Alex MacPhail Podcast

Willie Cruickshank is the Race Series Director of the World Championship Air Race. Formerly Red Bull Air Race, the new WCAR series gets underway next year. Willie and his core team have been hard at work over the past 18 months, setting up and making arrangements to bring Air Racing back where it belongs, in the skies!

Willie spent 3 decades serving as a front line fighter pilot and Commanding Officer within the Royal Air Force. After his distinguished military career, Willie spent 10 years on the air show circuit around Europe flying a 2 ship Pitts Aerobatic team.

This conversation covers his background, military career, display flying and of course the upcoming new series of World Championship Air Race. We talk about about some of the improvements and changes to the series. There are new rules, different leagues, new race teams, new pilots and new cities. This might just be the best iteration of air racing yet.

Enjoy this conversation and remember to subscribe.

Richard is a world-class athlete, global speaker and author. He has survived brain cancer on three occasions and continues to fight on, compete and inspire others.

We will be talking about resilience, in a time when we all need to up our game. Richard's story will inspire you to get back up, after the year of 2020's setbacks!

Watch this interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxLHqjvGVkI

Get in touch with Alex to improve the performance of your team: 

• [email protected]
• https://twitter.com/AlexMacPhail1
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/flyingmogul
• www.alexmacphail.co.za

The Springbok Nude Girls are arguably South Africa's best rock band. They burst onto the scene in the mid 1990's with and energy and sound never before seen in SA. They have influenced other great South African bands such as the Parlotones and Fokofpolisiekar.

Springbok Nude Girls frontman Arno Carstens and guitarist Theo Crous, join me live on Thursday 15th October.  The Nude Girls have toured extensively and are an integral part of the South African culture. Arno went on to a very successful solo career, while Theo moved into producing.

As a youth, Nude Girls were my favourite band and I am very excited to be talking with these to gentleman. Theo is busy with his PhD in music & creativity, and there will be lots to talk about. With more than 20 albums, Arno is not only a celebrated singer-songwriter, he is also celebrated in fine art.

Watch this interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww7S--oe8co

Get in touch with Alex to improve the performance of your team: 

• [email protected]
• https://twitter.com/AlexMacPhail1
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/flyingmogul
• www.alexmacphail.co.za

Heybrech van Niekerk was the first lady to represent the Silver Falcons Aerobatic Team, the national display team of the South African Air Force. She was selected to fly in the number 2 position in 2011 and later moved to the number 4 position. During her time, Heybrech has completed 75 public airshows.

The Silver Falcons selected Heybrech, celebrating the milestone of having the first lady in the team, before the RAF Red Arrows or the USN Blue Angels.

She completed her service in the SA Air Force in 2017. She served as a Flying Instructor at the Presidential Squadron, operating on both Falcon 50 and Boeing BBJ aircraft. Heybrech has operated as a corporate pilot since leaving the SAAF.

Watch this interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX_UOzaW6qE

Get in touch with Alex to improve the performance of your team: 

• [email protected]
• https://twitter.com/AlexMacPhail1
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/flyingmogul
• www.alexmacphail.co.za

Owner of Madiba Bay School of Flight, Gerry is an interesting guest, with a rich background. We will be talking about training, learning, challenging the norms and getting a start in life.

Watch this interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI_deTIBkV0

Get in touch with Alex to improve the performance of your team: 

• [email protected]
• https://twitter.com/AlexMacPhail1
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/flyingmogul
• www.alexmacphail.co.za

Freek has been a pilot for more than 2 decades. He has recently left South African Airways and I thought this would be an open and honest conversation, about the emotions wrapped up in this life change.

Freek has also had a major medical issue. He was grounded for the better part of a year, had major cranial surgery and got back to full aviation health. The support received from South African Airways was tremendous.

For nearly a decade now, Freek has grown his hobby into a passion, then a side-line business. The side-line business is now the main event. Freek's work in restoring Classic BMW motorbikes has taken him all over the world. He has become an expert in this field and has fostered a close working relationship with BMW, restoring their classic motorbikes. He is now booked up, two years in advance.

Watch this interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7HBZvvkCNo

Get in touch with Alex to improve the performance of your team: 

• [email protected]
• https://twitter.com/AlexMacPhail1
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/flyingmogul
• www.alexmacphail.co.za

Freek also enjoys flying his Piper Cub and taking his young family of flying adventures. Please join us for this conversation all about passion, humility, honesty and taking life by the horns.

Mandy Hickson. She was only the second woman to fly a Tornado GR4 on the front line, completing three tours of duty and 45 missions over Iraq. She became the Squadron’s Combat Survival and Rescue Officer, working closely with the US, instructing Squadron members on Escape and Evasion tactics.

Throughout her time, Mandy was the only female aircrew and later learned the lessons of juggling life as a working mother of two young children. Now a civilian, Mandy draws on her experiences to train and inspire others, covering the core areas of human factors; decision making, communication, leadership, behaviour, workload, conflict, fatigue and stress management. She is also a highly sought after keynote speaker in the business and education sectors.

Since leaving the RAF, she continues her support for the services in the Volunteer Reserve (VR), through flying on the Air Experience Flight, passing on her experience and enjoyment of flying to Air Cadets.

Watch this interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5rjaHthRBw

Get in touch with Alex to improve the performance of your team: 

• [email protected]
• https://twitter.com/AlexMacPhail1
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/flyingmogul
• www.alexmacphail.co.za

What got my attention is when Mark posted about managing Springbok Nude Girls being not too dissimilar to managing Venture Capital. Already I felt I knew Mark.

As the CEO of Neu Capital Africa, Mark runs an online platform which works with boutique corporate finance advisors to connect African companies to facilitate capital raising from $5m to $50m range.

Then when we spoke, I heard of Mark's adventure creating Turkey’s first aquarium in Istanbul as CEO and co-founder which he later sold to Merlin in 2013. I will be asking him about catching sharks during this interview, so stay tuned!

Mark studied and practised law as an attorney specialising in Maritime and International Trade law with Shepstone & Wylie.  Mark has a BA LLB (US), a PGD in Maritime Law (UND), an M.Comm cum laude (UCT) and a PGD in Futures Studies cum laude at Stellenbosch.

This should be a fascinating conversation, please join us and ask your questions!

Watch this interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O900OFK01Hc

Get in touch with Alex to improve the performance of your team: 

• [email protected]
• https://twitter.com/AlexMacPhail1
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/flyingmogul
• www.alexmacphail.co.za

Simanta is a Human Resources professional and an expert in Public Policy. His focus is on talent management, communication, branding and sustainability. Simanta shares his views publicly on various social platforms, thus gaining a significant voice on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Simanta took his opportunity to turn the mic on me. He had invented some games, to help people identify their strengths. Simanta asked me some of his quiz questions and we identified some personality traits, that fit with an airline pilot.

This was a lot of fun, spending time with a very smart gentleman, who has years of experience behind him.

Watch this interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaBoU4E9Gwo&t=1s

Get in touch with Alex to improve the performance of your team: 

• [email protected]
• https://twitter.com/AlexMacPhail1
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/flyingmogul
• www.alexmacphail.co.za

Jeff Hoffman is the chairman of the Global Entrepreneurship Network. Jeff is a successful entrepreneur, proven CEO, worldwide motivational speaker, bestselling author, Hollywood film producer, a producer of a Grammy-winning jazz album, and executive producer of an Emmy Award-winning television show. In his career, he has been the founder of multiple startups, he has been the CEO of both public and private companies, and he has served as a senior executive in many capacities. Jeff has been part of a number of well-known successful startups, including Priceline.com/Booking.com, uBid.com and more.

 Jeff serves on the boards of companies in the US, Europe, the Middle East, South America, Africa, and Asia. He supports entrepreneurs and small businesses on a worldwide basis. He is the Chief Evangelist and a founding board member of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, which works with entrepreneurs in 175 countries, as well as being a founding board member of The Unreasonable Group. He supports the White House, the State Department, the United Nations, and similar organizations internationally on economic growth initiatives and entrepreneurship programs.

Jeff is a featured business expert seen on Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, CNN International, Bloomberg News, CNBC, ABC, and NPR, and in publications including Forbes, Inc., Time, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, and more.
Follow Jeff:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffhoff/​
Twitter: @speakerJeff
https://www.jeffhoffman.com

Watch this interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXCJWX3Zce8

Get in touch with Alex to improve the performance of your team: 

• [email protected]
• https://twitter.com/AlexMacPhail1
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/flyingmogul
• www.alexmacphail.co.za