About Jon

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Intro

Jon Birks is a learning consultant who operates at the point where learning, technology and business performance intersect.

Independent expertise in learning platforms and digital learning

Over the past 20+ years, he has designed and scaled learning solutions for organisations including IHG Hotels & Resorts, Suntory, and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health – growing global platforms to 40,000+ learners, delivering measurable behaviour change, and fixing complex learning ecosystems

He is the Founder of Aristo Solutions, where he partners with organisations to make learning actually work – at scale, in practice, and under real-world pressure.

Jon’s career started in IT, working across defence and enterprise environments including DERA (later QinetiQ), Nokia and IBM. Early exposure to complex systems and high-stakes environments shaped a practical, no-nonsense approach – but it was his instinct for helping people understand those systems that set the direction.

At Surrey County Council, that instinct turned into scale. Moving from classroom training into leading digital learning, he helped implement one of the organisation’s first LMS platforms, expanded learning across departments, and supported major system rollouts – embedding learning into how the organisation operated, not just how it trained.

At KFC UK & Ireland, the focus shifted to performance. Over seven years, Jon designed learning for 27,000+ employees across 950+ locations – introducing mobile learning, scenario-based design, and programmes that delivered measurable ROI, including £20k–£60k annual impact per restaurant.

In 2021, Jon founded Aristo Solutions. Bringing together everything he’d learned across systems, learning and scale. Since then, he has worked with global organisations including IHG Hotels & Resorts, Suntory and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health – scaling platforms from 2,000 to 40,000+ learners, delivering multi-language learning across 120+ countries, reducing translation costs through AI-enabled workflows, and helping organisations turn fragmented learning into structured, high-performing ecosystems.