Yana Dinchiyska
GALA Board Candidate, 2027-2029 Term
Professional Information
Brief Bio
Yana Dinchiyska is CEO of 1-StopAsia, an Asian-language specialist LSP with teams across the US, Asia and Europe. In more than a decade with the company she has worked in nearly every department before stepping into leadership. An engineer with an MBA, she focuses on workflow design, automation and practical AI. A regular speaker at GALA, ELIA, ALC and ProZ.com, Yana wants GALA to bring buyers and LSPs to the same table: sharing openly what works and what doesn't, cutting costs and growing profits together, and welcoming companies and individuals of every size, region and vertical.
Have you served on a board, committee, or working group before? What surprised you about it?
I currently serve on the ALC Marketing & PR Committee, and two years ago my company and I supported ELIA's marketing activities. I have not yet served on a board. What surprised me most was how openly people from competing companies share ideas once they work toward a common goal. Competitors quickly become collaborators, and the results reach beyond any single company. I was also surprised how much depends on a small group of committed volunteers. That taught me that clear priorities, simple processes and shared ownership
Which skills do you possess that would make you valuable as a board member?
Skills I bring to the GALA Board: Strategy and finance: engineer with an MBA; as CEO, I own P&L, pricing and revenue strategy, and set cost targets. Operations and workflow design: more than a decade across nearly every department of an LSP, including production, vendor management and quality. AI and automation: I've built practical automation (n8n) and AI workflows, and I share them openly at industry events. Marketing and community building: member of the ALC Marketing & PR Committee, with past support for ELIA's marketing activities. Global, cross-cultural leadership: I lead teams across the US, Asia and Europe. Mergers and integration: experience from the Buyer side and following up the integration between the companies.
Describe your experience with setting strategy.
As CEO of 1-StopAsia, I set the company's strategic direction and turn it into measurable plans. I have led an organizational restructuring with clear roles, KPIs, succession planning and cost targets. I defined our AI and automation roadmap, which moves production toward documented, AI-supported end-to-end workflows. I also shape our growth strategy, including new market entry and service expansion such as AI media services. My approach is to start with data, involve the people who will carry the plan out, set a few clear priorities, and review progress regularly so we can adjust quickly.
Candidate Perspective
If you had to give GALA a new tagline to convey the association's future-readiness, what would it be?
Learn together. Grow together. Go global.
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?
In three years, GALA should be the one place where everyone who makes global content work — buyers and suppliers alike — comes to solve problems together. At the current pace of change, no company can figure out AI, new workflows and new business models alone.
Who we serve: the whole ecosystem, not just LSPs. That means enterprise localization teams, LSPs of every size, technology providers, freelancers and academia, across all regions, verticals and functions. A freelancer in Vietnam and a localization director at a global brand should both find their place, and a fair way to take part.
What we offer:
- Practical, peer-led knowledge: real case studies, benchmarks and reusable workflows, "less hype, more reality."
- Open forums where buyers and LSPs sit on the same side of the table and share what works, what doesn't, and what it really costs.
- Flexible access: membership options, regional communities and online programs that fit different budgets and time zones.
- Guidance on skills and careers, so people can move into the new roles AI is creating.
The value we deliver: faster, cheaper learning. Members avoid each other's mistakes, adopt technology with confidence, reduce costs and grow profitably. GALA becomes the industry's trusted, neutral meeting ground, where cooperation is the competitive advantage.
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 two years, I've been an active contributor to GALA. At GALA Academy Q3 2026, I spoke on automating vendor onboarding, from CV to compliance, and shared reusable automation workflows with members. My company is also organising a GALA webinar on AI and DTP for Asian and Arabic languages (October 2026) with a co-speaker. In the past, I was also part of other webinars. I try to bring new participants into the community, including client-side professionals. I haven't held a formal GALA volunteer role yet, and I would welcome the opportunity to contribute in one.
What is GALA doing today that you would stop doing?
I would stop treating AI mainly as a trend to showcase and focus on how it works in practice. Too many sessions across the industry, not only at GALA, present polished success stories without the costs, failures and lessons behind them. Members asked for "less hype, more reality," and I agree.
I would also move away from programming that speaks mostly to LSPs, and from a single membership model built around larger US and European companies. Both limit who feels GALA is for them. Instead, I'd invite buyers, smaller companies and emerging markets into the same conversations, with access options that fit them.