These lists are compiled from a corporate online-learning perspective on the basis of a person’s perceived current influence on the online-learning industry as a practitioner, commentator, facilitator, or thought leader.

In such a subjective area, opinions will always differ – and there is no guarantee that the judges’ decisions will meet with universal acclaim - but these lists represent what a number of people think about the personalities who lead the corporate online-learning world.

This year, as the worldwide corporate online-learning technologies market continues to develop, there is a new list relating specifically to the USA/ Canada market. However, the world list continues to reflect the dominance on the USA and Canada on the worldwide market.

Of the 42 names on the five lists, 26 are men and 16 are women.

World List

1.           Elliott Masie - head of The MASIE Center (position last year: 1)

2.         Craig Weiss - eLearning analyst, expert, author, speaker and thought leader who is CEO of E-Learning 24/7 (position last year: 4)

3.           Tom Kuhlmann - one of the world’s best known eLearning designers (position last year: 3)

4.           Cathy Moore - well-known blogger about eLearning (position last year: 5)

5.           Harold Jarche - Canada-based “thought catalyst”, writer, and blogger; chairman of the Internet Time Alliance (position last year: 9)

6.           Patti Shank - founder of Learning Peaks and internationally recognised expert on, and advocate for, the pragmatics of the design of information and instruction to help people do what they need to do (new entry)

7.           Rebecca Stromeyer - owner of ICWE, which runs Online Educa, as well as eLearning Africa (new entry)

8.          Christopher Pappas – US-based founder and CEO of the eLearning Industry's Network elearningindustry.com (new entry)

9.           Amit Garg – co-founder of Upside Learning, m-learning evangelist, international speaker, and contributor to the Upside Learning Blog (position last year: 8)

10.        Jay Cross - writer, commentator, and speaker (position last year: 2)

"Bubbling under"

Others who just missed out on making this year’s list include

• Steve Rayson, of Kineo, (position last year: 6)
• Roger Schank - president and CEO of Socratic Arts and long-established thought leader in this sector (position last year: 7)
• Vikas Joshi - founder, chairman and managing director of Harbinger Knowledge Products and thought leader in the field of interactivity (position last year: 10)
• Manish Mohan - Senior Vice President at NIIT, mentor at e3cube, extensive corporate career, award winner and writer of the Learn and Lead blog
• Clark Quinn - learning-technology consultant, writer and blogger based in California
• Donald H Taylor - speaker and online technologies pundit
• Nicolas Hellers – Argentina-based author of three books on eLearning; editor and publisher of America Learning Media and the QuickThoughts Blog
• Charles Jennings - speaker, thought leader and "70-20-10" proponent

US/Canada list

1.           Elliott Masie - head of The MASIE Center

2.           Craig Weiss - eLearning analyst, expert, author, speaker, and thought leader; CEO of E-Learning 24/7

3.           Tom Kuhlmann - one of the world’s best known eLearning designers

4.           Cathy Moore - well-known blogger about eLearning

5.           Harold Jarche - Canada-based “thought catalyst”, writer, and blogger, who is also chairman of the Internet Time Alliance

6.           Patti Shank - founder of Learning Peaks, and internationally recognised expert on, and advocate for, the pragmatics of the design of information and instruction to help people do what they need to do

7.           Christopher Pappas – US-based founder and CEO of the eLearning Industry's Network elearningindustry.com

8.           Jay Cross - writer, commentator, and speaker

9.          Connie Malamed - consultant, writer, and speaker in the fields of online learning, visual communication, and information design; publishes The eLearning Coach website; author of the instructional design guru iPhone app and the book Visual Language for Designers

10.        Cammy Bean – an eLearning instructional designer and vice president of learning design for Kineo US

"Bubbling under"

Others who just missed out on making this year’s list include

• Roger Schank - president and CEO of Socratic Arts and long-established thought leader in this sector
• Jerry Roche - editorial director, Elearning! and Government Elearning! magazines
• Jane Bozarth – speaker and author, as well as Elearning Coordinator for the North Carolina, USA, Office of State Personnel
• Clark Quinn - learning technology consultant, writer, and blogger based in California
• Donald H Taylor - speaker and online-technologies pundit

Europe List

       1.           Rebecca Stromeyer - owner of ICWE, which runs Online Educa, as well as eLearning Africa (new entry)

2.           Richard Straub - the secretary general of the European Learning Industry Group (ELIG), advisor to the EU on all things to do with eLearning (position last year: 1)

3.           Helge Scherlund - Denmark-based writer and blogger on eLearning topics (Position last year: 5)

4.           Armin Hopp - president of digital publishing company AG/ Speexx and member of ELIG (position last year: 2)

5.           Thea Payome - editor of the Germany-based CheckPoint eLearning ezine and website (position last year: 3)

6.           Steve Rayson, of Kineo (position last year: 7)

7.           Sally Ann Moore - events-management and online-learning consultancy specialist, based in Switzerland who organises a number of online-learning events around Europe and the rest of the world (position last year: 9)

8.           Dr Ladislava (‘Vlad’ka’) Knihova - key champion, user, and publisher of eLearning applications in the corporate and academic sectors in the Czech Republic (position last year: 10)

9.           Iva Matasić CEO at Consulio, Inc (new entry)

10.        Pascal Debordes - head of Cegos's international partner network (position last year: 8)

"Bubbling under"

Others who just missed out on making this year’s list include 

• Christophe Ferrandou - the Paris-based founder and CEO of goFLUENT, award-winning producer of Business English training (position last year: 6)
• Donald H Taylor - speaker and online technologies pundit
• Francesco Pucci, of Teeled      
• Hans de Zwart – speaker and digital-civil-rights activist who is director of Bits of Freedom, based in Amsterdam
• Jane Hart - workplace-learning and collaboration advisor, writer, and international speaker; founded C4LPT
• Charles Jennings - writer, speaker and "70-20-10" proponent

UK List

1.           Laura Overton – speaker, member of ELIG, and managing director of Towards Maturity (position last year: 2)

2.           Donald H Taylor - chairman of the annual Learning Technologies conference and chairman of the Institute of Learning and Performance (position last year: 1)

3.           Clive Shepherd - writer and commentator on the online-learning scene (Position last year: 5)

4.           Steve Rayson, of Kineo (position last year: 3)

5.           Jane Hart – a workplace learning and collaboration advisor, writer and international speaker; founded C4LPT (position last year: 4)

6.           Martin Baker - CEO of the Charity Learning Consortium (CLC) (position last year: 7)

7.           Piers Lea - member of ELIG and CEO of LINE Communications. (Position last year: 6)

8.           Charles Jennings - speaker and thought leader (position last year: 9)

9.           Julie Wedgwood – has been described as the trainer’s trainer (position last year: 8)

10.        Jonathan Satchell - CEO of Epic (new entry)

"Bubbling under"

Others who just missed out on making this year’s list included: 

• Donald Clark - long-established speaker and commentator on eLearning and Ufi Board member
• Nick Shackleton-Jones - group head of eLearning at BP; writer and speaker
• Kenneth Fee - a specialist in evaluation, talent development, work-based learning, and leadership-and-management development; director of the Stirling-based company, Airthrey Ltd
• Asi DeGani – head of digital learning at Telefónica UK
• Ben Betts - CEO of HT2; specialist in collaborative and game-based learning principles, focusing on engaging learners in online collaborative learning
• Gillian Broadhead – a director of Learning Light and the E-Learning Centre
• Clive Snell - publisher of eLearning Age magazine and the person behind the eLearning Awards
• Colin Steed - writer, editor, and long-time chief executive at Learning & Performance Institute

Asia-Pacific list

1. Amit Garg – Co-founder of Upside Learning, m-learning evangelist, international speaker, and contributor to the Upside Learning Blog (position last year: 1)

2. Manish Mohan - Senior Vice President at NIIT, mentor at e3cube; extensive corporate career, award winner, and writer of Learn and Lead blog (position last year: 4)

3. Abtar Kaur - Professor of education and languages at Open University Malaysia, Programme Head for Master of Instructional Design and Technology and Programme Coordinator for Bachelor of Teaching (Science), international speaker, consultant, and award winner (position last year: 3)

4. Joyce Seitzinger - Lecturer of blended learning at Deakin University, author of Moodle Tool Guide for Teachers, international speaker, and writer of the Cat’s Pyjamas blog (position last year: 6)

5. Anne Bartlett-Bragg - Managing Director Asia-Pacific of the Ripple Effect Group, Executive Director of the Learning Technologies User Group, Lecturer of eLearning at the University of Technology Sydney, and contributor to the Ripple Effect Group blog (position last year: 7)

6. Ryan Tracey - eLearning Manager at AMP, Advisory Board Member at eLearn Magazine, Reviewer at the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, author of magazine articles, and writer of the E-Learning Provocateur blog (position last year: 9)

7. Sahan Chattopadhyay - Enterprise Community Manager at Thoughtworks and writer of the ID and Other Reflections blog (position last year: 2)

8. Manish Gupta - CEO of G-Cube Solutions, an eLlearning products and services company, director of Vivo Collaboration, and speaker on performance support, experiential learning, gamification, and just-in-time learning (new entry for 2014)

9. Sumeet Moghe - Training Manager at Thoughtworks, avid tweeter, and writer of The Learning Generalist blog (position last year: 5)

10. (equal number of votes received)
Zaid Ali Alsogoff - eLearning Manager at the International Medical University, avid tweeter, and writer of several blogs including ZaidLearn and e-Learning In Malaysia (position last year: 10)
and
Gautam Ghosh - in charge of HR strategy and projects for Philips India; specialises in HR, organisation development, and how businesses can use social tools for HR; subject-matter expert in HR and social media for SHRM India; blog has been listed, by HRWorld among the top 25 HR blogs worldwide (new entry for 2014)

"Bubbling under"

Others who just missed out on making this year’s list included:

• Rob Wilkins – Head of Learning & Development at Aussie Home Loans, extensive corporate career, avid tweeter, and writer of the Ruminations of a Learning and Development Professional blog (position last year: 8)
• Vikas Joshi - founder, chairman, and managing director of Harbinger Knowledge Products; thought leader in the field of interactivity
• Jeevan Joshi - Principal Consultant & Founder of KnowledgeWorking, Producer & Community Manager at The Learning Cafe, speaker, author of the "KnowledgeWorking" blog and co-author of "The Learning Cafe" blog
• Janhavi Padture – online-learning interactivity specialist and speaker, working with Harbinger Knowledge Products