Welcome to the Lingoda Press Centre

Michael Shangkuan, CEO

Mike is an EdTech entrepreneur, fitness fanatic, and polyglot, speaking six languages, namely English, German, Spanish, French, Chinese and Japanese. As a pioneer in language learning, he is the CEO of Lingoda GmbH, Europe’s leading online language school, where he is in charge of the company’s strategy and daily business. Previously, he held the position of CEO of Terra Education, a B-corp offering life-changing service learning summer programs to teens in Africa, South America, and Asia. Mike has lived in six countries across four continents. Less known, he is a former natural bodybuilder and competed at several international competitions. He is a graduate of Yale University and he holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Fabian Wunderlich, CFO / Co-Founder

Fabian founded Lingoda together with his brother Felix. As its CFO, he is responsible for Business Analysis, Strategy, Finance, Accounting, Controlling, and Investor Relations. Born and raised in a family of teachers, Fabian has lived in the US, China, France, the UK, Brazil and, of course, his native Germany. Fabian led Lingoda as CEO in the first 5 years, where he was recognized as Top 10 Language Learning Companies Globally (Crunchbase) and Top 25 Startups in Germany (Linkedin).

Felix Wunderlich, VP Sales & Partnerships / Co-Founder

Felix founded Lingoda together with his brother Fabian. As VP Sales & Partnerships he currently oversees the company’s expansion in the B2B and B2G (Business to Government) markets. Since the company’s founding in 2013, Felix has managed almost all departments at Lingoda, and he also covers the role of Managing Director. His background is in the offline language school market where he has worked as a Department Head for one of the leading chains of offline language schools in Europe.

Charlotte Gaudin, Chief of Staff

As Chief of Staff at Lingoda, Charlotte is responsible for the company’s overall operations, execution, processes, strategy and staff, which includes over 1,000 qualified, native speaking teachers across the world, in addition to a team of over 100 international employees based in Berlin. Proud to be the first woman among Lingoda’s senior management, Charlotte has been with the company almost since its foundation in 2013, and has worked on almost all departments, except engineering. As bilingual French-German with a passion for heavy metal music, she spent her professional life between the two European capitals of Paris and Berlin. Charlotte also lived in the Netherlands, where she studied International Business and Management at NHL Stenden University.

Stefan Ludwig, VP of Engineering

As VP of Engineering, Stefan is responsible for Lingoda’s technological backbone. He leads and guides a remote team of engineers in their mission in building a superior platform for Lingoda’s students and teachers to connect across the world. He has been with Lingoda since the company’s founding in 2013, where he has thrived in his passion for experimenting with new technologies. Stefan studied Computer Science with Economics (Wirtschaftsinformatik) at the Technical University of Darmstadt.

Stephen Yang, VP Product

Stephen is a Taiwanese American who moved to Berlin at the beginning of 2017. As the VP of Product at Lingoda, Stephen is responsible for driving the product strategy to help make our vision of empowering anybody to master a language a reality. Before joining Lingoda, he held positions in the EdTech industry at Skillshare and Mobility space at Omio and Circ. He is a graduate of Columbia University where he studied Environmental Engineering and was on the varsity swim team.

Erik Heilert, Head of Operations

As Head of Operations, Erik is in charge of Lingoda’s teacher acquisition and support, as well as student support and operational efficiency. Having spent more than 15 years outside of his native Sweden, he has collected extensive international know-how in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry working with market leaders in hospitality, automotive, technology and fashion. Leading international teams of more than 50 nationalities across national borders made him an avid proponent of cultural diversity and cross-cultural communication and a wholehearted opponent of unnecessary bureaucracy. Now based in Berlin, his favorite German phrase is “Sind wir schon da?”

Serena De Maio, Chief Growth Officer

As Chief Growth Officer of Lingoda, Serena is responsible for the strategy and planning of the Sales & Marketing departments across all markets. Prior to joining Lingoda, Serena gained 15 years of experience in beauty, fashion, food, retail and the entertainment industry. She has held several senior management positions in the marketing and sales departments of multinational corporations, such as Procter & Gamble, where she led the commercial and marketing strategy of 40 European markets and founded three startups in the fashion, food design and management training industry. Italian by birth and Swiss by adoption, Serena studied general management and marketing in France and taught marketing strategies to MBA students in leading European universities for several years. Fluent in Italian, English, French and Spanish, she sometimes mixes up several languages in one sentence.