Mike Bollinger
Vice President, Strategic Initiatives Cornerstone OnDemand
Mike Bollinger is an accomplished executive, influencer, and change agent with more than 20 years of industry experience spanning HR technology, education, and enterprise transformation. In his current role as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Cornerstone OnDemand, Mike leads internal research and strategy development focused on outcome-based business goals. He helped found and now oversees the Cornerstone People Research Lab (CPRL), which generates data-driven insights on the evolving world of work and identifies emerging trends shaping new workforce and operating models.
Prior to Cornerstone, Mike served as CIO of a large K-12 school district in Wisconsin, where he led enterprise technology modernization, including digital transformation and curriculum redesign. He eventually was an elected as a school board member, providing governance and fiduciary oversight. He is also a charter school founder and Board Chair, giving him firsthand experience building education models from the ground up. Mike additionally spent five years in higher education at SAP, working at the intersection of enterprise software, learning platforms, student information systems, and workforce readiness.
Today, Mike partners closely with Cornerstone customers in an executive advisory capacity and is a frequent speaker at leading HCM and business forums including UNLEASH, HR Tech, People Matters Tech HR, Evanta, Learning Technologies, HCI and numerous reginal events. His work focuses on HR trends, digital transformation, skills-based talent strategies, and practical ways organizations can measure and realize the business impact of HR and workforce investments.
Seminars
- Quantifying how the rapid deployment of AI agents across administrative, academic, and student facing functions is accelerating demand for uniquely human capabilities such as judgment, empathy, ethical reasoning, and complex collaboration, drawing on proprietary Cornerstone OnDemand labor market data and 2026 workforce projections to show how the skills premium is shifting in real time
- Reframing traditional role design by mapping the emerging hybrid skill profiles now required across colleges and universities, as the historic divide between “technical” roles and “people centric” roles collapses and faculty, staff, and administrators are increasingly expected to combine digital fluency with advanced human decision making
- Designing a data-driven, whole person development strategy that enables institutions to close critical skills gaps, preserve the human touch in an AI enabled operating model, and intentionally prepare their workforce for higher value, judgment intensive work rather than incremental automation
- How can HR leaders in higher education introduce AI in ways that reduce fear and skepticism among faculty and staff while strengthening confidence in decision‑making?
- Which HR and talent processes in universities are best suited for AI enablement first, and where should human judgment remain clearly in control?
- How is AI reshaping skill expectations for faculty, staff, and administrators, and what risks emerge if institutions adopt tools faster than they redesign roles and capabilities
- How can institutions measure AI impact in higher education beyond efficiency, including quality, consistency, service experience, and trust?
