Dave Basarab is an accomplished, highly respected trainer, evaluator, author, teacher, inventor and thought leader. As Virtual Chief Learning Architect, Dave is vastly improving the “train-o-sphere,” offering a unique “soup to nuts” approach around training and evaluation. His products, services, and methodologies help companies get a bigger bang for their training bucks and more effectively demonstrate training’s ROI.
Dave is an accomplished author of the best seller The Training Evaluation Process. His newest training evaluation book, Predictive Evaluation, spotlights his pioneering new model in predicting training success. As an expert on world-renowned Donald Kirkpatrick’s training models, he has contributed introductions and chapter content for Kirkpatrick’s recent books on training. He has also contributed numerous articles on training, leadership, learning strategies, and evaluation to some of the industry’s most prominent publications.
Dave graduated from The University of Akron School of Education with a degree in Secondary Mathematics and Business Education. He received his Masters Degree in Educational Administration from the University of Dayton. Now based in Atlanta, he’s the founder of Dave Basarab Consulting, LLC, V.A.L.E. Consulting, LLC and co-founder of The Learning Burst Academy. He serves on the national Board of Directors for Berrett-Koehler Publisher’s Authors Co-op.
In addition to his significant knowledge and experience, Dave is tremendously creative and innovative in his style, presenting material in a dynamic, memorable way. He designs his curricula and sessions to be both relevant and unforgettable. A career highlight was developing a space-themed training program for Pitney Bowes, when he came in to revive the company’s sluggish training department. Dave’s well-choreographed event involved important business training initiatives – set against a backdrop of spacesuits, smoke machines, computer simulations, the first ever avatar, internal staff competitions, and highly coveted prizes. The training program was hugely engaging, unique and memorable, delivering key information in an exciting, innovative atmosphere. Leadership was impressed with the program’s ROI, which resulted in $1.2 million in additional sales that were directly attributable to this experience. And the industry took notice, too – Dave won the coveted Chief Learning Officer Innovator of the Year Award and was showcased in a Wall Street Journal article about business simulations in leadership development. The program also catapulted Dave’s Pitney Bowes Employee Development & Performance team onto Training Magazine’s Top 100 Companies list for the first time, honoring the organization for its unparalleled commitment to workforce development.