Anna N. Schlegel
President
Co-founder
ANNA N. SCHLEGEL is VP, International Product, Global Infrastructure, Platform Flexibility, Customer Education, Training, Technical Documentation, Markets, and Globalization at Procore Technologies. Anna has been an executive at companies like VMware, Cisco, and NetApp. She was also CEO & GM of two globalization agencies. Her work can be seen at www.trulyglobalbusiness.com. Anna is based in the Bay Area in California and is a co-founder of Women in Localization.
Cecilia Maldonado
Vice-President Board Sponsor
Operations & Metrics
CECILIA MALDONADO has 20+ years of experience in the localization industry that includes co-founding, managing and merging language service companies and co-founding the first language industry association in Argentina. She also volunteers with different international organizations and has organized more than 30 training events such as the Language & Technology Conference, Think Latin America, and the Vendor Management Seminar in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Ireland, Peru and the United States.
Winnie Heh
Secretary
Board Sponsor Non-Profit
WINNIE HEH has worn many different hats in the language industry – language instructor, translator, interpreter, professor of interpretation, senior executive and consultant for language services companies. She is currently the Career Advisor for the Translation, Interpretation and Localization Management programs at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. In her business career, she led teams in Operations, Sales, Marketing, international expansion, language technology, merger and acquisition. She has established and managed businesses in the U.S., Latin America, Canada, U.K. and China. She holds an AA degree in Accounting and Statistics, BA degree in English and MA degree in Conference Interpretation.
Silvia Avary
Co-founder
Treasurer
SILVIA AVARY has over 20 years of localization experience working for high-tech companies including Rivian, Juniper Networks, Symantec, VeriSign, and NetApp. Silvia is a co-founder and treasurer of Women in Localization. Originally from Brazil, she relocated to the U.S. in her mid-twenties and is fluent in Portuguese, English, and Spanish. Her diverse educational background extends beyond localization. She holds an MBA from San Francisco State University, a Marketing Certificate from Berkeley, and earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree early in her career. Silvia resides in the Bay Area with her husband, three children, and two dogs.
Allison McDougall
Board Sponsor
Global Sponsorship
ALLISON MCDOUGALL has been involved in Women in Localization for 13 years, having served in multiple Board roles, as Global President, and most recently as a Board Advisor. In 2024, she returns to the Board to drive collaboration with Women in Localization’s strategic sponsors that make our global programs possible. Passionate about mentorship, gender equality, employee recognition, and continuous learning, Allison is excited to engage with sponsors to ensure that their investments continue to deliver value, while supporting Women in Localization’s growing membership and engagement. Allison brings more than 20 years’ business development and sales leadership in the localization industry, where she has helped scale companies to $200M+ and position for strategic M&A. She currently leads sales and account management for G3, a women-owned localization start-up company dedicated to Market Research and Life Sciences.
Carrie Fischer
Board Sponsor
Global Growth and Diversity
CARRIE FISCHER one of the charter members of Women in Localization when it first started in Silicon Valley, is the Globalization Services Manager at Subway, headquartered in Shelton, CT. She is responsible for all globalization-related strategies for the company. She has over 25 years of localization experience and has held previous localization positions at companies such as Bodybuilding.com, Hyperion/Oracle and Transparent Language. She has presented and moderated many sessions for various industry-related events such as LocWorld, SlatorCon, and others. She is a mentor through Mentor Ease, Women in Localization’s mentorship platform. Carrie lives in Boise, Idaho with her son, Christopher. In her personal time, she enjoys playing tennis, bodybuilding and spending time with her animals.
Jill Goldsberry
Board Sponsor
Global Strategic Partnerships & Events
JILL GOLDSBERRY is the Enterprise Sales Director for Lionbridge. Her diverse client base serves Software, IT, Manufacturing, Financial, Hospitality and Retail. She is passionate about understanding her clients’ organizational goals and objectives, Jill enjoys creating optimal multilingual communication solutions; while building a custom implementation and service delivery schedule model that aligns with existing technology and processes. Recently, she completed the Global Digital Marketing and Localization Certification (GDMLC) Program and is a distinguished graduate of Purdue University. Based in San Mateo, CA and has 20 years of localization, media and marketing experience across multiple verticals.
Madhu Sundaramurthy
Board Sponsor
Global Community
MADHU SUNDARAMURTHY one of the core members of Women in Localization India Chapter when it first started in 2019, is the Global HR Director and Managing Director-APAC for Summa Linguae Technologies, headquartered in Poland. She is responsible for the overall India Operations at SLT and at the global level ensures employee success. She has over 20 years of localization experience and has set-up multiple departments at SLT. She has presented and moderated many sessions for various industry-related events such as CITLoB, TWIN, CustomMT and others. She is a mentor through Mentor Ease, Women in Localization’s mentorship platform. Madhu lives in Bangalore, India with her husband, daughter, parents and dog. In her personal time, she volunteers at her daughter’s school and in her residential community. In her current role at Women in Localization she collaborates and coordinates with multiple leaders in the Global Community to empower and educate members.
María Jesús De Arriba
Board Sponsor
Chapters
MARÍA JESÚS DE ARRIBA is a senior localization leader with 25 years in the industry. Her localization journey started as a translator and interpreter, and quickly stepped into leadership roles where she’s had the honour of coaching, mentoring and leading diverse teams across a variety of areas. She’s currently Senior Global Language Services Manager at Workday. She’s an active mentor and an advocate for empowering professionals to grow within the localization industry, through my volunteer roles with GALA and Women in Localization.
She has served as a volunteer with Women in Localization for over 6 years, and she’s thrilled to continue supporting all our Chapters around the world as the Board Sponsor for the Chapters Program in 2024.
Olga Beregovaya
Board Sponsor
Technology
OLGA BEREGOVAYA has over 20 years of experience in Language Technology, NLP, Machine Learning, Global Content Transformation and AI Data development and is passionate about both growing businesses through driving change and innovation, and mentoring the next generation of the industry talent. Olga started her career in language technology working on Rule-based machine translation, gradually expanding her expertise into other broader applications of NLP and Machine Learning to enterprise localization workflows. Olga has also served as President of AMTA, currently serves as a Technology Program Sponsor for Women in Localization. Olga is a frequent presenter at industry events, such as TAUS, GALA, Localization World, and various podcasts and webinars, and an active contributor to technology publications. Olga received her MA, Linguistics/Germanic Studies at UC- Berkeley and BA/MA in Linguistics from St. Petersburg State University.
Olga Blasco
Board Sponsor
Marketing
OLGA BLASCO brings over 25 years of experience in rapid growth + M&A habitat in the language services industry. She started as a linguist but quickly pursued a journey to create client solutions, get things done and build teams around the world. After 20 years in leadership positions in Lionbridge and Welocalize, since 2016 she is a growth strategist, mentor and social entrepreneur. Her mission is to help business owners to increase the value of their companies and fulfil their end game through the right investments in talent, technology and M&A. Born in Barcelona and a nomad at heart, Olga is M&A Principal Partner at Lionpeople Global (Dublin), leads Strategy / International Business at Aglatech14 (Milan), is CIO of their tech spinoff Orbital14, and co-founder of JANA (Istanbul). Olga is also Board member of Translators without Borders Ireland, now rebranded as Clear Tech.