Introducing The Top 100 Corporate eLearning Movers And Shakers For 2017
Over the last 12 to 18 months, the corporate eLearning world has continued, oxymoronically, its rapid evolution. Among other things, it has become less "regionally" based and become more of a "worldwide" market – aided, of course, by the internet, business globalisation and all the attendant factors of modern corporate life.
Consequently, the idea of splitting the Corporate eLearning Movers and Shakers lists into "North America", "Europe", "the UK" and "Asia-Pacific", which always seemed slightly artificial, now seems outdated. Consequently, there is only one list this year. It is an extended "World" list. However, this list should be read in the context of the seven annual sets of lists which have preceded it.
This combination of the regional lists into one, world list, however, complicates the judging criteria – which, as has always been stressed, is subjective and fallible because it’s entirely human-based. Nonetheless, this year’s judges have continued the tradition of trying as hard as they can to be honest and objective in their opinions. Doubtless, not everyone who reads this list will agree entirely with the judges’ decision – but that’s the beauty of lists such as this one: it gives plenty of scope for thought, discussion and debate.
At least this list represents the views of a number of key people about the personalities who lead the corporate eLearning world. Moreover, when each judge – independently - produced their list for consideration, a large number of the 120 or so names on the 'long list' were common to more than one list.
In producing a "World list", the judges determined that:
- People named on the list will be deemed to be influential within the corporate eLearning sector within their country, continent, region and the world. Those who’re influential on a wider geographic scale will tend to rank higher than those who are influential "only" on a regional or continental level. These people will, however, rank higher than those who are influential purely on a national level.
- Although academics can be named on this list, they are considered only in so far as their work influences those in the corporate world.
- The list is compiled on the basis of a person’s perceived current influence on the eLearning industry – as a practitioner, commentator, facilitator and/or thought leader. In today’s social media influenced age, this could be thought to give social media users, especially bloggers, a greater "world profile" and "thought leader influence" than, say, practitioners. While there is some truth in this view, the judges have tried to also take account of the work and influence of "pure" industry practitioners, as well as those who are active behind the scenes – as venture capitalists, for example. These people have a significant, if often unseen, influence over the industry.
The Top 100 Corporate eLearning Movers And Shakers List
The Elite
- Elliott Masie - head of The MASIE Center, a New York think tank focused on how organizations can support learning and knowledge within the workforce. (Position on last year’s World list: 2)
- Rebecca Stromeyer - owner of ICWE, which runs Online Educa as well as eLearning Africa, ‘bringing best thinking together’. (Position last year: 7)
- Laura Overton – an international speaker, and the managing director of Towards Maturity (Position last year: 3)
- Christopher Pappas – founder of the eLearning Industry Network. (Position last year: 4)
- Harold Jarche - the Canada-based “thought catalyst”, writer and blogger and champion of “learning how to learn”. (Position last year: 5)
- Donald Clark - a long-established international speaker and commentator on eLearning, now profiling artificial intelligence (AI).
- Jane Hart - a workplace learning and collaboration advisor, writer and international speaker who’s active on social media. Founder of C4LPT, she has also founded The Centre for Modern Workplace Learning – and Modern Workplace Learning magazine..
- Charles Jennings - a Senior Director with the Internet Time Alliance, a writer, speaker and thought leader, championing the “70:20:10” framework.
- Sunder Ramachandran – General Manager, Training at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals India, and writer, speaker and blogger. (Position last year: 9)
- Roger Schank - president and CEO of Socratic Arts and a long-established thought leader in this sector.
- Debbie Richards – President of Creative Interactive Ideas, a consultant, speaker, and a member of the board of directors of the ATD Houston Chapter. (Position last year: 10)
- Patti Shank - founder of Learning Peaks, and an internationally recognized expert on, and advocate for, the pragmatics of the design of information and instruction to help people do what they need to do. (Position last year: 6)
- Craig Weiss - an eLearning analyst, author, speaker and thought leader who is CEO of the Craig Weiss Group. (Position last year: 1)
- John Leh – an independent learning technology analyst, blogger and CEO of Talented Learning, specialising in learning management systems (LMSs).
- Clive Shepherd - founding director at The More Than Blended Learning Company and a writer and commentator on the eLearning scene, especially focused on digital skills.
- Ian Smout – an organizer of the annual Learning Technologies conference and exhibition in London; owner of E-Learning Age and the E-Learning Age Awards and now extending growth opportunities for the sector into Europe and Asia.
- Thea Payome - editor of the Germany-based CheckPoint eLearning ezine and website.
- Colin Steed – founder of Learning Now TV and CEO of the Learning and Performance Institute in the UK.
- Aaron Silvers, a designer, technologist and strategist responsible for helping to bring into being learning technologies – notably SCORM and xAPI (otherwise known as “Tin Can”).
- Armin Hopp - founder and president of Speexx, a member of ELIG, and a Towards Maturity ambassador.
- Clark Quinn – principal of the Internet Time Alliance and executive director of Quinnovation, specialising in helping organizations get value from their technology investments to support learning, performance, and development.
- Jane Bozarth – a speaker, author and instructional designer.
- Nicolas Hellers – the South America-based author of books on eLearning, and content editor of America Learning Media magazine.
- Lisa Minogue-White – a blogger, speaker and director of learning solutions at WillowDNA, a board member of the eLearning Network (ELN), and a presenter/ reporter for Learning Now TV.
- Michelle Parry-Slater – a writer, speaker and L&D director at Kairos Modern Learning.
Premier Platinum
- Nigel Paine - an eminent writer, speaker and broadcaster (on Learning Now TV) on eLearning and related subjects.
- Jonathan Satchell – CEO of Learning Technologies Group plc (LEO Learning), the only AIM-listed company focused on consolidating the fast growing but fragmented learning technologies sector.
- Linda Steedman, an eLearning and e-assessment consultant, and chairwoman of eCom Scotland and eCom USA.
- Helge Scherlund - the Denmark-based writer and blogger on eLearning topics.
- Juliette Denny - managing director of learning technologies company Growth Engineering, and a champion of gamification.
- Helen Blunden - director of social learning at Activate Learning Solutions, in Melbourne, Australia, and founder of Third Place, a co-working and networking community for learning professionals across six Australian cities.
- Will Thalheimer – a learning-to-performance strategist, learning consultant, learning researcher, learning benchmarker, program evaluator, speaker, workshop provider, simulation architect and instructional designer.
- Connie Malamed – a consultant, writer and speaker in the fields of eLearning, visual communication, and information design.
- Mark Britz - senior manager of programs at The eLearning Guild, who creates events for learning professionals.
- Amit Garg – Director at Upside Learning Solutions. Speaker and promoter of mobile learning and gamification.
- Steve Rayson – of curation/ content marketing specialists, Anders Pink.
- Stephen Walsh – of curation/ content marketing specialists, Anders Pink.
- Jerry Gschwind – President of learning strategy consulting business Symphony Learning Partners.
- Rob Clarke – owner of Training Press Releases and related services in Germany and the Netherlands.
- Martin Baker - CEO of the Charity Learning Consortium (CLC).
- Ryan Tracey – a Sydney, Australia, based speaker, presenter, writer and blogger.
- Peter Phillips - writer and CEO of financial sector eLearning specialists, Unicorn Training.
- David Wilson – CEO of the Fosway Group and a long-time commentator on the learning technologies sector.
- Ladislava Knihova - a key champion, user and publisher of eLearning applications within the corporate and academic sectors in the Czech Republic.
- Kate Graham - the content and communications manager at market analysts, the Fosway Group. A tweeter, marketer and blogger.
- Mike Pino – a Florida-based learning technology consultant specialising in learning technology strategy, eLearning, blended learning, measurement/assessment of learning and performance, learning management software and large scale software implementations.
- Iva Matasić - CEO at Consulio, Inc, a Croatia-based consultancy, specializing in eLearning technologies, BigData and connecting EU experts with EU research funds. Also a member of the international eLearning think tank, The Company of Thought.
- Snjezana Slabek – head of Knowledge Management Projects at Podravka, in Croatia, and organiser of Croatia’s major annual eLearning conference, “Knowledge in Focus”.
- Rob Hubbard - a speaker, writer, founder of LAS, and former chair of the ELN.
- Cathy Moore – a blogger and trainer who is “on a quest to save the world from boring corporate training”.
Gold Standard
- Mike McGann - eLearning Superman at the eLearning content producer, Learning Heroes.
- David Patterson - a director of market analysts Learning Light and the E-Learning Centre, as well as a Founding Principal of the international eLearning think tank, The Company of Thought,
- An Coppens – a gamification, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) specialist, speaker, consultant and commentator who is chief game changer at Gamification Nation.
- David Kelly - executive director of The eLearning Guild.
- Mike Rustici – a software developer turned entrepreneur. President of Watershed LRS and former head of Rustici Software, he played a major part in developing xAPI (“Tin Can”).
- Michelle Ockers – advocate of the 70:20:10 reference model and currently leading a strategic learning and development review across the Qantas Group.
- Matt Guyan – a solutions developer at B Online Learning Pty Ltd in Newcastle, Australia, whose writings and presentations are popular.
- Abtar Kaur – an instructional design and eLearning specialist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
- Manish Gupta – CEO of the eLearning products and services company, G-Cube.
- Andy Lancaster – a digital skills specialist who is a speaker and head of L&D Content at the CIPD.
- Arun Pradhan – a digital and blended learning specialist, a blogger, and creator of the Learn2Learn App.
- Shannon Tipton – a learning and development strategist and coach, international speaker, writer, blogger and microlearning developer who is CLO at Learning Rebels.
- Jeanne C Meister – a workplace futurist, writer, author and partner at Future Workplace.
- Jos Arets – a co-founder, with Charles Jennings, of the 702010 Institute.
- Jeevan Joshi – Sydney, Australia-based founder of the Learning Café; a networker, blogger, digital workplace adviser and event organiser.
- Rachel Earhard – senior learning and organizational development consultant, global, at Twitter.
- Anne Bartlett-Bragg – a blogger, author and managing director of Ripple Effect Group APAC.
- Tim Drewitt - a product innovator at Kallidus who is also a writer and commentator on digital/eLearning /mobile/blended learning issues, especially on social media.
- Mike Taylor – advocate for designing engaging content and a developer at Mindset Digital.
- James Tyer – founder of Togetherwise, a facilitator and a builder of people networks for collaboration, innovation, learning, and leadership development.
- Jeff Kortenbosch – an eLearning designer and developer, and senior eLearning specialist at AkzoNobel.
- Ravi Pratap Singh - co-founder at Learnnovators, an organisation that designs and develops eLearning solutions for the workplace.
- Jo Cook – learning and development specialist and deputy editor of Training Journal in the UK.
- Rob Caul - CEO of Kallidus and a specialist in the fields of learning management systems (LMSs), talent management and succession planning solutions, performance management systems, eLearning content development, learning and talent consulting.
- David Anderson – director of customer training at Articulate.
Silver
- Genny Dixon – head of research at the industry benchmarking specialist, Towards Maturity.
- Pierre Touzeau – growth hacker at 360learning.com, the Paris-based fast-growing digital learning platform provider.
- Asi DeGani - digital learning manager at AXA Insurance but also heavily involved in Learn Appeal, the eLearning industry charity that’s making a difference to learning, especially in Africa.
- Marcia Conner - managing director at the advisory services firm, Impact Ingenuity.
- Justin Bruno - an educator, trainer, researcher, supervisor and strategist at Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute.
- Sambit Mohapatra - director at Siyona Tech, providers of learning games, eLearning content, mobile performance tools and interactive e-manuals/workbooks.
- Laurence Smith – Head of Asia Pacific for SmartUp.io, a mobile first micro-learning platform.
- Lisa Johnson - projects director at Dynamic Business Services Ltd.
- Susan Derkach - head of global learning, group HR at adidas group.
- Thierry de Baillon – co-founder of Transitive Society and EsTeam, who is also a consultant with Visionary Marketing, who helps organizations adapt to a world of networks and disruption, through the delivery of better services to their customers and collaborative work practices.
- Marten de Prez – managing director at aNewSpring a specialist in integrating mobile learning with adaptive learning.
- Sean Gilligan – owner of Webanywhere which, among other things, is an official Moodle Partner in the UK, USA and Poland.
- Cammy Bean – solutions consultant at Kineo and an instructional design specialist.
- Charles McIntyre – CEO of edtech venture capitalists, IBIS Capital.
- Pascal Debordes – a writer and a director of the learning content producer, Cegos.
- Claudio Erba, CEO of learning platform producer, Docebo, but also Advisor at Enalbs startup incubator, Startup mentor at InnovActionLab (Italy) and Seedstartup (United Arab Emirates).
- Martin Dougiamas - Perth, Western Australia-based CEO of Moodle, the open source learning platform.
- Christopher Bishop - a speaker, writer and consultant, focused on sharing insights from his nonlinear, multi-modal career path to help people be successful in the global borderless workplace.
- Sarah Lindsell - director of global & UK learning lechnology & transformation at PwC.
- Julian Stodd – author, thinker, futurist, and captain of SeaSalt Learning.
- Lars Hyland – learning designer, implementer and chief commercial officer at Totara Learning Solutions.
- Brendan Noud - CEO of the Eire-based, worldwide learning platform, LearnUpon.
- Paul McElvaney - CEO at LearningPool, which has grown rapidly by acquisition in recent years.
- Mike Prokopeak - vice-president and editor-in-chief at Human Capital Media.
- Minna Leikas – a marketing professional, specialising in global learning and talent management software, currently Marketing Director at NetDimensions.
"Bubbling under" Bronze XI
Others who just missed out on making this year’s list included:
- Frank Siepmann - the owner of eLearning Journal, in Germany, and industry event organiser.
- Andrew (Andy) Brode – chairman of Learning Technologies Group plc, who helps the company achieve its growth targets.
- Tom Symonds - CEO of Immerse Learning, a learning platform that includes 3D simulation.
- David Hopkins – a writer, author, and teaching & learning consultant at the University of Warwick/ Warwick Business School.
- Valerio Torda - managing director of digital learning content management business solutions producer, eXact learning solutions.
- Nick Shackleton-Jones - Director, Learning & Performance Innovation at PA Consulting Group.
- Sally Ann (Thomson) Moore – managing director of iLearn Forum Ltd, specialising in events management, management development and consultancy.
- John Helmer – writer, publicist and director of marketing at eLearning solutions provider, Lumesse Learning.
- Rene Persoon – owner at aNewSpring, which produces a leading edge learning platform.
- Ger Driesen - L&D trendcatcher, speaker, entrepreneur and learning innovation leader at aNewSpring, as well as being co-founder of Consutlant Leardership and Learning.
- Rod Knox – CEO of Virtual College.