There are few industries where the power of community matters more than L&D. Learning and development and HR types are ‘people people’, and one thing’s for sure: we like to learn from each other.
But one thing we often hear is that the same few voices get all the attention. We love hearing from the L&D big hitters – but we’re also very aware that there are plenty of other people with unique perspectives and lots of fascinating things to say.
That’s why we reached out to our own networks to hear from real L&D professionals who have kindly recommended their own peers. Anyone you see on this list is here because a real person has vouched for them – so without further ado, let's take a look at who's made the cut!
Sophie Costin is Make Real’s Director of Learning. She’s an experienced learning consultant and digital learning designer, specialising in creating innovative learning solutions that deliver real impact.
Following time at Brighton-based learning vendors Kineo and Brightwave, Sophie has been with award-winning studio Make Real since 2019, where she heads up the team responsible for creating immersive learning experiences.
Sophie has been part of the judging panel for the Learning Technologies Awards since 2020, and presented sessions at World of Learning and Learning Live, and has recently written a white paper all about the use of AI in learning and work.
Baden Frösén is an organisational psychologist, as well as being Director of Global Talent Strategy at cybersecurity tech firm Fortinet.
Baden’s primary responsibility is leading Fortinet's global talent strategy approach with talent, organisational and leadership development product offerings across all regions. This encompasses Fortinet’s foundational leadership academy, talent skills and behaviour, organisational change, culture and employee engagement. Baden also oversees Fortinet’s strategic insight-driven workforce planning and talent management, as well as workforce growth, development and succession.
Give Baden a follow for his takes on leadership development, organisational psychology, DEI/talent Inclusion, change and transformation, culture, employee engagement and more.
Dan Godfrey is the Head of Learning Impact, Insights and Engagement at Hemsley Fraser, 5app's content partner. With a career blending data analysis, L&D and operational delivery, Dan offers a unique combination of strategic insight and practical execution.
When he's not busy as a self-styled Chief Storytelling Officer at Hemsley Fraser, you'll find Dan delivering keynotes and presentations at international industry events such as iVentiv, Disruptive and CCCP, often delivering thought leadership around data-driven learning impact.
Over on LinkedIn, Dan shares insights from his events, his thoughts on a range of L&D topics (such as his interview with the Financial Times about the science and psychology of upskilling) and behind-the-scenes photos revealing what it's like to work at Hemsley Fraser.
Kirstie Greany is Head of Learning Strategy at Elucidat. She's a storyteller, speaker and connector, with 20+ years helping global organisations reimagine workplace learning.
Kirstie hosts the Learning at Large podcast, runs roundtables for senior L&D leaders and shares insights, stories and reports that equip the community to tackle complex challenges. Backed by deep design and consultancy experience, Kirstie turns insights into people-centred strategies that drive engagement, capability and measurable impact.
On LinkedIn, you'll find Kirstie sharing podcast episodes, talking about hot topics such as AI, the changing learning experience and the reinvention of the L&D function.
Ad Davies is a strategic people and culture leader, consulting Managing Director of The Leadership Club and former Head of Talent Development, Culture and Performance and Internal Communication at Gymshark during its scale to Unicorn status.
You’ll find Ad on a variety of industry judging panels such as The LPI Awards, speaking at conferences such as World of Learning, the Institute of Leadership Conference and hosting the No Gatekeeping video series.
On LinkedIn, Ad shares his lessons learned, tips from inspiring figures throughout his career and insights into building a successful learning culture, as well as where he has failed fast and learned. Follow Ad for tips on building role model behaviour, purpose, performance and results at scale in your business through your people.
Matt Linaker is Head of Advocacy and Insight at Totara, where he champions the voice of the customer to inform product strategy and innovation. With a background spanning instructional design, user research and community engagement, Matt helps transform real-world learning challenges into meaningful insights that shape Totara’s global learning ecosystem.
Having worked across education and corporate learning environments, from classrooms around the world to digital learning strategy, Matt brings a unique blend of practitioner experience and strategic vision. His work bridges the gap between customer needs, product development and thought leadership in learning and development.
Follow Matt for his thoughts on evidence-based, human-centred learning, the latest episodes of the Totara Talks Talent podcast and stories from L&D professionals driving real organisational change.
Claire Angliss is an award-winning talent, learning and culture specialist, who took the reins at Rolls-Royce SMR as Head of Organisational Development and Capability at the start of 2025. Claire’s focus now is building people capability for the nuclear green energy space. This follows roles in L&D and HR at Thales and Imperial Tobacco.
You’ll find Claire speaking at events like The CIPD Festival of work and Enjoyable Life Series’ What’s Your Story? Claire is a champion of women and diversity in engineering working alongside many engineering and industry bodies to find ways to remove barriers for those entering the engineering and energy sector. Claire is also a passionate mentor.
Joelle Tomkinson works with organisations and facilitators to design and develop bespoke blended learning solutions. She has recently joined cultural transformation company NKD, where she is a Senior Solutions Consultant.
Joelle draws from a wealth of L&D experience from her time with organisations like AO and Aldi, as well as her time as founder and director of boutique blended learning company, Blendible.
On LinkedIn, you’ll find Joelle starting lively discussions covering everything from L&D semantics (or is it L&P semantics?!) to the ‘Netflix of learning’ and making digital learning part of skills improvement, so she’s one to follow if you like progressive conversations about L&D’s place at the big business table.
Nick Holmes is an award-winning learning and culture architect on a quest to make work feel good again. As VP of Learning & Culture at Avalere Health and a PhD researcher exploring how learning shapes culture and drives growth, he shows that learning isn’t just about skills, it’s the spark that creates joy, meaning, and momentum at work.
A recognised thought leader and speaker, Nick blends science, story and strategy to help organisations reimagine culture as a force that fuels both people and performance.
Phil Howard-Brand is a Talent Development Partner at ITRS, a software development company focusing on hybrid IT environments. Phil helps individuals and teams unlock their potential through meaningful learning experiences.
Whether it’s shaping and aligning training to business needs, enabling career conversations or making coaching more accessible, Phil is passionate about creating pathways for people to grow.
Follow Phil for fun and insightful content about L&D, working parenthood and his thoughts on everything from feedback loops to AI.
Dr Heidi Kirby is the founder of Useful Stuff, a company that provides L&D teams with instructional design and learning strategy support to help build teams, programmes and products.
Heidi has spent the last decade working across learning, communication, business strategy and systems design, from NASA to billion-dollar SaaS companies to government, retail and non-profits. Heidi's PhD in Instructional Design and Technology has given her a strong research foundation which dovetails with her years of hands-on L&D expertise.
You'll find Heidi sharing her thinking and insights on everything from learning engagement to successfully launching your learning programmes to the challenges of upskilling, as well as highlighting the work of her industry peers.
Alan Olive is a performance team psychologist with extensive experience in creating world-class training programmes for teams and leaders at his company 1High Performance. Alan’s innovative approach to teamwork comes from his unique background in the military, business and Olympic sport, combined with an education in psychology.
Now, Alan works with high-performance leaders and teams in a range of diverse and challenging environments. Whether it’s preparing for the Olympics or optimising a sales team, he maximises teams’ skills and decision making through the delivery of quality, tailored training.
Follow Alan for information about his upcoming workshops and tips for building high-performing teams.
Kelly Addy is Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service's Learning and Organisational Development Partner. She has over 20 years’ experience in HR, recruitment, payroll and L&D, giving her an invaluable insight into all aspects of people management and operations.
Kelly is particularly interested in inspiring young people at the start of their careers through graduate and placement schemes and apprenticeships, as well as working with people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Dani Saadu is a Global Talent & Culture leader, author, non-executive director and passionate advocate for mentoring and people development. With extensive experience shaping high-performance cultures across industries and geographies, Dani has led initiatives in talent development, leadership coaching, organisational design, diversity and inclusion and wellbeing.
He is the co-author of The CAPEX Formula for Learning & Performance, a #1 Amazon bestseller that introduces a practical framework for creating learning-driven, performance-oriented organisations. Alongside his executive career, Dani contributes as a board advisor and regularly speaks at industry events, sharing insights on culture, leadership and the future of work.
Dani regularly speaks at a wide range of industry conferences, so follow him to keep up with his upcoming appearances.
Helen is the Chief Learning Officer at Thrive, and her role is two-pronged: community focused, centred on sharing industry insights, as well as internally focused as leader of talent development for Thrive itself.
Helen is also the founder of WomenIn (L&D's largest community for women) and a podcast host on Diary of a CLO. Helen was named Leader of the Year in 2024, and can often be found speaking at events like World of Learning, Learning Technologies and CIPD Festival of Work.
Follow Helen for lessons learned from her career, insights from industry events and a peek behind the scenes at Helen’s day-to-day life.
Lynda is an L&D specialist with a wealth of experience across learning, coaching, leadership development and talent development, including roles at British Sugar, Bauer Media Group and MMT Digital, and she currently works at CDW UK. Lynda is also an accredited StrengthScope Master Coach, meaning she helps people unlock their strengths and progress in their careers.
You’ll find Lynda posting about living with ADHD, her unique takes on overcoming workplace challenges (‘There’s no time to learn’, anyone?!) and lessons learned from her professional and personal life – always with humour and real vulnerability.
Lori is a senior independent EdTech strategist, who founded EdTech consultancy 8Levers in early 2025, following 25 years of experience in L&D at organisations such as KPMG, Eloqua and Scotiabank. She is also the author of The Eight Levers of EdTech Transformation.
Lori is a trusted adviser to Fortune 500 CLOs around the world, using proven data-driven methodologies and frameworks to empower L&D teams to shift from business support functions to strategic growth engines. She also works extensively with EdTech and PeopleTech vendors to advise on product vision, roadmap development and decoding the learning function, as well as offering investor advisory services as an NED board member.
Lori is known for her straight-talking takes on all things L&D, and you'll find her posting about everything from the 'courseless L&D department' to the new role of the learning experience designer to the big L&D existential crisis – always with humour and 100% honesty.
Shellie Grieve leads Learning Innovation & Emerging Technology at ServiceNow, where she transforms complex business problems into elegant, tech-powered learning solutions. Known for her ability to instantly visualise scalable experiences, she partners with leading AI and learning tech companies to bring those visions to life.
Shellie's work has shaped multiple award-winning AI learning initiatives, with her case studies featured in the AI in L&D 2025: Race for Impact report. Shellie also serves on the judging panel for the Learning Awards, reflecting her role in setting the benchmark for excellence across the industry.
Passionate about future-proofing learning ecosystems, she blends pedagogy, product thinking and emerging technology to deliver impact at scale.
Monique Wintle-Camp is the Managing Director and Founder of Wintle-Camp Coaching, a leadership development and coaching consultancy known for creating bespoke, high-impact programmes that empower organisations and the people within them to thrive.
An experienced and accredited Executive and Team Coach, Monique partners with organisations across the UK, particularly in the construction and engineering sectors, to develop leaders and build connected, high-performing teams. Drawing on a strong background in sales leadership and human-centred performance development, Monique designs and delivers programmes that build capability, resilience, and culture.
Monique and Wintle-Camp Coaching were recently recognised with the CIPD Best HR/OD Consultancy of the Year Award, reflecting their commitment to impactful, human-centred development and meaningful organisational change.
Konstantinos is Ipsos UK’s Learning and Development Manager, where he drives talent development. He is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and committee member of the CIPD’s South West London branch. He’s committed to staying at the forefront of learning and organisational development trends and regularly speaking at global conferences and forums.
Konstantinos is known for aligning learning initiatives with broader business objectives for a strategic, results-focused approach to L&D. Konstantinos regularly shares his upcoming events and panels on LinkedIn, as well as interesting updates from CIPD and useful blogs and resources he’s discovered.
Do you know of any emerging L&D voices who have something a little different to say? We’d love to hear about them! Drop us a message on LinkedIn and let us know who we should add to the list.