Rajan Kandola is a China advertising professional and consultant who has had rich experience working in Wuhan and Shanghai, China.  After four years working within media agencies, Rajan started his own consultancy business advising foreign brands on entering the China market and how to advertise on Chinese digital platforms.

Rajan’s first experience of China sees him leave his hometown of London and work as a TEFL Teacher in Wuhan, China. As a finance graduate, we explore his journey trying to find his way and how his life and career path changed to pursue living and working in China for five years.

Here you can find the Ted Talk we mentioned in our conversation - https://youtu.be/8GQZuzIdeQQ 

You can find Rajan on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajankandola/

Lynette Nabbosa is an Award-Winning Founder, Responsible Business Academic, and Commissioner for the Mayor of London.

She founded Elimu to reduce the amount of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET). Elimu’s community achieves this by connecting Black youth with “professionals who enhance their education, careers and financial literacy

Through her doctorate, Lynette is evaluating the outcomes of Elimu’s Launchpad and Fellowship programmes to:

She spoke about her journey through her career and how she has found her calling and passion through the Elimu launchpad, her education journey which included social business and Microfinance as well as currently studying for her Doctorates in Busines Admin. I wanted to thank her for being brave to share her battle with depression in this interview.

Linkedin: Lynette Nabbosa

Twitter: _Nabbosa

2021 we kick off with Asad Dhunna! Asad is the founder and CEO of The Unmistakables, an award-winning consultancy on a mission to help organisations navigate their way through equality, diversity & inclusion.The company works across a number of sectors to help organisations become inclusive by design. They have been named best new agency and best in diversity and inclusion by a number of marketing industry bodies.

We touched on numerous points given the current state of affairs within the industry, notably, the evolution and focus of diversity and inclusion and Asad was kind enough to share : 

-Growing up in London 

-Working and teaching in Germany

-Founding his award-winning business

-Ditching the term BAME? 

-What can businesses do now, to continue and develop their diversity and inclusion strategy?

Asads Campaign Article - https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/why-bame-aint/1672936

The Unmistakbles Instagram and Twitter @_unmistakables

This month I talked to the Director of Social Inclusion at the University of Warwick, Kulbri Shergill. I wanted to get her view and opinion on recent events surrounding race within the UK and luckily we got some time together. We touched on social dynamics and how the BLM movement from the USA came over and transpired similarly in the UK and also discussed at length what companies are doing currently with regards to bringing your full self to work but strategies companies could use going forward to continue and to develop themselves into becoming more inclusive institutions.

Kulbir is an accomplished diversity and social inclusion professional with wide cross-sector experience of working in fast-moving and challenging environments. She has a proven ability to contribute to a company at strategic and operational levels, currently Director for Social Inclusion at the University of Warwick. With more than 20 years experience, Kulbir is focussed on working with companies to achieve change for clients, customers and staff through effective relationship building and engagement on issues of diversity and social inclusion at senior levels. Empowering personal commitment and a strategic approach to embedding cultural change for greater inclusion.

This month I sat down with another former colleague Scott Sallee. He is the Social Impact Manager for the UK at Dentsu Aegis and he dedicates his time to equipping the next generation of talent with the skills they will need to thrive in the digital economy, creating more diversified leadership, and transforming the role of brands in society.

We chatted about his career path which covered Paris, Evian, and London as well as a spell in California as well as the mental health challenges he has faced and overcome. It's not always easy so thanks again, Scott. You're an inspiration!

He co-Chairs the Wellbeing Committee, is on the Steerco of &Proud, leads the all-company Meditation Mondays, is a board member of the IPA’s Creative Pioneers, and is an ambassador for NABS, the industry’s wellbeing charity partner.

A truly amazing story and an inspiration - I hope you enjoy it!

This month I sat down with a former colleague and my friend,  Elekia. She is an Account Director at gyro, a B2B advertising agency that is part of the Dentsu Aegis Network. She currently works on a large tech account within the media team.

She is also co-founder and chair of Represent, a network for Dentsu Aegis employees that are from underrepresented backgrounds as well as creating inclusive spaces for allies to have a welcoming place within the business to listen, learn and share experiences to drive positive change. Their mission is for DAN to be a welcoming workplace for the community and a driving force for a culturally progressive & diverse advertising industry.

We touch on Elekia's career so far in media and advertising - but more importantly discussed in-depth, racism at work, and the so-called, banter culture some places of work have. Being a black woman she’s had to face both racism and issues surrounding gender inequality within the workplace which were really difficult to talk about so I wanted to say thank you to her for being so open.

I sat down with a former colleague, David Fisayo (@Davefisayo), and wanted to bring his inspiring story and journey to you guys this month. We talked about how he has gone about starting a new venture Wealth-8 (https://bit.ly/3dHQID3) as well as his journey into the startup space from his work at KPMG and becoming Director of Programmes at Foundervine (foundervine.com, @foundervine). We also looked into the cultural impact that moving from Nigeria, USA and the UK had in shaping his personality and objectives.

He is a management consultant by training, having spent 7 years at KPMG specialising in customer and digital proposition design for financial service companies. As you will hear, David is passionate about digital innovation and leveraging technology for positive social impact.