o Serena is a global Talent and L&D leader, and the 2024 winner of the Colin Steed Award for Outstanding Contribution to Learning. She is on the advisory board of the Shape the Future Consortium, a Fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute, & holds a doctorate from Middlesex university on the future of talent development; and the L&D function in technology accelerating organisations. Her current role includes L&D, Performance Management, Succession Planning, Talent Identification, Leadership Assessment and Development, Workforce Planning, Skills Mapping, Employee Engagement, DEIB, and leadership of the SoftwareOne Academy - the firm's corporate university and education philanthropy.The doctoral research looked at new, emerging and evolving organisations to establish if and at what point they should introduce a managed learning function, and what the role, structure and remit of that function should be. This means that Serena keeps up to date with the latest in learning technology, theory, thought leadership and the digital transformation of the L&D field. Having worked for organisations including Spencer Stuart, KPMG, Thomson Reuters and IBM, Serena has a wealth of experience in leading learning and talent functions for internal departments, external clients as a management consultant & as a service line lead with client/ revenue responsibility. Experience includes creating an L&D function’s business facing strategy, the learning operating model, vendor, budget and LMS management. This has been across several sectors including Financial Services, Oil&Gas, Telecomms, Supply Chain & Public Sector. Serena is often featured in the press, has published articles & blogs, & speaks at various industry seminars on how companies can address the skills gap, on setting up skills frameworks & on career paths for accelerating organisations.