In this episode of Talent First, we return to those leading the way in education technology - and this week I talk to Estelle Lloyd, Co-Founder and COO of Macademia, an edutainment platform whose mission is to help parents raise exceptional humans with their focus on being kinder, smarter and with a keen sense of social values.

I loved this chat with Estelle - her views on digital literacy, accessibility and how we keep our young people safe whilst preparing them for the digitial world aligns with our thoughts here at Talent First.

In this episode, I talk cybersecurity awareness training with the fantastic Jemma Davis, Founder of Culture Gem.

Jemma shares her incredible personal story and professional journey into cyber and we discuss how to get away from boring security awareness training, what Culture Gem offers their clients, and what a true security culture looks like.

BIO:

Jemma Davis is a leading Cyber Behaviour and Culture Transformation Consultant and the CEO of Culture Gem. Her journey into cybersecurity began during the global WannaCry attack, which deeply impacted thousands across the UK and sparked her dedication to protecting people from cyber threats.

With a foundation in direct response marketing, Jemma combines her creative ingenuity and conversion acumen to pioneer advancements in cybersecurity. She leverages direct response marketing techniques to drive transformative behavioural changes in the digital sphere, fostering safer online practices.

Jemma’s mission is to empower people to navigate the digital world safely and to help companies build a robust security culture. She is committed to creating a community of cyber-aware individuals equipped to tackle cyber threats and scams. Collaborating with various organisations, she enhances their cybersecurity strategies and simplifies complex cyber issues, making them understandable and actionable for all. Jemma believes that fostering good cybersecurity habits personally can lead to a more secure interconnected world.

Join Jemma in her mission to create a safer digital future. Together, we can build a more secure and resilient cyber environment for everyone.

This week's episode of Talent First is a remaster of a fantastic discussion with David Pugh-Jones, Board Trustee and Founding Executive Charity Member for Neurodiversity in Business.

NiB is an industry forum that seeks to improve the inclusion of neurodivergent people in the workforce and that is why I wanted to include this chat with David here - because at the core of their work and when we speak about DEI, it's about education.

David and I talk about the benefits of diversity, how to create a safe workplace and his advice to companies looking to improve equitable hiring and inclusion practices not just as tick box exercise but for their commercial benefit.

BIO:

David Pugh-Jones is a renowned marketer and business strategist with a distinguished career in leading digital transformation and technology-driven strategies across a range of industries, including technology, research and development, Web3, and AI. With over 25 years of experience, inclusive of spending a decade as the Global Creative Strategy Director for Microsoft, David has consistently delivered award-winning, multi-market content experiences for global blue-chip giants, scale-ups, and innovative startups. His expertise lies in utilising data-driven insights to craft culturally nuanced marketing and partnership programs that resonate across diverse markets.

Beyond the boardroom, David is an enthusiastic advocate for evolutionary and positive change, particularly in championing neurodiversity. As a Trustee, Interim Chairman, and Founding Executive Member of Neurodiversity in Business, David has been instrumental in promoting neurodivergent recruitment, retention, and empowerment. From its inception and launch in UK Parliament three years ago, he has proudly supported this pioneering charity, now boasting over one thousand corporate members, including the likes of Google, Amazon, IBM, JP Morgan, Unilever, Rolls Royce, and Sage, positioning neurodiversity as a competitive advantage in the modern business landscape. David believes that prioritising the unique neurological traits and skills of individuals can transform workplace culture, drive innovation, and achieve superior business outcomes in today’s digital economy.

Throughout his career, David has taken pride in not just leading but sculpting diverse and talented teams across multiple business divisions. Whether managing, mentoring, or coaching, he has honed the skills of teams with varied expertise, including globally remote teams. Remote and hybrid working leadership is not just a necessity but a forte for David, who is committed to creating, leading, and empowering diverse and collaborative teams evolving the business landscape and the preparing for the future of work. He firmly believes that this is the key to achieving long-term success for visionary brands, as well as making an enduring impact on the industry and personal growth.

David’s passion for branding, marketing, and cutting-edge technologies is matched by his dedication to positive social impact, making him a pivotal figure in both the corporate business and charitable sectors.

David Pugh-Jones | LinkedIn

David Pugh-Jones (@davidpj) / X

This week's episode of Talent First sees a return to a focus on EdTech innovators with a fantastic chat with Fadl Al Tarzi, Founder and CEO of Nexford University.

Nexford University offers students a range of online courses with an innovative approach to learning and teaching and to assessment which is a real passion of mine - and his focus on affordability and relevance of education (and how it prepares students for future careers) is what makes Nexford really stand out as a choice for students globally.

This is part two of my chat with Annabel Berry, Co-Founder of Leading Cyber, an organisation whose mission is to deliver impactful and effective leadership development. In part one of our conversation, Annabel and about the realities of the leadership role, how you know if it is the right time, and what can be done to prepare for the demands of management.

In this part, we move on to discuss the other end of the leadership spectrum and that is the consequences of poor leadership which are far more wide reaching than financial loss. Of course, we also talk abut how companies can mitigate those risks as well as about the crucial topic of wellbeing and avoiding burnout in this demanding industry.

This week I continue my slight departure from The EdTech Season to speak to the wonderful Annabel Berry about her venture, Leading Cyber, an organisation committed to delivering impactful and effective leadership development through mentoring, off-site workshops and cybersecurity leadership programmes.

In this part of our two part episode, we discuss Leading Cyber's mission, the realities of cybersecurity leadership and how to tell if you are ready to take the next step.

BIO:

With over 26 years of experience in cybersecurity, Annabel is a leader focused on building successful businesses through a focus on inclusive leadership and empowering cultures. She co-founded Leading Cyber alongside Danielle Phillips to meet the need in the industry for organisations to transform their cultures, strategies, and operational efficiencies by focusing on leadership development and training, based on behavioural science, organisation design & psychology and executive coaching.

They have launched a global mentoring platform for the cybersecurity industry in order to more easily connect professionals wanting to enter into mentoring relationships with others in the industry.

Annabel also serves as the chairperson of the board at CyberNorth, the North East Cyber Security Cluster and heads up the steering group for mental health and well-being on behalf of CIISec.

She is passionate about learning and development and have completed executive education programs at Oxford, London School of Economics & Aberdeen.

Empowering women in tech is incredibly important to her, and she is an executive director of Ladies Hacking Society, a network and community of women in cyber.

https://leading-cyber.com/

In this episode of Talent First, I talk to Kelly Pracht, Co-Founder of nVenue a predictive analytics and micro-betting technology platform built for sports betting businesses and sports media. Although this is a departure from EdTech, the focus of Season Three, I was fascinated with Kelly's career, the fact that she is a woman not only in tech but in sports and sports betting, and of course the technology itself.

Kelly and I had a great chat, discussing topics like AI and ML and the myths that surround it, and nVenue's approach to responsible gambling.

Bio:

The native Texan is a pioneer in machine learning, data, and analytics. For over 18 years, she was responsible for leading and directing teams of innovators, researchers, engineers, and go-to-market teams to drive new products to market for Hewlett Packard (across Workstations, Integrity servers, ProLiant, Moonshot, Edgeline, Apollo, and the HPC family of supercomputers) before compiling her love of sports with her passion for entrepreneurship, leading to the trailblazing launch of nVenue. Kelly holds multiple patents for her work in super-computing and engineering.

In 2017, inspired by her work in building supercomputers for high tech - she wrote the first lines of code for a sports machine learning platform - which ultimately became a lightning-fast ML/AI kernel for nVenue's real-time analytics engines. The growth of the gaming and gambling industry during that time gave Pracht a window to fully expand her vision, which led to the full launch of the company in 2019. nVenue is now known as a powerful in-game betting solutions company that powers thousands of real-time probabilities and micro-betting odds for every play across NBA, NASCAR, MLB, and the NFL.

Kelly was recently nominated as one of Sports Business Journal’s Tech Executive of the Year. She also received a Cynopsis Award for Digital Executive of the Year.

Kelly earned her BSEE from the Colorado School of Mines and her MSEE at Colorado State University. She resides in Houston, Texas, with her husband and family of fellow Houston Astros fans.

In this episode of THE EDTECH SEASON, I speak to Ben Mason, Founder of globalbridge about his career in education, how he moved into technology and about the huge impact the globalbridge product is having on both students and for their enterprise partners.

We discuss changing notions of human capital - the current value we place on education, what skills will be in demand and his advice to students, as well as how corporates can showcase their dedication to social values and talent pipelining through using this innovative service.

Bio:

Following 16 years in teaching as a senior leader across both the state and independent sectors, Ben founded globalbridge, a pioneering EdTech platform, to revolutionise how schools measure student outcomes, beyond exam grades alone. globalbridge is redefining how education evidences human capital, whilst transforming how industry engage and identify their future workforce to build sustainable emerging talent recruitment pathways.

 Having presented the platform in both the UK House of Commons and House of Lords, globalbridge has been listed in the Business Cloud UK EdTech top 10 for most innovative education technology creators. Ben himself was listed in the UKs Sunday Times top 100 entrepreneurs.

 As the business expands internationally and the world looks to address how education evidences student outcomes in a way that credentials skills alongside exam grades, Ben, and globalbridge, have been co-leading OECD projects on both the Learning Compass and AI in teaching and learning. As a keynote speaker, Ben has delivered thought leadership talks to the international community on the future world of work, human capital and the changing skills in emerging talent.

In this episode, I speak to Sarah Mintey, MBE about her career, how she founded and funded Developing Experts and about the impact her services are having on learning, teaching and corporate partnerships. We also chat about the importance of balanced diversity in STEM and about data-driven analysis of the impact her work is having on students.

Bio:

Sarah founded Developing Experts in October 2015. The company has since grown from strength to strength being a winner in Tech Nation's Rising Star 2019, one of 10 UK companies to win Google's Immersion Growth Program in 2020, in 2021 the company has been featured in @J.P. Morgan Private Bank’s report on the Top 200 Female-Powered businesses in the UK and recently won a place on Tech Nation's Upscale programme. In 2022 Developing Experts won the BETT Awards for Best Classroom Resource - Teaching Aid. Sarah is a 'LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leader' 2022.

Developing Experts works with a range of tier 1 brands from the rail, energy, and construction industries to grow, track and build diverse talent pipelines for industry. 

In 2020 Sarah was honoured with an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for her services to tech and education and was named by Startup Magazine 'Top 20 Most Influential Female Founder of 2020’.

Sarah is delighted to be working with over 8100 UK schools and clients such as the EDF, Network Rail, Rolls Royce, BEIS, National Nuclear Labs, the Royal Horticultural Society and the Ministry of Defence.

In this episode, I speak to Chris Parrish, Co-Founder of Podium Education. We began by talking about his background, education and career and we found that we had a lot in common which fuelled a lot of the discussion around Podium's products and services.

We also talk diversity in tech, coding and data courses and the increase in popularity in these internships especially for students that are not taking tech-based degrees. And of course, we talked about how Podium's enterprise partners are attracting and pipelining the very best in tech talent.

Bio:

Christopher Parrish is Co-Founder and President of Partnerships at the leading experiential learning company, Podium Education. At Podium, Chris led the launch of The Global Career Accelerator, an industry redefining digital platform that enables students to gain credit, skills and experience by working on projects directly with industry. Podium currently partners with 70+ universities including Harvard, Georgetown and UT Austin and 50+ companies including Lyft, Intel and Stripe. His work has been featured in Fortune, Forbes and InsideHigherEd. He is a proud native of the Poconos and is passionate about unlocking opportunities for rural communities. Chris and Podium are based in Austin, TX.