A Class Act: AI, Data & Leadership

In this episode of A Class Act, Michael sits down with Andy McMahon, Director of AI & MLOps Engineering at Barclays, Oxford lecturer, and author of Machine Learning Engineering with Python. Andy went from a physics PhD at Imperial College to leading AI engineering at one of the world’s largest banks, and he’s got a sharp take on why most AI never makes it out of the demo. In this conversation,...

If you run a data team, you already know that the hardest part of being a great data leader isn’t always the technology. In this episode of A Class Act, host Michael Young chats with Asia Faulds, Head of Data Science at Booksy.  Asia has built data science teams from the ground up at the BBC, Trustpilot, and now Booksy, and she’s seen first-hand why brilliant technical teams still fail when priori...

In this episode of A Class Act, Michael chats with Stu Kennedy, an Edge, Realtime & AI Systems Consultant, core HTMX contributor, and former film composer who worked alongside David Arnold on the Chronicles of Narnia and BBC’s Sherlock.  Today, Stu builds real-time voice AI pipelines, contributes to the WebSocket layer in HTMX 4, and has helped companies like Anam and Pyannote push the boundar...

If 99% of executives say their AI rollout isn’t mature, so what’s actually going wrong? In this episode of A Class Act, Michael chats with Natalia Konstantinova, Lead Enterprise Architect in AI at NatWest Group. Natalia holds a PhD in Computational Linguistics and has spent her career at the intersection of AI research and enterprise delivery, including leading AI strategy at BP before joining Nat...

Nina Habicht has been building AI since 2011 and is one of Switzerland's Top 100 Women in Data and AI. In this conversation with Michael of MBN Solutions, she's direct about what she actually thinks about why so much AI being built right now feels disposable, why the funding bubble is coming even if the technology bubble isn't and why generalist AI startups don't have an easy r...

AI is moving fast. Most organisations are trying to keep up. But the real question isn’t “should we use it?” anymore, it’s whether you can deploy it without creating risks you can’t explain later. In this episode, Michael Young is joined by Jeff Watkins (former CTO, fractional Chief AI Officer / advisor) to get specific about what “responsible AI” looks like in practice. Michael asks Jeff: What do...

What’s actually happening with LLMs in 2026 and what does it mean for business leaders? In this episode of A Class Act, Michael is joined by Richard Bownes, Head of AI Solutions at Vector8, for a discussion on how large language models are evolving and why the biggest shift isn’t capability, but consistency, reliability, and system design. Rather than chasing the next capability jump, Richard expl...

What if you could sit down with the Head of AI inside one of the UK’s most regulated digital banks and hear the truth about what actually works and what leaders need to get right? That’s exactly what we explore in this episode of A Class Act. Shannon is joined by Dr. Russell Collingham, Head of AI & Data Science at Atom Bank, and one of the most experienced AI leaders in UK financial services....

In this episode of A Class Act, Michael Young, CEO of MBN Solutions speaks with Andre Balleyguier, AI Solutions Leader at Snorkel AI , formerly at DataRobot, and recognised by DataIQ as one of the UK’s most influential figures in data and AI. Andre has spent around fifteen years working with data and more than a decade in applied  AI.  Today, he leads global AI solutions engineering at Snorkel AI,...

Most enterprise AI strategies fail not because the technology isn’t ready, but because organisations are still operating with 20th-century models. In this episode, Global Chief Digital, Data & AI Officer Eddie Short breaks down what’s really going wrong, and what leaders must do instead to build AI into the DNA of their organisations. With over 30 years of experience as a Fortune 1000 CTO/CDO,...

Every organisation is racing to adopt AI but capability isn’t just about technology.  It’s about people. In this episode, host Shannon speaks with Emma Rattray, an AI Engineer whose journey from chemical engineering to software development and AI research offers an honest look at what the next generation of AI talent truly values and how forward-thinking leaders can attract and retain it. After ea...

I’ve been in this market for nearly 20 years and in that time, I’ve helped place over 4,000 senior leaders in data, analytics, and AI roles around the world from the dot com boom to big data. What I’ve learned is this:  technology isn’t the hard part. Leadership and implementation is. That’s why we’re back with Season 2 of A Class Act , and this time, we’re calling it Navigating the AI Landscape  ...

What if you could sit down with an engineer who’s building AI partnerships alongside the top companies shaping the future like OpenAI, NVIDIA, and Microsoft? That’s exactly what we’re doing today. In this Season 2 opener, host Michael Young sits down with Tom McLaughlin, Forward Deployed Engineer at Tomoro. Their partnerships with the pioneers behind the world’s most powerful models mean clients g...

In this episode, host Michael is joined by Kent Mackenzie, Group Chief Operating Officer at Corlytics and former Deloitte Partner. Kent’s career has taken him from pulling apart ATMs as a curious young technologist, to leading Deloitte’s global FinTech and RegTech practice, and now to scaling one of the leading names in regulatory technology. You’ll hear: Why “you don’t need to have all the answer...

What can AI teach us about leadership when you’re a decade ahead of the curve? In this episode of A Class Act: Conversations in Data and Leadership , host Shannon speaks with David Meikle, founder of BloxWeaver and former CTO at Lingo24. David reflects on the leadership lessons he learned introducing AI and automation into the translation industry nearly ten years before most businesses began faci...

What would you do if your first day as CEO started with no funding and ended with national lockdown? That was the reality for Jude McCorry, now CEO of Scotland’s Cyber and Fraud Centre. In this episode of A Class Act, Jude joins Shannon for a conversation about her journey from Ireland to Scotland. She left a successful career in Ireland, landed in Scotland with no job, and rebuilt not just her ca...

She almost didn’t apply. Gillian Docherty is one of the most influential figures in Scotland’s data and AI landscape - but she almost didn’t take the job that changed everything. Recently named CEO of the Year at the DigiTech Awards, Gillian served as CEO of The Data Lab, Scotland’s national Innovation Centre for data and AI. She’s also a TEDx speaker and a vocal advocate for purpose-led leadershi...

What does it take to lead when the pressure is on?  How do you inspire teams to stay aligned in the face of complexity, change, and uncertainty? In this episode of A Class Act: Conversations in Data & Leadership , host Shannon McKechnie is joined by David Goodacre OBE, a Senior Executive, Board Member, and experienced leader with significant experience in strategy, transformation, and operatio...

What does it really take to lead change not just in your company, but across an entire industry? In this episode of A Class Act: Conversations in Data & Leadership , Michael Young speaks with Stephen Ingledew, Chair of FinTech Scotland and a driving force behind one of the UK’s most respected fintech ecosystems. Stephen shares his 40+ year journey through financial services from traditional co...

What does it take to lead with trust, earn credibility, and build exceptional teams in today’s data-driven world? In this episode, Michael Young sits down with Elizabeth Hollinger, a data and technology leader whose career spans actuarial roots, enterprise transformation, and building award-winning teams.  From feeling out of her depth in her first technology project at Deloitte, to leading cuttin...

What does it take to build high-performing teams in today’s product and tech landscape - and how do you keep your own leadership evolving in the process? In this episode of A Class Act: Conversations in Data & Leadership, Shannon McKechnie, Managing Director at MBN Solutions, is joined by Adriana Ignat - a Pproduct Management and Design leader and an AI specialist, whose career includes more t...

What does it take to thrive across 35 years in data leadership? And how do you build high-performing teams – not just for now, but for the future? In this inaugural episode of A Class Act: Conversations in Data & Leadership, Michael Young sits down with a true veteran of the data world: Graeme McDermott, Chief Data Officer at Tempcover.  From his early actuarial days to leading enterprise data...

Welcome to A Class Act: Conversations in Data & Leadership. I’m Michael, and after nearly two decades leading data talent acquisition with MBN Solutions, I’ve seen firsthand that exceptional teams don’t just happen - they’re built. They’re crafted by placing the right people in the right roles, at exactly the right time. This podcast pulls back the curtain on what it takes to build and lead hi...