Layne Robinson

Layne Robinson is a distinguished global social policy strategist, international speaker, and the founder of People-Centred Strategies. For more than 20 years, he has worked at the intersection of public leadership, social policy, ethical innovation, and youth development, driving systemic change across 56 nations. Layne spent over 17 years in senior leadership roles at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, culminating in his position as Head of Social Policy Development. In this role, he led public policy initiatives across member countries, focusing on health, education, youth development and sports. Notably, he spearheaded the creation and implementation of the world’s first global Youth Development Index, a groundbreaking data framework tracking youth progress across more than 180 countries. An expert in system dynamics, Layne is the creator of The Distortion Effect, a proprietary framework for identifying institutional blockages and fixing failing organisational systems. He is a member of the global GED Council, a recipient of the Global Youth Development Champion Award, and a TEDx speaker known for his talk, "Why Good Systems Keep Failing.” Currently a PhD researcher, Layne’s academic work explores the futures of artificial intelligence (AI) and its intersection with social policy.