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This week’s guest is Josie Smith: Chief Architect for Digital at BT. From humble beginnings on the checkouts at Asda to overseeing business architecture and setting a "digital first" vision at BT, Josie has undoubtedly made her mark on the industry as a successful female leader.  In this episode, Josie and Gareth explore architecture in the corporate world, driving AI first and building automation into BT's operations. They also chat about finding your "super powers", understanding your strengths and the importance of confidence and believing in yourself. Josie tells us about diversity and inclusion at BT and the need to ensure people have ample opportunity for coaching and mentoring to enable them to reach their full potentialAlong the way, they discuss Josie’s favourite subject in school (2.01) Selecting IT as a career path (3.16) The leadership gender imbalance in tech (8.14) The Importance of a good mentor (11.29) Being a chief Architect at BT (16.20) What’s hot right now at BT (18.40) Evolution of BT (21.35) What is Josie most excited about? (23.59) Josie outside of work (25.59) Top Productivity tips (28.06) Advice to 21-year-old Josie (30.05)

From virtual-appointments, to artificial intelligence, to data management and fighting cyber-attacks, Dell's Arshad Farhad helps healthcare providers to see how technology can support their work.Arshad is Dell Technology's Chief Technology Officer in Healthcare and Life Sciences for Europe, Middle East and Africa. He's also working towards his doctorate in Federated Learning for AI (using ML and Data Science) to improve patient care using wearable and Internet of Medical Things sensors.In this episode, Arshad tells Gareth why technology is the future of healthcare and how medicine can be more effective if it is data-driven. Why Arshad is passionate about healthcare and technology (2.05) Arshad’s PHD journey and challenges (3.17) Healthcare in the next 5 to 10 years (4.35) Ethical dilemmas (8.35) Robotic surgery (9.53) Wearable technology in healthcare (11.30) How does the UK healthcare technology compare to other countries (15.41) The last 12 months in healthcare technology (19.17) Smart hospitals (21.00) What problems is the healthcare sector facing (22.28) How Dell is helping to address these challenges (25.09) Edge-based healthcare (25.40) AI healthcare (26.50) Data management (27.15) Data security (29.52) Cloud technology (31.30) Arshad's role as Chief Technology Officer (33.27) What Arshad believes makes a good leader (36.27) Leadership in the pandemic (37.34) Who inspires Arshad (38.27)

This week’s guest is formidable entrepreneur, investor and CEO of Goodlord, William Reeve.  After setting up his first business during the dotcom boom of the 90s, William moved on to set up pioneering media rental website LoveFilm.com in the noughties.  Since then, he has co-founded Secret Escapes, as well as served on the boards of Nutmeg, Dunelm and Graze as a non-exec. Most recently, he founded Goodlord; an award-winning lettings platform designed to streamline tenancies.  Having dipped his toe into all business sectors, William stands out as a tech leader with many strings to his bow. In this episode, he tells Gareth about his colourful career as an entrepreneur and the things he’s most excited about in the years to come.  William’s take on the world situation right now (1.20)   Problem-solving at Goodlord (2.58) Early days at Mckinsey's - (4.30) Setting up a business (6.37) The dot-com boom (8.10) LoveFilm.com (10.05) Forecast for the future of online media (15.30) How does William assess which opportunities to accept or reject? (17.07) Joining Zoopla (19.52) Secret Escapes (23.16) Milestone moments (25.13) What is William most excited about in the future? (28.51) Outside of work/advice to 21-year-old William (30.18) How the workplace is evolving (32.38) Inspirational stories (35.29)

This week’s guest is Tim Neill, Mastercard’s Chief Risk Officer for Real-time Payments and Applications. After studying Police and Criminal Justice Studies, Tim came to the UK twenty years ago straight out of university and was offered a consulting role at Goldman Sachs.  Cutting his teeth in London’s fast-paced trading environment, assessing risk, resilience and security for world-renowned banks,  Tim began specialising in the payments sector, culminating in his lead risk role at global payments provider Mastercard.  Tim chats to Gareth at Mastercard’s London offices about his career journey, the UK’s global position in payments, the future innovation of real-time payments at a cross-border level and Mastercard's work to create a global standard for payments and how this is helping develop payment infrastructure in countries worldwide.  01:34 - Background05:12 - Tim’s role at Mastercard08:02 - Getting into payments as a specialism08:47 - Significant changes in the last 8 years10:55 - Getting more countries equipped with realtime payment services 14:40 - Plans to create a global standard of payments18:31 - Kenyan M-Pesa21:02 - What is MasterCard taking forward from the pandemic? 22:40 - Will innovation suffer from reduced workplace interaction?24:27 - Outside of fintech, what is Tim most excited about? 28:27 - Life outside of work31:18 - Advice to the 21 year old Tim32:18 - Tim’s inspirations 

Brett Wigdortz OBE is a philanthropist, entrepreneur and founder of Teach First, an social enterprise charity addressing educational disadvantage in England and Wales. He was also recently re-elected as chairman of the board for the National Citizen Service, a UK government-backed training scheme for teenagers. Formerly an international journalist, Brett has spent time in dozens of countries and knows education inside out. As a founder and tech leader, he’s ambitious to find innovative solutions to education inequality and help lower-income children gain access to better schooling.  In this episode, Brett chats to Gareth about his work setting up a digital community of childminders at tiney.co, the differences in education around the world and long-term challenges faced by schoolchildren due to the Covid pandemic. Beginnings (1.10) Defining Education (4.32)Education and social mobility in the UK (5.55)Education in Finland (9.04)Long term impact of Covid (15.34) Setting up tiney.co (16.38)NCS work (20.53)What are North America doing differently? (24.40) Inequality in the UK (26.40) Outside of work (28.49)Combating childhood obesity with Bite Back (31.27)Links (34.38)

Ego Obi is Head of Operations for Sub-Saharan Africa at Google. An inspiration to many, Ego is an experienced tech leader and mentor, who has done some incredible work which has improved the lives of millions.   Originally pursuing a career in accountancy, Ego felt drawn to technology and systems, resulting in a career pivot, culminating in her being approached by Google to lead an amazing venture to provide world-class education and internet access to millions of people, across many emerging nations, globally.   Furthermore, Ego is a career coach and philanthropist with involvement in some amazing charities. In this episode, Ego chats to Gareth about her upbringing, what inspires her, technology as an educational force for good, and the enormous economic potential of a truly digital Africa.  Where did it all begin? (1.38) Coaching women in tech (3.22) Joining Google at a pivotal moment (5.58) Google’s 20% project (7.50) Move into emerging markets and education (10.47) Removing barriers to internet access in West Africa (13.14) What is Ego most proud of? (17.10) Potential in Sub-Saharan African nations (20.18) Ego’s upbringing (22.58) What’s next? (24.08) Charitable endeavours (27.09) How has the pandemic changed Google? (29.05) Advice to 21 year old Ego (31.40) Inspirational reading (32.49) Links to Ego’s work (35.43)

Trenton is a renowned business leader and qualified leadership coach with experience training digital teams for nearly twenty years.  His best-selling book Human Powered is a concise guide for cultivating a high-performance culture within digital teams through developing emotional intelligence and people skills.  Trenton speaks to Gareth about his personal business journey, including his 15 years at Webcredible from embryo to exit.  He also talks candidly about the process of writing an Amazon bestselling book, how remote working sometimes creates workplace conflict; and his three crucial tips for successful remote meetings.  Effective leadership (1.35) The journey of setting up a digital agency (Webcredible)  (3.48) Writing a best seller (16.09) Conflict in business teams (18.26) Remote working and  workplace conflict (19.57) Top 3 tips for successful remote meetings (23.28) EQ – emotional intelligence (25.50) Teaching children EQ (32.28) Team Sterka and leadership coaching (36.53) Get in touch with Trenton and team Sterka (41.00)

Steve O’Hear has been providing commentary during one of the most exciting periods of tech innovation in the UK. A highly respected, prominent journalist for ZDNet and Tech Crunch, Steve covered the rise of Monzo, Wise and Starling Bank as well as other FinTech and general tech advances throughout the period dubbed Web 2.0  But Journalism wasn’t all Steve planned to achieve in his career. He tried his hand at entrepreneurship with Beepl, and talks candidly about this experience and what lessons he learned that made him a better writer and leader.   Steve is currently the VP of Strategy at Zapp - an e-commerce convenience grocery company, who are attempting to disrupt the already competitive, convenience retail space.   Talking Points 02:05 - Intro to Steve 03:43 - How did Steve get into Tech Journalism? 05:02 - Web 2.0 08:52 - What Tech Companies has Steve Seen Rise? 10:52 - Fin Tech 11:30 - What Prompted the rise of FinTech? 15:25 - Beepl 17:20 - Lessons learned from Beepl failures 19:00 - Entrepreneurial advice to those starting a venture 20:25 - Changing careers from journalism to Zapp 24:00 - Why will Zapp change the convenience retail space in the UK? 28:05 - What tech innovations is Steve excited about? 30:50 - Steve's advice to young journalists. 32:50 - Stories that inspired Steve.  

The final instalment of the Women in Tech Series is upon us. And what a series it has been!This week, branding expert, marketing entrepreneur, ‘Black Women in Tech’ founder and all-around super-woman Flavilla Fongang, joins Kerensa and Gareth for a memorable chat!This value-filled conversation covers everything from the moment she landed in the UK, unable to speak a word of English, and then going on to complete two degrees and a MA in International studies; through to her advice on building a personal brand,  overcoming adversity through confidence and perseverance. We also talk about the formation of ‘Black Women in Tech’ and how to cultivate confidence and ambition to fulfil your career aspirations. 06:00 - Flavilla’s Personal Brand07:50 - Challenges of the Past11:20 - Taking Ownership13:26 - Work/Life Balance16:57 - What Books has Flavilla been most inspired by?22:00 - Motivation behind setting up Black Women in Tech28:55 - Women and STEM Subjects31:00 - Cultural differences for women careers between UK And France32:30 - Flavilla’s Advice34:20 - Tips about confidence36:50 - Branding Mistakes

Marta Krupinska is a Tech entrepreneur, diversity advocate, and current Head of Google for Startups UK, alongside a Chair role at Youth Business International.Recognised by Forbes in 30Under30 in 2016, by Evening Standard as amongst London's Most Influential People 2017 and 2018 and by Forbes as top 60 Female Tech Executives globally, 2018.   As a female founder herself, having founded 3 startups- most notably of a global FinTech money transfer company Azimo which raised $90M+ in funding from top VC firms and serves millions of customers, globally.   Marta is helping to level the playing field for founders in the UK and EMEA with her amazing team at Google. Working with startups and founders with a particular focus on the positive impact of building diverse teams and making the world a better place. 02:45 - Marta’s background6:05 - How Does Marta Define Success?07:50 - Diversity of Thinking11:40 - Diversity with Co-Founders16:19 - Progress or PR with Women in Tech?17:45 - What’s Slowing Progress?21:26 - How To Promote Female Ambition?26:24 - Youth Business International and what have we got to look forward to from Gen Z?30:55 - What trends does Marta see from start-ups?33:30 - What’s Marta working on now?

On this episode of the Tech Leaders Podcast - Women in Tech series, we are joined by the inspirational Alice Bentinck; co-founder of Entrepreneur First and Code First Girls - where she’s worked tirelessly to give others opportunities that they otherwise wouldn’t have had to become entrepreneurs, as well as encouraging more women into the tech sector. Alice opens up to discuss how she got to where she is today, what mistakes she made along the way, how she grew her business and what advice she’d give to others as well as why she thinks ambition is key to everything an entrepreneur can achieve and shouldn’t be seen as a bad word.   02:26 - Introduction to Alice & Entrepreneur First 04:20 - Giving permission to be ambitious 07:20 - Alice’s First Startup Process 10:25 - How Networking attracted the head of LinkedIn 12:31 - The Story of Code First Girls 16:34 - Alice’s Advice on growing your network 18:15 - Gender Diversity in the Tech and entrepreneurship sectors 22:27 - Alice’s Journey into Coding 24:46 - How to stay resilient 26:30 - How Business owners can create a culture encouraging female ambition 30:42 - What is Web 3.0?

On the first of our ‘Women in Tech’ Series Professor Kerensa Jennings and Gareth Davies are joined by an inspirational woman who’s been consistently listed as one of the 50 most influential women in Tech, Naomi Timperley.  Naomi talks to us about setting up and scaling Baby Loves Disco, an immensely popular children's disco service, and getting approached to pitch on the Dragons Den. Despite turning down an offer, Naomi still struck up a great relationship with Deborah Meadon and learned a huge amount from the experience. Naomi has also inspired and mentored hundreds of young entrepreneurs and also Inspired and launched Digital Enterprising Award as well as co-founding Tech North advocates and sitting on the board at Salford University.   They also discuss some of Naomi's challenges throughout her career and her observations about the next generation of female leaders along with much much more..  02:23 - Introductions to Naomi 03:40 - Baby Loves Disco 04:15 - Dragons Den 06:30 - Youth Entrepreneurship 07:45 - IDEA Inspiring Digital Enterprising Award 11:45 - Gender Challenges 13:00 - Inspiring with Confidence 17:30 - The Education System and opening opportunities 20:40 - Mentoring Others 25:00 - Generation Z’s Perceptions on careers 30:50 - Local Businesses and Schools Connecting 32:30 - Education and Gender Stereotyping Careers 34:00 - Naomi’s Advice to Business Leaders on gender balance 36:25 - Lockdown Inspiration   Naomi’s Quoted Books Via:   https://www.strategyzer.com/   How people can connect with Naomi   https://twitter.com/naomitimperley   https://uk.linkedin.com/in/naomitimperley   https://www.wearegsi.com  

Railsbank is the world’s leading Embedded Finance Experience platform. Today we’re joined by their COO of UK and Europe, Louisa Murray. Louisa joined Railsbank as one of its first employees in 2017, and built the sales function from scratch, growing the sales and customer success teams. Prior to this she worked as a trader, headhunter and ran her own recruitment business.  In this conversation, we explore consumer-driven products, legacy technology, making the tech industry more accessible to women, the power of role models  – and a very important conversation she once had in an elevator. Talking Points The early stages of Louisa’s banking career (04:41) The impact of being a woman in a male-dominated industry (08:01) What inspired Louisa to be a headhunter (11:33) Key lessons learnt from working in recruitment (15:22) Railsbank’s mission (18:09) Trends to look out for in the UK FinTech space (22:42) Transitioning from a sales role into a COO (25:12) What makes a good salesperson? (27:02) What Railsbank has learnt from the pandemic (30:25) How can we make the tech industry more accessible for women? (35:40) The future of Railsbank (42:47) On the decentralisation of banks and cryptocurrencies (44:39) The problem with printing more money (48:29) Louisa’s career advice (42:08) Links Railsbank Louisa’s LinkedIn

Today’s guest, Mark Evans, has had an impressive IT career to date. He has overseen digital transformation projects from a range of organisations and institutions, including the government’s DVLA, and has completed his MBA. He joined Hodge Bank as the Chief Technology Officer in 2016, which at the time had very little digital presence.  As it’s clear in this interview, Mark loves a challenge. Tune in to find out more about how the bank serves its customers (and staff) digitally. We also discuss the Government Digital Service, the London wage threat, allocating your resources in-house versus outsourcing, graduate schemes – and having itchy feet.  Talking Points His MBA studies (07:48) The in-house digital transformation amongst the government departments (10:46) Digitising the DVLA (12:52) On bringing in-house versus outsourcing agency capabilities (15:20) Hodge Bank “playing a part in the FinTech revolution” (22:12) Having an employee value proposition (23:47) The biggest challenge with growing and retaining a team (25:28) The sustainability agenda at Hodge Bank (35:49) The future of open architecture and banking (38:19) The key attributes needed to be a successful CTO (42:21) Mark’s advice to people starting out with their careers in technology (44:30) Links Hodge Bank Sustainability at Hodge Yamini Rangan – Chief Customer Officer, HubSpot Yoello ‘The Black Swan’ by ​​Nassim Nicholas Taleb ‘Skin the in the Game’ by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The vice president for Meta's (formerly Facebook) northern Europe division Steve Hatch joins the show to explore all things neurodiversity and what’s in store for the social media platform. Steve is a media agency veteran and joined Facebook in 2013. Prior to that, Hatch became CEO of MEC in 2011, having been there since its formation as Mediaedge:cia following the merger of The Media Edge and CIA in 1998. He also held several planning and strategy roles at Young & Rubicam Group, PHD and DDB throughout the 1990s. I had a great conversation with Steve to learn more about his experience transitioning from working in the media to Facebook. Tune in as we also explore dyslexia, neurodiversity, content moderation, having an open culture, building a Metaverse – and internet cafes. Talking Points Dyslexia Awareness Week and Steve’s involvement with it (3:09) Steve’s career in advertising and key turning points (10:21) Transitioning from working in the media to Facebook (16:18) Working with Mark Zuckerberg (21:57) Building a neurodiverse team (25:31) Some exciting new technology and innovation projects at Facebook (29:59) The recent big outage across the Facebook network (34:51) Dealing with content moderation (38:04) What will Facebook look like in ten years time? (46:21) The advice Steve would give to his 21 year old self (49:26) Links Made By Dyslexia Facebook Boost Your Business EY on the value of dyslexia GCHQ TED Talk: Benjamin Zan - The Transformative Power of Classical Music

Octopus Energy is on a mission to make a big green dent in the universe by building a truly sustainable energy system globally – by making power greener, smarter, and more affordable for everyone. I had a great time catching up with Greg Jackson, CEO and Founder of Octopus Energy, to find out more about how they’ve been democratising green energy.  In this discussion we explore Greg’s values-based leadership style, the impact of economic theory versus reality, his mission to clean up the energy sector, and the future of the smart grid.  Talking Points The impact of having studied a degree in Economics (5:58) His time working at Procter & Gamble and leaving the corporate world (9:38) Greg’s values-based leadership style (13:31) On supporting local communities, social justice and mobility (22:28) How Octopus Energy fosters diversity and inclusion during they’re hiring process (24:46) Why they don’t have an HR department (27:16) Lessons learned from the 2020 pandemic (29:09) Remote vs office-based work (31:24) The impact of eliminating carbon emissions (33:00) How the UK is doing with tackling climate change (37:21) Cryptocurrency and green energy (39:53) The ‘Uberization’ of the grid (42:22) Links The Octopus Group Octopus Energy Greg’s Twitter The Octopus Energy Podcast

Jack Wearne’s financial career started more or less during the 2008 crash. Fortunately, it opened many doors for him, which we uncover in this episode. He is currently the CEO at Ve Global, the ecommerce specialist ​​that enables brands to recreate their in-store experience – online – through a Digital Assistant. Prior to that, he spent 14 years as a city bank trader, which I couldn't wait to find out more about.  Tune in to our discussion as we explore the profound impact Jack’s MBA has had on his career and life, operating from a startup mindset, overcoming strategy overwhelm, the power of perseverance, and lockdown fitness fads.  Talking Points The change in banks and trading after 2008 (03:08) How studying an MBA has helped Jack’s position as Chief Executive Officer at Ve Global (08:02) Developing skills in risk management as a trader (09:48) Ve Global’s previous tough times (10:56) Turning around Ve Global (13:32) Advice on executing strategy (21:23) The impact of phasing out third party cookies (29:06) The future for town centres and traditional retail (32:41) Technological innovations and climate change (36:09) The hybrid model of working (37:52) Jack’s advice to his 21 year old self (43:34) Links Dan Pink Ted Talk: The Puzzle of Motivation ‘My Autobiography’ by Alex Ferguson ‘Grit’ by Angela Duckworth The Founder Jack’s LinkedIn

After every crisis there’s an entrepreneurial boom – and the pandemic has been no exception. Today I explore how the tech space is massively evolving across the UK, with Gerard Grech, CEO at Tech Nation. His passion for mobile and media is shown through his impressive career, where he has worked for brands such as Blackberry World, Nokia, and Orange. We’re recording at the Excel Centre from this year’s London Tech Week, so I’m excited to catch up with Gerard and hear more about his latest insights. In this episode we discuss unicorns – and decacorns – across the country, the impact of consumer behaviour changes, the rise of alternative currencies, the tech space in climate change and robotics, and much more. Talking Points Why the UK leads so strongly with its tech scene (05:15) Gerard’s background and role at Tech Nation (08:02) How Tech City turned into Tech Nation (12:27) Tech changes from the pandemic that are here to stay (15:03) The UK FinTech scene (17:46) Trends in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies (20:57) Tech Nation’s accelerator programmes (24:48) What is deep tech? (29:19) The Net Zero Pledge (34:20) Keep insights from the Job and Skills Report 2021 (39:50) The education system’s role in technology (41:55) The effects of Brexit so far (45:09) Gerard’s advice to aspiring young entrepreneurs (49:19) Links London Tech Week Net Zero Future Fifty Applied AI Job and Skills Report 2021 ‘Principles’ by Ray Dalio Tech Nation

As a mobile-first world, things are changing fast – and according to today’s guest, the future lies in data, privacy and trust. Richard Rosenberg was appointed CTO at the Financial Times at the start of 2021. He leads the FT’s technology strategy across the development and operations teams, and oversees the delivery of cross-platform customer experiences.  Richard previously worked in a number of positions within the Expedia Group, and spent time at Sky, where his team produced award-winning and innovative products including the revolutionary Sky News for iPad application.  I can’t wait to learn more about the technology challenges Richard is tackling under his role. We discuss the advancement of machine learning and AI, having clarity with priorities, the future of journalism, the power of positive thinking, and training for the London marathon.  Talking Points Sky’s product development approaches (08:38) The move from Sky to Expedia (12:11) Learning from Expedia’s A/B testing (13:04) The impact of the pandemic on the travel industry (18:37) The current technological challenges at the FT (27:53) The future of content through blockchain and NFTs (39:30) The impact of online censorship (43:15) Richard’s approach to changing goals and embracing failure (48:39) Links Richard’s LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/richard-rosenberg-00b3a01  Donate to Richard running the London Marathon in aid of NSPCC: ​​https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/RichardRosenberg1

PensionBee is on a mission to create a future of financial freedom through their technology platform. Pensions can be overwhelming and confusing, so I’m excited to bring on PensionBee’s co-founder and CTO, Jonathan Lister Parsons, to unpack how their disruptive technology has enabled hundreds of thousands of people to be "pension confident" through their technology platform.  Join our discussion as we explore the impact of being a technology disruptor, the social impact of investing, blended learning, trusting your inner voice – and what we can learn from Japanese culture. Talking Points Advice for small companies with lean teams (10:37) The future of work for software developers (14:44) Equipping the future labour market with the right technology skills (21:06) Launching PensionBee (26:01) The pension culture in the UK (31:14) Disrupting the pension industry (35:47) Upcoming projects for PensionBee (40:44) The future of batteries (47:00) What we can learn from the Japanese culture (50:54) Where to start with your pension savings and how to build a £1 million pension pot (53:59) Links PensionBee: https://www.pensionbee.com/ Clayton Christensen: https://claytonchristensen.com/ How you could build a million pound pension: https://www.pensionbee.com/blog/2021/april/how-you-could-build-a-one-million-pound-pension  ‘Other People’s Money’ by John Kay: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1781254435