Wolfgang is leading BCG’s procurement business line in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in the Middle East. He is also part of BCG’s European operations leadership team. Over the years, he has been focused on transformations and the support of procurement through digital tools, working across industries but with a heavy weight in the automotive sector.

He specializes in large-scale operational transformations, direct and indirect category management, digital procurement solutions, procure-to-pay, performance management in procurement, capability building and operating models of procurement departments. Wolfgang has recently co-authored 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 - How to use radical adaptability to win in a world of unprecedented change -, providing a blueprint for leaders to find phenomenal value and competitive advantage in a surprising place—their #procurement function.

Having grown up in rural India without access to reliable power, clean drinking water, and other basic needs, Reshma Ramachandran's purpose to empower people to believe they have the power to choose and to enable people to go beyond their self-limiting beliefs has shaped her journey as a business leader over the last two decades.

Ramachandran is a board-certified family physician and second-year fellow within the Yale National Clinician Scholars Program. Her research focuses on the realignment of incentives for healthcare stakeholders including pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and universities towards prioritizing equitable patient access to safe, effective health technologies.

Prior to this role, Reshma worked as research faculty as part of the Innovation + Design Enabling Access (IDEA) Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she focused on policies to address the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance and unaffordable access to prescription drugs.

Dr. Ramachandran trained in both medicine at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University and in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She completed her family medicine residency at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center. Previously, she served as the first PharmFree Fellow with the American Medical Student Association focused on removing the undue influence of pharmaceutical companies on prescribing behavior and medical education. She is part of the National Steering Committee for the Doctors for America Drug Affordability Action Team. She also is a board member of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) North America and the American Medical Student Association Foundation.

Stacey Tank is currently the Chief Transformation & Corporate Affairs Officer at Heineken (AMS: HEIA) based in Amsterdam. As a direct report to the CEO and member of the executive committee, Tank shepherds the company's new growth strategy, "EverGreen." In addition, Tank is responsible for the company's stepped up sustainability and ESG vision, Brew a Better World 2030, including its new Sustainability & Responsibility Supervisory Board committee.

Tank formerly led the multi-billion dollar Home Depot Installation Services and Home Depot Measurement Services businesses for The Home Depot (NYSE: HD), the world’s largest home improvement retailer with $132.1 billion in annual sales and over 500,000 employees. During her tenure, Tank led the exit of four unprofitable lines of business and quickly returned the remaining businesses to double-digit growth while instilling a strong values-based culture and robust innovation pipeline.

Dedicated to the intersection of business and positive impact on society, Tank has repeatedly authored large-scale movements across enterprises like General Electric, Heineken and Home Depot including recently launching a quarter of a billion dollar commitment to veteran housing and a $50 million shop class program that is infusing 20,000 skilled tradespeople into the U.S. economy. Tank is the founder of Our Happy Place (OurHappy.org), a 501(c)3 non-profit serving children, educators and families navigating childhood mental wellness.

She is also a board trustee for the HEINEKEN Africa Foundation. She previously sat on the boards of the Woodruff Arts Center (nominating and governance chair), Serenbe Playhouse, Ad Council, Home Depot Foundation (former president), Homer Fund, Bright Pink (executive board), Academy for Systems Change (finance committee), Arthur Page Society (digital committee), Westchester Business Council, Beer Institute, Institute for Public Relations and Subrosa (sold in late 2017). She is the former vice chairwoman of the National Association of Beverage Importers and the former chairwoman of the Heineken Good Government Fund.

Tank is a 2020 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (YGL), a 2019 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a 2014 Academy for Systems Change Fellow. She graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in business and communications from Syracuse University where she was recognized as a University Scholar, the university’s highest academic honor. Tank currently resides in the Netherlands with her husband, two sons and rescue Chihuahua, the Dolly-mama.

Saving endangered species! Dr. Morne de la Rey talks to Af about his work helping save the Northern White Rhino and other animal species from extinction.

Morné de la Rey is a South African veterinary surgeon and embryo transfer specialist. In 2003, he was one of a team of scientists and veterinarians from his company Embryo Plus and the Danish Agriculture Institute to clone a cow, the first animal to be cloned in Africa. In 2016, he was one of a team to use in vitro fertilization successfully for the first time in the Cape buffalo.

In 2010 he produced Sable Antelope calves by means of Fixed Time Artificial Insemination with frozen thawed semen. He became the first person in the world to produce Sable Antelope calves by means of embryo transfers in 2011. Following his success he produced the first cross type between Zambian Sable Antelope embryo calves born out of southern Sable Antelope.

He had great success with the Cape Buffalo as well, in 2013 produced the first pregnancies in the Cape Buffalo by means of embryo transfers in the world. In 2016 he became successful with IVF in Cape Buffalo and produced the first calf in the world.

We're thrilled to welcome to the show PwC consultant Matt Mani to discuss his book, Beyond Digital. Leaders in the digital have a challenge in transforming their organizations to keep up with the rapid pace of change. Matt and his co-author Paul Leinwand spent four years studying organizations that have successfully navigated their #digitaltransformation and the book is a summary of seven key leadership imperatives they discovered in their research.

Af challenges Matt to discuss why his book is NOT 'just another book on #digital and through the discussion we learn the seven leadership imperatives and why they're important in showing leaders how to achieve a successful transformation.

Some of the points we hit on in this discussion:

• Why #worklifebalance is the wrong approach

• “Digital transformation” has very little to do with digital and more to do with value transformation

• The role of cultural differences and #diversity

• The critical importance of the #digitalecosystem and becoming outcome-focused

Mahadeva Matt Mani is an advisor to executives on business model transformation and operating performance improvement for Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting business. As the global leader of PwC and Strategy &'s transformation platform, he works with companies and leaders across industries to achieve fundamental improvements in business performance and organization cost & effectiveness. With over 25 years of industry and consulting experience, Matt works across industries, including in the consumer goods, retail, technology, healthcare, life sciences, industrial manufacturing and aerospace and defense sectors.

He is the co-author of the book "Beyond Digital: How Great Leaders Transform Their Organizations and Shape the Future," published by Harvard Business Review Press. He has also co-authore multiple articles on value creation and business transformation in Harvard Business Review and strategy+business, including “Digitizing Isn’t the Same as Digital Transformation,” “6 Leadership Paradoxes for the Post-Pandemic Era,” and “The Redefined No of the CFO,” “How to Engender a Performance Culture.” 

“At school” doesn’t equal “learning.”

It’s no secret that just because a student is sitting in a classroom, there is no guarantee that student is actually learning something. This could be for a number of reasons, but any of those reasons point to some of the fundamental failings in our educational systems:

• The educational methods from the industrial age no longer work (one-to-many, rote memorization)

• Memorization of facts can be measured, but if a student can’t apply the knowledge, it is quickly forgotten

• Teachers are more and more being called upon to wear many hats besides that of teacher -- they are spread too thin -- and many are joining the “Great Resignation”

• In today’s fast-paced world, the knowledge found in school books is often outdated by the time our students are learning it

The team at soffos.ai have been working since 2017 to build artificial intelligence capabilities that help solve some of the most fundamental problems in our learning systems today. Their AI/ML solutions take into account rapidly changing knowledge and applies logic, context, semantics, etc, to create a fully interactive learning partner that can adapt to each individual’s specific learning needs. It helps track and measure whether students are able to apply what they’re learning; it can even read a student’s facial micro-expressions to determine whether learning is happening and changes course accordingly, providing exactly what the learner needs at that moment.

It is an incredible tool that empowers students and helps teachers create bespoke learning opportunities for students -- without adding more and more planning hours onto their plates.

We are thrilled to welcome the team from Soffos.ai to the show to talk about the incredible work they’re doing in the education space.

Aliki Constantinou EdD, Education Consultant, has been in the field of education for over 20 years as a teacher, leader and teacher trainer, complemented by a Doctorate in Educational Leadership focused on the impact of training in online cooperative learning techniques on self-efficacy.

Ken Hubbell, Interim Chief Product Officer, is an award-winning producer of advanced training solutions. As a SVP for Learning and Development, he presently leads Instructional Design Strategy & Innovation for a Fortune 50 financial services company, where he applies 20 years of assembling, developing and enabling diverse teams to create customer and stakeholder value.

Nikolas Kairinos, Founder & CEO, is an award-winning innovator with four decades of experience in AI. By the time he was 23, Nikolas was investing in companies, taking them public and selling them on. 34 years of entrepreneurship and 29 years of corporate finance & investment banking enables Nikolas to understand the problems caused by the relative lack of new ideas in AI and EdTech over the last 30 years. 

The rules of leadership have completely changed over the last few years, and leaders have to adapt to the new expectations of the workforce. This episode we were thrilled to welcome two management and leadership scholars, Dr. Curtis Odom and Prof. Charn McAllister, for an incredible and thought-provoking discussion on the future of work.

Some of the points we covered:

• The importance of purpose for companies to attract great people

• The new "purpose of self"

• How company culture is changing post-COVID • How we can hold leaders accountable

• How academia is a huge part of the leadership and culture problem

Curtis Odom and Charn McAllister are the co-authors of MIT Sloan article "Why Pivoting People is a Strategic Priority."

Dr. Curtis L Odom, Executive Professor at Northeastern University. Curtis believes that learning should be experiential and participant-centered. After a 20-year career as an entrepreneur, consultant, and coach, Odom has published ‘Why Pivoting People is a Strategic Priority.’ Aspiring, motivating, and inspiring business owners to visualize their targets and execute the strategies and tactics to reach business and personal success.

As a sought-after leader in transformations, Curtis accelerates organizational change. Charn P McAllister, Management Professor at Northern Arizona University and author of Political Skills at Work. Charn is a researcher and writer, he has had many academic and popular outlets publish his work. Including his recent paper ‘Why Pivoting People is a Strategic Priority.’ The cap-wearing, marathon running, ex-military commander makes his expertise in interpersonal mistreatment, political skill, and stress accessible to all while teaching leadership and ethics.

Order of the British Empire, TEDx Speaker and Chartered Accountant, Vandana Saxena Poria is a disruptive visionary, master storyteller and curator who awakens and ignites organizations and people by instantly altering mindsets and perspective thoughts through diversity, inclusion and building people’s eco-systems.

She joined us to talk about her new book, Let Me Hijack Your Mind, which she co-authored with Alyque Padamsee. We had an incredible and thought-provoking discussion and came away with some fantastic learnings: - counterfactual thinking and how it can solve some of society’s biggest problems - the unique way that Alyque Padamsee viewed the world and how he changed India - Social Network Dynamics -- how do ideas spread? - the future of India as a diverse nation - the skill that Indian women will use to completely change the face of politics in India.

Vandana is Chief Alarmist at The Human Alarm Clock & Co, Visiting Faculty at Flame University, ICAEW Advisor, and Board Trustee at Common Purpose.

An interview about the Metaverse -- conducted IN the Metaverse!

Jeremy leads PwC's Metaverse Technologies team, helping clients implement virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and other virtual world technologies. He is also the author of Reality Check: How Immersive Technologies Can Transform Your Business, a book that anyone can pick up to better understand how VR and AR are being used in businesses all over the world.

He has featured in The Financial Times, The Economist, the BBC, and other media outlets. He has worked with organizations like the World Economic Forum and currently sits on the advisory board of Immerse UK, a government backed cross-sector industry body that supports the growth of immersive technologies.

He also happens to be a Chartered Accountant (but prefers not to advertise that too loudly!).

We are absolutely delighted to kick off the second episode in Season Three, with the incredible and accomplished executive Neahle Jones - an inclusion advocate and communication strategy expert with 20 years of digital transformation expertise - having been involved at companies like L’Oréal USA.

During the show, Neahle will be sharing her extensive knowledge in understanding culture and how the entire domain of diversity needs attention. Sharing personal stories about what happens when we break through the glass ceiling of diversity, focusing on the issues of discrimination, prejudice, and preconceived biases that are not only about race.

Neahle asks the difficult questions . . .

• Are organizations doing enough?

Join us on the show, where Neahle explores the impact of a workforce that does not feel socially accepted. Amid ‘The Great Resignation,’ are people deciding to leave if they don’t feel welcomed into an inclusive organization?