We believe in enriching lives with languages and culture.
And we like to have fun. Let's get to know each other, shall we?
From a freezing warehouse, a makeshift office at the local library, and a homemade sound booth, Mango has grown to help people all over the world learn new languages.
The Mango team is ever-growing and always looking for the next best way to spread our love of language and culture learning.
Not only do Mangos hail from all different parts of the world with many different native languages, we're always learning new languages and about different cultures.
Happy learners around the globe have used Mango to learn new languages, connect with new cultures, and broaden their horizons.
Mango Languages creates lovable language-learning experiences for libraries, schools, corporations, government agencies, and individuals.
The Mango team is made up of amazing people from all corners of the globe: linguists, programmers, teachers, beatboxers, librarians, writers, artists, and even a rocket scientist. What brings us all together: our love for language and culture learning and sharing that love with the world.
Linguapreneur & CEO
English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Hebrew, Greek
English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Hebrew, Greek
As our founding father, linguapreneur, and visioneer extraordinaire, Jason has peeled Mango into the remarkable form it is today with his dedication and entrepreneurial spirit. Speaking of entrepreneurial spirit, that’s just one of Mango’s essential core values, which Jason worked tirelessly to build Mango upon.
His unstoppable spirit and persistent desire to evolve and innovate has kept Mango fresh year after year and growing into new markets; we started in libraries across the U.S. and since 2007 have moved into universities, K12 schools, government agencies, corporations, and into the abodes of homeschoolers, too.
Jason spends the majority of his days further developing the endless list of languages he speaks and dreaming up new language-learning products and opportunities. In his rare free time, he can be found out on his motorcycle, which makes us nervous! He's also the trustee and VP of strategic vision at the National Museum of Language. What can we say? The guy is pure resilience. Thanks for being born, Jason!
Co-founder / Head of Incubator Team
English, Spanish
English, Spanish
As one of our dear Mango co-founders, Mike heads up our beloved incubator team and keeps a keen eye on new adventures and possibilities for Mango, like making new Mango connections everywhere from international corporations to homeschool families across the U.S. There’s never an idea too big or too small for this guy. If there’s a will, there’s a way, and Mike holds the magic to make it happen. He’s been building up Mango from the very beginning and has spent so much time in Mango libraries that he even met his lovely wife, Maria, at the West Bloomfield Public Library here in Michigan. Together, they adore traveling to Maria’s hometown in Colombia, which gives Mike a great chance to work on his Spanish skills. He’s a proud father to an adorable Boston Terrier named Macerena and is anxiously awaiting the birth of his lovely little daughter in just a few months. If you bring Mike’s sweet tooth cookies, he may dust off his skateboard and show you some tricks.
Creative Director / Co-Founder
English, Spanish, Slovak
English, Spanish, Slovak
Ryan “Screaming Eagle” Whalen is one of Mango’s original founding fathers and a true Renaissance man — legend has it that Leonardo DaVinci was his understudy. Ryan radiates with creativity and challenges anyone brave enough to a Photoshop-challenge. His unique ability is devouring lasagna and shaping digital masterpieces while building a home to code at the same time. Do you require someone to develop algorithms and data structures? Call Whalen. If you need a recording studio built, call Whalen. If you have an idea that needs to be elaborated into a beautifully illustrated animated mini drama, call Whalen. The guy’s even developed his own system of internal-office currency, the Whalen Buck — inflation can’t touch it! As a Renaissance man, he also plays the guitar, cello, and trumpet. When he’s not making the rest of us feel like mere mortals, he’s spending time with family, and teaching his children how to build sundials out of hawk feathers and acorns. Huzzah, good man. Huzzah!
Chief of Staff / Co-founder
English, Greek
English, Greek
It’s no surprise that Mike comes from Greece, the ancient land of Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato. As one of Mango’s original founders, he’s a philosopher of the finest sort with a knack for inspiring others with his vibrant enthusiasm for life and business, too. We all joke here at Mango that if the world comes crashing down, to Goulas’s house we go! Mike is what some may categorize as a “prepper”, but he takes matters to a whole new level of self-sustainability and liberty. He’s a man with a plan, and Mike, we will follow you into the darkness! When he’s not building Mango markets brighter, he’s driving bayonets through zombies, going for runs with his dog, Drake, and organizing his Iron Maiden cassette tapes.
Chief Financial Officer
English, Greek
English, Greek
Steve makes good use of symbols learned in the second grade while listening to old Ludwig Van. He reminds people that $5 > $1 but $5 < $20. He also makes sure that our savings account has a balance> 0, and that all bills are paid (along with the Ryans and the Mikes, and the Kims). Lastly, Steve ensures that anything left is spent on innovating better products for our super customers.
Accountant
English, Uuiger, Mandarin, Turkish, Arabic
Accounting Coordinator
English, Portuguese
English, Portuguese
The only thing sweeter than mango juice is this Mango's smile. Lilian is our superstar Accounting Coordinator, making sure the numbers add up and the bills get paid. Lilian's Brazilian culture shines through in her love of dancing, music, and food. Her lovely demeanor makes the Grove an even sunnier home for us all!
Legal Specialist
English, Spanish
English, Spanish
Gabe is the legal specialist at Mango (a.k.a. the Keeper of Contracts). He reads lots of contracts, including the fine print and the footnotes*. He also keeps Mango from “stepping in it” from a legal perspective.
*This means he spends most of his time staring at his computer and doing a lot of heavy sighing.
IT Infrastructure Manager
English, Spanish, French
IT Help Desk Manager
English, Romanian
English, Romanian
James joined the Mango family in 2014 from another big happy family — he is the second oldest of nine brothers and sisters! When he isn't configuring the IT at The Grove or hanging out with his friends and family, there's a good chance you can find him playing music. We think it's about time James starts a one-man band — he plays the piano, accordion, saxophone and trumpet!
HR Specialist
English, Spanish, ASL
English, Spanish, ASL
East Coast born and West Coast bred, Lisa is a Midwestern transplant. You’ll usually find Lisa enjoying the great outdoors: gardening, playing in the sunshine, or traveling the world over. But her passions don’t stop there — she’s also a dancer, a runner, and a chef passionate about whole foods & natural health. Fun fact: Lisa’s been tap dancing for over 25 years!
Head of Business Intelligence
English, Portuguese, Italian
Systems Analyst
English, Spanish
English, Spanish
Adele is always cold, you can usually find her huddled in a corner under a blanket fort furiously typing away on her computer for heat. Adele has a unique love for systems and data, knowing them like no one else can. If you see her, be sure to ask for a recitation of her romantic database poetry.
Product Marketing Manager
English, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish
English, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish
Legend has it Milica came out of the womb already talking. She's a third culture kid who loves geeking out on all things language and tech. When she's not “researching“ online you can find her people watching at her favorite language and culture hub: airports. Oh and she likes tennis, biking, and her newborn niece too.
Creative Manager
English, French, Parsel tongue
English, French, Parsel tongue
As Mango's media metronome, Mallory keeps the marketing team organized by carrying no less than six notebooks on her at all times. When she's not curled up with a hot bowl of soup with a good book and her clingy calico in her lap, Mallory is probably busy wresting vectors and humming along to Icelandic pop stars. And if you ever can't find her, just follow the path of clementine peels.
Digital Marketing Manager
Portuguese (Portugal), Italian, Spanish, English, French
Portuguese (Portugal), Italian, Spanish, English, French
With a personal motto of “to stop is to die,” just try and keep up with Alex. On any given day, you’ll find him skydiving, snorkeling the deep seas, or installing internet of things into his increasingly Smart home. Originally from Lisbon, Portugal, Alex will sweep you off your feet with his near-perfect Brazilian Portuguese accent, his knack for all things tech, and his contagious energy. A natural-born marketer, Alex has been campaigning his way into the good graces of others since day one. Whether he’s igniting our wanderlust with tales of his trips to over 21 different countries, tipping us off to the latest restaurant opening, or inviting us over for an indie flick, there’s never a dull moment with Alex.
Events Manager
English, Spanish, French, Quechua
English, Spanish, French, Quechua
Can’t find Nicole? Check Lake Michigan. Give Nicole a day of watersports, hiking, and crossword puzzles in northern Michigan and she’s a happy girl. Toss in some good books, time for knitting, and lots of chocolate, and she’ll be on cloud nine. We love Nicole for her awesome people skills, outgoing personality (she’s an ENFJ!), and affinity for words. Fun fact: she just found out that she’s double jointed. Can you put that on a resume? We think so.
Marketing Intern
German, Lithuanian, Japanese, Russian, Italian, and Korean
Multimedia Producer
English, Swedish, Spanish
English, Swedish, Spanish
Looking to learn more about that mysterious designer extraordinaire who passes his mornings sipping chocolate coffee on the Mango patio? You’ve come to the right place. That’s Scott Swanson, born and raised Detroiter with a passion for great video and clean, effective design. We love Scott for his great road trip stories and awesome videos of his adventures, captured by his very own drone. He’s always game for an impromptu game of soccer and since he claims to not have a spirit animal, we’ll just call him our favorite human being.
Software Craftsman
English, Bulgarian
English, Bulgarian
In addition to authoring code poetry, Vess makes sure team morale is high with quasi-appropriate humor and helpful appearance observations (“your face“ jokes). He claims to have invented the strong opinion and considers camping the Trabant of leisure activities.
Software Craftsman
English, French
Software Craftsman
English, German
English, German
Born to program and always be right, Stephen was Mango’s first employee and looks like the youngest. When he’s not literally (yes, literally) shooting lightning bolts from his fingertips in the form of code, he bakes us scones and solves the problems mere mortals thought unsolvable.
Software Craftsman
Japanese, English
Japanese, English
What do you need to know about our pal Josh? He speaks enough Japanese to skate by — and speaking of skating by, he loves doing just that at the roller rink. Josh is as passionate about programming languages as he is human languages, and the next on his list to learn is Greek. He also has a growing collection of ergonomic keyboards, two of which required assembly and a soldering iron.
DevOps Engineer
Bulgarian, English, French, Russian
Product/Project Manager
English, Italian
English, Italian
Josh has a knack for just about everything, including his endless analogies. There are many layers to this Josh guy — and the more we learn, the more we like him. He’s an innovator by nature and when he’s not looking at new ways to interpret data, he’s probably planning his next fishing trip. Josh enjoys ball games and spending lots of time outdoors with his wife and three kids.
Software Craftsman
English
English
When he’s not making the world a better place through multi-threaded code, Cheyn enjoys the finer things in life. What tops his list? Chicken pot pie, his dear sphynx cats, astrophotography, car maintenance and repair, spending time on Michigan’s inland lakes, and, of course, video games.
Customer Support Team Lead
English, Librarian
English, Librarian
Allison is here for all your Mango questions. If she doesn't know the answer she will put on her detective hat and find it. As an original member of the Lost Fruit Finders, she can be found at her desk with her phone and keyboard solving users problems before they even know they have them.
Customer Support Specialist
English, Japanese, Spanish
English, Japanese, Spanish
As a customer service specialist, Kelly loves helping Mango users launch their language-learning journeys. Kelly practices what she preaches and truly embodies language learning (and loving!) — she came straight to The Grove from a two-year stint teaching English in rural Japan, speaks fluent Spanish and Japanese, and runs the Japanese club here at Mango. She even played bass in a Japanese rock band!
Integration Specialist
English, Korean
English, Korean
What do you get when you mix Black Widow, the French horn, and a love of reading? Sarah Nagelbush! Fluent in English and currently studying Korean, Sarah also speaks Librarian and Fangirl. A writer, a lover of Kpop, and a fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers, there’s never a dull moment with Sarah. Ask her about her hobby of collecting cool stuff — from Alpacasso to cephalopods, she’s got it all.
Customer Support Support
An essential part of Mango’s customer support team, Sir Reginald von Barttlesby has a long and storied history. Unfortunately, as he is an office plant, he cannot relate it to us. Though he resides in the Mango Grove, he does not speak any languages. This is in no way due to a lack of effort on our part. He is a particularly stubborn plant. When Sir Reginald isn’t sitting on the desk, he’s busy — well — we suppose that’s all he does really.
Project Manager
English, French, Latin
Linguist
English, Greek
Linguist
English, German
Linguist
English, Spanish
English, Spanish
Kimberly Cortes is a leading expert in linguistics and an innovator in the field of second-language acquisition. She holds a B.A. in Spanish and Linguistics from Wayne State University and is currently pursuing a Masters in Linguistics with a focus on second-language acquisition. As Head Linguist, Kimberly is responsible for the conception, development, and management of Mango Languages’ revolutionary language-learning products. Kimberly works closely with businesses and organizations to better prepare employees for global mobility, improve cross-cultural communications, and transition expats around the world.Kimberly’s linguistic expertise is matched only by her genuine passion for language and culture. Kimberly’s native language is English. She is also fluent in Spanish and is currently studying Brazilian Portuguese and Italian. Personally, Kimberly loves to dance Bachata, loves all food except papaya, and is a travel enthusiast. Meet Kimberly Cortes, la Development Diva de Mango.
Software Craftsman
English, Arabic
QA Automation Programmer
German, French, English
German, French, English
Kristi is Mango’s resident Codifier of Quality. Originally from Evergreen, Colorado, she is passionate about tech, adventure travel, working with horses, and cultural anthropology. If you want to pique her curiosity, mention mathematical patterns or the cosmos. A naturalborn Mango, she finds daily inspiration in her work and leverages Mango’s culture to meet (and exceed!) her language and culture learning goals.
Product Design Manager
English, HTML
English, HTML
Meet Ben, part-time Science Fiction writer, full-time Product Design Manager. Born and raised in the metro Detroit area, talk to Ben about his past life as the frontman of a Ska band or the book he’s been penning in his spare time. With his faith at the forefront, Ben is a laid-back guy who passes his days spending time with his congregation, keeping up with tech trends, and jamming out on his acoustic guitar. He claims his spirit animal is a dogsloth — we’ll let him explain that.
Sales Director
English, Spanish
English, Spanish
Bob is a fearsome beast of mountains and plains. Legend has it that he can lift stacks of books 400 men tall to impress librarians, and that he does. Bob is Mango’s walking encyclopedia when it comes to library knowledge and insight, and we love him dearly for it. We also love him for his positive attitude and because he thinks his spirit animal is a wolf. Come on, Bob. We all know it’s a grizzly bear. When he’s not running, biking, or weight training, he’s gnawing on steak.
Customer Advocate
English, French, Portuguese
English, French, Portuguese
Meagan has been working (read:living the dream) at Mango since 2011. She talks to her customers (read: friends) all day: laughing, joking, and brainstorming fun ways to promote resources in and outside the library. She's always ready to lay down a fresh beat or make you laugh with the best 5th grade level jokes you'll ever hear.
Customer Advocate
English, Greek
Customer Advocate
English, Spanish
English, Spanish
Mother of two, lifelong soccer player, master of crochet - Amy can do it all. On any given day, you can find Amy with a book in one hand and a piece of chocolate in the other. An artist at heart, she works the right side of her brain by keeping her knit, crochet, and literary game strong. With two art school degrees, a stint as a semi-professional soccer player, and now the mother of two awesome kids, Amy always has a good story and a cool creation to share with us. But in her daily life, she keeps it simple: give her a day filled with good food, good drinks, and good people, and she’s happy - but the occasional trip to northern Michigan or Italian holiday wouldn’t hurt.
Customer Advocate
English, Greek, Spanish
English, Greek, Spanish
Penelope’s heels may be high, but she keeps libraries’ love for Mango even higher. When she’s not keeping in touch with our beloved librarians, her pride for the University of Michigan is so bold and bright that she can use it as a reading light when she’s thumbing through “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” or planning her next read off the New York Times bestseller list. As our resident Greek goddess, Penelope surprises many with her perfect fake British accent. She is a Scorpio.
Customer Advocate
English, Spanish, Portuguese
English, Spanish, Portuguese
Where in the world is Sabrina Richardson? She’s in Ann Arbor, where she’s lived her entire life. Where in the world would she rather be? On a beach, soaking up the sun with a margarita in hand. Beyond the beach, Sabrina is a lover of traveling, languages, and animals — her spirit animal is shared between a koala and a sloth (her favorite animal!). Sabrina speaks English and Spanish, she’s currently learning Portuguese, and her favorite color is purple.
Sales Coordinator
English, Russian, Thai
English, Russian, Thai
Meet Jenny, born in Kazan, Russia, raised in metro Detroit, and who left a piece of her heart in Northeastern Thailand. Jenny has an affinity for travel and a sense of adventure that won’t quit — she’s always up for a rock-climbing excursion or a spin around the city to find the best local street food. Passionate about culture and committed to lifelong learning, she loves Mango for our inclusive methodology. We love Jenny for her contagious creative energy and her stories about her chatty Maine Coon, Peachy.
Academic Libraries Sales Lead
English, Italian, Spanish
English, Italian, Spanish
Believe it or not, Marco has been around since (nearly) the dawn of (Mango) time. Over the past seven years, Marco has played as big of a role in Mango's life as Mango has in his - he was even introduced to his beautiful wife Milena through a Mango! When he's not working hard to help academic libraries and K12 schools, Marco loves playing soccer, traveling, being by the ocean (and the swimming, sun, sand and seafood that comes with it!) and spending time with his family.
Sales Representative
English, Italian
Corporate Account Manager
English, Arabic
English, Arabic
Rachel is one talented Mango - she paints, draws, manages accounts, and cracks jokes all day long. She comes to The Grove from Grand Rapids, MI, where she spent the last several years developing her affinity for craft beer. When she's not taking care of her beloved Mango clients, Rachel can be found photographing engagement shoots and hanging out her golden retriever Sam and her crotchety old cat Stewart. Rachel apparently wishes she was cooler, but we think she's one of the coolest cats around (and we think cats are pretty cool).
Corporate Account Executive
English, Spanish, Japanese
English, Spanish, Japanese
Brian has been with Mango since 2013 bringing language training to the masses. When Brian is not at work, he enjoys eating sandwiches, traveling to new and exciting places (and eating sandwiches there), and attending sporting events (while eating sandwiches).
Corporate Account Executive
English, Spanish
