Speakers & Partners

Jukka Aalho (b. 1986) is an Oulu-based creative marketer, TEDx speaker, and author. He has helped build several international health tech success stories, including work at Polar and as Science Communication Lead at Oura Health. He currently works as a marketing consultant, especially for startups expanding internationally.

Melanie has worked in localisation for more than 20 years, on both the vendor and client side, including Appen, SDL, Cochlear and Invoice2go, before nearly seven years at Atlassian leading product localisation and internationalisation, and now Canva, where she leads the localisation enablement team. Across her career, Melanie's focused on moving localisation out of reactive delivery and into a strategic, scalable product capability. Her guiding question isn't simply how to localise faster, but why we're localising in the first place, and how we should do it.

Kirsti is an internationally accomplished advisor and CEO of a high-growth company expanding rapidly across international markets. She brings extensive experience in scaling businesses internationally, building brands across markets, and leading organizations through the challenges and opportunities of international growth. She also has broad experience in board leadership and governance. With a long track record of leading businesses and diverse teams in international environments, Kirsti combines strategic ambition with a strong customer and people-centric approach. She is passionate about what it takes to turn international ambition into sustainable growth: the right strategy, the courage to enter new markets, and the people and culture needed to make growth happen.

Eeva is a Senior Content Designer at Oura, where she creates empathetic user experiences for health features. Eeva specializes in translating complex science into actionable guidance that helps people better understand their sleep, readiness, and well-being.

Marjo is the CEO of Nuvoo, a leading Nordic circular IT company specializing in refurbished computers and sustainable technology solutions. She has more than 20 years of international leadership experience from companies such as Nokia, Polar, Oura, and Nuvoo, with a strong background in strategy, business development, digital commerce, and scaling international growth. Marjo is passionate about driving organizational transformation and advancing the circular economy through technology.

Anna drives initiatives that bring together language, technology, and business strategy. Her experience spans localization, marketing, communication, and digital transformation, with a focus on enabling global growth through effective multilingual experiences. She is a frequent contributor to industry conversations on language, globalization, and brand reach.

Antoine Rey, SVP Customer Development at Argos Multilingual, started his career in localization in 1997 and has held various technical, sales and management roles in the industry. Antoine's main area of focus is to consult, develop and implement mature operational and business globalization models with clients across various industries. Antoine is a French native and holds a MSc in Information Technology and a BA in International Business and Communications. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Christiane (Nane to her friends) began her career in translation through volunteering with Plan International in Germany, which led to a medical translation job in Toronto, followed by four years working in the occasionally surreal and decidedly unromantic world of online dating in London. She then spent almost eight years as Head of Localisation at a language-learning EdTech start-up, helping it grow from start-up to scale-up and through its eventual exit. After a stint as an independent consultant, she joined London-based FinTech start-up Currensea as its first-ever Localisation Manager, building the localisation function from the ground up.

Claudia Francesca Müller is a multilingual content and localization expert with over 15 years of experience. She blends language, culture, and design with strategy and innovation, viewing content as a holistic discipline that extends beyond mere words.

Cori is the Director of Internationalization and Program Management at Meta, Inc. While living in Japan, Cori became convinced that breaking down language barriers is key to developing shared understanding across cultures. While completing his Bachelor of Arts in Japanese at Brigham Young University in 2005, he began translating Japanese automotive patents and medical documents to pay his way through University. He has since held various roles leading operations and designing localization solutions for several language service providers. In 2019, Cori joined Meta and relocated to the Seattle area, where he is focused on building scalable solutions for Internationalization and Product Quality.

Denis is a Localization Producer at Paradox Interactive, with over 8 years in the game localization industry. At Belka Games, he moved from Customer Support Agent to Lead Localization Manager, where he designed end-to-end localization and LQA processes for 8+ mobile titles—including Clockmaker and Brilliant Sort—across 15+ languages, and built AI-assisted pipelines that significantly cut turnaround times and project costs. He also led the licensing process, bringing two titles to the Chinese market. Denis began his career as a Chinese interpreter in rally raid racing, and now focuses on how AI can scale localization without losing the player's voice.

Elias is a Content Designer at OP Pohjola, where he helps shape AI-powered digital services. His work focuses on content design, conversational experiences, and the practical use of GenAI. Passionate about clear communication and human-centred design, Elias helps turn complex technologies into simple, intuitive experiences for users.

Fabiano Cid is Chief Solutions Officer at Powerling, where he drives its shift from language services provider to global content solutions partner. Brazilian, based in Valencia by way of Montreal, he has spent close to 30 years in the language services industry. He founded Ccaps Translation and Localization in 1999, sold it to OXO Innovation, became COO, led three acquisitions, and sold it again to Powerling. He is a former Board Chair of GALA and currently sits on the advisory board of Women in Localization, where he founded and helps lead the Underrepresented Interest Groups (UIGs). He created and hosts SOFA, a series of interviews with industry leaders "where bold ideas find a comfy seat."

Francesca is Localization Director at Phrase and manager of the Loc Leaders community. She has been in the localization industry for 17+ years, with experience spanning the video game industry, language service providers, consulting, events, and community management.

Marco is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Nucu, an Oulu-based company developing an ambient sleep tracker that helps parents understand their children's sleep health. Before co-founding Nucu in 2022, he spent over 15 years at Polar Electro, most recently as Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Team Member, after roles spanning product, brand, and group product leadership. Canadian-born, Marco brings a career built across product strategy, brand development, and international business to his work building health technology for families.

Marko Kesti is a researcher, entrepreneur, and developer of the QWL (Quality of Working Life) method, which examines employee well-being as a measurable factor of organizational productivity. His work combines research on human capital productivity, the psychology of change, motivation science, and AI-assisted leadership. Marko has also developed a game-theoretical approach to change leadership that helps explain how people and organizations respond to new technologies, changing practices, and competing short- and long-term incentives.

Oleksandr is a localization leader with 25 years in the industry, now building AI-powered internationalization infrastructure and agentic translation platforms at GitLab, following prior leadership roles across sports technologies, telecommunications, HR tech, human capital management, and e-commerce organizations.

Sarah is a UX content and localization expert with a background in European legal linguistics and technology. As an author, speaker, and natural connector, she breaks down disciplinary silos and brings the right expertise together to tackle complex language challenges. She aligns linguistic precision with user needs and technical realities to create language solutions that are clear, effective, and feasible.