Open English Expands Board with Industry Innovators from Google, Twilio and AppLovin

New Open English board members
From left to right: Lee Kirkpatrick, Sameer Samat and Victoria Valenzuela

Open English, the leading English-learning platform in Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic market, today announced the appointment of three new board members who will support the company's mission of high quality, effective and affordable English-learning solutions.

"We're thrilled to expand our board with three industry innovators who can offer their expansive expertise on how to better serve our student community and continue making English learning accessible to all," said Andrés Moreno, founder, chairman of the board and chief executive officer (CEO) of Open English. "As our business grows and strengthens, so too does our board of directors, and these individuals represent the very best in their respective fields."

Lee Kirkpatrick, Former Chief Financial Officer at Twilio; Board Member of Lincoln Healthcare Leadership; Board Member of Spreedly, Inc.; Board Member of Updater, Inc.; Board Member of Bilander Acquisition Corp.

Lee Kirkpatrick offers a broad perspective on finance and its value as a partner across all functional areas. As CFO of Twilio, Lee built a global finance team that scaled the company to approach nearly $1 billion in revenue. Since 2019, Lee has advised private and public technology companies, including PagerDuty, Unity Technologies, Olo and Marqeta.

"I look forward to being part of the tremendous growth that lies ahead for a mission-driven company like Open English,'' said Lee. "It's incredibly rewarding to join such a passionate team that's dedicated to improving people's lives."

Sameer Samat, Vice President of Product Management at Google

Currently responsible for Android and Google Play, Sameer Samat began his Google career nearly 14 years ago. Prior to that, Sameer was the executive vice president of products at Kofax, where he was responsible for product management, engineering and product marketing. Sameer holds a BS in computer science from the University of California, San Diego and graduated from the Harvard Business School Program for Management Development.

"Through my own family experiences and my work on Android, I've seen first-hand how learning English can impact both the economic opportunities and wellbeing of a family, not only in the present but for generations," shared Samat. "Open English's ambitious vision deeply resonates with me, and I'm proud to join their board to continue propelling it forward," he concluded.  

Victoria Valenzuela, Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary at AppLovin

Adept at navigating the intersection between legal, tax and accounting issues, Victoria Valenzuela currently serves as Chief Legal Officer (CLO) and corporate secretary at AppLovin, a leading marketing software company she helped take public in 2021. In her over 20 years of experience, she's advised both private and public global companies of all sizes, with employee populations ranging from 300 to 3,000, on a broad range of strategic, legal and regulatory issues. Victoria holds a law degree from Stanford University and was previously named a Woman of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

"Open English's mission of making English accessible to all socio-economic groups truly struck a chord and motivated me to join their board," said Victoria. "Learning English or another critical second language can move the needle for a family and truly impact future generations," she added.

To learn more about Open English, please visit https://investors.openenglish.com/. 

About Open English

Open English is the leading English-learning platform in the Latin American and U.S. Hispanic markets, providing live, online instruction to 1.5 million students that have enrolled to date. The company is disrupting the brick-and-mortar language-learning market with a proprietary technology platform that offers unlimited, 24/7 access to live classes with native-speaking teachers. Open English offers customized learning solutions for businesses (Open English for Business), children (Open English Junior), and digital skills development (NextU). Open English has also expanded their business with Open Mundo, a new online language learning platform that offers French, Italian and Portuguese live classes. The company is headquartered in Miami, FL, with offices in Mexico City, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Bangalore and São Paulo. To learn more about Open English, visit OpenEnglish.com.