Preply Strengthens U.S. Leadership Team with Two Executive Appointments to Support Next Phase of Global Growth

Lillian Reaume joins as Chief People Officer and Bilal Zia joins as VP of Data Science & Analytics, bringing leadership experience from Amazon, Rubrik, and Duolingo

NEW YORK, Oct. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Preply, the #1 global language learning marketplace, today announced two senior leadership appointments as the company strengthens its executive presence in the United States and continues to scale globally.

Lillian Reaume has joined Preply as Chief People Officer, leading the company's global people organization, while Bilal Zia has joined as Vice President of Data Science and Analytics, overseeing Preply's data science and analytics organization. Both executives will be based in the U.S.

The appointments follow a period of significant growth for Preply, which announced a $1.2 billion valuation following a $150M Series D round led by WestCap earlier this year. Today, the company connects learners in 180 countries with more than 150,000 tutors teaching over 90 languages worldwide.

As Preply enters its next phase, Reaume and Zia bring deep experience scaling global technology companies, building high-performing organizations, and using data and technology to drive business transformation.

"We've built tremendous momentum over the past few years, and our ambitions for what comes next as a company are even bigger," says Kirill Bigai, co-founder and CEO of Preply. "Lillian and Bilal have guided organizations through pivotal periods of growth and transformation. Their leadership across people and data will be essential as we scale globally and strengthen our presence in the U.S."

Lillian Reaume joins as Chief People Officer

Reaume joins Preply from Stitch Fix, where she served as Chief People Officer as the company advanced its transformation efforts. Previously, Reaume served as Chief People Officer at Rubrik, helping scale the cybersecurity company and build infrastructure that supported its growth and public listing.

Earlier in her career, Reaume spent several years at Amazon as Head of HR for the Alexa organization, and also led HR for several of AWS's largest technology organizations spanning platforms, databases, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, supporting organizations of more than 15,000 employees globally.

"Preply has built an exceptional global team, and I'm excited to join at this important moment of incredible opportunity," says Reaume.  "Preply's mission brings together people across borders, cultures, and languages.  I'm looking forward to helping our teams do their best work and building practices that will support Preply's next stage of growth."

Bilal Zia joins as VP of Data Science and Analytics

Zia joins Preply with two decades of experience building data organizations and applying data science, experimentation and economic research to complex business and policy challenges.

Most recently, Zia served as Head of Data Science and Analytics at Duolingo, where he designed the company's data science operating model, rebuilt its forecasting capabilities and helped scale real-time machine learning personalization across the product.

Previously, Zia held senior roles at Amazon and the World Bank, where his work spanned experimentation, causal inference and economic research informing education and financial policy across emerging markets. He holds a PhD in Economics from MIT and is based in Brooklyn, New York.

"Preply has an unusually rich combination of marketplace, learning and behavioral data, so there's a real opportunity to better understand what actually drives learner progress," says Zia. "The opportunity now is to use those insights across the business, from how we match tutors and learners to how we build AI, so we improve the learning experience and help more people achieve their goals. I can't wait to get started."

The appointments build on Preply's growing presence in the United States, one of the company's key markets, alongside its global hubs in Barcelona, London and Kyiv.

For more information on Preply or to explore open roles, visit Preply.com.

ABOUT PREPLY

Preply is the human-led, AI-enabled language learning platform building the future of learning. With a global network of more than 150,000 tutors teaching over 90 languages, we are the category leader and the largest online marketplace and app that brings human tutors together with learners from 180 countries, supporting them with always-on, AI-powered tools to deliver real progress with every lesson.

Our mission is to create life-changing learning experiences by powering real progress through personalized learning, motivation, and high-quality tutoring at scale. We believe that we are uniquely positioned to become the company that understands human learning better than anyone on the planet.

Media Contact:
Lauren Doyle
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SOURCE Preply