Programme
People Development Summit 202512-14 March 2025, EPIC SANA Marquês Hotel
2025 Topics & Themes
- Practical use of AI in L&D
- Learning with a neurodiverse population
- Proving L&D ROI
- Talent management approaches to performance management
- L&D’s role in workplace wellbeing
- Data-driven L&D
- Psychological safety
- In person vs. virtual instructor-led training (ILT)
- Relationship between L&D and D&I
- The future of L&D?
The People Development Summit programme consists of - keynotes, TED-style talks + Q&A and interactive Action Learning Workshops
If you have any speaker recommendations, please email eventteam@summit-events.com
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2025 speakers below!
Biography
Michael Edwards, better known as Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards, was the first competitor to represent Great Britain in Olympic Ski jumping. Despite not winning in his sport, Eddie's heroic failures won the hearts and minds of the
public.
With a love of skiing and stunts from a young age, Eddie started out in downhill skiing but switched to ski jumping when he realised that this sport had no other UK competitors. Holding the record for stunt jumping but with only a small jump under his belt, two years before the Olympics he began training. After representing Great Britain at the 1987 World Championships, and ranking 55th, Eddie qualified as the sole British applicant for the 1988 Winter Olympics. He was working in difficult circumstances however - he had no financial support for training and had to wear his glasses at all times, which fogged up to such an extent that he couldn’t see while he was jumping. Eddie
came in last in both the 70m and 90m events but he succeeded in winning hearts around the world. He became a popular celebrity, appearing on talk shows around the world and gaining the affectionate nickname ‘Mr Magoo’ from the press.
An entertaining speaker, Eddie shares his journey with characteristic charm and humour. He talks of his willingness to take risks, the importance of pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone and allowing yourself to fail but also to get back up and try again. He reminds audiences that success isn’t always in the winning but in the trying.
In the midst of his public glory, he released a book and several songs (including in Finnish). Since then, he has done a synchronised dive with Tom Daley on ITV’s Splash, taught celebrities to ski-jump on The Jump and danced as Rubber Chicken on The Masked Dancer. His story was made into a biographical film ‘Eddie the Eagle’ in which he was portrayed by Taron Egerton. He remains one of the best loved athletes today.Presentation Outline
Coming Soon!
Biography
The world is changing incredibly fast and shows no sign of this slowing down any time soon. For the last 25 years I have focused on helping organisations succeed by helping their people succeed. Fostering and building curious, continuous learning cultures across global technology businesses mostly from the ground up has given me incredible opportunities to explore and experiment with the levers that can build or destroy these highly engaged, high performance environments. It has sparked my thinking around leadership, performance, career, engagement, employee experience and wellbeing (to name a few areas).
Presentation Outline
This interactive session will delve into the reality of wellbeing in organisations. Peeling back the lid to look at what really happens when wellbeing aspiration meets business realities and how to make it about more than “hey we got an app”. Nick doesn’t have all the answers, but he has an interesting set of experiences and a curious mind. Which means this session will be about collectively seeing what ideas we can uncover and pool for everyone’s benefit.
Sarah Kenuel
Director - Leadership, Learning, Talent, Culture and DiversityBT Group
SPEAKER
Authentic Leadership: The Key to ED&I
Biography
An experienced Leader with a career predominately in the Technology sector – Sarah focuses on driving organizational change and performance through the lenses of Talent, Leadership, Inclusion & Diversity and Organizational Culture.
Currently Sarah leads the teams focused on Learning, Leadership, Talent, Culture, Performance and I&D in BT Digital. Previously Sarah spent nearly 8 years at Salesforce; leading the team designing and delivering learning pathways for Global Senior Executives and supporting the Talent Development agenda across EMEA & the UKI. Prior to Salesforce, Sarah was a Talent Development Manager at CA Technologies.
Sarah is a passionate speaker, a lifelong learner and focuses on self-development through supporting and learning alongside those around her.
At home, Sarah and her wife are proud parents to 4 children – she enjoys travelling (always a joy with 4 kids!), cooking and spending time making memories with family and friends.Presentation Outline
Exploring the role of leaders in unlocking organisational culture, equity, diversity and inclusion. How we show up, how we create space and how we lead - all build the foundation for the experience of our people. Leaning into authenticity, empathy and psychological safety empower us to be the best leaders and sustain the best organisational culture.
Biography
Laura Ashley-Timms is the co-author of the best-selling book The Answer is a Question: The Missing Superpower that Changes Everything and Will Transform Your Impact as a Manager and Leader.
She’s also the COO at Notion (L&D Supplier of the Year), the co-creator of the STAR® model, the multi-award-winning STAR® Manager programme and an expert thought leader on how to leverage Operational Coaching® behaviours across organisations to drive commercial results and improve productivity and engagement levels.
Laura learned about the power of coaching from her early childhood career in international sports and was coaching others by the time she entered Oriel College, Oxford. With over thirty years of international business experience, living and working in the USA, Europe and Asia, Laura has a strong focus on pragmatism and results. She’s been recognised as one of the UK’s top executive coaches and as one of 40 Outstanding Global Women.Presentation Outline
Coming Soon!
John Gregg
Head of Learning and Organisational DevelopmentAlzheimer’s Research UK
SPEAKER
Measuring Learning Impact and Providing Value
Biography
John Gregg is the Head of Learning and Organisational Development at Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK). He is responsible for all L&D and Organisational Change interventions as well as L&D projects, EDI and technical programmes.
Earning his Degree at Coventry University he soon found he had an aptitude for converting difficult information into easy-to-understand, manageable content. He is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, a Fellow of the LPI, LinkedIn Top voice and he is also a proud Dyslexic.
He has enjoyed a successful career over the last 20 years and has worked for various multinationals across Banking, Motor trade, Education, Telecoms and Non-Profits
Away from ARUK he works with NEET young learners to help them improve confidence to gain work and apprenticeship experience.Presentation Outline
This session on learning impact explores the measurable effects of learning interventions, emphasising changes in knowledge, skills, behaviours, and attitudes.
It highlights the importance of demonstrating L&D value, aligning with business goals, while addressing challenges such as the complexity of learning and individual differences.
We will also discuss the need for aligning L&D with organisational goals, fostering a continuous learning culture through personalised paths, hybrid models, and building strategic partnerships.
To finish we will go through some practical tips on measuring impact and engaging stakeholders, it aims to position L&D as a strategic partner in driving organisational performance.
1. Understanding Learning Impact & what it is
2. Why Learning Impact is important and Challenges in Measuring it successfully
3. Strategies for Effective Learning Impact Measurement
4. Aligning L&D with Business Objectives
5. Hints and Tips on Measuring Impact
6. Conclusion and Q&A
Baden Frösén
Director, Global Leadership DevelopmentFortinet
SPEAKER
How much is too much? Exploring the toxic dark-side traits of high performing leaders
Biography
Baden is an Occupational & Organisational Psychologist by trade and currently stewards leadership across the globe at the cybersecurity firm Fortinet. Baden’s remit includes Fortinet’s end-to-end enterprise-wide leadership development proposition, as well as Fortinet’s global organisational change management approach. Additional hats Baden wears include leading all Talent & Organisational Development within EMEA, global Talent & Organisational Development Infrastructure and vendor management and he personally stands in role as the global sales function T&OD business partner for the sales EVPs.
Over the past 25+ years as a seasoned professional in organisational development and psychology, Baden is deeply passionate about creating environments where individuals and teams thrive, adapt, and excel. With a solid foundation in the theories and insights of eminent experts and senior leaders in the field, Baden has dedicated his career to shaping progressive organisational strategies with an inclusive lens. His particular theoretical interests within the psychology of leadership span between organisational leadership systems and more recently, the dark side of leadership.
On a personal note, Baden has a passion in reaching out to early talent in the LGBTQIA+ community. Representing the community, Baden believes that coaching and mentoring to ignite passion and create equity for disadvantaged LGBTQIA+ community members is a necessity for any senior LGBTQIA+ leader.Presentation Outline
Organisations and leaders regularly assess and select leaders with traits they believe will predict high performance, using multitudes of psychometric testing. But what happens when leaders are TOO high performing?
In this heavily psychologically based interactive workshop, you will explore the ‘dark-side’ of leadership, where previously assumed high-performance may in fact sit on the border of toxic and dysfunctional leadership.
Topics we’ll discuss and explore are:
o The leadership traits that predict ‘high performance’
o The ‘dark-side’ traits of leadership
o How the ‘dark-side’ traits predict toxic or dysfunctional leadership
o The boundary between high-performance and dysfunction
o Baden’s current research exploring this phenomenon in the LGBTQIA+ community
Sonia Gupta
Director, Talent and LearningSave the Children International
SPEAKER
Promoting neuroinclusion in our workplace culture
Biography
Sonia is a highly experienced senior leader with a proven record in leading value-driven, global transformational change programmes that deliver measurable impact in FTSE 100 companies such as Diageo, BP, Coca-Cola, Accenture and Save the Children. Dedicated to helping organizations achieve their business goals and future ambition by unlocking the growth and potential of diverse talent through innovative talent, culture, and leadership development initiatives. A thought leader and practical strategist with a unique background in management consulting and industry with deep expertise across global cultures and sectors. Strategic, commercially astute, and data-driven, my purposeful leadership style fosters team connection, collaboration, and curiosity and experimentation. Sonia has a passion for creating and promoting inclusion, with a specialism in neuroinclusion gained through both personal and professional experiences
Presentation Outline
This session explores the importance, opportunities and challenges of neuroinclusion which can foster more innovative, productivity, engagement and diverse thinking. It explores practical techniques of how you can create more inclusive practices throughout the employee lifecycle.
Register your interest in the People Development Summit 2025
March 2025
Submit your name and email address and a member of the Summit team will send you further details including:
- the confirmed list of attendees
- instructions on how to apply for a delegate place
- sponsorship options