L'ORÉAL CEO NICOLAS HIERONIMUS AND LOUIS THEROUX HEADLINE UNLEASH IN PARIS AS 8,500 HR LEADERS FROM 140 COUNTRIES CONVENE TO REINVENT WORK
The chief people officers of SAP, The Kroger Co, bp, adidas, Lloyds Banking Group, Sony Music, AXA, Accor, Orange and more — leaders responsible for over 100 million employees — fill the Paris Convention Centre, 20–22 October 2026, before UNLEASH expands into the venue's largest hall in 2027.
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PARIS, July 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- UNLEASH, the international HR conference and exhibition where the HR world meets, today announced the headline programme for Paris, 20–22 October 2026. Over three days at the Paris Convention Centre, 8,500 senior leaders from 140 countries, collectively responsible for more than 100 million employees, gather to answer one question: how organisations redesign, and in many cases reinvent, work in the age of AI.
An UNLEASH Exclusive: L'Oréal on Stage 1 — Humans × AI
Few companies demonstrate reinvention better than L'Oréal Groupe, sending global people leadership from across its 40 international brands to Paris. Named Europe's Most Innovative Company by Fortune in 2025, with three entries on TIME's Best Inventions of 2025, the group has made talent, skills and AI a single investment thesis. Group CEO Nicolas Hieronimus and CHRO Jean-Claude Le Grand join Stage to share how that investment built one of the most decorated innovation engines in world business, and what comes next.
Thought leadership
Acclaimed broadcaster, documentary filmmaker and author Louis Theroux anchors the closing keynote — "Two Visions, Two AI Strategies: One Extraordinary Conversation" — on 22 October at 15:05 CEST. He is joined by Josh Bersin, the world's #1 HR industry analyst, in his UNLEASH Exclusive on the work technology market; author and playwright Dr Margaret Heffernan on leading through uncertainty; neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff on how humans think, learn and decide; nexxworks co-founder Peter Hinssen on the "never normal"; and IMD's Howard Yu on becoming and staying future-ready.
The new category: work technology
UNLEASH was born where HR technology met the CHRO; the market has since outgrown the label. The platforms on the Paris show floor no longer automate a single HR function — they redesign how enterprises hire, learn, reward, plan and deploy work across people and AI agents. That category is work technology, and Paris is where it convenes at full scale, in front of the buyers who run the world's largest workforces.
The most senior programme in the industry's history
Alongside the keynotes: Jean-Dominique Senard, Chairman of Renault Group — credited with stabilising the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance and co-author of the report behind France's Loi Pacte; Eddie Wilson, CEO of Ryanair — the airline that transformed European aviation and keeps reinventing how it works; and Robert Gibbs, former NASA Associate Administrator for Mission Support, on leading complex missions through change.
They are joined by the chief people officers and learning chiefs of the world's biggest employers including SAP SE, Google, Meta, bp, adidas, Lloyds Banking Group, Sony, Siemens, Ahold Delhaize, Merck Group, Accor, Orange, AXA, Thales Group and On.
A graduation year for Paris
2026 marks a graduation year for UNLEASH. Alongside a full house at the Paris Convention Centre, dozens of partner and community events run across the city throughout show week. In October 2027, UNLEASH expands into the largest hall at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.
"If you are tired of the doom and gloom around AI and jobs, Paris is the antidote," said Marc Coleman, Founder and CEO of UNLEASH. "Leaders are not debating whether work will change — they are showing how they are reinventing it and winning. The 8,500 leaders in Paris hold responsibility for more than 100 million employees; when they make better, faster decisions about how work is redesigned, the world of work moves. That is what happens Where the HR World Meets."
About UNLEASH
UNLEASH is where the HR world meets. Through its flagship shows in Paris and Miami and its media and intelligence platform, UNLEASH gives the world's most senior HR, business and technology leaders the insight to make better, faster decisions about the future of work.
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