Leadership Team

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. 

Diego has been working for over sixteen years at the intersection of languages and technology to help people and companies communicate in any language. He has built cohesive teams to create, improve, and scale tech products with a deep business impact both at his own start-up tauyou and at TransPerfect. Prior to Language I/O, he worked on cognitive services (language, speech, vision, and decision) at Microsoft.

He holds a PhD and an MS in Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor in Management and Business Administration. He speaks Catalan, Spanish, English, French, and German. Besides languages, he loves running and writing.

Prior to working for Language I/O, Viviana spent ten years working in the language industry for various language service providers managing projects and vendors. Throughout her experiences, Viviana has worked closely with her customers to automate their processes and fully support their localization efforts.

Viviana is passionate about working for a woman-owned company and places high importance on women being successful in the tech industry.

She was born and raised in Italy and has a Master’s in Foreign Languages and Translation from the University of Turin.

Viviana also speaks Spanish and Italian.

Meg is responsible for financial operations and corporate strategy. Prior to Language I/O, she spent 10 years in high-growth companies within the software/SaaS industry. Most recently, Meg led the finance organization at CloudHealth by VMware, where she oversaw the teams responsible for accounting, operations, and FP&A.

Meg is passionate about building teams, scaling processes, and being a hands-on finance business partner to her colleagues throughout the organization.

Meg holds a BS in Accounting and an MBA from Quinnipiac University.

Ryan is responsible for global revenue growth at Language I/O. Ryan has over 20 years of experience in the localization, software and IT services industries. Ryan has spent the last 10 years in leadership positions at Ubiqus, Lionbridge and SDL. Prior to that, Ryan was involved in the growth of several large IT companies as well as some smaller start-ups.

Ryan has supported and scaled global teams in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He has developed and executed successful go-to-market strategies directly resulting in new multi-year business partnerships with the most recognized global companies. Ryan is passionate about doing right by his team, clients and partners.

As Chief Marketing Officer, Tobias is responsible for overseeing marketing initiatives at Language I/O. He brings more than 20 years of marketing experience to Language I/O, having led start-ups from launch to profitability and helped boost billion-dollar corporations’ financial reach. Tobias has broad experience in finance, food service, biotech and government sectors, plus more than a decade in the language industry. Before joining Language I/O, he led marketing at Sayari Labs.

A global citizen, Tobias was born in Germany and grew up in the UK. He is currently based in Washington, D.C.

Lisa DeFrank joined Language I/O in 2021 after having worked in Human Resources across both technology and healthcare industries. Lisa is driven to create a positive employee experience in the workplace that drives engagement and organizational success.

Lisa has earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Resources Management as well as a Master of Science in Management & Leadership and an MBA. She further holds SHRM-CP credentials.

Lisa has lived throughout the United States and is an avid international traveler, spending much time in Central and South America, always seeking to improve her Spanish-speaking skills.

Prior to joining Language I/O, Chris was a Product Line Manager at CloudHealth by VMware. During his time there, Chris oversaw the teams responsible for backend data operations, and grew the product to become a recognized market leader in the cloud management space.

In that role, Chris was able to spend time traveling to the UK, Australia, Japan, France, Korea and Israel, which furthered his understanding of cultural differences. His time spent demoing and configuring products via translation services convinced him of the need for a translation service that understands the complexities of industry-specific jargon.

Chris holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Bowdoin College in Maine.

With a strong background in enterprise relationship management and innovating partner programs at startups, Allie serves as Language I/O’s VP of Partnerships, where she develops unique partnerships to drive innovation and customer outcomes. Having exceed revenue goals for the last 6 years, Allie has been named in CRN’s Women of the Channel rankings for 3 years.

Allie attended James Madison University where she studied Sports & Recreation Management and International Business. Outside of work, she is an avid traveler and adventurer who loves connecting with new people, places, and cultures.

Antonia has been working in the language industry for decades, having had roles spanning operations and solutions. She began her work on stand-alone applications for Windows NT 4.0 and has continued into the SaaS and AI arena since then. She enjoys helping customers implement solutions that help content and communications flow via integrations with CMS and CRM platforms.

Antonia earned her Bachelor’s degree at Suffolk University in Boston and has taken several programming classes at Boston University. In her free time, she volunteers at the local senior center to help the elderly communicate through the COVID-19 pandemic. She also fosters homeless animals from the local shelter.

As Director of Digital Marketing, Gene is responsible for developing and optimizing marketing campaigns that connect Language I/O with global organizations. With extensive experience in the SaaS and language translation space, Gene expertly aligns marketing tactics to business goals.

Prior to joining Language I/O, Gene led digital marketing at several SaaS and B2B companies, where he built demand generation engines from the ground up. Based in San Francisco, Gene is an outdoors enthusiast who can often be found hiking or cruising around the city on his bike.

Ted is responsible for driving growth and supporting the expanding needs of our enterprise customers. With 20+ years of experience within localization, Ted has always been driven to focus on building trust and developing strong partnerships with large enterprise customers. His customer experience spans many domains from manufacturing to non-profits and includes Fortune 500 companies in tech, biotech, travel/hospitality and entertainment. 

Based in the Boston area, Ted previously led production, project management and account management teams at Lionbridge and Acolad. He is an avid cyclist and enjoys coaching youth soccer.

Patrick is the Director of Revenue Operations at Language I/O. With 13+ years of experience within localization, Pat has a proven track record in growing revenue and margins over a multi-year period. He is an expert at driving new business through customized programs, leading global partnerships, and building highly effective teams to produce commercial outcomes, and has extensive experience leading sales enablement and project delivery for client programs across all industries.

Patrick graduated from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and holds a BS in Business Administration and Concentration in Finance.

Based in the greater New York City area, Patrick enjoys hiking and running.

Mollie is responsible for the strategy and development of marketing content at Language I/O. Having launched her career managing business development at a digital marketing agency before moving into SaaS, she brings a data-driven approach to content, with a focus on demonstrating how technology and AI can help solve real problems and support growth.

Mollie earned her Bachelor of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications from Ithaca College. She holds several certifications from HubSpot, as well as those from Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Hootsuite.