Speakers List
Colm Darcy, Executive Vice President, Content Development, SkillSoft
Since 2002, Colm has been responsible for all research and development activities within SkillSoft. Colm is also responsible for SkillSoft's operations group that maintains SkillSoft's hosted Web site infrastructure. Previously, he held the position of vice president of solutions management where he was responsible for managing the integration of SmartForce's content and software solutions.
Colm joined SmartForce in 1995. He served in a number of senior management positions in SmartForce's research and development and sales and marketing organisations, including managing strategic relationships with its e-learning partners including Microsoft, Cisco and Oracle. Prior to joining SmartForce, Colm held various positions in finance, human resources, training and information technology in the Irish Government's Department of Health and Child Welfare. Colm is a native of Ireland and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin.
Learning Innovation and the Future of Learning Strategies
In this session, Colm Darcy, EVP of Content Development at SkillSoft will present an update on the company’s R&D plans and provide insight into SkillSoft’s Innovation Strategy and developments in Social Learning and Mobile technologies. The session will also include demonstrations of new learning products due for release this year including the SkillSoft Leadership Advantage and SkillSoft’s new IT Skills Courseware.
Darren Lewis, eLearning Program Manager - National Trainer, Customer Support Organisation, Fuji Xerox Australia
Darren has a technical trade background and has held positions in the support and services for the better part of his career. He joined Fuji Xerox Australia 1996 as a service engineer and after 7 years in the field he joined the Education Services division of the Customer Support Organisation as a National Technical Trainer. Darren has spent the last 3 years developing and implementing eLearning programs for the Fuji Xerox Technical community. He is currently the eLearning Program Manager for Fuji Xerox Australia and has created eLearning programs for other divisions within Fuji Xerox Australia. His primary responsibility within the customer support organisation is in maintaining and overseeing eLearning development within the organisation.
Giovanni Calabrese, National Technical Support Manager, Customer Support Organisation, Fuji Xerox Australia
Giovanni commenced working for Fuji Xerox Australia in 1988. He was employed as a Customer Support representative to repair Fuji Xerox office equipment. Since then he has held positions within National Technical training - National Trainer, Eco Manufacturing - Development Engineer and Product management. Giovanni currently manages the technical support and the Education Services teams within the Customer Support Operation.
Promoting e-Learning to Sustain the Business and the Environment
Fuji Xerox has had a long-standing relationship with SkillSoft who have been key to our challenging yet successful journey into eLearning, to provide product specific, generic & personal development courseware to our customer support organisation. Fuji Xerox will share with you the benefits eLearning offers to the business & will show how the ‘Return On Investment’ figures for courseware created in Dialogue Design & deployed on the SkillPort LMS, directly contribute to sustainability for Fuji Xerox.
Emily Szakacs, Learning and Development Manager, Manpower Australia & New Zealand
Emily Szakacs, a registered psychologist with a learning and development background, joined Manpower three years ago. in her current role, Emily works with the Learning & Development consultants, enhancing the skills of Recruitment Consultants and Managers, which enable clients of Manpower, win in the ever changing world of work. Among her key achievements, Emily was instrumental in the introduction of a recognised Frontline Management course and obtaining ITCRA certification for IT Consultants. Prior to working with Manpower Emily worked in the health sector and focused on promoting emotional health and wellbeing in children and adolescents.
Manpower Inc. (NYSE: MAN) is a world leader in the employment services industry; creating and delivering services that enable its clients to win in the changing world of work.
Extending e-Learning at Manpower – Fresh Approach to Manager Development
Emily will share how Manpower has utilised e-learning to help retain key talent both within Manpower and their clients. She will also take you through the collaborative partnership between Manpower, Sunshine Coast TAFE and SkillSoft which has led to an innovative Management Development Program for Manpower employees. The program uses a blended learning approach to provide participants with formal qualifications in Management. The learning methodology includes formal e-learning courses, work based assessment and informal learning.
Glenn Nott, Vice President and Managing Director, SkillSoft Asia Pacific
Glenn Nott is SkillSoft’s Vice President and Managing Director, Asia Pacific, and is responsible in overseeing the entire SkillSoft operation in the region, including business development, sales, marketing and the successful implementation of SkillSoft’s products and services. Glenn also focuses on building collaborative client partnership programs and works closely with international counterparts in North America and Europe.
With more than 20 years of expertise in corporate training, Glenn has held many positions which involved training and development and e-learning. They include State Bank of Victoria, Coles Myer, Applied Learning, Acumen, CBT Systems and Smartforce.
Supporting the Sustainable Enterprise: A Corporate Update
Glenn Nott will share SkillSoft’s Corporate strategy as it relates to Sustainability, ROI and Talent Management. His presentation will provide an insight into the work SkillSoft does to support organisations to maximise ‘people value’. He will share SkillSoft’s unique approach to creating successful e-learning implementations across the region and proven methodologies to achieve joint success. He will also share SkillSoft’s milestones and the various projects that we have become involved with including the leveraging of government funding available to organisations to grow skill sets in Australia.
Jeff Smith, Group Executive, Business Technology, Suncorp
Jeff Smith was appointed to the role of Group Executive, Business Technology at Suncorp in 2007. In this role, he has provided strong leadership during one of the largest technology integration in recent Australian financial services history, as well as introducing and embedding transformational working practices, such as Agile within the organisation.
He has 24 years experience in the IT industry, with the last 12 years spent as Chief Information Officer (CIO) or equivalent for a range of companies in the USA and Australia. His previous roles include CIO for Telstra Corporation, where he led the transformation and integration of that company's IT systems and generated dramatic improvements in quality, cycle time and cost reduction. Jeff has also held leadership positions in a number of world class companies including Honeywell, Toyota and Charles Schwab.
Transforming Organisational Change with Agile Methodology
Everyone expects that technologists will be early adopters of e-learning. What they forget, is that they can also be the harshest critics. Jeff Smith will outline the transformational change occurring within Suncorp Business Technology, as he introduces Agile practices and a learning culture with the help of Skillsoft. In particular, Jeff will discuss how Suncorp utilises Agile methods to implement Skillsoft and generate early returns on investment, the support Skillsoft provides to developing workforce capabilities, and e-learning’s contribution to the employment value proposition. You’ll also hear how Suncorp is using mobile technology and collaboration spaces in combination with e-learning, to create innovative learning solutions.
Lindy MacPherson, National Manager - Organisational Development and Human Resources, Data#3
Data#3 is a national Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Solutions company, with customers covering a wide range of industries including banking and finance, mining, tourism and leisure, legal, healthcare, manufacturing, distribution, government and utilities that are located throughout Australia and Asia Pacific.
Lindy is responsible for the development of the expertise of Data#3 staff – technically, professionally and personally. She is the instigator, senior manager sponsor and program leader of Data#3’s e-Learning strategy, which underpins the Data#3 School of Excellence. Lindy has held operational management roles for over twenty years, with experience working in small business as well as large multinational corporations. She holds qualifications in Leisure Management and is currently studying in the field of Social Science majoring in Management and Leadership.
Driving Better Business Performance through e-Learning
Lindy will share how Data#3 aligns their Learning initiatives to drive specific business outcomes, and how e-Learning underpins all learning programs. In her presentation you will learn how meaningful and measurable ROI has been incorporated for all stakeholders to gain the support of learning initiatives from Board level through to participant level. Data#3 are also leveraging government funding to drive new learning initiatives and using effective marketing programs to gain engagement – Lindy will introduce you to Data#3’s e-Learning Man.
Paul Bowles, General Manager, Thales Campus, Thales Australia
Paul's career with Thales began in April 1998. He is responsible for Learning & Development delivery throughout the company in Australia and is a member of the worldwide Thales Campus Leadership Team. Prior to founding Thales Campus, Sydney, Paul set up Thales University in Washington DC whilst serving as HR Director for the company’s US businesses. In his time working for Thales in North America, Paul was responsible for a partnering with the business providing strategic advice on a range of people and culture areas affecting business performance.
Previous to this, Paul has held a number of senior international positions in the Group based in UK and France including Professional Development Manager for the worldwide Land & Joint Systems Division and Sales & Marketing Manager for Thales University in UK. Prior to working for Thales, Paul worked for IBM in UK and NCR in Australia.
Corporate Universities: The How and Why!
Corporate universities have not been a prominent feature of the corporate training and development landscape in Australia, although Thales has benefited from Corporate Universities for over 20 years. During 2008, Thales Australia (part of the 70,000 Thales Group) implemented the seventh Thales Campus based in Sydney, covering 3,700 employees Australia wide.
This session will highlight how Thales Campus has transformed the traditional L&D function including:
- Aligning local needs with global strategy
- Changing the business model to reduce overhead costs
- Creating a customer driven approach for the L&D department
- Partnering within and outside your organisation
Susanne Hayes, OD Manager - Leadership and Talent, HR - Organisational Development, British American Tobacco Australasia
Susanne is passionate about ensuring British American Tobacco Australasia has a healthy talent pipeline to meet the needs of the current and future business. Managing a learning curriculum with a robust suite of leadership development programmes, and overseeing the company's succession planning processes for Australia and Oceania, Susanne's role contributes directly to developing and retaining leaders within the organisation. With a long history in facilitation and adult education, Susanne's previous roles include a Training & Development Manager role focused on supporting the Marketing function at BATA, and the facilitation of business management classes at TAFE.
Talent Management - Building an Organisation of Leaders to Support Sustainable Enterprise
In recognition of the role that talent management plays in building a sustainable enterprise, Susanne will provide an insight into the overview of the innovative leaderships programmes at British American Tobacco Australasia, and how these programs support a community of current and future leaders across their organisation.
Tony Skippington, General Manager, CITEC
CITEC is the primary ICT service provider to Queensland Government specialising in the areas of Data Centre Services, Network Management and Infrastructure Services, Information Brokerage and Solutions Integration.
As General Manager, Tony’s focus is leading CITEC to provide outstanding service and innovative business solutions to clients, in alignment with the Queensland Government's strategic direction for ICT governance and service delivery. Since 2005, he has overseen an enormous transformation program within CITEC as the organisation refocuses on meeting the changing ICT needs of the public sector. Tony holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) and has extensive experience over a 25 year career in the Queensland Public Sector having previously held senior roles within CITEC and the Queensland Audit Office.
The Evolution of e-Learning in CITEC
Tony will present a case study on how CITEC has evolved its blended learning program over the past three years and combined the benefits of e-Learning with the structured training and development activities of the organisation. The case study will highlight how CITEC has used the blended learning program as a means of supporting its staff through a major organisational transformation while also providing the on-going technical and corporate training essential for skills retention in the demanding ICT market.
