Top 35 Government Talent Trailblazers

Bruna Santos is the Director at the Brazil Institute. Before joining the Brazil Institute, she served as Vice-President and Innovation Director at the National School of Public Administration in Brazil (ENAP), the leading school of government in the country. Previously, she was a Director at Comunitas', a civil society organisation of public interest created in 2000, dedicated to promoting social development in Brazil.

From 2010 to 2013, she worked and lived in Beijing, China, where she worked as a Market Analyst at Chinatex Grains & Oils and co-founded Radar China, a public relations firm. Bruna is a member of the global network of Eisenhower Fellows and has served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University at Columbia University's EMPA Global.

Bruna holds a Master's in Public Administration from Columbia University (USA) and a Bachelor's Degree in International Relations from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. She was a Program Officer at the Columbia Global Centers in Rio de Janeiro.

Known for: recruiting high-calibre senior civil servants

Daisy is dedicated to recruiting high-calibre individuals to serve in various senior civil servant (SCS) roles in the Department for Business and Trade, one of Whitehall's most dispersed and diverse departments. She leads a team of 10 professionals and was recognised with the Telstra Careers Centre All Stars award in 2019, acknowledging her outstanding efforts in promoting inclusivity in the recruitment process. In 2022, the Department for Business and Trade, under Daisy's leadership, was shortlisted for the Best Public Sector Employer award at the Women in Tech Employer Awards, recognising the department's strides in improving hiring equity.

Known for: investing in Estonia’s top civil servants

In her role as the former Head of the Civil Service Excellence Centre, Eve was responsible for recruiting and developing Estonia’s top civil servants using a systematic approach. Through the Centre, Eve also coordinated the Top Civil Service development programme, designed to improve the management, innovation and cooperation skills among top civil servants. The Centre's work has been shown to be effective: A 2019 evaluation showed that 85% of top civil servants took greater responsibility for their own development, and 78% were more committed to their work.

Known for: Leading a citizen-centred rejuvenation

Since 2022, Johan has led a cultural rejuvenation project covering the entire Western Cape Government. This cultural project was designed to transform the WCG into a citizen-centred organisation. This was achieved through three key blocks. The first was equipping leaders to lead by implementing a values-based leadership development programme. The second was aligning on ways of work through an organisation-wide values conversation. The final block was rekindling a service mindset. One experiment that Johan led in this area was creating opportunities for non-frontline staff to go to service sites to experience first-hand the challenges facing citizens. As a result of these efforts, the Western Cape government was enlisted on the Top Employed certification programme. It became the first government in South Africa to be awarded Top Employer status.

Known for: recruiting Canada’s digital talent

Securing digital talent has become a priority for governments. Lauren has been a thought leader in public sector talent innovation for a decade, presenting talks and research in Canada and internationally on ways to build more inclusive, higher-performing government talent engines. She currently leads the platform and policy team building the government of Canada’s new GC Digital Talent recruitment platform, tackling challenges such as skills shortages, equity barriers, and fierce market competition for digital talent. She works with multiple teams and directors to support a new future for Canada’s digital talent, including platform support for the Government of Canada’s IT Apprenticeship Programme for Indigenous Peoples.

Known for: rewarding long-term performance

Louise Monger is the Deputy Chief Human Resource Officer at the Royal Civil Service Commission of Bhutan. In 2020, the King of Bhutan issued a royal decree on civil service reform to change workplace perceptions and behaviours in government. Two new policies on executive performance and career progression were rolled out. First, a performance dashboard for each government executive was made mandatory with key performance indicators across three areas: business delivery, strategic human resources management and financial prudence. Second, to prevent setting easy targets, executives’ promotion was moderated at a national level to ensure outstanding performance took into account long-term performance rather than just one particular year. Louise started her work with civil service leadership because leaders drive results and exemplify accountability. There has been a significant change in civil service performance to deliver public services more efficiently and effectively. Changes are already being seen: the average performance score on public service delivery rose to ‘above average’ for the financial year 2022/23 from ‘poor’ in the previous years.

Known for: public and private sector HR skills swaps

When it comes to HR skills, the private and public sector can learn from one another. Peck Kem led a refresh of Singapore’s Public Service HR competency framework to ensure the relevance and currency of public servants’ human resources competencies for future challenges. Under her leadership, the public service launched the HR Talent Attachment Programme in 2019 to widen development opportunities in government. The Programme gives HR officers in the public service opportunities to learn from the private sector — especially those with the potential to take on HR leadership positions in the future. Peck Kem also played a key role in setting up the HR Professional Development Programme to hire graduates and mid-career professionals from the private sector interested in switching careers — and training them for HR roles in the public sector.

Known for: leveraging Lithuanian public servants’ international experience

Monika leads ‘Create Lithuania’, which was originally created to reverse the exodus of top public sector talent to Brussels after Lithuania joined the European Union. Instead of viewing talent loss as a one-way drain, Monika flips the script. She encourages Lithuania's best and brightest to gain valuable international experience at top EU institutions, and then return home to share their knowledge and expertise with the Lithuanian government. Create Lithuania provides returning talent with a comprehensive support network. There are seasoned veterans who offer guidance and help new arrivals navigate the government bureaucracy, and opportunities to connect with fellow returnees to share experiences and support each other. Instead of dead-end roles, Monika places returnees with senior public servants, allowing them to contribute to real impact directly.

Known for: building skills for Argentina’s public servants

Ol Jonatan Beun served as the Director for Capability Building and Innovation at the Federal Government of Argentina for six months, following a two-year tenure as Chief of Staff of Public Innovation. Ol was part of a team that developed 46 distinct courses, training more than 36,000 civil servants at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels of government. This team also published 16 toolkits featuring cutting-edge policymaking methodologies, including human-centred design, open government, open data, and civic innovation, which have been widely adopted by governments both locally and regionally.

Currently, Ol holds the role of Principal Advisor at The Behavioral Insights Team's Latin America and the Caribbean office. In this capacity, he advises Latin American governments to design behaviourally informed and evidence-based policies. His dedication to enhancing civil service capabilities remains unwavering. For instance, he coaches local governments in the Americas in building evaluation capacities and fostering a culture of evidence-based decision-making through Bloomberg Philanthropies' City Data Alliance programme. Furthermore, he supported and advised the establishment of the Behavioral Perspectives Lab within Ceibal (Uruguay's government).

Known for: creating Argentina's Public Policy Design Academy

Roi Benitez is the founder of Skills4future. Previously, she worked as senior research consultant at Public Digital and Director for Capability Building at the Federal Government of Argentina. In this role, she led a team that established the Public Policy Design Academy, impacting 60,000 public servants across national, provincial and municipal levels in an ecosystem of learning, influenced 100 public policies through the Agile Public Policy Design programme, and published 16 methodological toolkits which applied cutting-edge approaches to policy development have been widely adopted by local and regional government entities. She is the academic coordinator at the University of San Andres and a professor at the Technological Institute of Buenos Aires. Roi is a MA in Digital Management candidate (Hyper Island), an MA in Social Anthropology (USAM), a Diploma in Political Communication (Austral University), and has a degree in Public Relations and Institutional Relations (UCES). She has received postgraduate scholarships at the China Government Academy and EFL University in India.

Known for: AI and inclusion

Anita has demonstrated notable contributions to ensuring that artificial intelligence (AI) in the Canadian federal government does not harm diversity, equity, and inclusion. Anita, in her capacity as President of the Treasury Board of Canada, has actively led initiatives to establish guidelines for the responsible use of generative AI tools within the public service. By championing guidelines that prioritise responsible AI use and by actively addressing the potential pitfalls of AI in government services, Anita has made significant contributions to the advancement of DEI principles and ethical considerations in the context of artificial intelligence.

Known for: Intersectional approaches to tackling discrimination

In her role at the International Labour Organization, Chidi leads efforts to eradicate discrimination, adopting an integrated and intersectional approach. Gender, race, ethnicity, indigenous status, disability, and HIV status all inform the approach. Prior to her post at the International Labour Organization, she served as the Director of the Equality Department at the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). There, she played a pivotal role in advocating for pay equity, addressing issues related to the care economy, combatting gender-based violence and harassment at work, promoting women's leadership, supporting young workers, and championing the rights of migrant workers.

Known for: strategic career management

As Director of Brazil's Government Innovation Department, Claudia implemented the Management and Performance Programme — a framework to create flexible working conditions focused on impact. At LA-BORA! Gov, the learning and innovation lab in the Ministry of Public Management and Innovation, Claudia fosters creativity and empowers civil servants to generate public value by offering workshops, hands-on activities and online curated content. Strategic career management is a focus for her – Claudia is heavily involved in providing guidance, rules and support for managing over 2,000 employees from three career groups. By aligning public servants' profiles and expectations with public organisations’ needs, LA-BORA! gov helps employees be productive and encourages them to be catalysts driving transformative change.

Known for: diversity at US federal level

Janice Underwood is currently serving as the Vice President of DEI, Outreach, Development at Disney Experience. Prior to this, she served at the US Office of Personnel Management, where she worked with federal partners to implement a national diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility strategy across all eligible federal agencies. Before joining the government as the inaugural Virginia Chief Diversity Officer for Governor Ralph Northam, Janice collaboratively created the ONE Virginia Plan, the first-ever statewide diversity strategic framework for 100+ state agencies aimed at building affirming work, learning, economic, and social environments.

Known for: leading human capital strategies

As part of the Chief Administrative Office of the US House of Representatives, John is responsible for transforming human capital strategies and technologies for a diverse organisation of over 700 employees. He established a human capital strategy as a roadmap for change, integrated workforce planning as a collaborative decision-making process, and overhauled performance management to align with the organisation's mission. John oversees the introduction of new and cloud-based technologies to improve recruitment. He also provides leadership and guidance for House-wide programmes, including the Employee Assistance Program, the Center for Well-Being, and the Green and Gold Congressional Aide Program.

Known for: recruiting top talent to Ontario Public Service

Nosa leads transformational human resources initiatives that define and shape the leadership, talent, and culture of Ontario’s diverse workforce of over 65,000 public servants. Under her leadership, the province released the Ontario Public Service People Plan 2023-2026, a blueprint for addressing the fundamentals of attracting, retaining, developing, and retaining top talent to serve Ontarians with inclusion, equity, and excellence. Nosa’s commitment to improving the employee experience saw the launch of a new programme to identify and remove systemic employment barriers, new organisational values, and an innovative plan to modernise the government of Ontario’s human resources.

Known for: promoting diverse public sector leadership

The first Mosaic Leadership Development Programme was introduced within the Federal Public Service in 2021, during a complex socio-economic climate. In her previous role as Program Manager at the Centre on Diversity and Inclusion, Pauline successfully led its implementation and oversaw the graduation of the programme’s first cohort of 41 participants from 39 different federal organisations. This government-wide pathfinder initiative was co-developed with equity-seeking employee networks and experts. Mosaic not only helps to level the playfield but also actively supports the career progression of equity-seeking leaders, ensuring a diverse representation in leadership, with excellent results on inclusion across the public service.

Known for: leading internal gender and diversity compacts

At the African Development Bank, Dr Awuese Oku leads the recruitment of young professionals. She also oversees capacity development and gender initiatives, such as rolling out global standards for gender equality in the workplace (EDGE certification). Previously, at the United Nations Development Programme, Awuese designed and implemented the Nigerian Diaspora Funding Disbursement, an initiative to engage talent in the Nigerian diaspora. She also has a proven record of accomplishment in delivering people-oriented solutions in complex settings while building high-performing teams, as the Head of Human Resources at HR Systems Nigeria and the British Council, as well as Operations Manager at USAID.

Known for: upskilling new managers

Denise draws on her 30 years of experience as a Learning and Development practitioner to support an important part of government teams — new managers. During COVID-19, Denise was pivotal in conceiving and implementing a programme tailored to equip managers with the essential skills and knowledge needed to excel. This initiative continues to be a beacon for new managers. The programme for managers focuses on cultivating strengths, fostering confidence, and instilling leadership skills. Modules within the programme cover diverse topics, including managing qualities and attributes, supporting employees with visible and invisible disabilities, and the importance of equality, dignity, and respect. Denise’s programme garnered widespread acclaim for its positive impact on managerial culture and its role in preparing managers to lead effectively in dynamic environments.

Known for: Jahiz Future Government Talents platform

Ghalia Gargani is a UAE-based social scientist and programme and engagement expert with over 20 years of global experience in research, development, public policy, strategic planning, and communications. At Expo 2020, she worked with universities, government regulators, corporate partners, and educational consultants to curate educational journeys for university students. Personally, she managed and mentored 100+ student champions across UAE and regional universities. At the Mohamed Bin Rashid School of Government, Ghalia was involved in delivering several executive education programmes through the Gender and Public Policy Program, including “Negotiation for Leadership”, the first women-only open enrollment executive education program,e in partnership with Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government which graduated over 95+ senior executives from across the Arab World. Most recently, Ghalia launched Jahiz, a nationwide disruptive talent development programme to enhance the readiness of all federal government employees with skills for the future. In under one year, Ghalia grew this mandated programme from an idea and one partner to an award-winning L&D programme, delivered through a robust platform, with 18 partners (including Apolitical), and 50,000+ engaged employees. As far as government upskilling programs go, Jahiz is unmatched in scale and scope.

Known for: advancing online social learning

Online social learning has seen big advances in the UK civil service in recent years. With 18 years of experience in learning and development, Jonathan has played a key role in developing this form of learning within the UK’s civil service. As Head of Learning at the Diplomatic Academy from 2014 to 2019, he pioneered the development of government-owned courses on an online learning platform. One notable achievement was the creation of "Diplomacy in the 21st Century," an online course that garnered participation from 15,000 learners globally. He not only developed major courses, such as "Induction to the Civil Service" and "Foundations of Writing," attracting over 25,000 learners in two years, but also established a dedicated team to support the numerous government departments, professions, and expert teams.

Known for: implementing a groundbreaking L&D program

Maryam Al-Zarooni is the Director of the Human Resources Planning Department of the United Arab Emirates Federal Authority for Government Human Resources. In this role, Maryam is responsible for crafting a strategic HR planning framework tailored to Federal Government Entities. Most notably, Maryam spearheaded the launch of Jahiz, a nationwide, ground-breaking talent development program designed to equip all federal government employees with future-ready skills. In less than a year, Maryam transformed this visionary concept into an award-winning L&D program, delivered through a robust platform and fostered partnerships with 18 strategic partners. Over 50,000 engaged employees have benefitted from Jahiz already, making it unparalleled in scale and impact among government upskilling initiatives.

Known for: setting up a virtual school for Brazil’s public servants

Natália Teles da Mota is the Executive Director of Brazil’s National School of Public Administration (Escola Nacional de Administração Pública, or ENAP). From 2013 to 2019, Natália played a key role at ENAP in establishing the Virtual School of Government — Escola Virtual.Gov (EV.G) — which Natália conceived to centralise distance learning in the Brazilian public service. Today, this innovative government project, in partnership with 100 organisations, has logged eleven million registrations and five million issued certificates across more than 600 distance learning courses, serving nearly four million users. Natália is currently working on exporting the EV.G to other countries in an effort to contribute to the reduction of technological and capacity gaps globally. Throughout her career, Natália has been dedicated to developing new generations of leaders and enhancing transparency, accountability, and governance. In 2020, Natália was awarded the Public Spirit Award in People Management by the Republic Institute for her work on the EV.G project. This award recognises professionals who transform the Brazilian Public Service.

Known for: transitioning India from ‘rules-based to roles-based’ HR

Balu has played a key role in shaping India’s National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building — also known as Mission Karmayogi. The programme was created in 2020 to radically improve the government's human resources management practices by enhancing the skills of India’s civil servants. At the core of this initiative is a transition from ‘rules-based’ HR to ‘roles-based’ HR management, supporting a strategic alignment of work allocation for civil servants by matching their competencies to the specific requirements of their respective positions. Balu’s strategic insights have played a key role in charting the course for this programme, marking a noted shift in the approach to building civil service skills. He is an internationally renowned development scholar, author, public policy advocate, and leadership trainer.

Known for: leading skills programmes for public servants

In her role as Head of Capability in the UK government’s central Human Resources function, Thembi Watt collaborated with senior stakeholders across the government to implement a groundbreaking HR Career Framework. She then transitioned to the Government Campus, an initiative to help all UK civil servants build the skills they need and nurture a culture of learning across the civil service. There, Thembi led substantial skills programmes for civil servants, including establishing the Civil Service Writing Skills Academy and the Digital Excellence Programme for leaders. She has dedicated her efforts over the last 15 years to enhancing human resources and learning and development capabilities within the UK government workforce.

Known for: fostering international cooperation to develop skills

Valeria has a long and distinguished career in public administration. In her previous role as Head of Skills Development, Valeria launched a project designed to identify the skills necessary for citizen-centric digital transformation. This project was selected by the EU Commission to be funded through the Technical support instrument. Valeria recently collaborated with Virginia Fiora (featured below) on a pilot to understand the value and scalability of training in this domain, bringing in experts from academia, the public sector, and the private sector, representing Italy, the UK and Denmark.

Known for: enhancing digital skills

In her role as Head of regional training and external activities coordination, Virginia is responsible for monitoring the integration of human and capital resources. Virginia recently collaborated with Valeria Bonavolontà (featured above) on a pilot to understand the value and scalability of digital skills training, bringing in experts from academia, the public sector, and the private sector, representing Italy, the UK and Denmark. Virginia is also a member of a number of evaluation boards focusing on HR selection procedures.

Known for: the Gender Equity Network

In her role as a co-chair of the Gender Equity Network at Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), Brigette actively contributes to building a fair and just workplace. As the ResearchOps Lead, she also champions research excellence within DAFF, ensuring that user needs remain at the forefront of every project. Brigette extends her impact by facilitating calls for the internal community — creating spaces for individuals to come together, share insights, learn, and establish valuable connections. The approach is also reflected within her management style: Brigette invests in the development of people, empowering others to discover and excel in roles that align with their strengths and passions.

Known for: the Gender Equity Network

Elizabeth is an experienced social development expert with a history of championing gender mainstreaming and community-building initiatives throughout her career. Currently advising at the Executive Office of the President in Kenya, Elizabeth has served in the State House Gender Mainstreaming and Sexual and gender violence (SGBV) Committee to develop internal policies and capacity on Gender Mainstreaming and SGBV at the workplace. Elizabeth is also a member of the Socio-economic Empowerment and Women's Financial Inclusion Committee of the national Gender Sector Working Group, where she champions young women's issues. She is currently leading a government-wide initiative to develop the Kenya Young People’s Agenda for skilling, employment and talent development. Previously, at the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), Elizabeth played a pivotal role in crafting policies such as the National Employment Policy and Strategy, driving forward the agenda of gender equity and inclusion. In recognition of her outstanding service, Elizabeth was awarded the national honour and award of the Order of the Grand Warrior (OGW) of Kenya in December 2020.

Known for: opportunities for artificial intelligence and human resources

James Hawkins is passionate about human resources, government, and artificial intelligence (AI). He is currently an Innovation Accelerator Lead at the Montgomery County Government in the US state of Maryland. Before, James was a Performance Management and Data Analyst for almost six years, where he implemented and evaluated human resources strategies, programmes, and processes. During this time, he served as Lead on the Turn the Curve initiative, a countywide results-based accountability approach. James firmly believes that AI is revolutionising how we approach learning and development and provides new opportunities to create more efficient, effective, and engaging training experiences. James is contributing to online discourse about how governments can use AI in their hiring. James has published two articles, one on the Future of Learning: Embracing AI in the Public Sector Workforce and the second on Leveraging AI in Government Recruitment: An Introduction to Transforming Talent Acquisition.

Known for: community building for digital design

Putting people at the heart of design is critical for governments. Kara is currently Head of Profession for Design at the UK’s Government Digital Service. She co-founded the International Design in Government Community in 2017, a vibrant global network for design-minded professionals in government roles worldwide. With over 1,500 members from 70+ countries, this community is a testament to Kara's commitment to fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing. She also edits the Design in Government blog (a platform for user-centred design practitioners across UK government to share work and lessons learned) and co-edits the Service Gazette (a print and online publication on public sector service transformation). Additionally, she co-managed the London Gov Design Meetup, a thriving platform for professionals already in the public sector or those interested in government.

Known for: Ghana’s digital mainstreaming strategy

Kusum Appiah, as the Team Lead of the Ghana Cares Delivery Unit within the Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation (MoCD), has played a pivotal role in advancing digital mainstreaming through the DigSMART Scale Up programme. This initiative, supported by various partners, aims to accelerate the digitalisation of public sector service delivery by providing comprehensive training to civil servants. Under Kusum's leadership, 830 civil servants have been selected for the programme's second phase, demonstrating a commitment to fostering digital literacy and equipping individuals with essential digital skills. The six-month training covers a range of topics, including basic digital literacy and advanced technical skills tailored to the needs of the public sector workforce.

Known for: providing guidance on using AI in talent management

Linda has played a crucial role in addressing the challenges associated with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment within the Australian Public Service. As Merit Protection Commissioner, Linda highlighted the risks in 2022 of using certain recruitment tools that use AI without proper care. A review conducted by her team found that recruitment decisions had been made using AI with no human review, leading to strong candidates missing out on promotions. In response to these challenges, Linda has issued guidance material for Australian government departments on choosing and using AI recruitment tools. This marked a significant step in addressing the lack of specific laws regulating these sorts of tools in Australia.

Known for: building design communities

Martin Jordan serves as the Head of Design and User Research at the German Government's Digital Service. Together with community lead Kara Kane, also nominated on this list, Martin is at the forefront of building and nurturing a robust international community comprising 3,500 designers and design-minded individuals working within government sectors worldwide. One of Martin's focus areas is finding effective knowledge-sharing formats for this community. Martin also co-organises conferences to bring together public servants working on design in various countries and to encourage collaboration and learning. These serve as vital platforms for professionals to exchange insights in design within government services.

Known for: Canada’s digital learning and development community

A testament to her commitment to community building, Nikki created the digital learning and development community in Canada, which has successfully brought together professionals engaged in digital learning and development across all levels of government. Under Nikki's leadership, this community has evolved into a vital platform in the government of Canada. As part of her commitment to human-centric community building, Nikki hosts a monthly community call with her team, providing a dedicated forum for open discussions and camaraderie. She goes beyond the conventional boundaries of community engagement by striving to create spaces for authentic human connections between Canada’s public servants.

Known for: driving a workplace inclusion strategy

Samantha leads the inclusion programme at Canada’s Department of National Defence Materiel Group, implementing the workplace inclusion strategy. Samantha ensures that all employees have the necessary support to promote a diverse and equitable culture effectively. Samantha initiated monthly learning events and played a pivotal role in launching the Government of Canada's Mentoring Circles programme. With over 300 participants from 36 departments, agencies, and crown corporations, this impactful programme showcases the wide commitment to building a diverse, inclusive, and equitable public service in Canada.