Jennie Marshall – Creating Space for Leadership That Lasts
Jennie Marshall is a Chartered Manager, Fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute, and the Founder and Learning Alchemist of Wren Learning Consultancy. With over 20 years of experience designing leadership and learning strategies, she partners with organizations to strengthen leadership capability, shape culture, and drive meaningful change. Jennie is known for her human-centered approach, creating learning that sticks, shifts behavior, and changes how people feel at work.
In a working world obsessed with speed, productivity, and measurable outcomes, Jennie Marshall has built her career around something far rarer: creating space to think. Space for leaders to pause, reflect, and have the conversations they have been avoiding. Space for teams to reconnect with purpose. And space for learning to move beyond theory into real, lived behavior. This philosophy, quiet but powerful, has guided Jennie from large scale leadership programs to the founding of Wren Learning Consultancy, where learning is designed not to impress, but to endure.
A Career Built on People, Not Programs
Jennie’s journey into learning and leadership was never about content alone. From the outset, she was drawn to the human dynamics beneath performance, how people grow, how confidence is built, and why even well intentioned leaders can struggle to lead well under pressure. Early roles across utilities, finance, public services, and professional services exposed her to complex organizations where technical competence was rarely the issue. Instead, it was communication, trust, and culture that determined whether people and performance thrived together.
Her early work at QA Ltd proved formative. Joining the organization in 2010, Jennie progressed through multiple senior roles, including Head of Courseware Development and Learning Programme Director. Over more than a decade, she designed and led large scale, experiential, and blended learning programs spanning leadership, management, and essential business skills. Many of these initiatives were high value, multi year programs that combined innovative design with digital learning tools and agile delivery practices.
Alongside her practical experience, Jennie invested deeply in her professional development. She became a Chartered Manager and Fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute, credentials that reflected both her technical expertise and her commitment to ethical, people centered leadership. Certifications in NLP, coaching, and project management further shaped her approach, equipping her with tools to support individual growth while keeping a clear line of sight to organizational outcomes.
From Learning Leader to Strategic Partner
As Jennie’s career progressed, so did the scale and strategic nature of her work. In senior leadership roles at QA Ltd and later as Head of Learning Solutions at Raise the Bar, she moved beyond program design into shaping entire learning portfolios and commercial offerings. She worked closely with C suite leaders, HR directors, and senior stakeholders to diagnose development needs, align learning with business strategy, and design solutions that delivered measurable impact.
Her leadership style consistently earned trust. Colleagues and clients describe her as someone who listens deeply, challenges thoughtfully, and creates environments where people feel both supported and stretched. One former direct report reflected that “Jennie is not only an incredible cheerleader for her team, she fosters an environment of collaboration and continuous learning. Her passion for growth, both personal and professional, is truly inspiring.” Others highlight her ability to move beyond surface level solutions, tailoring learning to the realities leaders face day to day.
Jennie’s work did not go unnoticed. She was recognized with Learning Professional of the Year by the Learning and Performance Institute and received the BAE Systems Chairman’s Business Leader Award, acknowledgments that underscored both her impact and her credibility within the profession. Yet for Jennie, recognition was never the end goal. It was validation that learning, when done well, can genuinely shift behavior and culture.
Founding Wren Learning Consultancy
By 2025, Jennie reached a pivotal moment. After years of working inside large organizations, she saw an opportunity to create something more intentional. Something that reflected not only her expertise, but her values. Wren Learning Consultancy was born from a simple but powerful belief: learning should feel human, not corporate.
At Wren Learning, Jennie leads with a clear sense of why. Inspired by purpose led thinking, the consultancy designs learning from the inside out. The starting point is never content, but context. What challenges are leaders facing. What conversations are being avoided. What behaviors need to change for performance and culture to improve together.
Clients often describe Wren as a trusted advisor and a safe pair of hands. The work spans leadership development, manager capability, coaching, and strategic learning consultancy, always with a focus on learning transfer. As one client noted, “Jennie consistently brings deep expertise and a practical approach to every conversation, partnering with clients to design impactful programmes that deliver real value.”
Jennie’s thought leadership reinforces this philosophy. Through her writing and newsletter, Notes from the Nest, she explores themes such as psychological safety, creative intelligence, and the hidden cost of unresolved conversations at work. Her reflections on the Sunday night spiral and the meetings that happen after the meeting resonate because they speak to lived experience. They remind leaders that performance issues are often people issues in disguise.
Vision for the Future: Expanding Impact with Intention
At this stage in her career, Jennie is clear about where she is heading. Her focus is on expanding the impact of Wren Learning Consultancy and working at a more strategic level with organizations that are serious about leadership and culture. She is particularly drawn to long term transformation work, partnerships where learning is embedded into the fabric of the organization rather than delivered as a one off intervention.
Alongside her consulting and coaching work, Jennie is beginning to explore advisory and non executive board roles. Much of her career has been spent shaping leadership cultures, supporting senior teams through ambiguity, and aligning people strategy with organizational performance. Board level contribution feels like a natural extension of that work.
While she is not actively pursuing full time executive roles, Jennie remains open to strategic conversations, especially where her background in leadership development, learning strategy, and human centered design can support a wider mission or social impact. As she puts it, her goal is not growth for its own sake, but meaningful influence.
Learning That Changes How People Feel at Work
Jennie Marshall’s career is a testament to the idea that leadership development is not about fixing people, but about creating conditions where they can think, grow, and lead with confidence. Through her work, she has shown that learning becomes powerful when it is grounded in purpose, delivered with care, and designed to live beyond the room.
As organizations continue to navigate uncertainty, change, and increasing pressure on leaders, voices like Jennie’s matter. Her work reminds us that better performance, stronger culture, and healthier workplaces cannot be downloaded. They have to be lived.
Editorial Note
Jennie Marshall is the Founder and Learning Alchemist at Wren Learning Consultancy. She works with organizations seeking to strengthen leadership capability, navigate complexity, and create human centered cultures where people and performance thrive. Leaders, boards, and organizations interested in strategic learning partnerships, advisory collaboration, or leadership development are encouraged to reflect on the role learning plays in shaping the future of work.
