LanguageMate.com: The LanguageMate Management Team

The LanguageMate Management Team

Our dynamic team consists of experts in linguistics, anthropology, cross-cultural communication, medicine, health education and business management, as well as professionals in information technology, interactive design, and multimedia production.

William Z. Tan
Founder & President

Vijay Bachani
SVP of Finance & Operations

Zarya A. Rubin, MD, FRCPC
Director of Grant Research & Development

Alexandra Arriola
Operations Manager

Tal Barnea
VP of Technology

Robert Powers
Animation Manager


William Z. Tan Founder & President	The company was founded in 2002 by Mr. William "Bill" Z. Tan, a visionary thinker and social entrepreneur. Immigrating to the U.S. at age 15, Bill began high school in New York City with an English vocabulary of 500 words. In the ensuing years, he often accompanied his parents and grandparents to healthcare facilities, acting as their interpreter. The obstacles that confronted non-English speaking patients, along with the frustrations experienced by their healthcare providers, made an indelible impression on him. With the chronic shortage of trained medical interpreters and the adverse impact of language barriers on critical outcomes such as patient safety, quality of care, and satisfaction, sustainable solutions were clearly needed. At LanguageMate, Bill is leading a team of highly talented colleagues to pursue a sweeping vision—the creation of an array of cross-cultural communication tools that are technologically enabled, scientifically validated for effectiveness, and economically viable. Bill received a bachelor's degree from the Stern School of Business, New York University, where he served as the President of the Entrepreneur's Club. He currently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine.

Vijay Bachani SVP of Finance & Operations	Vijay joined LanguageMate in the beginning of 2009 as Senior Vice President of Finance & Operations. As SVP Vijay has oversight and responsibility for all financial functions and oversees all revenues, costs, and budgets. In addition Vijay also has responsibility for setting the policy for the operations of the firm. From a very young age, Vijay developed an interest and passion for entrepreneurship. He started his first business during his sophomore year in high school. After graduating from college, he wanted to gain professional experience and know-how in Corporate America and joined Arthur Andersen. After graduating with his MBA, Vijay decided to pursue his passion and joined a financial start-up as a Portfolio Manager. Vijay earned his BS in Finance/International Business and his MBA at New York University's Stern School of Business.

Zarya A. Rubin, MD, FRCPC Director of Grant Research & Development	Zarya joined LanguageMate in June 2007 as Director of Research. She has always had a passion for communication, whether through language study and research, international travel and relief work or the practice of cross-cultural medicine. Her varied interests and abilities led her to study opera, teach English to foreign-language speakers, and ultimately pursue a career in medicine as a board-certified neurologist. Throughout her training she continued to have a keen interest in research, posing difficult questions and seeking unconventional answers. While engaging in post-doctoral training at Columbia University in Washington Heights, she worked at a Medicaid clinic with a predominantly Spanish-speaking Latino community. Intensive Spanish training during medical school allowed her to communicate with her patients, understand their health beliefs and motivations, and ultimately make a meaningful difference in their quality of care. As the Director of Research at LanguageMate, Zarya is able to combine her language skills, medical knowledge, passion for research, and creative thinking. She is leading a team of highly-enthusiastic, motivated public health researchers who are applying strict scientific research methodology to a variety of innovative technology and multimedia-based projects. Working together with the creative forces at LanguageMate and collaborating partner institutions, they are striving towards the ultimate goal of closing the gap on linguistically-based health disparities. A native of Montreal, Canada, Zarya received an honors degree in Biology from Harvard University. She obtained her MD from Dalhousie University and completed her neurology residency training at McGill University. She has authored several articles and book chapters in leading medical publications and has worked for over 15 years as a free-lance translator of medical and non-medical texts and educational software. She is fluent in four languages.

Alexandra Arriola Operations Manager	Alexandra joined LanguageMate in the spring of 2009 to oversee the day to day operations, providing support to all departments of the company. She is leading the effort to unify company processes, maintains vendor relations, and serves as liaison between staff and human resources. Alexandra also serves as the grants administrator, providing assistance to the research team to ensure adherence to submission schedules, regulatory guidelines, and efficient implementation of research activities. Before joining LanguageMate, Alexandra spent several years in a healthcare technology start up. She supported the company as an operations associate before becoming the Associate Director of Client Services, and eventually the Director of Product Development. Having left the company in late 2008, Alexandra spent several months traveling through South and Latin America, and experienced firsthand the difficulties and frustrations caused by language barriers. She is now eager to build on her past experiences in a company that shares her vision of building socially-minded technologies to serve the greater good. Alexandra holds a bachelor's degree in Economics (with a minor in Russian and Slavic Studies) from New York University.

Tal Barnea VP of Technology	As VP of Technology, Tal sets LanguageMate's technology strategy, leads all development efforts and manages day-to-day technical operations. He is responsible for establishing technology architecture and infrastructure for all LanguageMate products. Tal joined LanguageMate in June 2009. Tal brings over 20 years of technology experience, primarily in healthcare information and education. Most recently as CTO of EmergingMed Tal led the technology team in providing solutions to patients, cancer centers and pharmaceutical companies, growing the user base 1000%. Prior to that he managed both system and development teams for Pearson Education's global family of language instruction products. He was instrumental in the launch of Pearson's 24x7 ASP based hosted platform as well the associated CD-ROM based products. Previously, as Senior Director of Application Development, Tal delivered many of the products of Skila, a healthcare information company, leading various development teams and transitioning the product architecture from desktop to web based technologies. Other engagements included NYNEX Science and Technology, and Philips Research Lab. Tal holds a M.Sc. degree in computer science from Columbia University in New York.

Robert Powers Animation Manager	Robert has brought his years of production experience and love for the art form to LanguageMate in 2009. Robert has worked in the New York animation industry since 1999. He has always had a passion for storytelling in this medium. Robert has directed on such shows as Nickelodeon's Little Bill, and The Wonder Pets. He has also done motion graphic and effects work for many nationwide broadcast commercials. Robert recently directed a short film called Test which screened at the ACEFEST Film Festival and he has just wrapped up directing an animated music video for the musical artist Moby. Robert is a graduate from The School of Visual Arts with a BA in Film/TV Animation.