The Tech Leaders Podcast

Having forged her way in a male-dominated world, KPMG's Lisa Heneghan explains to us how a fully diverse workforce makes for better business.    Inspired to take a role in tech by her father, Lisa’s career path to Chief Digital Officer at KPMG UK has seen her navigate from Y2K to the COVID-19 pandemic.    Lisa shares with Gareth some great advice about leadership, networking and work-life bal...

Joe Baguley is a CTO and leader who lives and breathes technology innovation. This week, he chats to Gareth about his journey from self-confessed ‘1980s computer nerd’ to CTO of Silicon Valley company VMware (...after 23 interviews). Joe’s colourful life has seen him through a spell at Imperial College, the Army Reserves and - most surprisingly - a course in standup comedy. All these things have l...

“I know I’ve succeeded as a leader when I’ve made myself obsolete.” Striking words from this week’s tech leader, Anwen Robinson, head of UK & Ireland's cloud computing giant Infor.  Growing up in the Rhondda Valley, Anwen paved the way for her own success, calling up Cardiff University and talking her way onto a Mechanical Engineering course…and being the only woman didn’t deter her eithe...

Growing up on a council estate, Paul realised early on that he was fascinated by technology and dreamt of working for the RAF, however, following an early introduction to fatherhood Paul doubled down on a career in computing to provide for his new family.  In this episode, Paul talks candidly about being fast-tracked into a leadership role, handling top secret government information in the defence...

This week’s guest is Josie Smith: Chief Architect for Digital at BT. From humble beginnings on the checkouts at Asda to overseeing business architecture and setting a "digital first" vision at BT, Josie has undoubtedly made her mark on the industry as a successful female leader.  In this episode, Josie and Gareth explore architecture in the corporate world, driving AI first and building...

From virtual-appointments, to artificial intelligence, to data management and fighting cyber-attacks, Dell's Arshad Farhad helps healthcare providers to see how technology can support their work. Arshad is Dell Technology's Chief Technology Officer in Healthcare and Life Sciences for Europe, Middle East and Africa. He's also working towards his doctorate in Federated Learning for AI...

This week’s guest is formidable entrepreneur, investor and CEO of Goodlord, William Reeve.  After setting up his first business during the dotcom boom of the 90s, William moved on to set up pioneering media rental website LoveFilm.com in the noughties.  Since then, he has co-founded Secret Escapes, as well as served on the boards of Nutmeg, Dunelm and Graze as a non-exec. Most recently, he founded...

This week’s guest is Tim Neill, Mastercard’s Chief Risk Officer for Real-time Payments and Applications. After studying Police and Criminal Justice Studies, Tim came to the UK twenty years ago straight out of university and was offered a consulting role at Goldman Sachs.  Cutting his teeth in London’s fast-paced trading environment, assessing risk, resilience and security for world-renowned banks,...

Brett Wigdortz OBE is a philanthropist, entrepreneur and founder of Teach First, an social enterprise charity addressing educational disadvantage in England and Wales. He was also recently re-elected as chairman of the board for the National Citizen Service, a UK government-backed training scheme for teenagers.  Formerly an international journalist, Brett has spent time in dozens of countries and...

Ego Obi is Head of Operations for Sub-Saharan Africa at Google. An inspiration to many, Ego is an experienced tech leader and mentor, who has done some incredible work which has improved the lives of millions.   Originally pursuing a career in accountancy, Ego felt drawn to technology and systems, resulting in a career pivot, culminating in her being approached by Google to lead an amazing venture...

Trenton is a renowned business leader and qualified leadership coach with experience training digital teams for nearly twenty years.  His best-selling book Human Powered is a concise guide for cultivating a high-performance culture within digital teams through developing emotional intelligence and people skills.  Trenton speaks to Gareth about his personal business journey, including his 15 years...

Steve O’Hear has been providing commentary during one of the most exciting periods of tech innovation in the UK. A highly respected, prominent journalist for ZDNet and Tech Crunch, Steve covered the rise of Monzo, Wise and Starling Bank as well as other FinTech and general tech advances throughout the period dubbed Web 2.0  But Journalism wasn’t all Steve planned to achieve in his career. He tried...

The final instalment of the Women in Tech Series is upon us. And what a series it has been! This week, branding expert, marketing entrepreneur, ‘Black Women in Tech’ founder and all-around super-woman Flavilla Fongang, joins Kerensa and Gareth for a memorable chat! This value-filled conversation covers everything from the moment she landed in the UK, unable to speak a word of English, and then goi...

Marta Krupinska is a Tech entrepreneur, diversity advocate, and current Head of Google for Startups UK, alongside a Chair role at Youth Business International. Recognised by Forbes in 30Under30 in 2016, by Evening Standard as amongst London's Most Influential People 2017 and 2018 and by Forbes as top 60 Female Tech Executives globally, 2018.    As a female founder herself, having founded 3 st...

On this episode of the Tech Leaders Podcast - Women in Tech series, we are joined by the inspirational Alice Bentinck; co-founder of Entrepreneur First and Code First Girls - where she’s worked tirelessly to give others opportunities that they otherwise wouldn’t have had to become entrepreneurs, as well as encouraging more women into the tech sector. Alice opens up to discuss how she got to where...

On the first of our ‘Women in Tech’ Series Professor Kerensa Jennings and Gareth Davies are joined by an inspirational woman who’s been consistently listed as one of the 50 most influential women in Tech, Naomi Timperley.    Naomi talks to us about setting up and scaling Baby Loves Disco, an immensely popular children's disco service, and getting approached to pitch on the Dragons Den. Despit...

Railsbank is the world’s leading Embedded Finance Experience platform. Today we’re joined by their COO of UK and Europe, Louisa Murray. Louisa joined Railsbank as one of its first employees in 2017, and built the sales function from scratch, growing the sales and customer success teams. Prior to this she worked as a trader, headhunter and ran her own recruitment business.  In this conversation, we...

Today’s guest, Mark Evans, has had an impressive IT career to date. He has overseen digital transformation projects from a range of organisations and institutions, including the government’s DVLA, and has completed his MBA. He joined Hodge Bank as the Chief Technology Officer in 2016, which at the time had very little digital presence.  As it’s clear in this interview, Mark loves a challenge. Tune...

The vice president for Meta's (formerly Facebook) northern Europe division Steve Hatch joins the show to explore all things neurodiversity and what’s in store for the social media platform. Steve is a media agency veteran and joined Facebook in 2013. Prior to that, Hatch became CEO of MEC in 2011, having been there since its formation as Mediaedge:cia following the merger of The Media Edge an...

Octopus Energy is on a mission to make a big green dent in the universe by building a truly sustainable energy system globally – by making power greener, smarter, and more affordable for everyone. I had a great time catching up with Greg Jackson, CEO and Founder of Octopus Energy, to find out more about how they’ve been democratising green energy.  In this discussion we explore Greg’s values-based...

Jack Wearne’s financial career started more or less during the 2008 crash. Fortunately, it opened many doors for him, which we uncover in this episode. He is currently the CEO at Ve Global, the ecommerce specialist ​​that enables brands to recreate their in-store experience – online – through a Digital Assistant. Prior to that, he spent 14 years as a city bank trader, which I couldn't wait to...

After every crisis there’s an entrepreneurial boom – and the pandemic has been no exception. Today I explore how the tech space is massively evolving across the UK, with Gerard Grech, CEO at Tech Nation. His passion for mobile and media is shown through his impressive career, where he has worked for brands such as Blackberry World, Nokia, and Orange. We’re recording at the Excel Centre from this y...

As a mobile-first world, things are changing fast – and according to today’s guest, the future lies in data, privacy and trust. Richard Rosenberg was appointed CTO at the Financial Times at the start of 2021. He leads the FT’s technology strategy across the development and operations teams, and oversees the delivery of cross-platform customer experiences.  Richard previously worked in a number of...

PensionBee is on a mission to create a future of financial freedom through their technology platform. Pensions can be overwhelming and confusing, so I’m excited to bring on PensionBee’s co-founder and CTO, Jonathan Lister Parsons, to unpack how their disruptive technology has enabled hundreds of thousands of people to be "pension confident" through their technology platform.  Join our di...

Neil Bellamy is responsible for NatWest’s strategy, proposition and risk appetite for the whole sector vertical. He is currently the Head of Technology, Media, Telecoms & Services, and has an impressive 26 year career in banking to date. As a leader, Neil is truly customer focused and enjoys advising tech start-ups at Natwest Accelerators and as a Mentor with Imperial Ventures. Tune into this...