This year’s annual list of the Top 100 most influential people in the world’s corporate e-learning sector sees women occupying the top spot – for the first time – in each of the List’s four sections: “The Elite”, “Premier Platinum”, “Gold Standard” and “Silver”.

The Top 100 Movers and Shakers’ List represents the views of a number of key people about the personalities who lead the corporate online learning world.

“This year’s List shows some significant movement in individual placings compared with last year’s List – with 15 ‘New Entries’, the highest of which is at number 60, and only one person, in 66^th place, retaining the position they occupied in the 2017 list,” commented the judges’ chairman, Bob Little. “Maybe this illustrates the vibrancy and volatility of this still relatively youthful industry sector.”

He added, “Naturally, I’m deeply grateful to all the judges for generously providing their time and expertise – and to eLearning Industry for its continued encouragement and support in this project which, hopefully, offers some recognition to the industry’s leading exponents, thinkers and promoters.”

The 2018 Movers and Shakers List in Corporate E-Learning is:

NB Figures in brackets show last year’s position, if appropriate

The Elite

1. Laura Overton – an international speaker and Managing Director of Towards Maturity (3)
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. (1)
3. Harold Jarche – the Canada-based “thought catalyst”, writer and blogger and champion of “learning how to learn”. (5)
4. 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. (21)
5. 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. (12)
6. Jane Hart – a workplace learning and collaboration advisor, writer and international speaker who’s active on social media. Founder of C4LPT. (7)
7. Colin Steed – founder of Learning Now TV, co-founder and former CEO of the Learning and Performance Institute. (18)
8. Sunder Ramachandran – Mumbai-based General Manager, Training at GSK Pharmaceuticals India, and writer, speaker and blogger. (9)
9. Ian Smout – with Mark Penton, a Director at Principal Media Ltd and an organizer of the annual Learning Technologies brand around the world; owner of E-Learning Age and the E-Learning Age Awards. (16)
10. Rebecca Stromeyer – owner of ICWE, which runs E-Learning Africa, ‘bringing best thinking together’. (2)
11. Charles Jennings – a Senior Director with the Internet Time Alliance, a writer, speaker and thought leader, championing the “70:20:10” framework. (8)
12. John Leh – an independent learning technology analyst, blogger and CEO of Talented Learning, specialising in learning management systems (LMSs). (14)
13. Debbie Richards – President of Creative Interactive Ideas, a consultant, speaker, and a member of the board of directors of the ATD Houston Chapter. (11)
14. Jonathan Satchell – CEO of Learning Technologies Group plc (LEO Learning). (27)
15. Nigel Paine – an eminent writer, speaker and broadcaster (on Learning Now TV) on e-learning and related subjects. (26)
16. Craig Weiss – an e-learning analyst, author, speaker and thought leader who is CEO of the Craig Weiss Group. (13)
17. Helge Scherlund – the Denmark-based writer and blogger on e-learning topics. (29)
18. Arun Pradhan – a digital and blended learning specialist, a blogger, creator of the Learn2Learn App and winner of the 2017 AITD Learning Professional of the Year award. (61)
19. Michelle Parry-Slater – a writer, speaker, broadcaster and L&D director at Kairos Modern Learning. (25)
20. Will Thalheimer – a learning-to-performance strategist, learning consultant, learning researcher, learning benchmarker, program evaluator, speaker, workshop provider, simulation architect and instructional designer. (32)
21. An Coppens – a gamification, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) specialist, speaker, consultant and commentator who is chief game changer at Gamification Nation. (53)
22. Donald Clark – a long-established international speaker and commentator on e-learning, now profiling artificial intelligence (AI). (6)
23. Rob Clarke – owner of Learning News and related services in the Netherlands. (39)
24. Michelle Ockers – advocate of the 70:20:10 reference model and currently leading a strategic learning and development review across the Qantas Group. (56)
25. Connie Malamed – a consultant, writer and speaker in the fields of online learning, visual communication, and information design. (33)

Premier Platinum

26. Helen Blunden – director of social learning at Activate Learning Solutions, in Melbourne, Australia, founder of Third Place, a co-working and networking community for learning professionals across six Australian cities and a correspondent on Learning Now TV. (31)
27. Roger Schank – president and CEO of Socratic Arts and a long-established thought leader in this sector. (10)
28. Amit Garg – Director at Upside Learning Solutions. Speaker and promoter of mobile learning and gamification. (35)
29. David Kelly – executive director of The eLearning Guild. (54)
30. Ryan Tracey – a Learning Innovation Manager in the Australian financial services industry. (41)
31. Armin Hopp – founder and president of Speexx, a member of ELIG, and a Towards Maturity (20)
32. 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”). (19)
33. Peter Phillips – writer and CEO of financial sector online learning specialists, Unicorn Training. (42)
34. Cathy Moore – a blogger and trainer who is “on a quest to save the world from boring corporate training”. (50)
35. Lisa Minogue-White – a blogger, speaker and Enterprise Account Director at Pluralsight, and a presenter/ reporter for Learning Now TV. (24)
36. Juliette Denny – managing director of learning technologies company Growth Engineering, and a champion of gamification. (30)
37. Clive Shepherd – founding director at The More Than Blended Learning Company and a writer and commentator on the online learning scene, especially focused on digital skills. (15)
38. Andy Lancaster – a digital skills specialist who is a speaker and head of L&D Content at the CIPD. In the past year, he’s masterminded global digital qualifications, and seen the L&D membership of CIPD grow to over 26,000. (60)
39. Thea Payome – Editor-in-Chief of the Germany-based CheckPoint eLearning ezine and website. (17)
40. Jerry Gschwind – President of learning strategy consulting business Symphony Learning Partners. (38)
41. Nicolas Hellers – the South America-based author of books on e-learning, and content editor of America Learning Media magazine. (23)
42. Mark Britz – senior manager of programs at The eLearning Guild, who creates events for learning professionals. (34)
43. Martin Baker – CEO of the Charity Learning Consortium (CLC). (40)
44. Mike Pino – a Florida-based learning technology consultant specialising in learning technology strategy, e-learning, blended learning, measurement/assessment of learning and performance, learning management software and large-scale software implementations. (46)
45. David Wilson – CEO of the Fosway Group and a long-time commentator on the learning technologies sector. (43)
46. David Patterson – a director of market analysts Learning Light and the E-Learning Centre. (52)
47. Jos Arets – a co-founder, with Charles Jennings, of the 70:20:10 Institute. (64)
48. Shannon Tipton – a learning and development strategist, coach, international speaker, writer, blogger and microlearning developer who is CLO at Learning Rebels. (62)
49. Jeanne C Meister – a workplace futurist, writer, author and partner at Future Workplace. (63)
50. Ladislava Knihova – a key champion, user and publisher of e-learning applications within the corporate and academic sectors in the Czech Republic. (44)

Gold Standard

51. Genny Dixon – head of research at the industry benchmarking specialist, Towards Maturity. (76)
52. Matt Guyan – a solutions developer at B Online Learning Pty Ltd in Newcastle, Australia, whose writings and presentations are popular. (57)
53. Rob Hubbard – a speaker, writer, founder of LAS, and former chair of the eLN. (49)
54. Mike Rustici – a software developer turned entrepreneur. President of Watershed LRS, he played a major part in developing xAPI (“Tin Can”). (55)
55. Manish Gupta – CEO of the e-learning products and services company, G-Cube, based near New Delhi, India. (59)
56. Jeevan Joshi – Sydney, Australia-based founder of the Learning Café; a networker, blogger, digital workplace adviser and event organiser. (65)
57. Ravi Pratap Singh – co-founder at Learnnovators, a Chennai-based organisation that designs and develops e-learning solutions for the workplace. (72)
58. Jo Cook – L&D specialist and deputy editor of TJ in the UK. (73)
59. Nick Shackleton-Jones – Director, Learning & Performance Innovation at PA Consulting Group.
60. Tim Drewitt – a writer and commentator on digital/e-learning/mobile/blended learning issues, especially on social media. (68)
61. 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, e-learning content development, learning and talent consulting. (74)
62. Kate Graham – the content and communications manager at market analysts, the Fosway A tweeter, marketer and blogger. (45)
63. Mike Taylor – advocate for designing engaging content and a developer at Mindset Digital. (69)
64. James Tyer – founder of the Toronto-based Togetherwise, a facilitator and a builder of people networks for collaboration, innovation, learning, and leadership development. (70)
65. Rachel Earhard – senior learning and organizational development consultant, global, at Twitter. (66)
66. David Anderson – director of customer training at Articulate. (75)
67. Julian Stodd – author, thinker, futurist, and captain of SeaSalt Learning. (95)
68. Sean Gilligan – owner of Webanywhere. (87)
69. Martin Dougiamas – Perth, Western Australia-based CEO of Moodle, the open source learning platform. (92)
70. Lars Hyland – learning designer, implementer and General Manager, EMEA at Totara Learning Solutions. (96)
71. Pierre Touzeau – growth hacker at 360learning.com, the Paris-based fast-growing digital learning platform provider. (77)
72. Marcia Conner – Managing Director at the advisory services firm, Impact Ingenuity. (79)
73. Justin Bruno – an educator, trainer, researcher, supervisor and strategist at Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute. (80)
74. Sarah Lindsell – director of global & UK learning lechnology & transformation at PwC. (94)
75. Sally Ann (Thomson) Moore – Directrice Generale iLearning Forum at Closer Still Media.

Silver

76. Susan Derkach – head of global learning, group HR at adidas group. (84)
77. Lisa Johnson – projects director at Dynamic Business Services Ltd. (83)
78. Sambit Mohapatra – director at Siyona Tech, providers of learning games, e-learning content, mobile performance tools and interactive e-manuals/workbooks. (81)
79. Brendan Noud – CEO of the Eire-based, worldwide learning platform, LearnUpon. (97)
80. Phil Reddal – L&D Innovation Manager at AkzoNobel and Chair of the Board at the eLN.
81. Andrew Brode – chairman of Learning Technologies Group plc.
82. Marten de Prez – managing director at aNewSpring a specialist in integrating mobile learning with adaptive learning. (86)
83. Cammy Bean – solutions consultant at Kineo and an instructional design specialist. (88)
84. Ger Driesen – L&D trendcatcher, speaker on the international circuit, entrepreneur and learning innovation leader at aNewSpring, as well as being co-founder of Consultant Leadership and Learning.
85. David Hopkins – a writer, author, and teaching & learning consultant working for the EasyCare Academy.
86. Karl Kapp – USA-based expert on gamification.
87. Rod Knox – CEO of Virtual College.
88. Melissa Milloway – A USA-based writer and blogger, who’s also a Senior Learning Experience Designer at Amazon.
89. 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. (93)
90. Pascal Debordes – a writer and a director of the learning content producer, Cegos. (90)
91. Piers Lea – Chief Strategy Officer at LEO and Learning Technologies Group plc, who’s focused, in the past year, on driving and sharing learning impact and online.
92. David Swaddle – now the Zurich-based E-learning Advisor for Credit Suisse, having been based in Sydney, Australia.
93. Owen Ferguson – Managing Director at Scotland-based GoodPractice, whose manager research reports and podcasts are proving popular.
94. Vladimir Kukharenko – An education technologist at the National Aerospace University in the Ukraine.
95. Claudio Erba, among other things, CEO of learning platform producer, Docebo. (91)
96. Paul McElvaney – CEO at LearningPool. (98)
97. Laurence Smith – Global Head of Talent and Learning for SmartUp.io, a mobile first micro-learning platform. (82)
98. Thierry de Baillon – co-founder of Transitive Society, who is also Head of Design at dthinking.co, who helps organizations adapt to a world of networks and disruption, through the delivery of better services to their customers and collaborative work practices. (85)
99. Sunny Thakral – Head of Ed Tech at TBS Delhi, in New Delhi.
100. Ai Addyson-Zhang – A Chinese national, currently living in South Korea, who hosts a Facebook live show, Classroom Without Walls: Using Technology to Reimagine Education.

“Bubbling under” Bronze

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

• Maha Bali – Associate Professor of Practice, at Center for Learning and Teaching, American University in Cairo, Egypt.
• Juan Farnos – Spain-based futurist with an interest in artificial intelligence. An active blogger with a large Twitter following.

• Louise Pasterfield – Managing Director of digital learning company, Sponge UK Ltd.
• Jane Daly – Head of Strategic Insights at Towards Maturity; an author, writer, speaker and facilitator.
• Marc Zao-Saunders – Founder and CEO at filtered.com, and Founder of Pure Potential.
• Naomi Dinnen – CEO of the Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD).
• Shai Desai – Director at Learning Plan, in Sydney, Australia.
• Jose Rey Y. Alo – The Philippines-based writer and e-learning process analyst.
• Tanmay Vora – an author, blogger and speaker who’s also Head of Operations and R&D for software network company Basware, based near Chandigarh, India.
• Michael Salone – a speaker, author and the CEO at 3-6TY, a consulting firm which uses the power of the crowd to share knowledge and identify talent for organizations.
• Duncan Cheatle – Founder and CEO of Learn Amp, a learning and engagement platform for improving teams’ performance.
• Zsolt Olah – a speaker, blogger, author (of Engage The WORL&D!) and an innovation and learning solutions specialist.