Lisa Toenniges is the owner and chief executive officer of Innovative Learning Group, a company she founded in March 2004.

A dynamic and respected leader, Lisa has 35 years of experience in the performance improvement industry and has consulted with many Fortune 1000 companies about their learning and performance strategies and solutions.

ILG was born out of Lisa’s passion for building a business, providing for her employees, and doing what is right for clients. Her entrepreneurial spirit, positive outlook, and hands-on leadership style have been the drivers behind ILG’s profitable annual growth.

“I know that every day we help people acquire knowledge and skills so they can work smarter,” says Lisa. “They are able to move their careers forward and better provide for themselves and their families. Knowing we can have that kind of impact on the quality of people’s lives is a huge motivator and it’s one of the great rewards of running the company.”

Lisa’s dedication to the industry has earned her and ILG numerous accolades, including:

• Best of MichBusiness, Small Business
• LearningElite judge for Chief Learning Officer magazine’s 2021 award program.
• Recognized as one of Profiles In Diversity Journal’s 2019 Women Worth Watching
• Best of MichBusiness, Transformative Leader
• Michigan’s Most Valuable Professionals Award (Corp!)
• Michigan 50 Companies to Watch (Michigan Celebrates Small Business)
• Inc. 5000 2016 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies (#4003)
• 15 Brandon Hall Awards of Excellence
• One Gold and two Silver Learning In Practice Excellence in Partnership Awards (Chief Learning Officer)
• Two Outstanding Human Performance Intervention Award of Excellence (ISPI)

Lisa has devoted more than three decades to the International Society for Performance Improvement at both the chapter and international levels. In 2018, she received the Distinguished Service Award for her outstanding contributions to the advancement of the Society. Lisa has held several leadership roles on ISPI’s board of directors, including treasurer, president-elect, president, and past president. She is also a Certified Performance Technologist.

Additionally, Lisa has given much of her time to mentoring college students and professionals who are contemplating a career in training and performance improvement. She is a frequent speaker and panelist at performance improvement, instructional design, entrepreneurial and small-business conferences, and other business-related events.

Lisa has been a member of the Board of Trustees for On My Own of Michigan since 2018. Currently, she is the Treasurer of the Executive Committee, having served as the Secretary from 2020-2022. Lisa also is a volunteer grant reviewer for Impact100 Oakland County.

Lisa has a master’s degree in instructional technology from Wayne State University in Detroit and a bachelor’s degree in music education from Michigan State University.