Meet John Leh: Founder, CEO & Lead Analyst

John Leh CEO Lead Analyst and LMS Selection Consultant

John Leh, Co-Founder, CEO & Lead Analyst, Talented Learning

John Leh is the Founder, CEO and Lead Analyst at Talented Learning, an independent learning technology research and advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations evaluate, select and optimize learning technology.

For more than 30 years, John has worked at the intersection of learning strategy, technology and business performance. Since founding Talented Learning in 2014, he has personally advised more than 200 organizations while helping shape learning technology decisions for organizations ranging from Fortune 100 companies and global associations to startups and growing businesses.

His expertise spans customer education, partner training, professional education, association learning, employee development and extended enterprise learning.

Analyst Perspective

Successful learning technology initiatives begin with business objectives, not software demonstrations. His advisory approach emphasizes understanding organizational goals, defining meaningful requirements and evaluating technology within the context of long-term business strategy. Rather than promoting specific platforms or following industry trends, John focuses on helping organizations identify the learning system that best fits their unique needs. Continuous involvement in client engagements, market research, vendor briefings and product demonstrations ensures his recommendations reflect today’s market rather than yesterday’s assumptions.

Thought Leadership

John believes educating the market is just as important as advising individual clients. Through Talented Learning, he shares independent research and practical guidance with learning professionals around the world through hundreds of articles, the Talented Learning Show podcast, Customer Ed Nuggets, Buyer Office Hours, conference presentations, keynote speaking, LinkedIn commentary and industry interviews.

Success Stories from LMS Buyers

What do clients say about our lead analyst, John Leh, and the value of guidance they receive from Talented Learning? See for yourself!

John Leh is the consummate professional with an unmatched knowledge of Learning Management Systems that is both wide and deep. His ability to work with a variety of professionals and personalities is a significant strength. John communicates openly and honestly with all team members and quickly puts people at ease in a group setting. John completes tasks on time for his clients and includes a level of detail necessary to make an informed decision. I would not hesitate to engage John’s assistance in the future or recommend his services to future clients. Thank you, John, for your knowledge, expertise, honesty, and strong work ethic.

Leigha Jansen, Ed.D., CPACC, Director Educational Technology

One doesn’t have to know John long before realizing that he has a great knack and tact on how to educate executives on the processes that are important and the learning technology required to meet their mission. For those reasons, along with his integrity, I recommend him to any organization (nonprofit, association, or software vendor) that needs help defining and mapping out their learning (LMS) technology strategy. He is worth every dollar and more!

Chad Stewart, Founder, Chief Software Advisor

We are very glad we hired John as our LMS selection consultant. There are so many potential solutions out there and John’s knowledge and expertise ensured we stayed on schedule, focused our search on a narrowed-down group of candidates, and selected a solution that met our needs. I highly recommend John for any organization that wants expert help and guidance in selecting learning technologies. He makes the process easy, digestible, and efficient!

Ha Nugyn, Executive Vice President

John has become my go-to expert on learning management systems. He knows the landscape better than anyone and is a delight to work with. Professional, passionate, and an excellent communicator. I’ve referred him to two of my clients thus far and both have followed up with me saying how appreciative they were for the introductions. I cannot recommend John and his Talented Learning group enough.

Ryan Richards, Principal Learning Experience Designer

I heard Connie Malamed interview John on the eLearning Coach Podcast and reached out to John for advice on our ongoing LMS selection process. John asked about and listened to our challenges, current status and goals and provided practical and sound advice to get us to a decision point for our new LMS. It’s a huge weight off our shoulders to make the choice and have a solid justification. Thank you John!

Sarah Pache, Product Marketing Manager

We worked with John Leh to find a new Learning Management System for a medical specialty society. I highly recommend partnering with John to help navigate all the complexities of identifying the best solution. John expertly guided all the various stakeholders in documenting the salient requirements and identified four vendors who were exquisitely positioned to meet our requirements.

Ariel Allea, Sr. Manager, Education Operations

John knows his stuff. His provides top-notch information for anyone looking to gear-up with a LMS. His deep knowledge and experience in the industry is evident in the way he’s able to provide crisp and concise feedback. Here on out, he’ll be my go to guy for all things LMS. Save yourself time, money, and headache – give John a shout if you’re in the market to consider LMS.

Ray Chung, Chief Culture Officer

John brought the best research and advice to our vendor search. With his help we pre-qualified several excellent prospects and found our match right on time. I am so glad we engaged him!

Katherine OMally, Training and Curriculum Coordinator

We worked with John when looking for someone with LMS experience to complete an audit on the client services areas of our site. John’s review was thorough and full of insights we’ve referenced as we’ve upgrade our systems. I’ve followed John’s LMS thought leadership on online since then. Great to work with.

Greg Giersch, SVP Client Experience

John’s knowledge and strategic insight into the corporate training market is very difficult to find. His passion for the industry is infectious. John was a dream to work with and he felt more like a member of the team than a consultant. He genuinely cared about our success and even helped us find our first few clients. I can’t speak highly enough of John’s work and would highly recommend his services.

Orla Mester, SVP, Global Services and Product Delivery

John managed the RFP process from start to finish, including writing the document with input from the internal team, scheduling demos, and coordinating with the finalists and fielding their questions. He was with us every step of the way! John helped us identify not only the best LMS for our needs, but also because of the time he took to understand and articulate our business goals through the RFP process, we also have a strong business partner in our LMS vendor.

Beth Guerra Gunzel , Chief HR Officer

John was a great partner in our LMS and content partner selection process. Right from the start, John adapted to our unique needs and worked alongside our team providing guidance, process and advice at every stage of the process. John systematically helped us define and consolidate the diverse requirements of our stakeholder groups, recommended qualified vendor solutions and then led us through a professional evaluation and selection process. I’d recommend working with John for any organization looking to buy and deploy enterprise learning technology.

Chris Carr, Sr. Director Organization Development and Learning

Our company hired John/Talented Learning to help us find a learning marketplace and delivery technology. John saved us a tremendous amount of time in refining our requirements, developing the formal proposal and selecting the right vendors to participate in the selection process. John was able to identify a provider not on our radar previously but ended up being a perfect match. At the end of the day, John helped us deliver a better project for less time and money.