Ishtar Natalie Elmes

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT ISHTAR NATALIE ELMES

I’m a CIPD-qualified Learning & Development professional with over 7 years’ experience designing, delivering and evaluating impactful learning across private, public and charity sectors. My work centres on creating inclusive, engaging and accessible development experiences that genuinely help people grow. Whether that’s first-time leaders, global sales teams, or mental health volunteers.My career has taken me through a wide range of organisations: Civica, NG Bailey, Nestlé, Sonoco-Trident, and now the mental health charity My Black Dog. This has given me a strong understanding of how learning works in different contexts. I’ve led end-to-end L&D cycles, from consulting with stakeholders and identifying needs, to building digital and face-to-face programmes, to embedding EDI principles and evaluating long-term impact.Some work I’m proud of includes: • Designing and launching global training such as Prevention of Sexual Harassment, EDI programmes and Mental Health Awareness workshops.• Leading LMS administration and major platform migrations, including moving 150+ courses and 300 transcripts from SumTotal to Workday. • Creating global learning content: e-learning, masterclasses, leadership programmes, sales curricula and mental health initiatives. • Project-managing a highly successful global academy refresh at Civica, which increased workshop attendance and improved engagement across regions. • Introducing creative follow-up learning solutions — such as peer networking sessions — to improve knowledge transfer, collaboration and sales performance. • Supporting volunteer recruitment, safeguarding compliance and wellbeing initiatives in the charity sector, championing a positive and supportive culture.I’m passionate about using learning to empower people, to build confidence and create psychologically safe, inclusive environments. Stakeholder management, communication and thoughtful project delivery sit at the heart of my approach, and I’m happiest when I’m bringing people together and helping them perform at their best.If you’re interested in learning culture, leadership development, digital learning design or people development in purpose-led organisations, I’d love to connect.