diff --git a/transformers/nlp/text_named_entity_conversion_transformer.py b/transformers/nlp/text_named_entity_conversion_transformer.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3112bc27
--- /dev/null
+++ b/transformers/nlp/text_named_entity_conversion_transformer.py
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+"""Preprocess the text column by replacing named entities with a standard tag
+For example: 'Mary lives in London from 2018' -> '[PERSON] lives in [GPE] from [DATE]' """
+import datatable as dt
+import numpy as np
+from h2oaicore.transformer_utils import CustomTransformer
+
+
+class NamedEntityConverterTransformer(CustomTransformer):
+    """Transformer to replace mentions of named entities with standard tags the text"""
+    _numeric_output = False
+    _modules_needed_by_name = ["spacy==2.1.8"]
+
+    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
+        super().__init__(**kwargs)
+        self.replace_person = True  # turn off as needed
+        self.replace_location = True  # turn off as needed
+        self.replace_date = True  # turn off as needed
+
+        import spacy
+        try:
+            self.nlp = spacy.load('en_core_web_sm')
+        except IOError:
+            from spacy.cli import download
+            download('en_core_web_sm')
+            self.nlp = spacy.load('en_core_web_sm')
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def get_default_properties():
+        return dict(col_type="text", min_cols=1, max_cols=1, relative_importance=1)
+
+    @property
+    def display_name(self):
+        return "NamedEntityConvertedText"
+
+    def convert_named_entities(self, text, entity_type):
+        tokens = self.nlp(text)
+        new_text = []
+        for token in tokens:
+            if token.ent_type_ == entity_type:
+                word = "[{0}]".format(entity_type)
+            else:
+                word = token.text
+            new_text.append(word)
+        return " ".join(new_text)
+
+    def convert_text(self, text):
+        if self.replace_person:
+            text = self.convert_named_entities(text, "PERSON")
+        if self.replace_date:
+            text = self.convert_named_entities(text, "DATE")
+        if self.replace_location:
+            text = self.convert_named_entities(text, "LOC")
+            text = self.convert_named_entities(text, "GPE")
+
+        return text
+
+    def fit_transform(self, X: dt.Frame, y: np.array = None):
+        return self.transform(X)
+
+    def transform(self, X: dt.Frame):
+        return X.to_pandas().astype(str).fillna("NA").iloc[:, 0].apply(lambda x: self.convert_text(x))