Meet our AI data experts

Mohamed Emam is a seasoned Program Manager with close to seven years of experience in the AI data industry. Throughout his career at LXT, Mohamed has gained broad experience across a wide range of AI projects including data collection for speech, image and video data, speech transcription, and image and text annotation. He currently oversees data projects that cover over 200 languages at a time, and has a track record of consistently delivering high-quality data to clients while meeting or exceeding their timeline expectations.

Throughout his career at LXT, Mohamed has demonstrated his capabilities as a solid team player, taking on additional responsibilities in IT, accounting and even a temporary country manager role in Egypt. Mohamed thrives on the energy in the AI data industry and enjoys coming up with innovative solutions for customers.

Notable skills include:

• Managing complex data collection and annotation projects
• Developing automated solutions to improve workflows
• Building and managing high-performing teams

Jessica Fernando is an experienced linguistic specialist in a variety of areas including pronunciation dictionary and language resource development, localization, voice coaching, annotation of text corpora, and text generation for dialog-based AI models. She has worked on all stages of TTS voice development for one of the largest global voice assistant providers, notably leading and expanding its speech synthesis evaluation into a large-scale program across multiple locales.

Her diverse experience extends to an interest in solution design and operational support to help delivery teams best support client needs. In Jessica’s current role at LXT, she works with clients to understand their data needs in detail and strategizes with internal stakeholders to provide scalable solutions and high-quality datasets.

Notable skills include:

• Linguistic analysis
• Implementing technical solutions to mitigate quality issues
• Working collaboratively with clients and team members to develop custom solutions
• Using cultural and linguistic awareness to increase diversity and reduce AI bias

Ali Gürkan is an experienced Senior Project Manager with a strong background in AI data. With over 9 years of experience in the field, Ali has managed and delivered over 2000 successful transcription, data collection, and annotation projects in 200+ different languages. He is highly organized and efficient, with a proven track record of creating streamlined processes that maximize productivity and minimize errors. He has an established track record of building strong, high-performing teams that consistently deliver outstanding results, while also devising innovative solutions to optimize processes and maximize efficiency.

In his current role, Ali oversees and manages complex AI data projects, ensuring that they are completed on time, within budget, and to the highest standards of quality. His expertise and leadership skills have contributed to the success of numerous projects.

Notable skills include:

• Effective interpersonal and communication skills
• Strong project planning and project management abilities
• Experienced in creating and managing high-performing teams
• Proficient in process creation and automation
• Highly organized and detail-oriented, with exceptional organizational skills
• Proven track record of delivering satisfying results and optimizing processes to maximize efficiency

Martha Hakvoort has over 10 years’ experience in consultative selling and business development in the AI data space, as well as operational leadership experience managing a team of 70+ working on AI data programs for one of the world’s largest tech companies.

Martha has developed proposals and pricing structures for a diverse portfolio of work, ranging from complex government tenders to multi-language rate cards and custom quotes. Her experience covers a wide variety of use cases, including data collection, data annotation, and search relevance. She has worked closely with operational stakeholders on methodology and approach, allowing her to consult clients on best practice and budget optimization. In her current role, she manages and grows a number of LXT’s existing client relationships, as well as expanding the company’s book of business.

Notable skills include:

• Strong relationship building skills.
• Working closely with clients to find the best possible solution for their budget.
• Developing robust pricing models that allow for transparency and scalability.
• Finding creative solutions in the event of challenges or unexpected events.

Phil Hall is an AI data industry leader with over 20 years of experience building and scaling teams to deliver high-quality AI data. In his leadership role at Appen he ran a division of 1,000+ staff and played a key role in achieving 17 consecutive years of revenue growth with consistently strong profitability. Phil has experience working with many of the world’s leading companies and led teams that have contributed to the advancement of some of the most ubiquitous AI solutions in the market today.

In his current role with LXT, he is working with a hand-picked team of experts to achieve ambitious growth goals. Phil leads the go-to-market strategy for LXT, helping to develop custom AI data solutions for organizations of all sizes.

Notable skills include:

• Building and leading high-performing teams
• Developing cost-effective and high-quality data solutions for clients
• Establishing strong relationships with customers, partners and colleagues
• Developing creative solutions to meet customer needs

Learn more about Phil in this interview with Unite AI and through his podcast, Speaking of AI.

Carolyn Harvey has extensive experience leading and growing global operations in the field of search relevance ranking and annotation for ML data. As VP of Operations, Carolyn piloted and grew major data collection and labeling programs for five of the leading global technology companies. She focused on high quality data at scale, building efficiencies in long-term programs and scaling across large numbers of global locales.

Her approach to transparent partnerships, driving insights and continuous improvement supported growth of several large programs that continued for over 6+ years. Carolyn currently leads LXT’s global operations team, lending her wealth of experience to help develop a best-in-class organization.

Notable skills include:

• Building strong teams of expertise
• Developing quality methodologies that provide confidence in data deliverables.
• Reducing cost per task/query
• Expanding projects into multiple languages and locales
• Building crowds with diversity, specialization and integrity to reduce bias in the data

Julia Liberty is currently Business Development Director at LXT where she leverages over eight years of dedicated involvement in the AI sector to help clients scale their AI projects with high-quality data. She works with companies of all sizes, ensuring alignment with their specific needs and requirements to design a custom AI data solution while fostering inclusivity and minimizing biases in the data.

Earlier in her career Julia focused on using her expertise and background on designing targeted marketing plans based on psychological profiling of consumers and their distinct linguistic traits. Julia’s educational background lies in the realm of language and communication, with a focus on linguistics.

Areas of expertise:

• In-person data collection (AR/VR)
• Remote data collection
• Staffing/participant recruiting
• Annotation, utterance generation & transcription

Baraa Nabil is a skilled project manager with expertise in various areas including data training, annotation, transcription, audio data collection, and text labeling for AI models. He has gained extensive experience in all stages of TTS voice development while working for one of the largest global voice assistant providers, where he led and expanded the speech synthesis evaluation into a large-scale program across multiple locales.

In addition to his expertise in TTS voice development, Baraa has a strong passion for designing efficient workflows and SOPs for the projects he manages. He also possesses a deep interest in automation solutions and establishing annotator teams from scratch. Baraa takes great care to ensure that his teams receive the proper training and onboarding cycles to deliver projects of the highest quality standards.

Currently, Baraa is a vital member of the delivery team at LXT, where he collaborates closely with both the OPEX and technical teams to ensure timely completion of projects.

Notable skills include:

• Linguistic analysis, thanks to his linguistic background.
• Implementing automation to identify the critical path for each project.
• Client and stakeholder collaboration, utilizing cultural and linguistic awareness to achieve the final goal and ensure successful project closure.

Amr Nour-Eldin is a Ph.D. research scientist with nearly two decades years of professional experience in the fields of speech/audio processing and machine learning in the context of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). His focus and hands-on experience in recent years has been in the field of deep learning techniques for streaming end-to-end speech recognition. He was previously a Principal Speech Scientist at Nuance Communications, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2021.

As VP of Technology, Amr drives the technology vision and roadmap to meet the evolving needs of LXT’s customers in the highly dynamic AI market. He is focused on the development of innovative new AI data solutions to power the next generation of AI applications.

Notable skills include:

• Strategic technology planning
• Process automation and optimization
• Deep-learning-based AI development
• Foundation model (including LLMs) tuning and evaluation

Learn more about Amr in this interview with Unite.AI.

Yassin is a seasoned Operations Executive with over 11 years of expertise in AI data and operations. As a company co-founder he has played a pivotal role in shaping LXT while managing multiple phases of growth, resulting in consistent profitability and revenue generation for the company. This experience has given him exposure to multiple facets of the business beyond operations, including quality and compliance, product development, finance, human resources and IT.

Currently Yassin leads the Operations function at LXT, ensuring high quality and on-time delivery of AI data across multiple modalities. He has successfully led the company through rapid expansion into 50+ markets and service lines to meet the varying needs of LXT’s clients.

Notable skills include:

• Forming resourceful and agile teams
• Building positive team culture
• Managing large scale and complex AI data programs/projects
• Creating custom data solutions for clients of all sizes

Hilary Shirey brings 10 years of experience as an expert in project management, project delivery and building long term client relationships within the training data space. Throughout her career she has built and managed high-performing teams consisting of hundreds of project managers and associates as well as thousands of contracted contributors. Throughout the course of her career, she has developed expertise in best practices for project management, team performance management and client relationship governance, scaling processes quickly and building effective and happy project management teams who consistently delight clients.

Hilary is passionate about mentoring and professional development. She also enjoys consistently improving, innovating and iterating on processes to create organizational efficiency. She takes pride in enhancing client satisfaction through collaborative partnerships and bringing fresh and innovative ideas to the table.

Notable skills:

• Leading and building high-performing teams focused on a culture of collaboration.
• Proactive problem solving and creative solutioning
• Identifying and scaling solid project management processes to meet growing business demands.