Who we are

Meet the Pilsdonpen founders

Pilsdonpen was founded by two practitioners who wanted to solve the problem of competence gaps in organisations. We built Pilsdonpen to make learning personal, and to accelerate competence for everyone.

Djamel Mahdjoub

Co-founder & Director

Learning and Development specialist with 30+ years of experience in designing and delivering learning solutions across multiple sectors.

I began as a mechanical engineer before turning to how people acquire knowledge and competence. Across three decades I built and led my own learning consultancy; shaping digital learning strategy for organisations including Bayer and AstraZeneca, directing national-scale competency assessments for the UK Government DWP, and serving as Senior Analyst and Consultant at Saudi Aramco.

My research in learning psychology and instructional design lets me build the competency frameworks and learning architecture that turn diagnostic findings into proven capability.

Zakki Mahdjoub

Co-founder & Technical Director

Data scientist and machine learning engineer with experience in data analytics, adaptive systems, and web-app development.

With my background as a financial analyst at Johnson & Johnson, and my Master's degree in Data Science from Durham University, I actively combine my financial and analytical expertise to help organisations identify and address capability gaps.

My research and development in machine learning lets me build the adaptive models and gap-analysis algorithms behind both our products: Mythoclast, the forensic diagnostic that locates a performance gap and evidences its scale, and Athelion, the adaptive learning platform that closes it and proves learner competence. Both are built to produce evidence of capability, not records of attendance.

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