Sam Talks Technology

Jay LeBoeuf leads Business Development at Descript. Previously, Jay founded industry-education-nonprofit Real Industry.

For over 10 years, Jay has lectured on media technology and business at Stanford. He holds adjunct appointments at Carnegie Mellon and Univ of Michigan and was honoured as a Bloomberg Business Innovator.

Tommy Nagra is the Director of Content for BBC Children in Need. He is responsible for overseeing all content created on multiple platforms and leading programme partnerships across all areas of the BBC.

Tommy leads the content and storytelling team who share the stories of children and young people supported by BBC Children in Need funding, as well as working with BBC programmes including The One Show, The Chris Evans Breakfast Show, and Countryfile which raise millions of pounds every year to help change young lives throughout the UK.

Tommy is an award-winning programme maker with significant experience across the BBC and in the independent sector. He is well versed in multi-genre TV production, ranging from specialist factual, documentary and live events through to current affairs, entertainment, lifestyle and features.

His previous roles include Senior Project Director, BBC Radio and Education; Head of Television for BBC Religion & Ethics; Head of Channel Development & Partnerships for BBC Children’s; Head of Business Development, BBC Birmingham; Head of Specialist Factual at Maverick Television; Channel Development Executive for BBC Two; and formerly Head of the Asian Programmes Unit in the 1990s.

Since 2017, Tommy has been on the prestigious Clore Leadership Programme and graduated as a Clore Fellow, which has taken him to the US to study new business models and innovation in content to reach new audiences via digital platforms.

It also involved a secondment with the Mayor of London’s Creative & Cultural Industries team where he devised a Young People’s Leadership Programme for the winning London Borough of Culture.

James Minter joined the Royal Navy straight after school and was sponsored through Durham University.

On leaving the Royal Navy in 1999, he set up one of London’s first serviced offices in the midst of the dotcom boom.

By 2001 he had turned the basement into Adam Street Private Members' Club - London’s first club for entrepreneurs. Adam Street's membership was dominated by the tech scene and given James passion for making great connections, it was a natural move to become a headhunter.

Gustaf is the 'Inventor of the Vagus ECG Test'. He describes himself as a curious, open-minded brain-explorer, engineer and serial entrepreneur.

For more than 25 years he has successfully started, run and exited more than ten companies globally. After the 2008 financial crisis, he had a burn-out. He says that Vagus stimulation and Vipassana meditation 'saved' his brain from self-destruction. Gustaf’s passion is to help others with his inventions for biodata collection and vagus stimulation.

“I want to help people to better deal with bad stress, balance the autonomic nervous system and improve the immune response. We use my inventions - the Vagus ECG smartwatch and vagus stimulation devices to diagnose and treat immune system dysfunctions, stress and anxiety.

In 2020 his company started selling our Vagus ECG smartwatch and now it is expanding research to Coronavirus early detection and disease progress.

In 2021 they will launch a wellness Vagus Stimulation Device.

Formed as a Slack group on March 16th by a couple of ex-colleagues, the code4covid community now counts over 700 tech volunteers: and with other groups joining in, it keeps growing!

The team's mission is to find technology solutions to help people during the COVID-19 crisis: we believe that technology can minimise the disruption caused by the pandemic and ultimately save lives.

Sarah is a technology reporter for Bloomberg, based out of San Francisco. She writes regularly about Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, for Bloomberg and Businessweek. She talks about her stories on Bloomberg TV, too. Sarah is also the author of No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, the first book to explain the product's growth and cultural impact, based on interviews with current and former employees and executives, as well as celebrities and influencers.

Minter Dial serves as a keynote speaker, conference animator and consultant on branding, leadership and transformation for blue-chip companies, conferences and events around the world.

Minter is an author and filmmaker of award-winning "The Last Ring Home" (Nov 2016). Co-author of the award-winning "Futureproof, How to get your Business Ready for the Next Disruption" (Pearson, Sep 2017).

His latest book is “Heartificial Empathy, Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence” (Dec 2018) won the Book Excellence Award 2019 in the category of Technology and was a finalist for the Business Book Awards 2019.

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Andrew Grill is a commercially focussed Digital Leader and trusted Board Technology Advisor, who delivers strategic digital transformation programs and has delivered $100M+ of new business across multiple industries globally.

Over a 4-year period, Andrew influenced around $100M of sales via his external eminence and thought leadership with key IBM clients.

He is recognised by his peers and clients as able to uniquely communicate the need for digital transformation and provide strategic leadership to any C-Suite or Board.

Andrew is also a popular and sought-after presenter and commentator on issues around digital disruption, social selling, workplace of the future and digital diversity.

He consults to organisations worldwide to develop their strategy in a world rife with digital disruption.

An experienced corporate leader, Andrew has launched and run technology companies in Europe and Australia and worked with and for some of the world’s leading companies including IBM, Vodafone, Telstra, Nestle, BBC, American Express, John Lewis, and Unilever.

He is also a seasoned TEDx speaker, having presented at 5 separate TEDx events.

Andrew’s first-hand experience of the digital world and the power of social media networks spans three decades and can be traced back to the early 1980s when he found himself online via bulletin board and email.

His passion and involvement in the digital world continued into later life, launching Australia’s largest commercial property website, PropertyLook, and Australian location technology company Seeker Wireless to the world stage.

Nick Dalton is the Executive Vice President, HR for Unilever. He has been in HR for over 30 years, working globally, regionally, and locally. He has also worked in all areas of HR, from leading international negotiations with trade unions to managing senior leadership development and enabling organisational change.

Rory Sutherland is the Ogilvy advertising legend whose TED Talks have been viewed nearly 7 million times. In his first book, he blends cutting-edge behavioural science, jaw-dropping stories and a touch of branding magic, on his mission to turn us all into idea alchemists. The big problems we face every day, whether as an individual or in society, could very well be solved by letting go of logic and embracing the irrational.

James Mulvany the CEO & founder of Podcast.co a new podcasting host service which operates a production house that offers a full range of services including concept, production, editing, distribution, monetisation and marketing.