Babbel Welcomes Rowena Patrao as CTO
Experienced tech leader joins strengthened product team to accelerate effective learning experiences
Strategic appointment at pivotal industry moment as Babbel blends human expertise with AI
Patrao brings 20+ years leading tech transformations with people focussed mindset
October 14th, 2025 - Babbel, the company that creates mutual understanding through language, announces the appointment of Rowena Patrao as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Rowena will accelerate product innovation that solves real learner challenges, building on Babbel’s proven approach of combining human expertise with AI. At a critical time for language learning, Patrao will focus on creating solutions that help millions of learners worldwide. She is reporting to CEO Tim Allen and working with Babbel’s newly appointed product leadership SVP Engineering, Andreas Westendörpf, and VP Product, Diana Pulnar. She brings 15+ years of experience in building best-in-class technology at Microsoft, Amazon, and VMware.
"I am thrilled about this new chapter. Being a tech person, what excites me is the real opportunity to combine Babbel's 18+ years of linguistic expertise with AI's potential”, says Rowena Patrao, CTO Babbel. “But, we’re not building technology for technology’s sake, we’re creating products that genuinely serve learners, unlocking human potential and belonging through language."
Tim Allen, Babbel CEO adds: "The question we ask ourselves with every new innovation is simple: will this help our learners succeed? Rowena's track record shows she understands that technology should serve clear user outcomes, not the other way around. She’s led complex transitions at scale while keeping the human experience front and center. I very much look forward to what her experience brings to Babbel."
At Babbel, Patrao will focus on building sustainable technology capabilities that protect and leverage Babbel's proven methodologies while unlocking new possibilities for learner success and business growth. Her distinguished career spans senior engineering leadership across the USA, India, and Germany at Microsoft, Amazon, VMware, and Scout24, where she led major platform transformations. She holds an MS in Computer Science from Arizona State University and brings a multilingual perspective that aligns with Babbel's global mission. She will be based between New York and Berlin.
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.
