Difference Makers Podcast

Networking is neither an art nor a science. It is a process, and Kingsley Aikins has spent a career proving it.

In the second part of his conversation with Sinead Donovan, the founder of Diaspora Matters explains why 305 million people now live outside the country they were born in, how 120 countries have built strategies to engage them, and what the philanthropist Chuck Feeney meant when he said there is no roof rack on the hearse.

Kingsley also names the hidden cost of COVID for the profession: our networks shrank to an inner ring of family and close colleagues, while the outer ring of weak ties, where opportunity actually lives, quietly fell away. He sets out the five consequences he sees inside the firms that call him in, and offers genuinely practical tactics for walking into a room where you know nobody.

In this episode:

- Why a diaspora is now a national asset rather than a lost one
- Andrew Carnegie, Chuck Feeney and the case for giving while you live
- The honest role of self interest in every professional relationship
- The five things firms lost when networks contracted
- Why early in your career you are paid for what you do, and later for who you are
- Name badges, ones and twos, and standing near the bar

This is part two of a two part conversation. Part one closed season 4. Difference Makers Discuss is brought to you by Chartered Accountants Worldwide.

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Season 4 of Difference Makers Discuss took us from Sydney to London, from Olympic tracks to the maize fields of Mozambique, from online exam halls in South Africa to audit rooms in Zambia. In this special episode, host Sinead Donovan brings the best of those six conversations together in one place.

You will hear Kingsley Aikins on how a 12 person dinner club in Sydney became the largest Irish business network in any city in the world, and how one letter to a stranger led to a 21 year working relationship. Aster Thackery describes arriving in London pregnant, during a pandemic, knowing nobody, and building a community that now connects around 2,000 parents. Manuel Rodrigues explains how Escolha do Povo has drawn tens of thousands of small scale farmers in Tete Province into a working microeconomy, and the commercial insight behind it. Caitriona Jennings shares what really happened on the day she ran the 2012 Olympic marathon. Nick Riemer sets out one of the most nuanced arguments we have heard on where AI belongs in assessment. And Liswaniso Namatama makes the case that audit is, at its core, a deeply human profession.

Kingsley returns at the close with the thought that ties it all together. Hard skills get you on the ladder. Soft skills get you up the ladder. And the things that count but cannot be counted tend to get discounted.

Whether you have heard every episode of Season 4 or you are joining us for the first time, there is something here that will stay with you.

Season 5 of Difference Makers Discuss premieres on Thursday 1 October.

In this episode

• Why one letter, one lunch and one conversation can redirect a whole career
• The difference between wanting a village and being willing to be a villager
• How poultry changed farmer income in Tete Province from once a year to every 35 days
• What Caitriona learned from finishing a race she could barely run
• Where AI genuinely helps in assessment, and where a human has to make the call
• Why professional judgment in audit still needs a person in the room
• The soft skills nobody grades at university, and why they matter most

Guests in this episode Kingsley Aikins, Aster Thackery, Manuel Rodrigues, Caitriona Jennings, Nick Riemer and Liswaniso Namatama.

Host Sinead Donovan

Chapters

• 00:00 Welcome to a special episode
• 01:11 Kingsley Aikins on building the Lansdowne Club in Sydney
• 04:14 Aster Thackery on turning a coffee meetup into a community of 2,000
• 11:03 Manuel Rodrigues on building a microeconomy in Tete Province
• 16:44 Caitriona Jennings on the 2012 Olympic marathon
• 23:30 Nick Riemer on using AI in assessment without losing human judgment
• 30:22 Liswaniso Namatama on why audit is a human profession
• 35:14 Kingsley Aikins on the skills that count but cannot be counted
• 38:26 Closing reflections

Listen to the full episodes Every Season 4 conversation is available in full wherever you get your podcasts.

Know a difference maker? If you know someone who should be on the show, a difference maker in the world of finance and beyond, get in touch with the team at Chartered Accountants Worldwide.

Find out more at www.charteredaccountantsworldwide.com

Someone asks to “work from another country for a few weeks” and it feels like an easy yes. Then the questions start: does a visitor visa change tax status, when do workdays become taxable, and could a single remote worker accidentally create a permanent establishment abroad? We sit down with Carla Wilson, the Chairperson of the Chartered Accountants Worldwide UAE Committee, international tax specialist Hugo Van Zyl and HR leader Sarah Brooks to get brutally practical about cross-border remote working, especially for organisations employing UAE-based staff who want flexibility without triggering hidden compliance costs.

We talk through the real mechanics of tax residency and double tax treaties, including why the 183-day threshold is not a universal safe harbour and how source rules can tax income from day one in some jurisdictions. Hugo explains how dual residency can arise and how treaty tie-breakers like permanent home, centre of vital interests, and habitual home are applied in the real world. From the employer side, we dig into permanent establishment risk and what actually happens when you cross the line: registration, filings, potential VAT thresholds, withholding duties, and wider risk management considerations.

Sarah brings the people and policy lens: what happens to UAE payroll, WPS, visas, and end-of-service gratuity when someone works abroad, and why “approved on WhatsApp” is not a process. We also cover governance: who owns the decision, what a clear approval framework should include, and how to handle edge cases like maternity leave where “presence” and “exercising employment” can become a critical nuance. If you manage global mobility, HR governance, payroll compliance, or corporate tax risk, you will leave with a sharper checklist and a clearer line between supportive flexibility and unmanaged exposure.

Subscribe, share this with your leadership team, and leave a review with the country you find hardest to manage for remote working.

Your career is not a solo sport, and pretending it is can quietly stall your progress. We’re joined by Kingsley Aikins, widely known for his work on professional networking and relationship building, to talk about what networking really looks like when it’s done with decency, curiosity, and intent.

Kingsley shares the stories that shaped his outlook, from rugby and the “five people you spend time with” idea, to landing in Sydney knowing nobody and helping create the Lansdowne Club, now one of the largest Irish business networks anywhere. We dig into the moment many of us recognise: thinking networking is sleazy or fake, then realising that other people hold the keys to jobs, clients, promotions, and opportunities. Hard skills may get you on the ladder, but soft skills get you up the ladder.

We also get practical. Kingsley breaks networking down into a repeatable process (research, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship) and explains why introverts can be better networkers than extroverts. We talk about loneliness in a screen-first world, the layers of a modern network (personal, strategic, operational, online), and why your LinkedIn profile and personal brand matter whether you like those terms or not.

If you want clearer connections, stronger career resilience, and a smarter way to show your value without self-promotion, press play. Subscribe, share this with someone building their network, and leave us a review with the one relationship skill you’re working on.

A Chartered Accountant from New Zealand ends up advising global investors on Italy’s value proposition, and somehow that’s only the start. We sit down with Aster Thackery to trace the real career mechanics behind a “non-linear” path: why her Chartered Accountancy qualification travelled further than a law degree, how London changed her access to international business, and what foreign direct investment (FDI) looks like when you’re the person translating finance, tax incentives, and opportunity into plain language for decision-makers. 

We also get honest about culture and identity. Aster shares how being mixed shaped her early questions of belonging, then became a strength in a global city where cultural awareness is a serious professional skill. From working styles in New Zealand and Ireland to the hierarchy and nuance she encountered with Italian colleagues, she explains what she learned the hard way and why The Culture Map is a must-read for cross-cultural communication, leadership, and “reading the room” without guesswork. 

Then the conversation turns local, and surprisingly moving: how a simple Greenwich coffee meet-up during Covid grew into a community of around 2,000 parents, a free village fair, and a sold-out International Women’s Day family morning tea. We talk social impact, social enterprise structure, and the line that sticks: people want a village, but they don’t always want to be a villager. If you care about community building, networking, time management, and building a meaningful career without perfectionism, you’ll take plenty from this one. 

If this sparked something for you, please subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave us a review. What part of Aster’s story feels most relevant to your own path?

A global summit can feel like a once-off highlight, but for Liswaniso Namatama it becomes a turning point. I’m joined by the Lusaka-based chartered accountant and auditor to talk about what changes when you walk into a room of 2,000 young leaders and realise every person has a story of impact. The biggest lesson he brings home is disarmingly simple: you don’t need to wait for the “right time” to start making a difference.

We dig into how those One Young World connections turn into a lasting network of chartered accountants across countries and cultures, and how that community mindset helps spark action back in Zambia. Liswaniso shares how meeting fellow accountant Dorica Chanda leads to Young Dream Radiators, a foundation focused on mentorship and outreach programmes for less fortunate communities. The goal is to show up consistently, build hope through real conversations, and give young people role models they can actually reach.

Then we get practical about the auditing profession. Liswaniso challenges the cliché that audit is only box ticking or fault finding, and explains what auditors really do: understand businesses, assess risk, apply professional judgement, and help organisations improve how they operate. We also tackle AI in audit, where automation speeds up analysis, but trust, interpretation, and human-to-human communication still decide whether findings land and changes happen.

If you’re exploring an accounting career, working in audit, or wondering how professional skills can drive social impact, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share it with a friend in finance, and leave a review with one thing you want people to understand about audit.

A rural village where income arrives once a year is hard to transform, unless you change the rhythm of cash, supply, and trust. That is what Manuel Rodrigues has been building through EDP Mozambique: a practical, for profit system that links tens of thousands of small scale farmers growing maize and soya to real buyers, then reinvests that supply into poultry so families can earn again and again rather than waiting for harvest season.

We talk through how the model works on the ground: crop aggregation, processing, and a route to market that now includes 11 retail stores across central and northern Mozambique. Manuel explains why adding a hatchery and producing chicken feed from local maize and soya becomes the “flywheel” that creates a microeconomy, improves food security, and increases protein availability in communities where it is often scarce. You will also hear what vertical integration looks like next, from producing fertilised eggs with community partners to plans for an abattoir that can protect farmer margins and open access to the formal sector, including grocery, hospitality and restaurants.

The conversation does not dodge the hard parts. We discuss unethical behaviour such as seed loans not repaid, why clear consequences matter, and how sustainability changes when international donor funding is cut. Manuel also shares how chartered accountancy skills, from controls and costing to negotiation, help keep a complex operation accountable at scale.

Subscribe for more stories at the intersection of social enterprise, sustainable agriculture and impact investing, share this with someone who cares about inclusive growth, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

A 100-mile world record time sounds like something from another planet, until you hear how Caitríona Jennings actually built it: not with superhero secrets, but with structured habits, a trained mindset, and the same calm problem-solving you’d expect from a top Chartered Accountant. Caitríona is an Irish Olympian who moved from triathlon into marathon running, qualified for the 2012 Olympics while working full-time in PwC, and later pushed into ultrarunning to set a stunning 100-mile record of 12:37:04. 

We dig into the real work behind endurance performance: time management while studying and training, removing friction through weekend planning, and staying injury-aware. Caitríona opens up about the Olympic marathon that went wrong, why finishing still mattered, and how that experience shaped her resilience. We also explore practical sports psychology tools like positive self-talk, intercepting negative thoughts, and visualisation so your brain treats pressure as familiar. 

Then we switch lanes into career growth and aviation finance. Caitríona explains how she pivoted from tax into a commercial role on an aviation leasing trading desk, buying and selling aircraft that are on lease to airlines. It’s a clear example of how the Chartered Accountancy skillset travels: analysing financial statements, understanding risk, communicating with customers, and making calculated moves without being reckless. If you care about leadership, performance under pressure, and building a career with range, you’ll take notes. 

Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s chasing a big goal, and leave us a review with your biggest takeaway: what habit helps you stay steady when things stop going to plan?

Online exams are meant to make learning easier, but most proctoring tools still assume perfect Wi‑Fi, constant power, and a pricey laptop. That leaves too many students behind. We sit down with Nick Riemer, a South African chartered accountant and co-founder of Invigilator App, to unpack how an offline-capable, low-data approach to remote invigilation can protect academic integrity while widening access to education. 

We talk about the real costs of traditional assessment: venues, staffing, printing, logistics, and the knock-on costs students pay in travel and accommodation. Nick explains how credible online assessments can cut fixed costs, help institutions accept more learners, and make studying possible from wherever you are, without reducing the value of the final qualification. We also explore how the business scaled from a South Africa-first focus to global roll-outs, including work across the UK, Australia, and beyond, guided by the principle of proving product-market fit before expanding. 

AI is the other big thread, and we go beyond headlines. Nick breaks down how on-device AI can reduce massive uploads by focusing attention on the moments that matter, while still keeping a human academic as the final decision-maker to avoid false flags and protect due process. We also get into responsible use of tools like ChatGPT: when closed-book exams still matter, when AI can be allowed, and how assessment design should reward real critical thinking rather than copy-paste answers. We close with a candid look at entrepreneurship, profitability, and why chartered accountancy skills can be a serious advantage when building trust with investors. 

If you care about inclusive education technology, ethical AI in education, and the future of assessments, listen now. Subscribe, share with a friend in education or edtech, and leave a review with your take: should AI be welcomed into learning, or tightly limited?

Start with what you’re good at and point it at a real problem—that’s the thread running through our conversation with Laura Mason, a chartered accountant who turns financial modelling and data analytics into public value. From multi‑billion‑pound transport contracts to net zero initiatives and social innovation tools, Laura shows how rigorous finance can deliver human outcomes people feel every day.

We dig into the mechanics of value for money and why procurement design matters as much as policy. Laura explains how funding models can prioritise reliability and access across transport networks, and why energy efficiency is more than climate talk—it’s a direct cost strategy. She shares hard numbers on reskilling for AI, illustrating how upskilling saves money, protects jobs, and preserves institutional knowledge. Along the way, we explore her work mentoring unemployed women, building a multilingual council‑services chatbot for new UK arrivals, and developing a mental health triage assistant that shortens wait times.

What ties it all together is a mindset shift: profit can amplify purpose when leaders build credible business cases for doing good. We talk about courageous leadership—using your platform to speak for others—and how to communicate impact in terms that boards and budget holders can back. Laura lays out a practical playbook for public services: start small, test with users, quantify results, and scale through collaboration. Ethical AI, inclusive innovation, and transparent decision‑making aren’t slogans; they are tools to make public systems more responsive and resilient.

If you believe performance and purpose can move together, this conversation offers proof and a plan. Subscribe, share with a colleague who works in public services, and leave a review with the one change you’d champion at your organisation.