Lionbridge Year in Review: Our Top 18 in 2018

As far as years go, 2018 was a pretty incredible one at Lionbridge.

This was the first year we marched start-to-finish to the beat of a new management team helmed by CEO John Fennelly, who joined Lionbridge in July of 2017. This year saw us welcoming new executives, enhancing our offerings, strengthening our partnerships, and growing our teams. And to put a face to all the newness permeating our company, we revealed our new brand and website, showcasing both the company we’re proud to be and the Lionbridge we’re striving to become.

To our customers, our team of global lions, our leadership, and all friends of the pride—thank you. You made 2018 fantastic.

Before we roar our way into 2019, we’re looking back over our top 18 memories of 2018. We hope you’ll join us on this brief jaunt down memory lane.

1. In September, we revealed a bold, exciting new brand. Our new imagery, logo, iconography, and messaging allowed us to spend the rest of the year doubling-down on the elements that have always and will always make us lions. Following the launch of the new brand, we’ve found we can better express who we are, what we do, and the values of simplification, customer-centricity, and a people-first approach that drive us every day.

2. Along with a new brand came a new website. The new Lionbridge.com embraces simplicity and cuts any clutter that’s accumulated over the years. Our new site is just phase one of our comprehensive website redesign—we’re excited to reveal what we’ve been working on in early 2019.

3. In July, we teased our new brand messaging and voice with a relaunched and reinvigorated blog. Over the past few months, we’ve adopted a storytelling approach to sharing our work and our thoughts with the world. Thank you to everyone who logs on to read what we have to say—we have much more planned for 2019.

4. We peppered 2018 with strategic appointments to our burgeoning executive team. We’ve been thrilled to welcome CMO Jaime Punishill, CRO Jim Weber, and APAC Managing Director Camilla de Villiers.

5. We had the opportunity to work with myriad organizations that do wonderful work for the world. High on our list is Translators Without Borders, an incredible organization we’re thrilled to support.

6. Likewise, in March, we were thrilled to sponsor the Rising Star Scholarship at GALA’s Language of Business Conference. Our sponsorship equipped two promising translation students—from Ireland and Mexico, respectively—with registration to the conference and a travel stipend.

7. …And in December, we were thrilled to host the New England Chapter of Women in Localization for its annual holiday party. Many of our own lionesses are members of WLNE, and we were proud to host this celebratory and thoughtful event.

8. We were proud to announce several new and enhanced offerings and partnerships that directly benefit our clients, including:

• The launch of the Lionbridge Connector for Oracle Responsys
• An enhanced Lionbridge Connector for inRiver
• The launch of GeoFluent Interpreter Direct

9. In April, we announced that we’d enhanced our Localization Enablement Platform with the addition of Amazon Translate, a neural Machine Translation (MT) service developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

10. Our machine intelligence division exploded, recruiting over 100,000 new workers who will help our clients build even smarter software.

11. Our games team, too, expanded its global footprint, with new testing labs in San Jose, Costa Rica and Berlin, Germany. Next up: Tokyo in 2019.

12. Our global marketing services team expanded its offerings, too, with services spanning from consulting on innovation initiatives to creative development and digital marketing.

13. …and our Life Sciences team devised a brand-new offering focused on the development and translation of lay person summaries. Intended to help customers comply with the upcoming clinical trial regulation in the EU, this new service furthers our commitment to true compliance partnership.

14. We welcomed accolades that reaffirmed what we know: that we’re a people-first company proud to support its employees. In May, we were named one of America’s Best Large Employers by Forbes.

15. …and in July, Forbes named us one of America’s Best Employers for Women.

16. In September, we were proud that FlexJobs recognized us as a top company hiring for part-time and work-from-home jobs. Our global community of translators, testers, interpreters, and raters form the engine that powers our pride.

17. In November, we were recognized for leveraging groundbreaking technology to connect people around the world when we were named to the EContent 100 for Digital Innovation.

18. Throughout the year, we sought the opportunity to attend and sponsor numerous industry events, which have allowed us to interact with the people who make our work worthwhile: our customers. We were delighted to meet industry experts and customers at myriad industry events spanning localization, life sciences, games and more.

That’s our top 18 from 2018, but it barely scratches the surface of what’s been keeping us busy at Lionbridge. As we approach year-end, we’re grateful for an eventful and inspiring 2018. We’re ready to continue breaking barriers and building bridges in 2019.