Heather Morgan Shoemaker
Chief Executive Officer
Heather is the mastermind behind Language I/O’s core technology, which eliminates the need for expensive and time-consuming neural machine translation engine training by dynamically selecting the NMT engine that will best translate a given piece of content and imposing company-specific terminology onto any of the many NMT engines integrated into the Language I/O cloud solution.
Prior to co-founding Language I/O, Heather was well-known for globalizing code for Fortune 500s. She was also the senior director of Product Management and Globalization for eCollege, which was acquired by Pearson Education during her tenure. While at Pearson/eCollege, Heather and her team built a next-generation, online college education platform, which was launched globally.
Heather holds a Master of Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder College of Engineering as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Studies from the University of Washington in Seattle. She has lived in various parts of the United States and Mexico and speaks English and Spanish.
Kaarina Kvaavik
Chief Business Officer
Kaarina has been in the high-tech and language industries for over 20 years. She managed business development, sales, marketing, operations and personnel at regional and corporate levels for private and publicly traded corporations including Digital Equipment, Dragon Systems and PC DOCS helping them increase revenues tenfold.
Before co-founding Language I/O, Kaarina was an owner of ABLE Innovations, a localization company, where she increased yearly revenues for both existing and new clients, developed and nurtured partnerships that were instrumental in securing new clients and ensured ABLE’s position as a technologically savvy localization services provider.
Kaarina is a regular guest speaker at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business where she talks about entrepreneurship, women in business and international business. She is a mentor for the PEMBA competition; has mentored and judged the VCIC competition and served as an executive leadership coach at Questrom.
Kaarina has a multi-cultural background that began with her Swedish upbringing. She speaks five languages and has an excellent understanding of cultural differences and nuances.
Fabian Lobera
Chief Financial Officer
Fabian was drawn to Language I/O by a passion for SaaS technology businesses. Before joining LIO, he served as COO/CFO for Pitchengine, a content creation platform used by many Fortune 500 companies. Fabian built Pitchengine’s organizational operations from scratch, helped hire a team of more than 50 professionals; secured funding; and fielded acquisition offers. Pitchengine eventually built and successfully exited from seven online community news streams that profitably grew audiences with millions of annual site visits and disrupted traditional news delivery in Wyoming.
In 2016, Fabian was appointed by Wyoming Governor Matthew Mead to serve on the Department of Workforce Services Development Council. He holds a BS in Accounting from George Mason University and started his career as a CPA in Washington DC with roles in both public and private accounting.
Craig Boal
Director of Software Development
Before joining Language I/O in 2017, Craig was Sierra Trading Post’s manager of eCommerce Development and Operations where he oversaw operations and web and mobile app development. Craig was Sierra’s first web developer and joined the retailer in 2006.
During Craig’s tenure at Sierra Trading Post, the company became a Top 100 Internet Retailer, claimed industry-leading user experience scores and conversion rates and experienced double-digit eCommerce revenue growth. Craig’s drive to provide seamless eCommerce integration proved to be a critical component of that success.
Lucia Kash
Director of Business Development
Lucia Kash has more than two decades of experience working in localization, globalization, international business and management consulting. Her range of expertise and knowledge of global cultures has influenced her role as business development director for Language I/O. Lucia’s unwavering resolve has helped generate steady annual revenue increases for Language I/O and a solid client pipeline while exponentially increasing sales revenues.
Prior to joining Language I/O, Lucia was a business development manager for ABLE Innovations. While at ABLE, Lucia also worked in project management and vendor management.
Lucia is an Italian native and speaks four languages. She has lived and worked in several countries and has a deep knowledge of world cultures, which has contributed to her understanding of international markets.
Ivy Hughes
Director of Marketing
Before joining Language I/O, Ivy worked as a journalist covering education, politics, business and start-ups for numerous regional, national and international publications including Success, Entrepreneur and the Boston Globe. She has ghostwritten dozens of books for CEOs, several of which have landed on Amazon’s bestseller list.
Ivy’s editorial work with Entrepreneur and Success magazines brought her to Abu Dhabi and then England, where she lived for five years. Ivy has helped numerous domestic and international brands achieve their communications and marketing goals.