How to be a CEO

MLB's trying to expand the game of baseball internationally, with a major focus on breaking the UK. But in a country that hasn't paid much attention to 'America's National Pastime', how do they attract attention. MLB Europe's MD Ben Ladkin sits down with us to talk about their strategy. In this conversation we chat about:    The Baseball Takeover of Trafalgar Square How they're using ico...

Cris Miller, doesn’t give many interviews but the online secondary ticket market he helped pioneer, and the company he’s global MD for, Viagogo, have been taking a reputational battering. Over the last twenty years, he’s faced a range of crises from an initially sceptical market, to a major rival announcing a competitive service… to a global pandemic shutting down the world. In this interview we t...

After over a decade as CEO of password management firm 1Password , Jeff Shiner 's now envisaging a 'password-less' future, and one he's very much involved in. Since 2012 he has overseen 1Password's growth from a company with less than 100 employees, to around 900, over a period of time where the importance of online security has never been more important. Jeff discusses how to sell the idea of bei...

There are dream jobs, right? Everyone has their own: Astronaut, athlete, having your own ice cream parlour on a beach. All exciting. But running a beer company. That’s gotta be pretty high up on the list for a lot of people? Brian Perkins is the president of the Budweiser Brewing Group in the UK and Ireland, a job he took over in December 2021, just as the world was recovering from the pandemic an...

Raphael Sofoluke is the CEO and founder of the Black Business Show, part of Black Business Week. The event is now the biggest in the UK and Europe, with around 15,000 attendees expected in 2023. But it started as a side-hustle! Raphael is also one of the angels in the AXA Startup Angel competition . There are six chances to win, including two top prizes of £25,000, mentorship from the AXA Startup...

Every start-up has an origin story. Vishal Marria’s is pretty dramatic. It began when he was just nine years old, and was attacked by four men who held a knife to his neck in a raid on his father’s cash and carry store. That traumatic moment sparked an interest in crime that took him into data analytics, and eventually the founding of Quantexa – a tech firm that’s been used by major banks and inte...

Recorded live at the Evening Standard’s SME EXPO at ExCel London, Casyo ‘Krept’ Johnson - one half of the hip-hop duo Krept & Konan - and influencer, Sasha Ellese Gilbert, share the story of how they co-founded the sell-out brand Nala's Baby. Originally devised in lockdown as a solution to their daughter's eczema, the company is skincare and haircare free from toxins, chemicals and parabens. I...

Trevor Jones is one of the world's most successful cryptoartists, with works like Bitcoin Angel selling for around $3 million. To mark the coronation of Charles III, he's teamed up with the Evening Standard to give away an original work for free. In this episode we talk about:   Why NFTs are still a thing and he's 'busier than ever' How the crypto crash of 2022, "cleared out the crap" an...

When you’re rushing to become a CEO, or have the job and are just trying to stay on top of it all, the idea of a day off may be laughable at times. But securing a fair work/life balance can be an achievement in itself. How’s this for an idea: A four-day week? Anne-Marie Lister is the chief people officer who led Atom Bank through a giant transformation in working practice. A trial at the end...

When you’re going into business, it’s always good to bring someone along with you. How did What Not to Wear’s Trinny Woodall build a multi-million-pound business? She didn’t start with that number in 2017. In fact, the number some potential investors were more interested in was 51 - her age when her company, Trinny London, launched. ‘Trinny’s Tribe’ has also been a huge part of Woodall’s success b...

The boss of IBM’s trailblazing apprenticeship programme, Jenny Taylor MBE, joins us to talk about education and employment opportunities for the next generation. As part of our new Step Up campaign, this episode was recorded ahead of the Evening Standard and WorldSkills forum with employers and education leaders. In this episode, we talk about:  How Jenny got her own job with the company 37 y...

Rob Kniaz co-founded Venture Capital firm Hoxton Ventures, specialising in early stage investment. With successes like Deliveroo and cyber defence firm Darktrace, the company’s become one of the most successful, and approached, VC firms in Europe. In this episode we talk about:   Is generative AI, like ChatGPT, the next big thing… or are there others?  What a VC does, and doesn’t, do&nbs...

In this frank interview, Heathrow’s Chief Financial Officer Javier Echave talks about the addiction to exercise and his mobile phone that contributed to a breakdown in 2016. Since then, he’s been pioneering efforts not just at the airport but across companies in the UK to improve workplace wellbeing policies. He’s on the Business in the Community group which represents around 600 companies and emp...

Levi Roots' success on Dragon’s Den is legendary, and he speaks about it like it’s a tale from mythical times. When he got home that night, he says he held the guitar he’d used in his pitch aloft and told his mum “I slayed the dragon". He's been on a real 'hero’s journey'; his breakthrough coming at 48 years old, when he had to borrow money just to get to the BBC’s studios. Now he's the head of a...

Clarke Carlisle is a former professional footballer who now uses his own battles with mental health to advise companies on office wellbeing. He’s joined by his wife Carrie to talk frankly about how his problems affected his career and family, and how getting help turned his life around.  Please note, this episode contains discussion about the feelings around suicide. We also talk about: ...

Charlie Mullins is one of Britain’s best known, and most successful businessmen. He founded Pimlico Plumbing in 1979, turned it into a £50 million a year trade empire, then sold it last year for £140 million. So, what do you do after that? In this episode we talk about:   His plan to open a new service company with an HQ in Lambeth   The reason he sold Pimlico, and why he now f...

Russell Glass is the CEO of Headspace , the app designed to teach users how to meditate, do yoga, and practise mindfulness more regularly. Russell took to meditation himself after watching a talk by founder of Headspace Andy Puddicombe, and became CEO in October 2021. Russell discusses how the concept of meditation has become more mainstream in western society, his route to becoming CEO, and how H...

We all know who Deborah Meaden is: the entrepreneur, the investor, a long-serving Dragon in the den… and environmental campaigner. Deborah’s involvement with climate causes goes back to her college days, and these days it’s become a more important part of her business, and her life, than ever. In this episode we talk about:  How she studied climate change at college  Her admiration for G...

Arne Schepker has been CEO of language learning business Babbel since 2015. In this episode he discusses, why AI is ‘overrated’, how app-based learning could overtake conventional classes, and how to build the best modern-day work culture. In this episode: What has kept you at Babbel for more than 7 years? Will app learning eventually take over face-to-face classes? Why Artificial Intelligence is...

Nearly twenty years ago, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones ploughed money from a successful career in marketing into a food business. From day one he took risks, choosing to call his brand ‘The Black Farmer,’ despite research telling him to avoid the “edgy name”. In this episode we talk about:  How he built The Black Farmer brand  Why he sells “a vision not a product”  His belief that good peo...

Harriet Hastings is the co-founder and MD of Biscuiteers, the London-based food gifting company. In this episode we talk about: •Why scaling up "wasn't as scary as it should have been" •How she learned to "go faster, quicker" on ambitious plans •The Biscuiteers' move into the US market •Why the online retailer decided to open physical stores •The value of partnerships with companies like Emma Brid...

Selina Webb is the EVP of Universal Music in the UK. A former journalist, she joined the company’s Polydor label as Press Director in 1998, rising up to take her current position in 2016. In that time she has established the careers of countless acts, guided the company through ever-changing musical trends across multiple genres, and devised strategies to meet the challenges of constant innovation...

For a couple of years, Lime seemed to be one of those companies that pops in exactly the right place at the precisely the right time. It started off in San Francisco in 2017, hiring out electric bikes just as the world was taking climate change more seriously – the ink on the Paris agreement had only dried the year before. In 2018, it was valued at one point one billion dollars – a full on unicorn...

Marvin Berglas founded Marvin's Magic in the UK 35 years ago. It's now in 60 international markets. In this episode we talk about: The story of how they got into FAO Schwarz in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza Their role in innovating "retail theatre" and experiential shopping  Why they hired actors instead of magicians  How QVC and TV shopping revolutionised their business model Diffic...

John Hitchcox is the founder and chairman of Yoo, a global real-estate and development company, and the world’s largest non-hotel residential brand. He's also one of those behind a £1bn regeneration of Olympia in London. In this episode we talk about: •How he's inspired by "things that I need and the things that I want" •His Plans for Olympia  •Why he created the enormous Lakes estate in the...