Board Elections 2024 Candidate

Photo of Dave Ruane

Dave Ruane

Director Innovation, Lion People Global | Spain | LinkedIn

"Working with integrity, continually evolving and innovating has been "the way" for me, and GALA is one of the industry communities which embodies this."

 

In your view, what are the most important challenges and opportunities facing GALA?

GALA has a great opportunity to guide the industry through the strong headwinds which we are facing from various sides and GALA is taking positive strides in this direction.

GALA has the essential mix of content and education, a feeling of collective identity through community initiatives, appropriate industry intelligence through events, initiatives, SIGs and programming to lead member organizations through this time.

The opportunities include:

  • Bringing up the level of education for GALA members for new approaches which generative technology (newer versions we will see) and what their adoption will require.
  • Enabling more global and glocal events for members to share ideas and build lasting business and personal relationships. Recent conferences (2023, and 2024) have shown how the community has been resonating now brighter than ever at these events and wants more opportunity to network, meet and thrive as a community.
  • Being the place where members can get involved in intelligence initiatives, SIGS, forums, speaking opportunities and generally giving back.
  • Evolving what GALA is as an organization which brings together various groups, members, partners and stakeholders in what is more becoming the global content and communications business, rather than just globalization and localization.
  • GALA members will have to bring a strong aspect of innovation into everything we do in the next 3 to 5 years.
  • GALA will likely need to be sensitive and adapt to the changing needs of the membership. I believe this is one of the biggest challenges and equally a massive opportunity for GALA during the next 3 years.
How have you engaged with GALA as a member?

I have been part of the conference program committee, a regular panel host and workshop host at over 7 GALA conferences and a speaker and host at GALA webinars and during GALA Academy (2024). I was privileged to be voted to join the GALA board in 2022.

Besides your work with GALA, how do you engage with our industry (associations, conferences, speaking, publishing, community events, etc.)?

I have published articles and regularly speak at localization industry events. I led and delivered panels and workshops on topics such as continuous localization, global customer experience, technology topics, and communicating in a world which is going very fast (e.g. a workshop called ShYne for introverts at GALA 2018). I founded and still run the Process Innovation Challenge at LocWorld which is a platform for innovators to show their ideas.

What superpowers can you bring to board service? Describe previous board experience, leadership training, or strategic leadership you’ve had.

Left field thinking, moderation, abundance attitude, innovative mindset, and board experience.

Which segment(s) of GALA's membership do you represent? What perspective will you bring?

I aim to support many perspectives, though I feel I will best represent technology and fly the flag for innovation thinking and related topics. I feel we need to have a continually deeper focus on these topics across the industry so they can be more easily understood and importantly applied by all.