Building Better Cultures

"Don't fall in love with your wins – positively seek out what might kill you next" ​If you want to hear from someone with a varied, wide-ranging and interesting career, you need to look no further than Gavin Bate. He's travelled thousands of miles around the world, summited the seven highest summits on the planet, walked across the Sahara (solo!), driven aid trucks in Africa and taught in Kenya's...

"If you don't continually learn how can you grow as a leader?" ​ Joyce is a career banker with over 20 years of experience in the sector.  Deciding that college wasn't for her, she took a role in the Bank of Ireland from school and spent 14 years there before moving to Ulster Bank in 2003. Within a year she became an Area Manager, a role she held for four years before she was asked to set up an Ac...

"Anything is possible but not everything is possible" ​ Straight out of college, Josh fell into accounting (because that's what you did, right?).  However, very quickly, he realised that it wasn't for him and it was during those two years that he realised, for many people, work was just not enjoyable.  But, having seen and experienced a few moments when people were in their element (or what he ref...

Having been exposed to the hospitality sector from a young age (her mother worked in a local Co Limerick hotel), Margot trained initially as a chef before taking a sideways step into hotel and catering management.  She spent a number of years working for a contract catering company which was acquired by Sodexo. ​ She has been at Sodexo ever since, during which time she's held a number of positions...

Compared to many, Denis's career has been wide-ranging.  It started in London in 1994 where he worked in tech PR before "falling into event management" for the Sydney Olympics. Returning to Ireland in 2001, he continued in that vein before setting up his own consultancy, running strategic planning, project management and leadership development programmes for a range of commercial and non-profit cl...

Born in County Down, Julie's career in business started early in life. Her father was a poultry farmer and retailer and, in many ways, that started to shape her views of business from an early age. She studied business in Ulster University before moving to Dublin in the late seventies, a time when things in Northern Ireland were pretty lean but foreign direct investment in the Republic was beginni...

A lecturer in his early career, Nick's first foray into 'practical communications' was as a speechwriter for the Governor of Virginia. In 1997 he went on to found Public Words, a consultancy with a mission to improve the world of professional communication in which he has worked with CEOs from most of the Fortune Top 50, a number of Heads of State and a US President or two (he wouldn't tell us who...

Having started her career at Dermot Desmond's NCB stockbrokers, Carmel very quickly moved through the ranks before moving out of research and into PR.  Over the next 12 years, she worked her way through the Irish PR scene with stints in Edelman, Text 100 and Keatings. In 2001 she set up her own consultancy - Gemini Consulting. It was then that she met Jonathan Irwin, founder of the Jack and Jill F...

By her own admission, Jeni's career journey has been a meandering one. Following an Arts degree from University College Dublin she completed a Masters in European Studies. Her career started in the voluntary sector before a move into IBEC - Ireland's largest business lobby group - a role "that was a real apprenticeship".  It was in that role that she started to think about HR and how businesses ca...

Helen started her career as a primary school teacher.  However, with a class of 43 four-year-old boys, she realized pretty quickly that perhaps that wasn't the career for her!  So, she went back to college to study computer science before going on to work in a number of software firms.  And it was there that she found HR, "before there were really careers in HR".  Helen has now worked in HR for ov...

Over his 30 year career in consumer marketing, Colin worked across a range of sectors from alcohol and tobacco to healthcare and soft drinks.  He is a Board member of Bord Bia's (The Irish Food Board) Consumer Foods Board. For the past 13 years, he has been CEO of Glanbia Consumer Foods, Ireland's largest food producer.  The company boasts some of Ireland's best-known food brands including Avonmor...

Des has worked in financial services for over 30 years, "both as a banker and leader" as he puts it.  Having spent most of his career working in Ireland, his more recent experience is in the UK, as MD of First Trust Bank (AIB's Northern Irish subsidiary) and, more recently, as CEO of Cumberland Building Society in NW England.​ He is someone that relishes the challenge of change and, in this episod...

Over a 25 year career in PermanentTSB, Ger worked his way from bank teller to the role of HR Director.  This was the first time in its 200 year history that the bank appointed an HR Director from a non-HR background. His commercial background allowed him to open doors to parts of the organisation that, previously, HR hadn't felt equipped or confident to approach.  And it gave him an understanding...

Between them, Anth and Ollie have over 30 years of experience helping large organisations to create more compelling and human cultures by focusing on internal communications, employee engagement and leadership.   They met when both were working for RSA and, in late 2015, founded Intelligent Emotion to help organisations humanize workplaces for the digital age. They fundamentally believe that tappi...

"Sometimes, your job as a leader is to illuminate corners that people aren't looking in" ​Two years ago Jeff, and his wife Mindi, co-founded Caselden Consulting to focus on the people side of the business, something they're both passionate about.   Today they work with companies large and small, in Ireland and further afield, to coach leaders and help teams to be the best they can be.  ​ Prior to...

​Paul has worked in internal communications for over 20 years - by his own admission, "that was back when internal communications was still a new thing".  ​ He started his career in Barclays where he worked in a number of roles before continuing his career in the Insurance sector with the Prudential, and in mobile telecoms with T-Mobil / EE.  He then returned to financial services with RBS to work...

Sean held a number of positions at Smurfitt Graduate School of business over his 20-year career there.  Most recently he was Director of Marketing, a role he held for 11 years until he retired in 2015.  Prior to joining Smurfitt he was Director of Marketing at BUPA Ireland where he was involved in its launch in 1996.  He also had significant experience in the food sector having served as a GM and...

​Tom has worked in communications for over 20 years.  He started his career in PR working with brands like Microsoft, Intel and Gateway before, in the late 1990s with the advent of the Irish tech boom, turning his attention to tech startups, working in Iona, Marrakech and Cape Clear.   In 2005 he joined Microsoft Ireland before moving to HQ in Seattle in 2009.  He's worked in a number of roles in...

Orlagh has worked in HR and organisational change for more years than she cared to admit to in this week's interview :-).  She started her career in Retail and FMCG before moving into Financial Services as Group HRD in RSA. She then returned to Ireland to become Chief People Officer in AIB and, more recently, interim HRD in Virgin Media Ireland. She set up Human Leadership in 2018 to help organisa...

15 years ago, around her kitchen table, Alison co-founded The Storytellers with a plan to help organisations communicate their strategy and vision in a more emotionally compelling way.  Since then, they've applied their storytelling framework to over 170 multi-nationals across the globe.  Alison and her team have seen the power of a great story and, when it's supported by emotionally engaging lead...

Show Notes: 0.00 – Strong parallels between leadership in sport and business – 50s – A bit about Mike over 20 years – 1.50 – Coaching, winning and Welsh Valleys – 3.05 –A career-changing injury and a move into coaching – 4.05 – A course doesn't mean you know everything – 4.20 – Vision is fine but alignment and communication is key to success – 6.30 – A focus on what to maintain and what to work on...

Harry has worked with words for many years.  He started life as an editor before joining the London-based agency 'The Writer' in response to an advert that called out their mission 'to stop the tyranny of linguistic mediocrity'.  Six months ago he became Monzo Bank's writer though, as he says himself, "Everyone here is a writer, I've just got the job title". To find out more about Harry you can vi...

Tara has over 25 years of experience in tech marketing,  Today, at Skillsoft, the world's largest e-learning company, she has a diverse portfolio including branding, corporate marketing, communications and product marketing.   She's also a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in the workplace. For more on Tara's experience click here to view her profile on Linkedin. Tara also talked abo...

By his own admission, Pedro's purpose throughout his career- or his 'set of experiences' as he describes them - has been to help people to grow, develop and become the very best that they can be. In his role in AIB, Pedro is responsible for Leadership Development, something he says companies aren't just talking about now, but are actually focused on. Outside of AIB, he is President of the Irish Ch...

Throughout his career, Eric has worked in tech roles both in startups and in large multinationals.  He has worked for brands including TomTom, Gilt Groupe and, most recently, Zalando, the German online fashion retailer.   In Zalando, Eric, along with his 500-strong tech team, is responsible for tech infrastructure and systems across the business. As someone who started his career with little respe...