Paul Westlake (Westy) is on a mission to make learning actually work – not just tick boxes.

As Digital Director at PeopleUnboxed and Customer Success Director at BentoBot (BentoBot.com) – a spaced repetition solution that makes learning stick – Westy transforms how organisations develop their people.

He also hosts the popular PeopleUnplugged podcast, where he unpacks what really works in L&D.

But here's the thing: Westy didn't start in a boardroom. He spent five years in the trenches delivering face-to-face leadership training before leading McDonald's UK through a complete digital L&D transformation – designing learning experiences for 120,000 employees who didn't have time to waste on forgettable training.

That experience taught him something crucial: great learning solutions need to work for both the L&D team and the people actually using them. It's like designing a car that's brilliant to drive but also easy to maintain – both sides matter.

After his McDonald's decade, Westy moved supplier-side with Kineo, where he designed award-winning learning solutions for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Compass Group, and Mitchells & Butlers. He also hosted Kineo's "Stream of Thought" podcast, proving that learning geeks can be entertaining.

His superpower? Combining analytical and creative thinking to challenge the status quo. He doesn't just ask "what training do you need?" – he asks "what actually needs to change?" Then he builds blended solutions that genuinely shift behaviours and deliver results.

When he's not empowering L&D teams to be heroes, Paul's an award-winning wedding photographer whose company sponsors a race car. So his weekends are an unlikely mix of grease, spanners, running shoes, camera lenses, and bass guitar riffs. He lives with his wife and two daughters, who've learnt that Dad's enthusiasm for digital learning is matched only by his enthusiasm for... pretty much everything else.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/westyphotography/

PeopleUnboxed: https://peopleunboxed.co.uk/

BentoBot: https://bentobot.com/