Babbel’s new leaders: Hermione McKee is CFO, Julie Hansen is CRO
Hermione McKee joins the Babbel leadership team as CFO
U.S. CEO Julie Hansen becomes CRO (Chief Revenue Officer)
New lineup focuses on monetization and further growth
Babbel, the world’s no.1 selling language-learning app, welcomes Hermione McKee as its new CFO, while current U.S. CEO Julie Hansen assumes the newly created position of CRO (Chief Revenue Officer). Both McKee and Hansen have impressive resumes: Hermione previously worked as CFO at the Berlin gaming startup Wooga, as well as Hello Fresh, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley. Julie has been Babbel’s CEO in the United States since 2017 and has made the U.S. the business’ strongest growth market. She was previously COO at Business Insider and held positions at NCAA.com, Condé Nast Publications, and Time Inc. With a formidable executive team, Babbel will continue to expand its position as a global market leader. In 2020, the company sold its 10 millionth subscription, making it the best-selling language learning app in the world.
“The market potential for digital learning products is huge,” says Hermione McKee, Babbel CFO. “In this environment, Babbel is well and truly leading the pack, no doubt also due to the quality of the product. Whilst not a linguist myself, I was able to successfully get into different languages using Babbel. I look forward to working with a product that offers clear value for its users and for a company whose values I stand behind.”
“The last four years at Babbel have been a steep learning curve, aimed at making the US our most successful market - which we accomplished,” says Julie Hansen, Babbel CRO and U.S. CEO. "As CRO, my ambition is to accelerate our growth by leveraging the expertise of our outstanding teams in New York and Berlin."
“2021 is planned as another year of strong growth. Our goal is to help even more people around the world learn a language successfully,” says Arne Schepker, Babbel CEO. “We have two very experienced managers in Hermione McKee and Julie Hansen. Which is a good thing, because we have very ambitious plans.”
As CFO, Hermione McKee is now in charge of Finance, Business Intelligence and Legal. As CRO, Julie Hansen is responsible for all revenue-generating teams. Both report to Babbel CEO Arne Schepker.
About Babbel
Babbel develops and operates an ecosystem of interconnected online language learning experiences and is driven by the purpose of creating mutual understanding through language. This means building products that help people connect and communicate across cultures. The Babbel App, Babbel Live, Babbel Podcasts and Babbel for Business products focus on using a new language in the real world, in real situations, with real people. And it works: Studies by linguists from institutions such as Michigan State University, Yale University and the City University of New York demonstrated the efficacy of Babbel’s language learning methods.
The key is a blend of humanity and technology. Babbel offers more than 60,000 lessons across 15 languages, hand-crafted by nearly 200 didactics experts, with user behaviors continuously analyzed to shape and tweak the learner experience. This results in constantly adapting, interactive content with live classes, games, podcasts and videos that make understanding a new language easy, from Spanish to Indonesian.
Because Babbel is for everyone, its team is as diverse as its content. From its headquarters in Berlin and its U.S. office in New York, 1000 people from more than 80 nationalities represent the backgrounds, characteristics and perspectives that make all humans unique. Babbel sold over 15 million subscriptions by creating a true connection with users.
More information: www.babbel.com
