Starts at the Top Podcast

Episode 3 - Louise Macdonald, CEO, and Kirsten Urquhart, Digital Services Director at Young Scot

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 front and centre of what they do, getting digital skills onto boards, why staff need to be empowered to innovate and why digital offers reason for hope in dark times.

In their roundup of tech news, Zoe and Paul talk about video call overload and the Facebook boycott campaign.

 

Notes and links –

Young Scot  https://young.scot/

Arundhathi Roy article ‘The pandemic is a portal’

https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca

Video call overload

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/zoom-fatigue-video-conferencing-coronavirus/

Facebook boycott campaign

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53225139

Please follow us on Twitter @startsatthetop1

Email us with your questions and ideas for future episodes startsatthetop@gmail.com

And please leave us a review if you enjoy what you hear!

 

Editing by Paul Thomas and production from Alexey Sibikin

Music by Joseph McDade https://josephmcdade.com/music           

Episode 2 - Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, Head STEMette

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 for women looking to find a role in the world of
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

We talked about diversity and inclusion, gender and leadership, the role of tech
during and after COVID-19, getting young people into STEM and the ethics of big
tech. Anne-Marie was incredibly thought provoking on these issues. She also shares
her recommendations for books and TV shows in an extra segment hidden after the end music.

Notes and links – 

STEMettes https://stemettes.org/

Sadia Khan’s interview about leadership and mental health (paywall)
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/interview-sadiq-khan-on-his-struggles-during-
lockdown-in-london-8msxm0rd2

How To Fail podcast interview with Matthew Syed
https://howtofail.podbean.com/e/how-to-fail-matthew-syed/

Please follow us on Twitter @startsatthetop1 

Email us with your questions and ideas for future
episodes startsatthetop@gmail.com 

And please leave us a review if you enjoy what you hear!

Editing by Paul Thomas and production from Alexey Sibikin
Music by Joseph McDade https://josephmcdade.com/music

Episode 1 - Simon Blake, CEO of Mental Health First Aid England

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 surgery!

The conversation covers Simon’s take on the shift that all of us have experienced under lockdown - the new ways that he and his team have had to approach work and the new digital skills he has had to develop as a leader. Simon also talks passionately about mental health and how this pandemic is affecting us all now and into the future. 

Notes and links - 

Simon’s blog post - https://mhfaengland.org/mhfa-centre/ceo-blog/ten-things-coronavirus-lockdown-simon-blake/

If ‘Black Lives Matter’ to brands, where are your black board members https://www.marketingweek.com/mark-ritson-black-lives-matter-brands/

(Please bear with us - the shift to online recording means that there are some variations in sound quality on this episode)

Please follow us on Twitter @startsatthetop1 

Email us with your questions and ideas for future episodes startsatthetop@gmail.com 

And please leave us a review if you enjoy what you hear!

 

Editing by Paul Thomas and production from Alexey Sibikin

Music by Joseph McDade https://josephmcdade.com/music