Michelle Braden
ABOUT ME

Michelle, who is the consummate innovator, joined WEX four years ago as their Vice President of Global Talent Development after leading previous global learning organizations as a Chief Learning Officer.

While she has over 25 years of experience in the learning and development space, Michelle’s business savvy and innovative approach enables her to look beyond typical adult learning strategies and towards innovative talent development approaches that drive true business impact. Michelle has successfully changed her organization’s mindset from using learning as a tool to “fix” problem employees to an advantage in recruiting, developing, and maintaining high potential employees. She is laser-focused on enabling WEX team members to grow as individuals and professionals in their careers while delivering upon business goals and providing world-class services and solutions in the financial technology industry.

Michelle's extensive background in IT, Sales and Learning roles with Fortune 100 companies (e.g. Xerox, SAP, TELUS), has helped her to build award-winning talent and leadership development strategies, leading to robust leadership pipelines, improved performance and increased employee engagement.

Going beyond WEX, Michelle has shared her innovative work with other talent development executives in CTDO Next, the Association for Talent Development’s exclusive group of top talent development executives shaping the future of the profession, and in a chapter, “Doing More with Less,” in Forward-focused Learning, edited by Tamar Elkeles and published by ATD Press in 2020. She also serves on ATD’s Senior Leader and Executive Board and the Reworked Digital Workplace Experience Board. She is continually asked to speak at industry events and write for industry publications. She was awarded the 2022 Top 50 OnCon Icon awards, Chief Learning Officer’s Gold Learning in Practice Trailblazer Award and Gold Strategy Award in 2022, and was named a finalist in the Reworked IMPACT Award, Employee Experience Leader of the Year, 2022. She was recently named 2023’s Most Innovative Talent Development Leader by Slate Advisors.

Michelle has an MBA with a Leadership & Change specialty and a BA in Management and Business Communication with a minor in Information Technology.