Plenaries
L&D's Influence on Workplace Learning
Date Friday, Dec 3 Time – Room Pavillon
Learning and skills have never been more important at work and we now have an opportunity to change both how organisations approach learning, and the way L&D carries out its role. This includes reskilling and upskilling employees to equip them for the 21st Century, but also goes beyond that. The learning ecosystems of the future require not just new technologies, but new approaches and a new mindset – for leaders, employees and the L&D department itself.
Chairperson
Donald H Taylor
Chair, Learning Technologies Conference, United Kingdom
A recognised commentator and thinker in the fields of workplace learning and supporting technologies, Donald is committed to helping develop the learning and development profession. From 2010 to 2021, he chaired the Learning and Performance Institute, where he continues to head the Advisory Board and Learning Professionals Network.
A core part of Donald’s commitment to the profession is what he calls ‘creating spaces for meaningful conversations’. To this end, he has chaired the Learning Technologies Conference in London since 2000, hosted its bi-weekly webinar programme since 2007, and contributed to other conferences world-wide. His annual L&D Global Sentiment Survey, now in its ninth year, attracts responses from thousands of respondents in over 80 countries.
His work over more than 30 years in L&D ranges from training delivery to director and vice-president positions in software companies. Donald has been a company director and shareholder for three companies through start up, growth and acquisition. He now advises a number of EdTech start-ups, and works with Emerge Education, a European seed fund focused on start-ups in this field.
He is a graduate of Oxford University and in 2016 was awarded an honorary doctorate by Middlesex University in recognition of his work developing the L&D profession.
Speakers
Isabelle Mancel
Global Head of Innovation Learning and Culture, Thales
Isabelle is currently in charge of the Innovation related to Learning and Culture for Thales Group.
After almost 10 years working for consultancy firms, she joined one of the six Global Business Units of Thales Group and became its Head of Talent and Culture. Before moving to the US to lead North America Talent and Culture team for 5 years, she held various positions such as Business Lines HRD and Site director. She created also an incubator to develop Digital services for Public transportation customers. More recently, she joined the internal start-up of Thales, Thales Digital Factory, to lead the Thales Digital Academy to support the Group Digital transformation with upskilling and change management.
Sina Fäckeler
Global Head of People Development & Wellbeing, AXA Group Operations, Germany
Sina is truly a wanderer between the worlds and has never stopped being curious and open for what life offers her. Her passion is building a reputation of HR as a strong partner of business and cultural transformation. She is currently working at AXA Group Operations /AXA's tech & data engine) in Paris as Global Head of People Development & Wellbeing. In her current role she is leading three teams with global responsibility (L&D, Talent & Leadership Development, D&I/Wellbeing) to accelerate AXA Group Operations Business Transformation.
Born in a little village in the German area “Sauerland”, she spent her Kindergarten-time in the Netherlands and her teenager years by travelling to China twice a year. She studied/worked in Germany, Switzerland, UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Her highest degree is a Ph.D. from the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland.
She changed sides several times: from academia to the business world, from smaller to larger companies (e.g. METRO Group, Deutsche Telekom, AXA), from Germany to other European countries – and vice versa.