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Jan Ward ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-ward-cbe-8788b39/ ) is the Founder and CEO of Corrotherm International Ltd, a leading supplier of nickel alloys to the energy sector, with offices in UK, UAE, India, South Africa , Saudi Arabia , Australia, China and S Korea. She is a Non-Executive Director at a number of companies, including The Energy Industries Council and Red Penguin Associates Ltd. She is a Director at the Saudi Joint British Business Council. Jan has won a number of awards over the years for her contributions to business, including a CBE for services to business in 2015, Natwest Business woman of the year 2009, and the IOD and South East Global Director of the year 2014. 

In this episode we cover: 

- Jan's first venture into business (a sandwich shop) 

- The stigma towards women in engineering in the 1980's

- Developing a skill set in an existing business before setting up 

- Setting up Corrotherm, a global specialised steel manufacturer 

- Doing business in the Middle East in the 90's and 00's 

- The importance of continuous innovation and value engineering 

- Collaborative leadership 

- The role of Non-Executive Directors in Business 

- And much more!

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We hope you enjoy the episode with Jan as much as we did recording it.

This episode is brought to you by Ford Hastings - fordhastings.com - , a board level search firm for startups, scale-ups and SME's. Ford Hastings have for over 20 years sourced C-Suite professionals and Non-Executive Directors on behalf of SME's, VC Funds and PE houses. As a listener of this episode, you can get up to £2,000 off a board search by quoting 'Podcast-Ward' when enquiring.

Get the latest podcast email updates here: bit.ly/FHpod

Follow: Ford Hastings - www.fordhastings.com FH LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/company/ford-hastings/ Joe Thomsett LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/joethomsett/ Joe Thomsett Twitter - @joethomsett Will Hastings LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/will-hastings-7814abb1/ ----- Alexandra Galviz (Authentic Alex) ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/authenticalex/ )is LinkedIn’s Top Voice in the UK for both 2017 and 2018. She developed a platform on LinkedIn by being one of the first people to talk openly and honestly about the effects that chasing corporate and material success can cause on our mental health. She created LinkedIn Local to encourage LinkedIn connections to meet offline through hosted events. It grew from 4 people in 4 countries in 4 cities into 80 countries, 600 cities and 1,000 hosts in under 18 months. She has subsequently launched and is the CMO of LocalX, a Community Consulting, Accelerator and Technology Company. From Alex: “A little about me… In 2016 I had a quarter life crisis (yes that’s an actual thing and if it’s not I’m officially making it one). So after 4.5 years of climbing my way furiously up the career ladder into a management position by the time I was 24, I decided to take a short break from the corporate underworld that turned into full-blown retirement at the ripe old age of 25. I swiftly proceeded to backpack solo through Sri Lanka, Nepal and India for 6 weeks, some say to find myself (Eat, Pray, Love style), I’d say just for the Eat part. By day I teach people and businesses how to get noticed on LinkedIn, grow their brand and leverage the platform to achieve their goals. In between I work with students and graduates, upskilling them via workshops, public speaking gigs and mentoring them into the workforce. By night I turn into a LinkedIn blogger posting my thoughts on my successes and setbacks I’ve overcome as a student, graduate, young professional, self-confessed introvert and now as a solopreneur in all its raw glory under the hashtag #AuthenticAlex.” In this Episode, we cover: *Living an authentic life *What makes a person coachable? *Growing online communities to worldwide movements *Courage and impostor syndrome *The contributing factors to the workplace mental health epidemic *The misconception regarding introverts and extroverts *And much more! Listening to Alex will give you practical insights into how to build an online and offline community effectively; using honesty, integrity and authenticity. ----- This episode is brought to you by Ford Hastings - fordhastings.com - , a board level search firm for startups, scale-ups and SME's. Ford Hastings have for over 20 years sourced C-Suite professionals and Non-Executive Directors on behalf of SME's, VC Funds and PE houses. As a listener of this episode, you can get up to £2,000 off a board search by quoting 'Podcast-Galviz' when enquiring.

Get the latest podcast email updates here: bit.ly/FHpod

Follow: Ford Hastings - www.fordhastings.com FH LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/company/ford-hastings/ Joe Thomsett LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/joethomsett/ Joe Thomsett Twitter - @joethomsett Will Hastings LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/will-hastings-7814abb1/ ----- Mike Lander ( www.linkedin.com/in/mikelander/ ) is a successful entrepreneur with a proven track record of buying, growing and selling businesses with a particular sector focus on Digital Marketing Agencies, Consulting, Architecture/Interior Design and Education. From Mike: “Whenever I tell my story to people, there are two common themes they talk about: “you’ve been very successful at buying/building/selling businesses, what’s the secret sauce” “you’ve had an interesting and very eclectic career, how does that tie in with your focus, focus, focus advice?” The reality is, there is no “secret sauce”. Each journey was unique with a few common approaches. The question about focus is an important one that has taken many years of personal learning to get right. I like to think of it as “focused sprinting”. Some people do one thing exceptionally well all their lives. For me, variety is the spice of life, I have to focus on specific things for short periods and then repeat. I hope you find one or two insights that help you with your entrepreneurial journey and that the learning never stops”. In this Episode, we cover: *Engineering and making things *Visual and experimentation learning *The current state and future of education *The impact of AI and machine learning on society *The grounding consulting gives in understanding businesses *What Business Transformation is and how to go about it *Overcoming business failure *Building knowledge and decision-making tools *The role of leadership in business *Advice given to the younger generation *And much more! Listening to Mike and his journey will give you practical tips on building businesses, business transformation, leadership, decision-making tools and more. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! ----- This episode is brought to you by Ford Hastings - fordhastings.com - , a board level search firm for startups, scale-ups and SME's. Ford Hastings have for over 20 years sourced C-Suite professionals and Non-Executive Directors on behalf of SME's, VC Funds and PE houses. As a listener of this episode, you can get up to £2,000 off a board search by quoting 'Podcast-Lander' when enquiring.

Get the latest podcast email updates here: bit.ly/FHpod

Follow: Ford Hastings - www.fordhastings.com FH LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/ford-hastings/ Joe Thomsett LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joethomsett/ Joe Thomsett Twitter - @joethomsett Will Hastings LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-hastings-7814abb1/ ----- Rory-Curnock Cook (@RoryCurnockCook) is an education entrepreneur, speaker, and mentor. He is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of The Profs (theprofs.co.uk) an award-winning educational consultancy focusing on higher and professional education, and leaders in online education and e-learning. Enjoying a year-on-year growth rate of >100% three years in a row, The Profs is now branching out into EdTech, Global Online Tuition and Professional Consultancy. In this Episode, we cover: *Building The Profs as a bootstrapped start-up *Start-Up Marketing, testing and Guerilla Marketing *Building a world-class EdTech Product (bitpaper.io) *Addressing poor student mental health through The Profs and partnering with universities *How Rory stays balanced whilst building a company *Advice Rory would give himself 5 years ago *Future hopes and dreams *And much more! Listening to Rory and his journey will give you practical tips on how to bootstrap a business to 7 figure revenues. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! ----- This episode is brought to you by Ford Hastings - fordhastings.com - , a board level search firm for start-ups, scale-ups and SME's. Ford Hastings have for over 20 years sourced C-Suite professionals and Non-Executive Directors on behalf of SME's, VC Funds and PE houses. As a listener of this episode, you can get up to £2,000 off a board search by quoting 'Podcast-Profs' when enquiring.