Starts at the Top Podcast

In this episode we chat to Kenneth Foreman, Head of Charity Partnerships and Steven Foster, Director of Transformation at London Marathon Events.   How does one of the world’s most famous face-to-face fundraising events take on technology? Following the success of their virtual event last year the London Marathon team decided to embrace hybrid. What do their learnings mean for the sector? We were...

How technology can support refugees We speak to Raj Burman (CEO) and Nowar Rahmouni (social media community builder and writer) of Techfugees. Every 10 seconds someone becomes a refugee. 82.4 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced by the end of 2020. This is forecast to grow to 1 billion people due to climate change over the next 3 decades. So how can technology help? During the recent r...

And we’re back! For the first episode of our new season we were delighted to talk to Ursula Dolton, Chief Technology Officer at the British Heart Foundation. We discussed a question that we’ve heard a lot from leaders: how can we make truly data-informed decisions? Ursula told us how she is driving the processes, culture change and new ways of leading needed to make this happen at her charity. And...

In our author special we meet R.Michael Hendrix, co-author of Two Beats Ahead. For our season finale, Paul and Zoe discuss the books that will help you reset over the summer. Top of our list was Two Beats Ahead by Panos Panay and R. Michael Hendrix, a fascinating read about what we can learn from musicians, ranging from Beyonce to Pharrell Williams and David Bowie, about creativity and innovation....

This summer you may be heading to a music festival. It says a lot about the times we’re in now, that you are as likely to have that experience in a field full of strangers as you are watching performances from the comfort of your sofa with your family. But what does that mean for the business model of festivals? And what role should digital play in the festival goer’s experience? Nicolas Bonard, C...

How a national institution took on digital disruption When Stuart Murphy sent his team home as lockdown was announced in March 2020, he didn’t know what lay ahead. Yet he was determined to keep his colleagues connected at a time of crisis and to help ENO continue to do what makes it unique: creating groundbreaking work. Digital was vital to their survival. What follows is the story of how a nation...

Digital turf wars: who should lead your digital transformation? We’ve all seen the meme about COVID-19 leading your digital transformation. But who should really lead it- should it be your digital, IT, or finance lead, or even your CEO? There couldn’t be a better person to answer this question than Danny Attias, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Anthony Nolan and No 1 CIO in the UK. Danny tel...

Mental health, transferable skills and tech For Mental Health Awareness Week we wanted to speak to a leader about how to look after your mental health at a time of transition. Whether you’re changing your job or evaluating your life choices as we come out of the pandemic, this episode is for you.   Rob Young MBE, Chief Executive at Switch The Play Foundation shares with us what we can all learn fr...

We meet Dr Wanda Wyporska, Executive Director at The Equality Trust How have you changed up your leadership style during the pandemic? When Dr Wanda Wyporska, Executive Director at The Equality Trust agreed to come on the podcast we were keen to find out about the journey she’s been on over the last year, and what she’s learned from it. We chat to Wanda about how leaders can bring their whole self...

The post pandemic leadership playbook We chat to Dana Kohava Segal, international fundraising and management consultant.   What should leaders prioritise as they plan for the future? We were delighted to speak to Dana Kohava Segal, international fundraising and management consultant, whose breadth of work across the sector means that she has unique insights into what leaders’ blueprint for a post...

Taking a neurodiverse approach to tech We chat to James Cusack, CEO of Autistica. Everyone’s talking about inclusion. But how can we make the way we work and our approach to tech inclusive for people who are neurodiverse? We were keen to find out more in this episode, which coincides with Autism Awareness Week.   We spoke to James Cusack, CEO of Autistica and the UK's first openly autistic charity...

Maggie Philbin, CEO of TeenTech , is one of our heroes. If you work in digital today you may well have been inspired to do so by her groundbreaking work on the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World. We talked to Maggie about how TeenTech is inspiring a new generation of school children to engage with technology, how the education system needs to change to grow digital skills, and how schools have tackled remote...

We were delighted to speak to Shelly Bell, Founder at Black Girl Ventures, a social enterprise that creates access to social and financial capital for black and brown women founders. Shelly is also an inspirational speaker and serial entrepreneur. She was named one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Business by Entrepreneur Magazine, Entrepreneur of the Year by Technically DC and acknowledged as A...

We were thrilled to speak to Dama Sathianathan, a partner at Bethnal Green Ventures, Europe’s leading early-stage tech for good VC. Dama discusses how Bethnal Green Ventures is pioneering new tech for good projects to solve social and environmental challenges, how we can create more collaboration in digital and why diversity is vital for better decision making and innovation.   Zoe and Paul discus...

In a special live festive recording, we were thrilled to chat to Paul de Gregorio, digital legend and Founder at Rally . Paul shared his thoughts on what the big digital changes of 2020 mean for charities, including the US election and developments in the UK sector and why digital mobilisation, online organising and fundraising need to be a key part of your strategy. He, Zoe and Paul Thomas also d...

Preparing young people for the tech disruption of tomorrow Growing digital skills will be vital in helping young people and the economy thrive in the future. How can schools and universities prepare the citizens of tomorrow for the challenges they’ll face? We were excited to speak to Professor Carl Gombrich of The London Interdisciplinary School, a new university in London which aims to give stude...

In this episode we were delighted to chat to Liz Williams MBE, CEO of FutureDotNow. Liz discusses why organisations across every sector need to close the digital skills gap, and how to do it. We also talked about why digital inclusion has become an urgent social justice issue during COVID-19, why leaders need to be ambitious about improving digital capabilities and how the key to this is to keep l...

We were thrilled to chat to Vicky Charles, Assistant Director of Technology & Data at Shelter UK. Vicky shared her thoughts on how to start a new job during lockdown, how to bring remote teams together whilst managing wellbeing, why staff need to feel that they have a stake in digital and what organisations can learn from how they’ve adapted during COVID-19. Paul and Zoe discuss what the new BBC s...

Welcome back! In our first episode of Season 2 we are thrilled to speak to Rhodri Davies, Head of Policy & Programme Director, Giving Thought at Charities Aid Foundation. We talked about how to create your own virtual watercooler when working remotely, how charities can navigate the ethics of big tech and the Facebook boycott, why charities need to take action on digital exclusion, fundraising tre...

In our Season 1 finale, we were so lucky to be joined by Darshan Sanghrajka, Founder & CEO at Super Being Labs. We talked about what leaders can learn from stand up comedy, how to innovate during the crisis, getting comfortable with failure, why traditional leadership is over and how we can rebuild it, and what a digital first future could look like. We also discussed how to create more diverse te...

Paul and Zoe reflect on the digital trends they’ve seen during lockdown - and what these mean for leaders. This week we take stock of the big digital changes we’ve seen during lockdown, and discuss their long term implications. We discuss how leadership is changing, managing risk, recruiting for digital skills, and adapting your organisation to the new normal. We spoke to Richard Brooks, CEO at tr...

This week Zoe and Paul speak to Louise Macdonald, CEO, and Kirsten Urquhart, Digital Services Director at Young Scot. Relationships between CEOs and digital leaders can be a marriage made in heaven - but they can also go wrong. Louise and Kirsten have achieved huge amounts together at Young Scot and we wanted to find out what makes their relationship tick. They told us how they put young people fr...

This is the second episode of Starts at the Top, a new podcast hosted by Zoe Amar and Paul Thomas. It’s about how leaders from all sectors are using digital to navigate uncertainty and forge a path to the future. This week Zoe and Paul are joined by Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, Head STEMette, visiting Professor at the University of Sunderland, keynote speaker and a renowned champion and inspiration...

This is the first episode of Starts at the Top, a new podcast from Zoe Amar and Paul Thomas. It’s about how leaders from all sectors are using digital to navigate uncertainty and forge a path to the future. This week Zoe and Paul are joined by Simon Blake, CEO of Mental Health First Aid England who they spoke to at the beginning of May at the height of the Lockdown from his partner’s dental surger...