Jenny Burns is CEO of Magnetic, a business that helps organisations unlock growth through human-centred innovation, strategy, design and delivery. Like Positive Momentum, Magnetic is a B Corp. Her career spans 25 years in big, complex organisations — WH Smith, Telefónica O2, Centrica British Gas, RSA Insurance and Barclays — and she and Paul go back to their RSA days together. She's a keynote speaker and facilitator, hosts the Human AI series in London and New York, writes The Accidental CEO, and is a Fulham fan.

What we cover

• Why the CEO job was accidental — and how being told she'd never get there became the fuel
• Loving the work: why work-life balance looks different when you genuinely enjoy the job, and why pressure doesn't tip into stress
• Hiring for the culture you actually run: framing problems rather than directing, and being honest in recruitment about an environment with few frameworks and a lot of empowerment
• Adult conversations when someone isn't flourishing — and why that isn't about talent
• Courage in leadership, and the risk conversation with regulated clients: financial services says it can't take risks, while healthcare is life-or-death and still innovates
• Selling Magnetic two years ago and buying it back four weeks before recording — a bold, personally costly call
• The hardest part of the job: people decisions in a business where you hired every single person, and why Magnetic has an alumni who still come back for the annual book launch
• Why talented people leaving a small business isn't failure
• Retail as a leadership apprenticeship: store manager at 19, 60 part-time staff, around £5m turnover, and learning early that motivated employees drive what goes through the till
• Building executive teams: knowing your own gaps at 50, diversity of thought as non-negotiable for an innovation business, and senior women working three or four days a week
• Women in business: from a gender-balanced retail career to rooms full of white men at Barclays Capital; why board quotas helped but executive teams are still where the gap sits
  • Why AI needs a female voice — bias built in from past data, and the human-centred leadership the transition will demand
  • The AI adoption inversion: consumers moved first this time, businesses are catching up, and the tension between what people use at home and what's authorised at work
  • The blind spot: CEOs and CTOs obsessing over back-office efficiency while missing that customers now discover brands in a chat window rather than a search engine or a shop
  • GLP-1 weight-loss drugs quietly disrupting food, retail and how we socialise

  Jenny's three tips for aspiring CEOs

  1. Get the right team around you — the role can be lonely, so build trust, and run it as a team rather than a series of one-to-ones.
  2. Never underestimate the time communication takes. The formal moments matter less than the informal ones — you're on stage even when you're making a cup of tea.
  3. Never take yourself too seriously. You're never the smartest person in the room, and no one wants a boring CEO.

Helen Pain, CEO of the Royal Society of Chemistry, reflects on three decades at one organisation, what it really means to lead through a crisis you didn't see coming, and why the secret to an effective exec team isn't talent - it's alignment. A thoughtful conversation about purpose, protecting your Saturdays, and why the CEO role might not be what you think it is; with Positive Momentum Partner, Julie Heneghan.

Rob Davies, CEO of BCN Group, gets honest about imposter syndrome, the human cost of growth, and what it really takes to lead when the business you've built is being disrupted by the very technology you sell. A candid conversation about alignment, AI, and why the hardest moments in leadership are rarely the commercial ones.

Host Matt Crabtree speaks with John Doyle, CEO at Monex USA.

Host Matt Crabtree speaks with Arun Narayanan, CEO at Stem, Inc.

Host Julie Heneghan speaks with Paul McCorquodale, CEO at Grid Edge.

Host Matt Crabtree speaks with Russell Haworth, CEO at Acclaro

Host Julian March speaks with Heber Alves, CEO at Improve International.

Host Julian March speaks with Rachel Corp, CEO at ITN.

Host Matt Crabtree speaks with Philippe Gijsels, Chief Strategy Officer at BNP Paribas Fortis and Co-Author of The New World Economy in 5 Trends.