Mladen Stojak
GALA Board Candidate, 2027-2029 Term
Professional Information
Brief Bio
I am Chief Strategy Officer at Ciklopea, where I focus on business strategy, international growth, and the transformation of multilingual communication in the AI era. With extensive leadership experience in the language industry, I bring a business-oriented perspective on how AI, human expertise, governance, and technology are reshaping multilingual operations. My work increasingly focuses on the evolving economics of multilingual communication, responsible AI adoption, and the industry's transition from translation services toward strategic enterprise capabilities. I am particularly interested in strengthening collaboration across language companies, technology providers, enterprises, academia, and the wider professional community.
Have you served on a board, committee, or working group before? What surprised you about it?
I have served on GALA’s conference Program Committee, which gave me valuable experience working collaboratively with industry peers toward a shared objective. What surprised me most was how much value comes from bringing together people with different professional backgrounds, market perspectives and opinions. The strongest outcomes did not necessarily come from immediate agreement, but from constructive discussion and the willingness to challenge our own assumptions. It reinforced my belief that effective committee work requires active listening, preparation and independent thinking, while ultimately putting the interests of the wider community ahead of individual or organizational perspectives.
Which skills do you possess that would make you valuable as a board member?
Strategic leadership, business development, commercial strategy, marketing and positioning, and organizational transformation.
Describe your experience with setting strategy.
I have extensive experience setting and translating strategy into practical business direction. In my leadership role at Ciklopea, I work across corporate strategy, international growth, commercial development, market positioning, partnerships, and organizational transformation. A significant part of my current focus is helping define how the company should evolve as AI reshapes multilingual communication and the economics of our industry. My approach combines long-term thinking with operational reality: understanding market shifts, challenging existing assumptions, identifying strategic priorities, aligning stakeholders, and turning strategic objectives into initiatives that can be implemented, measured, and continuously refined.
Candidate Perspective
If you had to give GALA a new tagline to convey the association's future-readiness, what would it be?
Connecting the Industry. Shaping What’s Next.
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?
I see GALA evolving from an association primarily connecting the globalization and localization community into a strategic platform helping the industry navigate continuous transformation. As AI makes language production increasingly accessible, the industry's challenge will shift from producing multilingual content to creating trusted, measurable and sustainable multilingual outcomes.
GALA should continue serving the entire ecosystem: language companies, technology providers, enterprise professionals, independent experts, academia and the emerging roles created by AI-driven multilingual operations. Its strength should be precisely in connecting perspectives that might otherwise remain fragmented.
I believe GALA should provide trusted knowledge, meaningful peer exchange, research, education and forums where members can openly examine new business models, technologies, governance challenges and changing customer expectations.
Most importantly, GALA should help members understand not only what is changing, but what those changes mean for them. Its value should come from enabling the community to anticipate change, make better strategic decisions, develop new capabilities and collectively shape a sustainable future for the global multilingual industry.
Which GALA programs have you personally participated in over the past few years? Describe any volunteer roles you've had at GALA.
Over the past several years, I have remained engaged with GALA through its professional community, industry content, events and knowledge-sharing activities. My most significant volunteer experience with GALA was serving on a GALA conference Program Committee. In that role, I contributed to shaping the conference program, reviewing and discussing proposed content, and collaborating with fellow committee members to develop a relevant and valuable experience for the wider GALA community. The experience strengthened my appreciation for GALA as a platform where different industry perspectives can come together to exchange knowledge and collectively address the challenges facing our profession.
What is GALA doing today that you would stop doing?
I would be cautious about stopping any specific GALA initiative without first understanding its value to members and the evidence behind it. What I would challenge is continuing activities simply because they have traditionally been part of an industry association’s role. In a rapidly changing environment, GALA should regularly ask whether its initiatives still create meaningful member value. I would encourage us to stop doing anything that has become primarily transactional, duplicative or disconnected from the strategic challenges members face, and redirect those resources toward areas where GALA can provide distinctive knowledge, connection and industry leadership.