Languages for all - Babbel reinforces leadership
Founder and co-CEO Markus Witte becomes Executive Chairman of the Board
Co-CEO Arne Schepker remains as the sole CEO
Veteran executive Katherine Melchior Ray appointed new CMO
Babbel rounded off the 2018 financial year with well over €100 million in sales and expanding the US into its strongest sales market. With the company progressing at speed, now the company is strengthening its leadership: Babbel founder Markus Witte, previously co-CEO and Chairman of the Board, will take on the newly created position of Executive Chairman of the Board. Co-CEO Arne Schepker remains as the sole CEO. The role of CMO welcomes a new face: From Tokyo, internationally experienced prestige brand marketer, Katherine Melchior Ray, joins the team in Berlin. Babbel 2020 will benefit by advancing further language learning opportunities than just the app.
In the past two years, the leadership team has already been reinforced by Julie Hansen as US CEO in New York, Geoff Stead as CPO and Philipp Schmidt as CISO. Founder Thomas Holl held several positions: As president of Babbel Inc., he brought Babbel to the USA and then returned to Berlin as CSO. Since 2018 he is again responsible for product engineering in his original post as CTO.
“As Babbel founders, we are used to changing roles within the company. This has led to important changes and success over the past 12 years," emphasizes Markus Witte, Babbel Founder and Executive Chairman. “Not many start-ups manage to break 100 million euros in turnover. But for us this is only the beginning. There's a lot to do and with Arne at the helm, Babbel has the best possible CEO for it."
Arne Schepker joined from Zalando in 2015 as Babbel CMO and was instrumental in driving sales over €100 million. He has been co-CEO since the beginning of 2019.
“I’m very much looking forward to stepping up to drive Babbel's mission further and strengthen our culture. As the sole CEO, my role becomes even bigger and more challenging," says Arne Schepker, CEO Babbel. "We make a positive difference in the lives of millions of people and contribute to worldwide cultural understanding. Babbel not only has the best product in the digital language learning market, but also a great team behind it."
Arne is now handing over marketing responsibility to the new CMO, Katherine Melchior Ray, who is moving from the Shiseido Cooperation in Tokyo.
"Most of my career has been devoted to building strong brands in different cultures. I know from my own experience how much multilingualism helps to understand the world and, ultimately, oneself", says Katherine Melchior Ray, CMO Babbel. "My goal for Babbel is to make the company a learning platform that helps everyone learn a new language, whether it’s for travelling, career advancement, or for self-improvement.”
Babbel is the world's top-selling language learning app. In addition to its consumer product, it offers a B2B solution, Babbel for Business, and has recently entered the language travel market with Babbel Travel.
About Babbel
Driven by the purpose of creating mutual understanding through language, Babbel has been building digital language learning products for consumers and businesses since 2007. The Babbel app helps people connect and communicate across cultures, whether for travel, friendship, or career advancement. Based on a deep knowledge of how we learn languages, Babbel aims to make learners conversational as fast as possible. And it works: Studies from institutions like Michigan State University, Yale University and the City University of New York demonstrate the efficacy of Babbel's language learning methods. Millions of language learners agree.
Babbel's secret sauce is the blend of true expertise, understanding of how humans learn, and the latest technology. Starting with one of 60,000 lessons across 15 languages hand-crafted by experts, the learner experience constantly adapts through behavior analysis to provide high quality interactive content that makes understanding a new language easy, from Spanish to Indonesian.
Because Babbel is for everyone, its team reflects this diversity. Across headquarters in Berlin and New York, a team from more than 80 nationalities represent the backgrounds and perspectives that make humans unique. With over 25 million subscriptions sold and an industry-leading retention rate, Babbel creates genuine connections with learners worldwide. For more information, visit www.babbel.com or download the apps in the App Store or Play Store.
