The Leader Insights Series Podcast

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Cathy Port - Head of Food for Costa Coffee. With a Masters in Creative Talents & Solutions in Business and an early career in product development, over the past 20 years Cathy has successfully worked for the likes of Compass Group, Sainsbury’s, McDonald's, Leon and since 2017 she's been the Head of Food for Costa Coffee and is responsible for the...

In this week’s episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Sue Garfitt, the CEO of Alpro. Having known Sue for over 10 years, I’ve experienced first-hand her incredible work ethic, her energy and her dogged determination to succeed. Sue’s incredible career in the industry spans over 25 years – having worked with the likes of Britvic Soft Drinks, Burton’s Foods and MapleLeaf Foods to name just a f...

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with qualified Executive Coach, Chair for "Women in Wholesale" and the Chief Commercial Officer for the DCS Group - Clare Bocking. From running the foodservice and wholesale divisions for Britvic to being a member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council, Clare has had an extremely successful 25 years of commercial leadership experience in the Food &...

In this week’s episode, I had the immense pleasure of speaking with Ross Farquhar – Marketing Director of Little Moons . Ross has a seriously impressive career in Marketing within the Food industry, starting out at Cadbury and Diageo before taking the plunge into the world of start-ups at creative agency 101. After achieving great success as Chief Marketing Officer at Wagamama (from launching an a...

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Shaun Smith - Sales Director of Birds Eye UK & Ireland.  Birds Eye is owned by Nomad Foods, the largest Frozen Food Company in Europe with a 14% market share and generates over £2Bn in revenue. Shaun, who also sits on the European leadership team, started his journey at Warburtons before progressing through Arla Foods, Northern Foods and Aunt...

My guest for this episode is an industry leader who's full of insightful knowledge and advice, Sue McVie.  Sue is a purpose-led growth leader and entrepreneur who unlocks the potential in both people and ideas. Having worked with United Biscuits, her career progressed through the likes of Coca Cola, Pepsico and Vodafone before joining Kerry Foods in 2012 as Shopper Marketing Director&nbs...

This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing a young entrepreneur and the Founder of Wellbeans Coffee , Michael Ellis .  Michael has a truly inspirational story, using his own personal struggles with anxiety and his love of Coffee to create a purpose-driven business that gives back to the community.  Michael and Wellbeans spread awareness about mental health and simultaneously break dow...

This week I had the pleasure of speaking to Mark Dennis , the Chief Operating Officer of COOK Trading - a thriving manufacturer and retailer of high-quality frozen ready meals with a growing home delivery network across the UK.  Founded in 1997, it has placed 14th in the most recent Sunday Times 'Top 100 Companies to Work For' and became a founding B-Corp member in 2013. Mark has had an excep...

I am thrilled to be joined by my guest for this episode, Bruce Alexander .  Bruce is the Managing Director of Montezuma's Chocolates - one of the most innovative and fastest-growing SME's around. Described as "Britain's Greatest Little Chocolate Company", they work with the principles of "Business Done Properly" , putting substance over style and sustainability over profit. Bruce has had a su...

For the past 9 years, John has been the CEO of Cafedirect - one of the founding businesses of the Fairtrade movement and the UK's first B-Corp accredited Coffee Company. With a successful career spanning over 3 decades, John can be regarded as a pioneer in the purpose-driven business movement. Especially passionate about supporting people at the beginning of the supply chain, John & Cafedirect...

For this episode, I was delighted to talk about culture fit and leading with the heart with my special guest Marc Cox , Founder of The Company Spirit and Author of the highly regarded book "The Business Case for Love". Over the past decade, Marc has been hired by CEO's and leadership teams from across the globe who are looking for a different approach to creating an authentic company cul...

This week I was delighted to be joined by the wonderful Julia Darvill.  Julia is the Managing Director for the UK arm of Puratos , a global Bakery Ingredients supplier with a  £1.9Bn turnover. Having worked within the drinks industry at organisations such as Molson Coors and Britvic, Julia then went on to join Puratos as UK Sales Director in 2015. After 3 years of consecutive and su...

This week on The Leader Insights Series Podcast we have an exclusive extended episode with the incredibly engaging Sam Waterfall.   Sam is a high-impact career coach with a background in marketing and a no-nonsense approach to getting you the job you really want. Whether it's helping young people overcome their inexperience to land their first job, or it's working alongside senior leaders to...

My guest for this week's episode on The Leader Insights Series Podcast is the inspiring and hugely successful Andrew Selley, CEO of Bidcorp UK.  Having become CEO of Bidfood UK in 2014 Andrew also sits on the Bidcorp global leadership foodservice group developing their interests in Turkey, the Middle East, the Baltics and Spain. Bidcorp has become the leading supplier of food, beverages and p...

In this episode I have the pleasure of talking with the inspiring Ally Yates as we talk Behaviour Analysis, Inclusion and Communication Effectiveness in the Workplace. Ally Yates is a Director, an Author and Leadership Coach and has almost 3 decades of talent development, leadership learning and business experience spread across multiple industries. She is also the author of 'Utter Confidence' - h...

For this episode, I had the pleasure of talking to the inspiring, global leader Dr. Stella Peace . Stella is the Chief R&D and Quality Officer at the largest Frozen Food Company in Europe, Nomad Foods . Packed full of insight and information to help inspire you no matter where you are in your career. Join us as we discuss Stella's impressive career in R&D, the importance of finding yo...

My guest for this week's episode is the truly inspirational Mary Wilson, the Global Marketing Director of Lil-Lets. Mary has nearly 25 years’ marketing & brand building experience and has worked within a number of environments such as multi-national Seagram Distillers & Vintners, Premier Foods through to a privately owned food & drink innovation business. She is deeply passionate about...

Recorded just before Christmas 2020, my guest for this episode was the engaging and insightful Jon Symthe. Jon is the Sales, Marketing and Supply Chain Director at Grupo Bimbo UK, The UK subsidiary of the world-leading, £15Bn turnover Mexican bakery group, Grupo Bimbo.  Jon is an inspiring and results-focused leader with a wealth of experience spanning his 20+ year career. In this episode, Jo...

In this episode, I had the privilege to sit down and have a fascinating conversation with Clive Moxham for the next instalment of the Podcast.  Clive is the Group Commercial Director with Leathams', the privately-owned premium speciality food supplier into the Foodservice, Ingredient and Retail channels across the UK, and has been a major driving force in their success over the past decade.&n...

I am thrilled to be joined by my guest for this episode, Alex Demetriou.   Alex is the Managing Director for Regency Purchasing Group , a key player in supporting the UK Food & Drink supply chain servicing over 3000 customers. Join Alex and I as we talk about his introduction into this industry and the influence his family has had on his career. He also shares some extremely valuable...

Join me in conversation with John Weaver.  Quite simply, John is a first-class CEO with a proven track record of success and in recent times he's developed a very successful non-exec portfolio career.  John was Chief Operating Officer for Petty Wood & Co, which he successfully sold in 2015 as part of an MBO after doubling revenue. Subsequently, he had similar success as CEO with the...

In this episode, I'm delighted to have the opportunity to talk with Stuart Lee.  Simply put, Stuart is a world-class Operations & Business leader with a wealth of experience gained across the Food Industry. Previously the Executive Vice President of East Balt Bakery for 13 years, he was responsible for the whole of EMEA and during his time was attributed with increasing revenue substantially. Stua...

In this episode, I'm in conversation with the hugely successful Gavin Bown, Vice President for Global R&D at the world's leading chocolate and cocoa manufacturer, Barry Callebaut.  Join us as we discuss Gavin's career in the FMCG industry, how to successfully manage a large international team whilst remote working and what great leadership looks like within high-performing organisations....

In this episode of The Leader Insights Series I'm joined by the truly remarkable John Want.      John is the UK Sales, Marketing and R&D Director at Rich Products, the privately-owned premium global Bakery manufacturer. As an experienced Sales, Marketing and Innovation leader, John has over 20 years experience gained from the industry with companies such as Ginsters, Lyons...

In this episode of The Leader Insights Series , I get the chance to sit down with the highly engaging Lawrence Trist. Lawrence is the Managing Director for the Finsbury Food Group Cake division, the 2nd biggest cake manufacturer in the UK with a 20% market share and a workforce of over 2,000 people, across 3 manufacturing sites. After graduating with a degree in Retail Marketing, Lawrence’s very f...