The Digital Leaders Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Sabby Gill, Executive Vice President and Managing Director United Kingdom & Ireland, Sage

Today’s podcast guest is Mark Owens, Managing Director at Civica Northern Ireland and an active contributor to the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce.

Mark was born in Northern Ireland, but only recently returned, giving him a local versus global perspective on the digital journey of Northern Ireland. Listen as he talks about the challenges of recruiting and retaining talent, the importance of fostering a culture of innovation and their new project SensAI; a platform where data can be captured, analysed in the Cloud and displayed in a GDPR-compliant manner to support Smart City, Retail, Commercial and Industrial applications.

On today’s podcast show we sit down with Rachel Neaman, Strategy Director for DigitalAgenda. Rachel is an influential technology leader with a focus on digital transformation, HealthTech and digital inclusion. A Digital Leader for the Department of Health and then CEO for GoONUK, her early interest in languages and communication resulted in a fascination with digital.

Rachel talks about the DigitalAgenda platform that focuses on tech for good and social impact and shares her thoughts on Digital Leadership.

In today’s podcast episode, we sit down with Dan Sutch, Co-Founder and Director at  digital charity CAST. Tune in to learn more about running a virtual charity and Dan’s own journey from primary school teacher to technology start up and his passion for helping people to use digital for social good. 

Dan also shares details of The Catalyst, the new collaboration platform set to revolutionise how we tackle social and environmental issues in the UK.

The Digital Leaders podcast is back for its third season. In the first episode, we sit down with Daniel Korski CBE, former Special Advisor to UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Co-Founder and CEO of PUBLIC, a venture capital firm focusing on helping technology startups transform our public services.

Listen as Daniel shares his journey from working in the UN and UK government to starting PUBLIC and his interest in building better services for citizens and better tools for public servants. Daniel talks about the opportunity of technologies to improve public services as well as the challenges in adopting them and the importance of creating more digital leaders in the public sector.

On the final episode of Season 2, we sit down with Alice Webb, Director of BBC North and Children’s and Education to talk leadership, the audience of the future, the role of the BBC in tackling online harm and improving children's safety, hear about the new BBC App “OwnIT” and how to achieve a healthy and happy online life.

On today’s show we sit down with Linda O’Halloran, Head of Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Digital Collaboration Unit, #SmartLondon Board Member and founder of the NGO Thinking Development.

Listen as Linda shares her interesting journey into the London tech scene: from founding an NGO after Haiti’s 2010 earthquake; to working at MHCLG Digital Collaboration Unit - a programme that disrupts local government and re-energises local digital movements, helping authorities and local services overcome problems via common narratives.

Linda also talks about the importance of collaboration in all its forms, the unintended consequences of emerging tech and the lessons learned on coping in a high pressure digital transformation role.

On today’s podcast episode, we sit down with young entrepreneur Jack Parsons, CEO of Big Youth Group, Young Digital Leader 2017 and 'The most connected young entrepreneur' in Europe 2018.

Listen as Jack explains Big Youth Group’s mission to empower and change the odds for young people by building an ecosystem of opportunities, networks and mentors as well as his latest venture in New Zealand and his Digital Embassy project, a new place for young people to learn the digital skills businesses needs.

Jack also shares in explicit detail the very personal journey that has shaped him including touching on his upbringing and ongoing mental health issues despite his obvious business success. He shares what these experiences have taught him about mental health and the importance of those who support him.

Listen with caution: This episode contains frank discussions about depression, and suicide. If you've been affected by any of the topics in this episode, please talk to someone! There are some amazing resources and lovely people out there ready to help you. Here are some options:

Mind UK: https://www.mind.org.uk
Samaritans: Helpline: 08457 90 90 90 (24 hours a day, seven days a week) https://www.samaritans.org

On this episode of The Digital Leaders podcast, we sit down with Gillian Docherty, CEO at The Data Lab, Digital Leader of the Year 2018 and one of the UK’s Top 10 influential people in Data.

Listen as Gillian shares what led her to a career in data, what Scotland is doing with data at a national level, how she became a leader in the industry and why it is important to democratise data. She explains why tackling unconscious bias in data is a must and why diversity of thought is the key.