Andrea Ballista
GALA Board Candidate, 2027-2029 Term
Professional Information
Brief Bio
Andrea has been working in the game industry for more than 30 years. Starting from the passion of music, songwriting and singing, he holds a Computer Music degree. After having co-founded Binari Sonori in 1994, he was Audio Director for Keywords Studios from 2015 until the end of 2019. In 2020 he co-founded Voiseed to proceed into research and development of deep learning based emotional virtual voices.
Have you served on a board, committee, or working group before? What surprised you about it?
I’ve been a co-founder and board member in my previous company Binari Sonori from 1994 to 2014, Audio Director with operating budget responsibility and M&A strategy support for Keywords Studio plc, co-founder and CEO of Voiseed from 2020.
Which skills do you possess that would make you valuable as a board member?
As an entrepreneur, market positioning, understanding industry trends and properly pivoting to find the chance to serve an evolving industry.
Describe your experience with setting strategy.
Building strategy has always been an essential part of being an entrepreneur and board member. The question “how do we see ourselves in the next 3 years” has always been the key question, together with “how we can get there, on time, and with which resources/skills”.
Candidate Perspective
If you had to give GALA a new tagline to convey the association's future-readiness, what would it be?
The Home of the Language Industry
What should GALA look like in 3 years if change keeps happening at the current pace? Who should we serve? What should we offer? What value should we deliver?
Keep the positioning as the independent nonprofit association for the globalization industry, for brands & publishers, language solutions integrators, language technology platforms, universities, and language and technology professionals.
Expand partnership program with more associations, entities, and events in multiple verticals, with related market info, insights, industry trends, language niche.
Expand the attention to innovation and technology while keeping a strong focus on all the “human in control” elements.
Which GALA programs have you personally participated in over the past few years? Describe any volunteer roles you've had at GALA.
I’ve been working for 3 years as Moderator of the GALA Audiovisual Special Interest Group.
What is GALA doing today that you would stop doing?
Our industry is going through a difficult moment, where members' margins and resources are low. Facilitate access of the organization to brands and publishers, LSPs, universities, linguists, and freelancers, and facilitate networking for people that are transitioning from one job to a new role, searching for new qualifications and skills.