Laura is an experienced international speaker, author and facilitator with a passion for exploring, challenging and sharing. Founder of Towards Maturity- the expert learning analysts, her focus has always been on bringing a community together to investigate how learning innovation builds business impact. Laura has authored/ co-authored of over 40 major research reports and, as a regular contributor to industry publications she has written over 300 articles. She has also received several pretigious awards, among which the Learning and Performance Institute’s Colin Corder Award for outstanding achievement, the Learning Technology Award for outstanding achievement.

Brian is the Global Learning Transformation Manager at AstraZeneca. He leads a team of learning and engagement professionals who support learning experiences which help drive individual, leadership and organisational performance. Brian also leads global efforts to develop a culture of workplace learning across AstraZeneca. Brian believes passionately that the L&D profession is at a historical crossroads. It can choose a traditional approach which is increasingly irrelevant to the ‘real work’, or it can become a key enabler for business performance, innovation and culture change.

Philippe Wacker is currently Executive Director of LT-Innovate, the Association of the Language Technology Industry. Language Technology makes the world intelligent, multilingual and interactive. LT is at the core of AI-driven multilingual ambient intelligence, a set of technologies encompassing deep meaning processing, multilingual communication & cognition and speech interaction. Human-centric AI based on Language Technology is profoundly transforming the way humans and machines interact with each other, creating myriads of new opportunities.  Philippe has spent the last 30 years in the high tech sector as a manager of leading digital technology networks.  

Hannelore Kolb is an HR Generalist with professional experience of +18 years as executive in HR Business Partnering and Talent Management. She is also a certified management coach & 360° coach, with leadership experience in the international business environment, within organizations of different size and legal structure, leading international teams. She is currently rsponsible for group wide learning programs in terms of designing and implementing learning formats, for all employees of the Hager Group and global functions such as Engineering, Product Marketing, Sales, supporting transformation by enhancing Hager’s global learning offer.  

As a Learning & OD strategist and expert analyst, Jane leads Towards Maturity’s dynamic strategic insight unit and analyst services portfolio. She is a leading influencer in the People industry and champions the voice of  People Development professionals. Jane has led and transformed all areas of OD, Talent, Learning & Development. Before joining Towards Maturity, Jane was the Global Head of Learning & Development for Marks & Spencer and created an award-winning business-led Academy model to impact business performance and mitigate critical capability risks. Since leaving M&S , Jane has supported over 1,000 global organizations to transform their impact.  

Tom has served in a variety of leadership roles in education and technology companies including Knowledge Universe, the LA Times, Internet Brands and Arthur Andersen. Throughout these experiences, he consistently saw the gap in existing corporate learning resources and the needs of developing teams. Tom was excited to join the founding team at OpenSesame with the goal of making educational resources more widely available in order to help build the world’s most productive and admired workforces. When Tom isn’t focused on corporate education, he’s out in the community providing educational experiences volunteering legal and business advice with the global, humanitarian aid organization.

Meike Gil Román is responsible for Corporate Partnerships DACH at Headspring. She has 20 years of cross-cultural experience in Corporate Learning, Management Consulting, Business Development, Live Communication and Tourism. She is experienced in designing corporate learning programmes with a focus on strategic planning always aiming a holistic approach. She has comprehensive knowledge of business management, particularly around change and project management. The thread running through Meike’s work is a passionate commitment to helping organizations develop their people. Meike has a proven ability within international markets and has worked across the world.

Dr. Stefan Marose burns for lifelong learning. Starting his education with a Doctor in Chemistry and Biotechnology, he became MBA and certified business coach. He worked in academic and corporate research, project management, service and sales in industries as diversified as Biotech, Life Science, IT and Business Education. At Headspring Executive Development he is responsible for corporate leadership development in DACH and the Netherlands. As a VP of Corporate Partnerships, he makes sure to tailor the right fit for the specific learning needs, in a team of experts selecting appropriate methodology, content, educators and learning technologies. 

Atish Gonsalves is a social technologist, entrepreneur and the Global Innovation Director of the Humanitarian Leadership Academy. With a background in software engineering, AI and human-computer interaction, Atish’s experience includes leadership roles at technology and international non-profit organisations. Atish has consistently implemented successful educational-technology (edtech) solutions that have helped democratize learning for thousands of learners in difficult contexts. Atish is also the founder of Gamoteca, a collaborative digital platform that enables organisations create their own mixed-reality learning games.

Prof. Dr. Bernd Rüschoff has a special research focus on technology enhanced learning systems and has participated in numerous international projects dealing with the development and assessment of digital tools and multi-media resources in language learning. In addition, his research addresses a wide range of issues in the field of applied linguistics, such as language & culture, bilingual education, and data-driven learning. Member of the Professional Network Forum, a think tank of the Council of Europe’s European Centre for Modern Languages, and of a Council of Europe expert group involved in the current launch of the revised CEFR and its Companion Volume. He is a former president of AILA, the International Association for Applied Linguistics.