steiert

Biotechnology Consultant and Co-Founder, Afaf Translations"

pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. He holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Basel, Switzerland.

Vibhaw Kumar

CEO Berns Brett India Insurance Broking

Vibhaw started his career as a Credit Appraiser for Commercial Vehicle financing for a NBFC. Subsequently he joined the insurance sector and has 23 years of experience in it. He has worked as an insurance consultant, insurance broker, a reinsurance broker as well as an underwriter. Vibhaw is currently working for Berns Brett India as the CEO. He has experience placing some of the large liability insurance programs, settling of large insurance claims and drafting some bespoke liability insurance wordings. Vibhaw has extensive as well as varied experience in training. While working for Tata AIG he was in-house trainer for Financial Lines and Casualty; a visiting faculty member for National Insurance Academy, Insurance Institute of India; provided training for staff of HDFC ERGO, Bajaj Allianz, Future Generali, Reliance General, Cholamandalam MS General, National Insurance Co., United India, New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance. Vibhaw has also provided training to officers of some of the insurance companies in Sri Lanka.

Dr. Donald A. DePalma

Founder and Chief Research Officer, CSA Research

Don DePalma has been involved in shaping the globalization strategies of some of the world's largest firms and the market strategies of the industry's most influential language service and technology providers. As the founder of CSA Research, Don has been instrumental in establishing the company as the preeminent market research firm in localization and globalization. He initiated the firm's coverage of localization maturity, enterprise language processing, business-driven globalization, machine translation, return on investment for localization, and multicultural domestic marketing. Don holds a doctorate in linguistics from Brown University.

Vivekanand Pani

Co-founder & CTO, Reverie Language Technologies

Vivek is the Co-Founder and CTO of Reverie Language Technologies, a mission first company driving "Language Equality on the Internet." Reverie is driving langauges' led digital customer experience by integrating voice , video and text.

With more than 20 years of experience in Indian Language Computing, Vivek is one of the very few subject matter experts who are passionate and dedicated to making usage of Indian languages easy on digital platforms. Vivek began his Indian language journey at the Center for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), Pune, in the year 1997. His journey spans across developing advanced multilingual tools for early computing devices and word processing software for computers to leading today's state of the art AI-driven Indian language technologies like Automated Speech Recognition, Machine Translation, Text-to-Speech, Natural language understanding, Multilingual Search, etc.

Steve Chu

Founder and Executive Director, GoAP

Steve Chu in the business of helping companies grow and get to the next level. He has more than 20 years of diversified management experience in general management, sales, marketing, and operations. After spending more than a decade in the financial communications industry managing Asia operations, US operations, technology, product development, and marketing, Steve founded Treehouse Strategy with the purpose of using big data and business analytics to drive business growth. Through Treehouse Strategy, Steve and his associates as well as partners have helped their clients develop their sales and marketing strategies, develop new customers, expand into new markets, streamline operations, as well as implement business and technology solutions. Steve is also the founder and executive director of the Glocalization Organization of Asia Pacific (GoAP). [pronounced GO-A-P] GoAP is a global industry and trade association that focuses on the globalization efforts of companies and localization industries in Asia, Oceania, and countries in the entire Asia-Pacific region. We are also seeking to promote and foster the development of globalization and localization technologies in Asia, Oceania, and the Asia-Pacific region. Steve received his B.A. from Columbia University and his M.A. in communication from Iowa State University.

Ravindra Kumar

Chief Consultant, Arya Consultancy Services

Madhuri Hegde

Co-Founder and COO, Summa Linguae Technologies

Madhuri Hegde, Co-Founder & COO, Summa Linguae Technologies, looks after the global expansion of her company. A polyglot herself, she takes keen interest in fostering the development of language professionals worldwide. Besides being an icon for women entrepreneurship, she is a confluence of influence, inspiration and impact and is involved in mentoring early-stage start-ups, in their planning and growth phases. She is also an eminent speaker at various events providing insights on business growth.

Ishitaa Saxena

Interpreter and Translator

Ishitaa Saxena has been working as an independent interpreter and translator for the past eight years. As an interpreter, she has worked with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the UNHCR Office in New Delhi, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy among several other organizations. She holds a Master's Degree in Translation and Interpretation in French and Francophone Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her working languages include English, Hindi, and French. She also holds a Diploma in the Romanian language from the University of Delhi. She recently submitted her Ph.D. thesis on French post-impressionist painting. Her current work interests include in-person and remote simultaneous interpretation.

Sarika Gulyani

Director & Head | ICT, Mobile Manufacturing, Emerging Technologies, Digital Transformation & FICCI-ILIA Divisions

Ms Sarika Gulyani is the Director at FICCI and leads the verticals, like ICT, Mobile Manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation and FICCI-Indian Language Technology Alliance. Sarika has more than 16 years of experience in regulatory affairs, public affairs, and policy advocacy of the telecom, information communications technology and digital economy sectors. Her specific areas of focus and expertise include Indic Internet, Language Technologies, Internet Governance, M2M, AI, IOT, Mobile Technologies, Broadband infrastructure, and Enterprise IT. She has launched various international intellectual conferences and seminars like Bhashantara, Big Data Conclave, Emerging Technologies Conclave, India Internet Governance Conference, Cybercomm, India Telecom series, Digital Bharat, i-Bharat and has been instrumental in increasing the penetration of ICT in India. She has been working closely with government departments, industry associations, international agencies and global ICT associations on policy issues and overall growth of the ICT, Digital Economy and Indic Internet. Sarika also represents FICCI at various national and international forums. An Electronics & Communications engineer, Ms Sarika Gulyani also holds a Master's Degree in International Business from the University of Delhi.

Britta Aagaard

Chief Business Officer at Semantix

Britta is the Chief Business Officer at Semantix where she is responsible for the total business within localization and advanced language solutions. She is an enthusiastic leader of a passionate team of language professionals, technology experts, and innovative minds. Semantix is the leading player in the Nordics and is constantly expanding its own comfort zone, trying harder and achieving more. Britta thrives on working with great people who firmly believe in communication and technology as an important contribution to our modern world.

Geoffrey Bowden

General Secretary EUATC

Geoffrey Bowden has spent more than 40 years in the language industry. He helped develop the UK's Association of Translation Companies into one of the world's most successful language industry associations and was one of the founders of EUATC, where his attentions are now wholly focussed. Along the way he has helped establish translation and localization associations across the world. He was a recipient of the language industry's Eichner Distinguished Service Award and has been named as one of Nimdzi's top 50 influencers in the sector.

Raisa McNab

CEO ATC

Translator, quality manager, ISO standards lead, production manager, Raisa McNab has had many different roles in the translation industry over the past 20 years. Today, she puts that experience into practice by steering the UK's Association of Translation Companies (ATC), a trade association representing over 200 language service companies providing multilingual translation and interpreting services to the UK's businesses and the public sector.

Raisa McNab spans the boundaries between the language services industry, academia and the public sector, promoting collaboration and best practice. She is the ATC's Lead on Standards, and oversees the operations and development of ATC Certification, a language services expert ISO Certification Body. Raisa McNab holds an MA in Translation & Interpreting from her native Finland.

Heike Leinhäuser

EUATC and MD, Leinhäuser Language Services.

Heike Leinhäuser is President of the European Union of Associations of Translation Companies (EUATC), one of CITLoB's strategic partners. She was formerly President of the EUATC's German member association, Qualitats Sprachendienste Deutschlands (QSD).

With her brother, Udo, she established Leinhäuser Language Services in 1997, which was strengthened in 2010 when it joined forces with the former management of Siemens Language Services. The company, with a team of more than 30 account managers, specialises in communication, finance and marketing.

Alok Juneja

Business Head at PepperContent

Tanushree Choudhury

VP - Enterprise Business - Braahmam | Founding member & COO at vSpeeq | Founding Member at CITLoB

Harshit Vyas

Chief Business officer Pepper Content

The CBO of Pepper Content, Harshit Vyas is a visionary who has bagged multiple successes in life.

One of the youngest CXOs at OYO Harshit helped build the company from scratch. In a span of 7 years at OYO, he essayed multiple dignitaries, including Chief Operating Officer and Chief Business Officer (CBO). He successfully spearheaded 5000+ people across 250+ cities to drive growth and increase margins manifold

He hit yet another milestone while working as CXO at Pristyn Care He built a D2C brand "BeatXP" from scratch and scaled it to more than $10 million ARR in 8 months.

An alumnus of the IIT (BHU), Harisht joined Pepper Content as CBO and has become one of the brightest minds helping expanding Pepper Content globally.

Prof. Girish Nath Jha

Chairman, Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology, MoE, GOI (on deputation from JNU)

Prof. Girish Nath Jha is currently the Chairman of the Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology (CSTT) of Ministry of Education, Govt of India. He is a professor of Computational Linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) at the School of Sanskrit and Indic Studies. He is also a Concurrent Faculty at the School of Engineering, Center of Linguistics and at the Special Center of e-learning in JNU. Prof Jha has served as the Chairperson of the Special Center of Sanskrit Studies, JNU and was the founding Dean of the School of Sanskrit & Indic Studies at JNU. He has also held the position of the Director of International Collaboration and as Coordinator of Ayurveda Biology program at JNU. His research interests include Indian languages, corpora and standards, Sanskrit and Hindi linguistics, lexicography, Science & Technology in Sanskrit, Machine Translation, e-learning, web-based technologies, RDBMS techniques, software design and localization. Details on his work can be obtained from http://sanskrit.jnu.ac.in. Prof Jha has done collaborative research with the Center for Indic Studies, U. Mass, Dartmouth, USA as "Mukesh and Priti Chatter Distinguished Professor of History of Science" during 2009-12. He was awarded DAAD fellowship in 2014 and 2016 to teach Digital Humanities and Indology at University of Würzburg, Germany and has been a visiting Professor at the University of Florence in the summer of 2016. He has also been awarded the prestigious Datta Peetha Aasthan Vidwan Award for Sanskrit. His work on revival of Sharada script earned him KECSS felicitation award.

Prof. Jha did his M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Linguistics (Computational Linguistics) from JNU and then got another masters degree in Linguistics (Natural Language Interface) from University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, USA in 1999. He worked as software engineer and software development specialist in the USA before joining JNU in 2002. Prof Jha has books published by Springer, Cambridge Scholar Publishing among others and has over 138 research papers/presentations/publications and more than 300 talks. He has supervised 39 Ph.D. and 41 M.Phil. research students so far. Prof Jha has had several consultancies including those from Google, Nuance, Swiftkey, Microsoft Research, Microsoft Corporation, Linguistic Data Consortium (U. Penn), U.Mass Dartmouth, EZDI among others. Prof Jha has completed several sponsored projects for Indian language technology development and has led a consortium of 17 universities/institutes for developing corpora and standards for Indian languages.

Aazhi Senthilnathan

Evangelizing Ailaysa

He is the CEO of Langscape Language Solutions Pvt Ltd, a language services company based in Chennai, that has been in business for two decades. He recently launched Ailaysa, an artificial intelligence translation platform. He was a founding member of the International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil (INFITT) and an ex-VP of Citlob, an industry body in India for language companies. In Tamil Nadu, he is a well-known writer and media personality.

Madhu Sundaramurthy

Global HR Director and MD - APAC | Mayflower Language Services Pvt. Ltd | Summa Linguae Technologies

Madhu Sundaramurthy, Global HR Director and MS-APAC, Summa Linguae Technologies. She is committed to the goal of nurturing talent for the language industry and elevating the quality of language solutions. She is the founder member of Women In Localization, India and the first Program Director representing APAC.

Rohit Agarwal

Disrupting Content Tech | Peppertype.ai | Pepper Content

Renato Beninatto

Chairman and Co-Founder

Renato Beninatto is an internationally respected leader in the localization industry with over 35 years of experience. As co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Nimdzi Insights, he advises Fortune 500 companies on localization strategies and international expansion. Renato previously served as VP at Berlitz and Moravia. He is the former president of the European Language Industry Association (ELIA) and vice president of the Brazilian Translation Association (ABRATES). Renato authored the acclaimed book "The General Theory of the Translation Company."

Pooja Agrawal

Sr Lead Software Engineer II, Globalization Engineering - Adobe Systems

Pooja works for Adobe G11n team and is having a diverse experience of 14+ years across domains and platforms.

She is currently handling Illustrator Desktop, Illustrator Web localization QA and deliveries. She is proactively working on functional test efforts optimisation and process improvements at the partner’s end for quality deliveries thus helping in benchmarking the established processes and replicating across G11N ecosystem.

She has been instrumental in improving the QE deliveries across the partner teams by driving QBR process and has been tracking vendor partner’s feedback wrt various categories - test quality, reporting and communication, subject matter expertise, process compliance and so on. Pooja is also the co-owner of Internationalisation testing charter where she is continuing to work on INTL test suite improvements, autograding and reliable world readiness scores.

She has been a familiar face across the industry as well - she has been a speaker at multiple conferences including STC 2016, STC 2019, Tech Summit, GILT and so on. She is also part of WLIN and is volunteering as mentorship and education manager for India chapter.

Saurabh Kavaathekar

Vice President of Localization Engineering

Saurabh Kavaathekar is a seasoned leader with over 22 years of experience in software globalization. With a strong focus on delivering exceptional outcomes and fostering innovation, Saurabh has held key roles in various leading technology organizations.

Currently serving as the Vice President of Localization Engineering at Fidel Softech, Saurabh defines and executes the company's localization technology strategy. He builds strong client relationships and stays updated with industry trends. Saurabh's expertise extends to managing complex enterprise software development programs, some involving multi-million-dollar business portfolios.

His journey includes serving as the Director of Product & Support Globalization at NetApp. He led globalization programs, achieving impressive customer satisfaction scores and driving technological innovation. His work on 'Source Code Internationalization Self-Healing Using Artificial Intelligence' was awarded at the Process Innovation Challenge, LocWorld Berlin in 2022.

He has also made significant contributions during his tenures at Symantec, CA Technologies, and Webdunia, consistently driving excellence in localization processes and technology. Saurabh's passion for driving success, innovative thinking, and commitment to values and integrity make him a sought-after figure in the software globalization and program management domain. He's known for encouraging creative thinking and continuous improvement, establishing him as a respected thought leader in the field.

He has also made significant contributions during his tenures at Symantec, CA Technologies, and Webdunia, consistently driving excellence in localization processes and technology. Saurabh's passion for driving success, innovative thinking, and commitment to values and integrity make him a sought-after figure in the software globalization and program management domain. He's known for encouraging creative thinking and continuous improvement, establishing him as a respected thought leader in the field.

Abhinav Nayar

CEO, Mool

Abhinav Nayar is the Founder and CEO of Townhall Technologies and Mool Capital, an AI-powered fintech with consumer and enterprise applications. Earlier in his career, he worked as a strategy consultant advising corporate and nonprofit leadership teams in 10 countries, assisted a senior government minister on development initiatives, and supported a global internet company's civic technology programs. Abhinav is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Oxford.

Vidya Ramachandran

Group Program Manager @ Adobe | Driving complex agile projects

As a leader in Adobe’s Globalization function, my team and I ensure the localization and accessibility of our top-notch products worldwide, thanks to our advanced technology. I'm a group program manager responsible for platform reliability and growth. I'm also a strong advocate for knowledge sharing to empower our community. I enjoy reading and have a passion for music.

Shalini Gupta

Program Manager II - Localization at Uber | Women In Localization India Chapter - Marketing

Proficient in multilingual quality program management. Skilled in language quality analysis, user experience testing, research & analysis, communication, and problem-solving. Able to work in a multi-cultural environment. Mentored internal teams. Managed various vendors, translators, and reviewers. Strong affinity and experience in high-quality, user-centric deliverables.

Experience in multilingual localization, technical & content writing, and transcription in English and Hindi. Experience in localization and writing technical and creative content for a software, website, e-commerce, mobile applications, technical, marketing, brand stories, and support content for the accounts like Microsoft, Amazon, PWC, and Uber.

Authored and copy-edited user guides, lab manuals, installation guides, process docs, and product descriptions. Worked cross-functionally with stakeholders, technical, marketing, and design teams for localization projects.

Konstantin Dranch

Language Industry Researcher | Founder Custom.MT

Jamie Brown

Chief Language Services Officer

EXTRACT
what3words aims to become the global standard for addressing and India is a huge market for the company. What role does localisation play in paving the way for what3words in multicultural, multilingual India, for a product with words at its very heart? We will look at how our Indian language research programme underpins our localisation effort, and with it increased adoption and brand awareness.

BIOG
Jamie Brown is Chief Language Services Officer at what3words and has overseen the company's available language options grow from 1 to 60 in nine years. Working with thousands of language consultants around the world, including hundreds in India, has been the driving force behind this period of development - they are the true stars!

Klaudia Fryc-Mallick

Certified Intercultural Trainer | Consultant | Managing Director at Van Dahlen Group | CSO at Malpis Consulting

certified intercultural trainer, business consultant, cultural psychologist, founder of Culture PRO & managing director of Van Dahlen Group.

Klaudia combined education (psychology and cultural anthropology), profession (certified intercultural trainer), passions (travel and books), and private experience (Polish-Indian family), creating engaging, practical development activities in business with her clients on a daily basis (e.g. workshops and webinars). Over 15 years in training rooms of various organizations and repeated questions and challenges of its clients resulted in writing this practical guide to the cultural aspects of cooperation with partners from India.

Rucha L Sheth

VP - Customer Success at Nimdzi and Sponsorship Manager at Women in Localization

Sarita Desai

Geo Manager (EMEIA) - Women in Localization, Partnership Manager at WhatJobs

Sarita brings to the table over 15 years of experience in the Localization industry, having held different roles on both the client and vendor sides. She currently works at WhatJobs as Partnerships Manager, and she is also the EMEIA Geo Manager & Job Board Lead at Women in Localization.

Vijetha D Jois

Student of 8th grade

Introduction: - Myself “Vijetha D Jois” student of 8th grade studying in Auden Public School, Bangalore. Interested in Languages, Psychology and learning about different cultures. Language has always fascinated me because it serves as a fundamental tool for communication, allowing one to express ideas, emotions, feelings, share experiences, and connect with people from diverse backgrounds all over the globe. I am also a great fan of reading books and writing articles./p>

Aparna Sinha

Linguist, experienced translator, copy writer, content management service for web sites and social networking sites, an accredited member of CITLoB-ALP

Experienced Linguist with a demonstrated history of working in the writing and television industry. Skilled in Linguistics, Editing, Public Speaking, Journalism, and Creative Writing. Strong information technology professional graduated Fergusson Collage (M.A. English), Pune University (Diploma in Communication and Journalism).

Ami Hattangadi

AVP- Growth, Process Nine Technologies

Ami comes with over 12 years of rich experience in the Technology Product & Services industry, out of which 2.5 years have been in the localization solutions vertical. She has also worn the hat of an entrepreneur in the past, as founder of TechZen Pro Pvt Ltd, a talent acquisition and executive search consultancy with a focus on the tech and IT industry.

Maria Jesus de Arriba Diaz

Senior Leader, Localization & Language Services - GALA Board Chair - Women in Localization Program Director

As a localization leader with 25 years in the industry, María has held multiple positions supporting the international growth of global companies of all sizes and industries. María's localization journey started as a translator and interpreter, then leading translation teams and championing quality. From there, she took on leadership roles in both program management and vendor management. Subsequently, María progressed to leading strategic language service operations and developing customized customer localization programs. She is currently Senior Global Language Services Manager at Workday.

As an industry leader, María is committed to developing strong partnerships based on collaboration and mutual trust, always seeking to understand and align. She thrives on turning challenges into opportunities, and finding innovative ways to provide more value. She plays an active role in leading the GILT industry into the future through her volunteer roles as elected Chairperson of the Board with the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA), and Program Director for Chapters & Global Growth with Women in Localization. In addition, she is an active mentor and an advocate for knowledge sharing within the industry.

Dr. Subalalitha C.N.

Founder Director of FirstLanguage Technologies|Associate Professor at SRM| NVIDIA DLI Ambassador for NLP| Researcher of Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning and Tamil Computing fields.

Dr.Subalalitha C N is the founder and Director of FirstLanguage Technologies Private Limited (https://www.firstlanguage.in/). She has a PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University. Her company FirstLanguauge mainly targets at tailoring Machine Translation and Speech to Text systems for Indian Languages .FirstLanguage Technologies provides state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing (NLP) API solutions like Machine Translation, Speech to Text, Question Answering , etc in multiple languages at an affordable cost. FirstLanguage Technologies was founded in the year 2021 with a mission to spread NLP technology across the world. "NLP for the masses" is their motto.

What we would present at Samvad: We will present about how our FirstLanguage Machine translation and Speech Recognition systems will work for the Hindi and Tamil languages. We would like to present how these systems can recognize the colloquial aspect of these languages which can be used for many commercial use cases . Also we would like to speak on the products that can be built around these systems and how these systems can be extended to other languages.

Mangesh Shinde

Co-Founder & COO at Rian | Helping Startups to Scale | Mentor | Investor

I am a seasoned C-level executive with a diverse background spanning multiple industries, dedicated to orchestrating organizational growth, scalability, and transformation. With over two decades of corporate experience, I made the transition to the startup world, where I specialize in crafting strategic roadmaps and expansion strategies. My expertise includes establishing and managing Product-Market fit, designing organizational structures, facilitating change management, and implementing efficient systems and processes. I thrive on being hands-on, working in the trenches to ensure sustainable growth for startups.

I am recognized as a results-oriented leader unafraid of tackling challenging initiatives. My track record showcases a talent for formulating business strategies that foster growth and optimize operations. Drawing upon my extensive background in strategy, operations, and product management, I have a proven track record of revitalizing underperforming businesses, automating processes, and shepherding startups through the transition to repeatable and scalable organizations.

My journey includes firsthand experience in an IT product-based Ed-tech startup, where I played a pivotal role in its remarkable growth, culminating in a tenfold increase in valuation. I also proudly serve as a Co-Founder of Rian, a Multilingual Technology-enabled Solution provider. Our mission is to eliminate language barriers across regions and industries through innovative technology, a global talent pool, and rigorous data security protocols. Over the past two years, we have successfully navigated several pivots and now proudly stand as the leading Technology-enabled Solution provider in the Audio and Video Localization space.

Melanie van de Velde

IMPACT | Keynote speaker | Author | Founder Big Tree Global & BJourneys

Regardless of where you are on your sustainability journey, I bet you will be surprised how much more positive impact you can have on our key global issues, including climate change, pollution, the plastics crisis, poverty, social exclusion and rising inequality. If only you use the right tools, questions, and best practice examples. Our insights enable business leaders to prevent typical pitfalls and tease out effective impact initiatives that 1) create a 200-400% higher impact return and truly transformative and lasting impact, 2) boost business growth authentically, and 3) improve productivity, brand value and resilience.

Our thought-leading framework is based on years of experience and my research that was awarded the Adam Smith Prize for PhD excellence (nominated by Cambridge University). Whilst simple to apply, it underpins the most successful impact initiatives from around the world. My research was inspired by running an impact business in a Nairobi slum to empower young women without an education. It opened my eyes to the powerful difference business can make. And also how challenging this can be. Prior to this experience, I managed Asia Pacific markets at a multi-billion dollar tech company and worked in senior management at IT start-ups.