Meet Jérôme Le Carrou – Founder of Learning Expedition
At Learning Expedition, every programme begins with a question: what does true transformation look like within this organisation?
For Jérôme, that question has shaped more than a decade of work helping leaders, teams, and students navigate change in an increasingly complex world.
Born in France, Jérôme first arrived in Shanghai for a four-month internship before graduate school – a decision that unexpectedly set the trajectory of his career. What began as an opportunity with the Foreign Culture Club soon evolved into the founding of Next Step Connections in 2008, a platform dedicated to transforming students through experiential learning across Asia. Fifteen years on, the impact of those programmes continues to ripple across industries and continents, transforming the lives of hundreds of students around the world.
Over time – through countless programmes delivered to corporates and educational institutions worldwide, and through conversations with organisational leaders and executive associations – Jérôme saw a deeper truth emerge: organisations change only when their leaders do.
Leaders, teams, and even entire companies were hungry for the same kind of exposure, perspective, and structured disruption, the same that Jérôme saw propelled students at Next Step Connections forward. The gap wasn’t knowledge – it was experience: the space to step outside daily routines, challenge assumptions, and see their organisation with new clarity.
And so, with that, Learning Expeditions was born.
A decade later, Jérôme’s mission remains the same: to design journeys that make transformation real, not theoretical.
“People don’t change because they’re told to — they change because they experience something that shifts the way they see the world.”
With partnerships spanning around the world, Jérôme connects companies to ecosystems that reflect the global pulse and speed of innovation. Each expedition is built around exposure to pioneering organisations, immersive learning with entrepreneurs and experts, and reflection sessions that link insights back to business objectives.
This is not leadership training in the traditional sense — it’s learning through lived experience.
It’s what McKinsey calls “contextual leadership development”: programmes that succeed because they are anchored in real-world challenges rather than abstract models.
And Deloitte research echoes the same truth: companies that integrate experiential, personalised learning into their culture are 1.8× more likely to report higher performance and 1.6× more likely to achieve meaningful work outcomes.
Whether leading a global innovation immersion, an AI-in-leadership expedition, or a mindfulness and mental health journey, Jérôme’s work is driven by one belief: “Transformation happens when leaders step outside their own context … and return with a new one.”
As AI reshapes work, Jérôme sees leadership learning entering a new phase – one where customisation, context, and activation become the key differentiators between inspiration and impact. His mission at LEX is clear: to keep designing expeditions that bring those principles to life — because at the end of the day, organisations don’t move forward unless their people do.