CTO Confessions Brought to you by IT Labs

Any techie will tell you that APIs revolutionized the way we go about developing software, but with all the regulations bestowed upon the IT world, it’s only the best ones that meet the light of day and make a change in our everyday lives. Meet Cedric Fabianski, Co-founder and CTO @ Bearer, a techie with a burning passion for entrepreneurship and leading teams – by striking the right balance. In o...

We all consume TV shows and movies to feed our entertainment-hungry minds. And it’s no wonder why - the TV and movie production industries vie for our hearts and minds through elegant storytelling, immersing us in worlds that capture our hearts and expand our minds. Well, now we get to look under the covers of the industry, shining a light on a particularly important and unsung hero of this indust...

A mechanical engineer turned tech-wizz, Wayne Strydom is not your typical techie with roots set in coding or other IT discipline. He says it’s all about having the bigger picture in mind and understand systems and how they interact and function, and considering the success he’s had as the CTO & CIO @ Virtulab - we trust him. “Building teams based just on skill and talent is a recipe for failure! S...

Developing high-quality service or tools does not guarantee success - you need to deliver it in a proper manner. That’s exactly what our guest Adam Dille, Senior VP for Product and Engineering at Quantum Metric is focused on doing, as he helps companies deliver tech that has the potential to solve everyday problems, as well as make our lives easier! His focus on continued product/service developme...

For start-ups and established companies, it's never just about crunching and creating and pushing a product or a service out - that's why tech leaders must consider the short and long-term ramifications of every decision they make at every stage. We sat down with Vijay Venkatesh, a CTO and Product Development leader on various projects, shared his journey, and gave advice on finding the right bala...

In our episode with Brian Roche (Director of IT @ Belfast City Airport), you can hear about his amazing journey which began with a job as a system administrator, then moving on to various positions in development and sales teams, before making the jump to executive positions. His goal and passion? To bring some simplicity to a world that is riddled with acronyms and complex structures - the tech w...

Phil Wood is a man of many talents, all cored in his unabating curiosity. What started off as the need to know how things function and what they’re made off, led him to learn and develop, and eventually become the Director of IT Services at one of the most prominent airlines – easyJet. In this episode, Phil shared his advice and experience, ranging from his unique leadership style with which he al...

Marketing comes in many forms, everything from the big brand advertisements for the masses, to smaller campaigns specific to local needs. Well, Marvia has created a platform that does just that. i.e., activating local marketing potential for big brands (e.g., Domino's Pizza). The CTO of this company, Merlijn Bruijnes, joins us to tell us all about what they do. Merlijn also shares his journey to b...

In this episode, John Williams, the CTO at Amplience, shares his super hot tips from his years of service. We get to talk about the problem in the market that Amplience is solving and creating robust systems that reliably get the job at hand done. The industry that Amplience sits in is the marketing space. It's created a system that provides personalized content for the myriad of devices and scree...

We all rely on it. Many of us use it without even realizing it. Some even joke it's in the base layer of the Maslows hierarchy of needs. If you haven't already guessed, it's the internet. You will be surprised to know that the fifth biggest economy globally (the UK) is lagging behind many other modern nations concerning internet coverage and bandwidth to people's homes and businesses. Well, the St...

Here at IT Labs, we love disruptors. Particularly a disruption in a stuffy industry, drowning in its old ways. Guy Duncan from Tide joins us to tell the story of the company he is tech leading to create exactly that kind of disruption. Tide is a Fintech carving out a nice chunk of the market by focusing on customer needs (time, ease, and smooth service). We particularly touch and gravitate around...

In this episode, we speak to Anna Dick, CTO of an innovative startup call HIRING HUB. It provides a B2B service to help rate and track the quality of recruitment agencies. We speak to her about the exciting objectives and growth of the business. Also, the problems she and her team are working to solve in the recruitment space. The recruitment industry is a highly competitive market with varying le...

We are pleased to be hosting another podcast with a tech leader in the construction industry. An industry that is ripe for innovation and digitalization. Our guest Vicki Reynolds, CTO at i3PT, is doing just that. In light of the disaster that unfolded here in the UK (the Grenfell Tower disaster), the construction industry is going under a much-needed update around standards, compliance, and auditi...

Some companies are getting ready to use their data. Some businesses drive growth by using it in parts of their operation. In this podcast, we speak to a business that's milking their data for everything they can get. The Modern Milkman is on a mission and they are proud to call themselves a data-driven business. James Renshaw (the CTO) and John Hughes (Data warrior) at The Modern Milkman join us i...

From time to time, we come across a very niche organization. One that has evolved with the industry over many years. Well, Airport Information Services is one of those businesses, creating Flight Information Display Systems and Aeronautical Billing Systems for the industry. Rick Goold, the managing director of said company, joins us to speak to his journey as a tech leader and how he and his busin...

It's a shame we rarely get to speak to someone who oversees important aspects of an industry that many of us use. In the context of this podcast, it's the airport industry. Wouldn't it be great to take a peek under the covers of this business arena to appreciate some of its complexities, challenges, and direction? Well, in this episode, we are doing a bit of that peeking. Nicholas Woods, the CIO o...

The world of technology opens up endless avenues of possibilities. It's an enabler and creator of healthy businesses (i.e., the bottom line). So, it's wonderful to come across a business that uses technology to create success in acquiring and selling unique items. And when we say unique, we mean one-off items. So, the guest of this podcast works for a business just like that. The VP of technology,...

For tech leaders heavily involved in the software development and deployment processes, ranging from embedded software to more user-facing applications, you'll love this. Anders Wallgren, the Vice President of Technology Strategy at CloudBees joined us to share a few things. Nope! Correction. Shared LOADS of things about the benefit and importance of having a smooth end-to-end development process....

We all hope for a day when we don't need to mention, or even be surprised, when we see women leading in tech. But, until that wonderful moment arrives, we will celebrate a marvelous leader's journey and her leadership practices. Bela Labovitch, the VP of engineering at athenahealth, joins us to share her story and why she has much gratitude for her job. And importantly, how she makes the role effe...

You would believe it, but four billion people in the world do not have an address. We take it for granted in first and 2nd world nations. But imagine not having a framework to get things to you. Shocking! This is why Emre Turan, the tech leader of UNL Global, leads the tech to create the internet of places. An addressing system to bring people out of address poverty. Maybe we in more modernized co...

We all see big stock markets trading shares in big companies, with their stock-tickers showing the ups and downs of an organization's perceived value. Imagine if you could invest in, let's say, a sports stars career or the local shop down the road. Well, this is the platform that tZERO's CTO, Amit Goyal, is working on. He joins us to share his trials and tribulations, not forgetting the successes...

Many enlightened businesses work hard to make their brands and relationships with their customers stronger and more human, and that's exactly what Wistia does. For those who think that's obvious, well, there are many businesses out there that do the exact opposite. Either intentionally or unintentionally). The CTO and co-founder of this interesting startup joins us to share his leadership learning...

In this episode, we talk to a tech leader who has turned a technical ship around. Her leadership resides in a cancer intelligence organization that uses data science to help oncology care teams better personalize treatment and improve drug toxicity management for their patients. Denali Lumma, the VP of engineering at Project Ronin, shares her story and her leadership. Particularly on how she, her...

With technology permeating and threading through all industries, it's surprising when you come across an industry that has further growth in the digital space, giving the tech leaders in that arena the opportunity to spearhead an industry evolution. This is exactly what our guest Rajiv Peter, the Director of Digital Technology at Notting Hill Genesis, is doing. Under his leadership and tech team,...

In this episode, we have the former CTO of Ocado, a company that is a huge operational and business success story in the UK. As part of his leadership and the work he does on various boards for the UK Government, Paul Clarke is a huge advocate for digital twins, which are models that allow us to run real--world simulations. And as we progress to make these twins even more sophisticated, the aim of...