Now in its seventh year, the latest annual lists of the “Top Ten” most influential people in the corporate e-learning sector – in the World, North America, Europe, the UK and Asia-Pacific – contain the names of 39 people. Of these, 26 are men and 13 are women.

 

This year, only the top spot in the Asia-Pacific list has changed hands, although each list sees movement in positional terms.

 

Those whose influence in this field appears to have grown most during 2015 include:

  • Abhijit Bhaduri, who has taken over top spot on the Asia-Pacific list and has been named on the World list for the first time
  • Debbie Richards who has risen to fifth in the North America list and has been named on the World list for the first time
  • Charles Jennings, who not only is named on both the Europe and UK lists for the first time but was also almost named on the World list for the first time

 

In addition, Donald Clark, the long-established speaker and commentator on e-learning, returned to the UK list – in third place – and also gained solid support for inclusion on the Europe and World lists. Donald H Taylor, who was placed third in last year’s UK list – the position now occupied by Donald Clark – requested not to be considered for any of the movers and shakers lists in 2016.

 

These ‘movers and shakers’ lists are compiled from a corporate online learning perspective, on the basis of a person’s perceived current influence on the online learning industry – as a practitioner, commentator, facilitator and/or thought leader. In such a highly subjective area, opinions will always differ – and it’s guaranteed that the judges’ decisions will not meet with universal acclaim – but these lists represent the views of a number of key people about the personalities who lead the corporate online learning world.

 

In an attempt to shed light on the judges’ thought processes as well as trying to identify some regional trends within the corporate e-learning sector, some of the lists this year include “judges’ remarks”.

 

The 2016 lists are:

 

World list

1.     Craig Weiss – an e-learning analyst, author, speaker and thought leader who is CEO of E-Learning 24/7. He was the main protagonist in forming the new international e-learning think tank, The Company of Thought, in 2015. (Position last year: 1)
2.     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 last year: 2)
3.     Laura Overton – a speaker, and managing director of Towards Maturity(Position last year: 5)
4.     Christopher Pappas – Greek US-based founder and CEO of the eLearning Industry Network (Position last year: 3)
5.     Harold Jarche – the Canada-based ‘thought catalyst’, writer and blogger. (Position last year: 6)
6.     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: 7)
7.     Rebecca Stromeyer – owner of ICWE, which runs Online Educa as well as E-Learning Africa (Position last year: eight)
8.     Abhijit Bhaduri – the Chief Learning Officer at Wipro Group who is also a blogger, speaker and writer (for the Wall Street Journal, The Economic Times and the Times of India). (New entry for 2016)
9.     Sunder Ramachandran – the Mumbai-based Head of Training at Pfizer whose articles have appeared in many publications. Also a speaker and blogger. (Position last year: 10)
10.  Debbie Richards – President of Creative Interactive Ideas, a consultant, speaker, and a member of the board of directors of the ATD Houston Chapter. (New entry for 2016)

 

‘Bubbling under’

Others who just missed out on making this year’s list included:

  • Anne Bartlett-Bragg – Managing Director Ripple Effect Group APAC, founding member of the Digital Disruption Research Group (through Sydney University Business School), contributor to Ripple Effect Group blog and author of Digital Dialogues blog.
  • Nicolas Hellers – the Latin America-based author of books on e-learning, and content editor of America Learning Media.
  • Charles Jennings – a Senior Director with the Internet Time Alliance, a writer, speaker and thought leader.
  • Manish Mohan – the Executive Vice President of the Skills Development Network at the Wadhwani Foundation.
  • Roger Schank – president and CEO of Socratic Arts and a long-established thought leader in this sector.
  • Donald Clark – a long-established speaker and commentator on e-learning.

 

North America list

  1. Craig Weiss – an e-learning analyst, author, speaker and thought leader who is CEO of E-Learning 24/7. He was the main protagonist in forming the new international e-learning think tank, The Company of Thought, in 2015. (Position last year: 1)
  2. 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 last year: 2)
  3. Harold Jarche – the Canada-based ‘thought catalyst’, writer and blogger. (Position last year: 4)
  4. 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: 5)
  5. 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: 7)
  6. Tom Kuhlmann – one of the world’s best-known e-learning designers. (Position last year: 3)
  7. Roger Schank – president and CEO of Socratic Arts and a long-established thought leader in this sector. (Re-entry for 2016)
  8. Cathy Moore – e-learning blogger. (Position last year: eight)
  9. 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’). (Position last year: 6)
  10. Clark Quinn – Principal with the Internet Time Alliance, an learning technology consultant, writer and blogger based in California. (New entry for 2016)

 

‘Bubbling under’

Others who just missed out on making this year’s list included:

  • Jerry Gschwind – President of Symphony Learning Partners.
  • Connie Malamed – consultant, writer and speaker in the fields of online learning, visual communication, and information design. She publishes The eLearning Coach website.
  • Mike Pino – Florida-based learning technology consultant.
  • Justin Bruno – Research Associate at Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute, an educator, trainer, researcher, supervisor and strategist.
  • Jane Bozarth – a speaker and author.
  • Denise Doig – New York-based senior editor at eLearn magazine.

 

Europe list

1.     Rebecca Stromeyer – owner of ICWE, which runs Online Educa as well as E-Learning Africa (Position last year: 1)
2.     Laura Overton – a speaker and managing director of Towards Maturity(Position last year: 6)
3.     Christopher Pappas – Greek, US-based founder and CEO of the eLearning Industry Network (Position last year: 3)
4.     Helge Scherlund – the Denmark-based writer and blogger on e-learning topics. (Position last year: 4)
5.     Charles Jennings – a Senior Director with the Internet Time Alliance, a writer, speaker and thought leader. (New entry for 2016)
6.     Thea Payome – editor of the Germany-based CheckPoint eLearning ezine and website. (Position last year: 7)
7.     Armin Hopp – founder and president of Speexx and a member of ELIG. (Position last year: 5)
8.     Iva Matasić – CEO at Consulio, Inc – a Croatia-based consultancy, specializing in online learning technologies, connecting EU experts with EU research funds. Also a member of the international e-learning think tank, The Company of Thought. (Position last year: eight)
9.     Dr Ladislava (‘Vlad’ka’) Knihova – a key champion, user and publisher of e-learning applications within the corporate and academic sectors in the Czech Republic. (Position last year: 9)
10.  Michel Diaz – Reims-based co-founder of the Paris-based e-learning research and consultancy firm, Fēfaur; a speaker, and publishing director. (New entry for 2016)

 

‘Bubbling under’

Others who just missed out on making this year’s list included:

  • Dolors Reig – the Barcelona, Spain-based speaker, blogger and e-learning specialist at INESDI.
  • Jeff Staes – the Belgium-based speaker on innovation, and the Founder of the Red Monkey Company.
  • Donald Clark – a long-established speaker and commentator on e-learning.
  • Jochen Robes – the Germany-based education management specialist who is currently Senior Consultant at the headquarters of Interaktive Mediensysteme GmbH.
  • Seid Maglajlic – Senior Consultant and International Working Group Leader at interconnective.at, advising companies in the rail industry on e-learning and knowledge management.
  • Snjezana Slabek – Project Knowledge Manager at Podravka, in Croatia, and an organiser of Croatia’s major annual e-learning conference, ‘Knowledge in Focus’.
  • Zivana Komlenov – a Serbia-based instructional designer and Moodle administrator/developer.

 

Judges’ remarks included:

  • In recent years, the edtech world has produced “experts” who feed into both the academic and the corporate learning sectors – especially with the rise of MOOCs. These experts seem to attract greater interest among corporate sector L&D professionals than they do among their students.
  • The major drawback for candidates for the “Europe” list is that their work tends to be in their own language – and therefore their relevance tends to be limited to their own country (or language block of countries) instead of over the whole of Europe, or globally. This makes it difficult to determine and compare the relative “influence” of these eminent professionals in a truly Europe-wide sense – although working via the medium of the business “lingua franca” of English as well as via their native language is perceived to have an advantage in this respect.

 

UK list

1.     Laura Overton – a speaker, and managing director of Towards Maturity, a not-for-profit company that provides research and online resources to help organizations deliver effective learning interventions at work. (Position last year: 1)
2.     Charles Jennings – a Senior Director with the Internet Time Alliance, a writer, speaker and thought leader. (Position last year: 9)
3.     Donald Clark – a long-established speaker and commentator on e-learning. (Re-entry for 2016)
4.     Jane Hart – a workplace learning and collaboration advisor, writer and international speaker who’s active on social media. Founder of C4LPT which shares information on new learning trends, technologies and tools. (Position last year: 2)
5.     Juliette Denny – Founder and Managing Director of learning technologies company Growth Engineering, and a champion of gamification. (New entry for 2016)
6.     Martin Baker – CEO of the Charity Learning Consortium (CLC). (Position last year: 5)
7.     Clive Shepherd – Founding Director at The More Than Blended Learning Company and a writer and commentator on the online learning scene. (Position last year: 7)
8.     Peter Phillips, – CEO of financial sector online learning specialists, Unicorn Training, and writer. (New entry for 2016)
9.     (joint) Ian Smout/ Mark Penton – Directors of Principal Media and the organizers of the annual Learning Technologies conference and exhibition in London; owners of E-Learning Age and the E-Learning Age Awards. (New entry for 2016)
10.  Rob Hubbard– Founder of the award-winning LearningAge Solutions Ltd. A former Chair of the eLearning Network, he edited and co-authored “The Really Useful eLearning Instruction Manual”, published by Wiley. He also chairs and speaks at conferences. (New entry for 2016)

 

‘Bubbling under’

Others who just missed out on making this year’s list included:

 

Asia-Pacific list

  1. Abhijit Bhaduri – the Chief Learning Officer at Wipro Group who is also a blogger, speaker and writer (for the Wall Street Journal, The Economic Times and the Times of India). Abhijit’s global strategy is recognized across the region for being innovative – and a future desired state for many. (Position last year: 5)
  2. Sunder Ramachandran – the Mumbai-based Head of Training at Pfizer whose articles have appeared in publications including Economic Times, Times Ascent, Hindu Business Line, People Matters magazine, TD magazine, HRMAsia.com, Askmen.com, Rediff.com and the National HRD Newsletter. Also a speaker and blogger. (Position last year: 2)
  3. Anne Bartlett-Bragg – Managing Director Ripple Effect Group APAC, founding member of the Digital Disruption Research Group (through Sydney University Business School), contributor to Ripple Effect Group blog and author of Digital Dialogues blog. (Position last year: 4)
  4. Manish Mohan – the Executive Vice President of the Skills Development Network at the Wadhwani Foundation. Recognized for his innovative approaches to tackling the challenges of educating India’s huge population. (Position last year: 9)
  5. Ryan Tracey – E-learning manager at AMP. Consistently recognized for organizing e-learning related events and contributing thought pieces. (Position last year: 3)
  6. Laurence Smith – the Managing Director HR, and Group Head of Learning & Talent Development at DBS Bank in Singapore. He presents regularly across the SE Asia region about the innovative practices at DBS – including hackathons and makers days.(New entry for 2016)
  7. Sahana Chattopadhyay – a Consultant in the Social Media & Workplace Re-imagination Practice of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Digital Enterprise. Recognized for consistently addressing – and publishing on – contemporary issues. (Position last year: 1)
  8. Amit Garg – Director of Custom Learning Solutions at Upside Learning Solutions. Speaker and proponent of mobile learning. (Position last year: 6)
  9. Michelle Ockers – the National Supply Chain Technical Capability Manager at Coca-Cola Amatil, based in Sydney, Australia. Recognized for her sharing of practices. (Position last year: 10)
  10. Rob Wilkins – Head of Learning & Development at Aussie Home Loans. Recognized for his pragmatic approach to return on impact (ROI). (New entry for 2016)

 

Bubbling under

Others from this large region of the world who just missed out on making this year’s list included:

  • Mara Tolja – Head of the Collaboration Centre of Excellence at Deutsche Bank, in New Zealand. Recognized for her work with Working Out Loud and her extensive knowledge of communities of practice.
  • Helen Blunden – Social Learning & Performance Consultant at Activate Learning Solutions, in Melbourne, Australia. Recognized for her transparency and openness to share practices.
  • Manish Gupta – CEO and Co-Founder at G-Cube. (Position last year: 7)
  • Abtar Kaur – an instructional design and e-learning specialist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
  • Jeevan Joshi – Sydney, Australia-based Founder of the Learning Café, digital workplace adviser and event organiser
  • Matt Guyan – a Solutions Developer at B Online Learning Pty Ltd in Newcastle, Australia, whose writings and presentations are popular.
  • Zaid Ali Alsogoff – Principal Lead (e-Learning & Innovation) at International Medical University, in Selangor, Malaysia.
  • Rachel Earhard – Singapore-based Learning and Development Director APAC at McCann Worldgroup. Recognized within South East Asia as innovative – particularly with the mobile-first approach. Currently not highly visible on social channels – but probably “one to watch”.
  • Kavi Arasu – Chief Manager, Learning & Development at Asian Paints, based in Mumbai, India.

 

Judges’ remarks included:

  • The issue of “e-learning” grows ever more contentious. Some people on this year’s list – notably Abhijit Bhaduri and Laurence Smith – aren’t “pure” e-learning practitioners. There is broad use of digital tools and this has now moved beyond the traditional e-learning approach.
  • This year, we talked about “innovation” and “innovators” but, ultimately, our decisions were influenced more by the inspiration that thought leaders generated.
  • Along with “inspiration”, sharing knowledge (not just pedaling opinions or selling products) and a willingness to guide others via peer-to-peer learning ranked highly.
  • The use of social media as a medium for knowledge sharing turned out to be a less important factor than it had been last year. However, longer posts on LinkedIn were ranked higher in terms of credibility than were other social media assets. Talking to many practitioners throughout the APac region revealed that they aren’t paying much attention to “social media noise”. There’s a view that would-be thought leaders who have high social media profiles are merely creating an echo chamber among themselves. The practitioners’ view appears to be that, if these people want to change the world, they will need to get out more!
  • Indeed, practitioners in South East Asia – notably Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia – don’t publish a great deal. Nor do they tend to use social media. However, they are active in presenting at conferences. This is where the key knowledge sharing and networking happen in that geography. Indians, Australians and New Zealanders are more prolific across social media. They make more “noise” but, it appears, may not be so active in “implementing”.

NOTE: Those named on these lists can obtain a (free) ‘Movers and Shakers’ logo for use on their LinkedIn and website pages by emailing bob.little@boblittlepr.com