Deborah Walker Email & Phone Number

I’m a linguist by education and am currently working at Acrolinx as a Senior Principal Linguistic Consultant. As a leader in my team, I've been responsible for as many as 45 enterprise customers with an ARR of over $9M. I create and lead trainings for the Acrolinx platform while working closely with customers to make Acrolinx effective for their content. I also work closely with other teams to influence strategy and product.Previous to Acrolinx, I’ve done Localization and Geopolitical Strategy and Program Management for Microsoft. As the largest software company in the world, there is a high level of accountability globally, and my job has been to identify cultural risks in global marketing, content, branding, packaging, and strategy. I reviewed everything from project code names to package art and global training videos to identify anything that might hold risk to the company. It could be unintended embedded symbolism, the inclusion of something that is a cultural, religious or regional taboo, or other sensitive geopolitical content.I also reviewed names for products, services and features, and evaluated the acceptability of technical slang – from entertainment to enterprise. When there might be an issue, I suggested alternatives or ways to mitigate risk. Over the years, I have developed a vast warehouse of knowledge of subtleties and potential issues with cultural practices and differences, and I’m proud to say that in ten years, Microsoft had no negative publicity regarding the thousands of names, images, and pages of text that I vetted.My earlier time with Microsoft was producing two key Microsoft websites and then working as Localization Program Manager on Microsoft.com websites, as we localized the global online presence. Budget cuts for my contractor role have led me to seek my next adventure, and I’m looking put my unusual expertise to work in branding, naming and marketing.In addition to a vast understanding of cultural practices and differences and the subtleties of where things can go wrong, I bring deep analysis, the ability to see problems before they occur, and a collaborative spirit. I’m a total research geek, a confident public speaker and trainer, and experienced working virtually with global teams.I am always growing my LinkedIn network so please feel free to connect with me.

Listed skills include Project Management, Program Management, Localization, Globalization, and 27 others.

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  University Of California, Berkeley

  Linguistics