Glenn Cermak, Global Director, Corporate Learning & Development
Qlik

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND:

MBA, MEd in Educational Leadership & Administration & MSEd in Instructional Technology
Certifications: 
Executive Certificate in Business Analytics (Wharton School), Sales Enablement (ATD), ITIL – IT Service Management, Six Sigma Black Belt

I am the Global Director of Corporate Learning & Development.  I lead a team (who are 100% remote) of instructional designers, curriculum developers, and LMS admins. Aside from developing eLearning and other learning materials, my team serves as L&D consultants to various business areas to help ensure we close gaps and drive business goals through learning.  As we are a data analytics software company, a big part of my job is in the assessment of programs and learning/people analytics to find areas of opportunity and show areas of growth and ROI to executives. 

WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT WHAT YOU DO?

The company does some amazing work that isn’t focused on profit. We have a very active Corporate Responsibility team, including work with the United Nations and sending employees on trips to Africa to support organizations like WeSeeHope. We also have a completely free Data Literacy program focused on helping people understand data the same way they understand reading and writing, and an active Academic Program where we give our software, and training on it, free to professors and students.  Aside from that stuff, it’s exciting working for a global company as I get to talk to people all over the world every single day, and as it is a technology company they are very progressive – I work from home about 95% of the time!  

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT FIELD?

I originally started training employees in the restaurant and retail industries.  I later became a middle school teacher and moved into public education administration with a focus on curriculum design, technology integration, and professional development.  Since leaving public education I’ve been in various other industries, including financial services, healthcare, and now software, but always in an L&D role.

WHAT IS THE LAST/MOST MEANINGFUL BOOK YOU READ?

I’m a big data nerd, so I really enjoyed “Factfulness” by Hans Rosling.  It talks about how the world isn’t as bad as what we see on the news, and shows how we can use data to make things even better.  For those wanting a fun fiction book, I just finished reading “Captain (Never Land)” by Artie Sievers.  It’s sort of a prequel to Peter Pan, in the same vein as the Wicked/Wizard of Oz relationship.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST DOING IN YOUR "OFF WORK" TIME?

My wife, Laura, is the Director of Compliance for Penn State Health, and we have a son, Mason, who is in first grade.  We love to go on trips – almost all road trips so we can take our dog with us!  My son is 7 and has been to 24 states so far.  We are big Disney nuts (thus the “Captain” book in the last section), so you’ll find us at Disney World at least once every year.  We also do a lot of volunteer work with Caitlin’s Smiles, a non-profit based in Harrisburg that sends arts and crafts activities to kids in the hospital (we sent out over 180,000 arts and crafts kits to more than 150 hospitals in 2018!).