Talent First

SEASON FIVE: In this week's episode of Talent First, I chat to Anna Sarjantson, Founder of Screen-Safe about the impact that social media and AI is having on our young people, and how we as parents, teachers and adults need to 'normalize the awkward' and have those conversations about online behaviour that are so necessary today. We also talk about her services for parents and schools, as well as about the things parents might not realise about platforms like TikTok and Snapchat.

About our guest: Founder of Screen-Safe: Online Safety Expert: Mum of two teens: CEOP Education Ambassador: Governor at a High School in Leeds.

Anna is dedicated to helping parents, carers, schools, and professionals keep children safer in the digital world. As a parent herself and with a passion for children’s mental wellbeing, Anna equips families and schools with the tools and confidence they need to navigate the fast-changing online landscape and that starts with knowledge. 

Supporting Schools to Strengthen Safeguarding & Pupil Wellbeing

Keeping up with the ever-changing digital world can feel impossible. Schools are being asked to do more than ever — upskill staff, educate parents, and protect pupils — often without enough time, resources or knowledge.

At Screen-Safe, we support schools to deliver the highest standards of online safeguarding and digital education, while maximising parent engagement and reducing the pressure on staff.

Whether you're raising or working with, toddlers or teens, this is your calm, judgement-free space to get informed, feel confident, and have the conversations that matter.

screen-safe.co.uk

instagram.com/screensafeglobal

facebook.com/screensafeglobal

linkedin.com/in/annasarjantso

http://www.youtube.com/@screensafeglobal

SEASON FIVE: This week, I welcome back the wonderful Wendy Goucher, Cyber Consultant at Arcanum and author of the Nettie in Cyberland series for children, and the Canon Doyle stories for our older relatives. We chat about just how much the tech landscape has changed in the past three years since her first appearance, and how we can continue to protect our families in these increasingly complex digital times.

About our guest:

Wendy Goucher is a Cyber Security Consultant at Arcanum Cyber where she gets to work in teams with some brilliant folks. She specialises in risk and assurance because her perspective primarily is business focused.

She has also written textbooks and cyber safety books for both lower and upper primary school age and also short cyber safety stories for the retired. These same skills also help her to design policies, although they generally have fewer pictures.

Wendy is proud to be a Chartered Fellow of the BCS, and on the committees of BCS Women, ISSG and DiversIT and is hugely honoured to be part of the BCS Council and the BCS Community Board, and also on the CIISec Inclusion by Design Steering Group. All of which means that she has to roll up her sleeves and work for people outside as well as inside work.

Nettie in Cyberland - https://amzn.eu/d/dtIAKrP

Nettie in Cyberland Book Two - https://amzn.eu/d/4xtIYZ6

Take Care How You Share - book 3 - https://amzn.eu/d/22FvLuX

Canon Doyle's Collaboration with a Vampire - Canon Doyle Book 1 

https://amzn.eu/d/4Wg5dPB 

SEASON FIVE: In this week's episode of Talent First, I speak to Rob Griesmeyer and Kevin Johnson about their company Screenz.ai and the huge benefits to AI screening and assessments when it comes to interview - for both the candidate and the hiring team. We talk nervous interviewees, open questions and the data that helps TA teams make the best choices when it comes to top talent.

About our guests: Rob Griesmeyer is Co-Founder and CTO of Screenz.ai, an AI-powered platform eliminating the most time-consuming part of hiring: repetitive first-round interviews. Screenz.ai's intelligent interviewing agent conducts adaptive conversations 24/7 in 74 languages, delivering objective candidate scoring so hiring teams only spend time with qualified talent.

Before founding Screenz.ai, Rob served as Chief Operating Officer at Interview Query, helping people break into data science careers. He's also held engineering leadership positions at Proper AI as Head of Engineering and Chief Science Officer, and spent over three years as Principal Software Engineer and Engineering Manager at Randstad.

Rob holds both a Master's and Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Information Technology from Florida State University. Known as a builder of systems that scale, teams that ship, and products people actually want to use, he's passionate about leveraging AI to create fairer, faster, and more human-centered hiring processes.

Kevin Johnson is an accomplished Executive Human Resource Practitioner, Masters of Employment Law, and a Future Attorney with over 20 years of experience optimizing HR operations for Fortune 500 companies across the globe. A transformational leader and strategic business partner, Kevin specializes in creating sustainable human capital ecosystems that drive organizational growth and success.

Known for exceptional relationship-building and collaborative leadership, Kevin partners with stakeholders at all levels to execute initiatives, scale organizations, and achieve measurable business outcomes. With expertise spanning domestic and international HR, talent acquisition, organizational development, and employee relations, Kevin is a proven leader in shaping performance-driven cultures and transforming corporate potential.

As a global citizen with extensive experience in M&A, multi-national operations, and leadership development from entry-level to C-Suite, Kevin brings a unique perspective on aligning people, strategy, and business results in today’s dynamic corporate landscape.

SEASON FIVE - In this week's episode of Talent First, I chat to Ben Tasker, Senior AI Learning Strategist for National Grid. After all the news about AI generated layoffs, I wanted to learn more about how tech professionals can prepare and not panic when it comes to this iteration of tech. We talk about upskilling, reskilling (and how to find the time), as well as how to hire for skills not traditional pathways. Ben also describes just how agentic AI will effect the org chart.

About Our Guest:

Ben Tasker is a recognized leader in AI education, workforce transformation, and responsible AI adoption. He currently leads a Data & AI Academy focused on upskilling and reskilling 36,000 employees in the public utility sector, ensuring the workforce is AI-ready for the future. He also serves as a Technical Advisor for uCertify, a global leader in workforce certification and reskilling.

Previously, Ben was the Dean of AI at Southern New Hampshire University, where he spearheaded Applied AI programs and pioneered a skills institute focused on workforce AI + Human upskilling and reskilling. He also teaches as a part-time faculty member at Northeastern University’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences, one of the world’s top universities for AI education.

SEASON FIVE: *Sensitive subject matter*. In this week's episode of Talent First, I welcome back one of my favourite guests to the show, Nadja El Fertasi, Founder of Thrive with EQ who talks to me about her most recent offshoot of this venture, Shield with EQ. Nadja's mission is to empower individuals and families to build their personal Emotional Firewalls against scams, deepfakes, and online manipulation. We talk about a sensitive topic, but one that we all need to be aware of, and that is sextortion and how it is impacting our young people.

About our guest:

Internationally recognized thought leader shaping the intersection of emotional intelligence (EQ), AI, and cultural resilience. Leverages nearly two decades of leadership experience from NATO, successfully heading high-stakes digital transformation initiatives in complex, multicultural environments.

Pioneered the groundbreaking ‘Emotional Firewalls’ framework, a human-centered approach to building organizational resilience against sophisticated social engineering threats and digital disruption. This methodology embeds EQ into a company's cultural DNA to foster psychological safety and enhance threat detection at the human level.

As the founder of the Thrive with EQ AI-cademy, I now develop and scale AI-powered toolkits and applications designed to up-skill leaders and their teams. My work equips organizations to build resilient cultures of trust, proving that EQ is the most critical human anchor in the disruptive age of artificial intelligence.

SEASON FIVE: This week sees the return of the wonderful Lisa Ventura who talks to me about her new venture the AI and Cyber Security Association whose mission is to secure the future of AI and defend the future of security by supporting companies with training, policy and governance and risk mitigation around the use of AI integration.

We chat about her career to date, the features and benefits of working with AICSA, the biggest risks being faced at the moment and who is really responsible for AI in the workplace.

Don't miss Lisa's previous episode on cybersecurity, neurodiversity and menopause!

About our guest:

Lisa Ventura MBE is an award-winning cyber security specialist, published writer/author, journalist and keynote speaker. She is the Founder of Cyber Security Unity, a global community organisation that is dedicated to bringing individuals and organisations together who actively work in cyber security to help combat the growing cyber threat and Neuro Unity, a non-profit that champions and promotes neuroinclusion for all. As a consultant Lisa also provides cyber security awareness and culture change training, along with neurodiversity in the workplace training, and works with cyber security leadership teams to help them collaborate more effectively. She has specialist knowledge in diversity, equity, belonging and inclusion (DEIB), neurodiversity, the human factors of cyber security, cyber psychology, neurodiversity and AI in cyber. More information about Lisa can be found on 

SEASON FIVE: In this week's episode, I chat to Christopher Carter, Chairman and CEO at Approyo and four time best-selling author. We talk all things SAP migration, the security risks and how Approyo helps mitigate them through their range of services, and what really makes for successful change management.

About Our Guest:

Since 2011, Carter's worked with companies in over 55+ different industries. His advice has been featured on Inc., Forbes, ASUG.com, Tech Target, Entrepreneur, CRN, and many others around the world.

Some other personal highlights include:

✓ Founder of one of the “Best Sap companies to work with” Philippe Chaudron KPMG

✓ Named as "One of America's Top 10 Industry Influencers" - MirrorReview

✓ Go-To contributor for Newsmax-TV for Technology

✓ A four-time best-selling Amazon author, “The #1 Book series “Mastering SAP." ✓ ACQ Award winner for SAP services

Services include SAP, Cloud AI, Security, Oracle, ServiceNow, and Technology.

You can follow him on LinkedIn, X (@Ccarter1969 or @Approyo )

www.Approyo.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-carter-885159/

Books:

Mastering SAP: A Comprehensive Guide

Mastering SAP: The Power of AI with SAP

Mastering SAP: The Power of Cloud with SAP

SEASON FIVE: In this week's episode of Talent First, I chat to parenting expert Sue Atkins about something that is becoming of increasing concern to parents globally - children and technology. When is the right time to give your child a smartphone? What should schools be doing and what support do they need? Is the UK government doing all it can to tackle online safety and security? For parents, teachers and security people - this is one not to miss.

About Our Guest:

Sue Atkins is an internationally recognised Parenting Expert, Broadcaster, Speaker, Freelance Writer & Columnist and Author of the Amazon best-selling books “Parenting Made Easy – How to Raise Happy Children” & “Raising Happy Children for Dummies" one in the famous black and yellow series as well as author of the highly acclaimed “Navigating the Digital Jungle: Scripts to Start Family Tech Conversations About Smartphones, AI, Online Safety, and Other Essential Topics” and the Parenting Made Easy resources. 

She regularly appears on the award-winning flagship ITV show ‘This Morning,’ Good Morning Britain, ‘Jeremy Vine on 5’, The Vanessa Feltz Show & is the parenting expert for numerous BBC Radio Stations around the UK.

Her highly acclaimed ‘Can Do Kid’s Journal: Discover your Confidence Superpower’ gives children the gift of self-esteem and empowers them to become creative, innovative, independent, resourceful, resilient & confident in their own abilities to try new things & able to bounce back after setbacks. 

She has created The Sue Atkins ‘Toddler Roadmap,’ which is bursting with over 40 Quick Win Videos, Audios and eModules. around raising happy confident, resilient toddlers. It is bursting with exclusive content for parents around toddler tantrums, picky eating, potty training, bedtimes & sleep, and covers the ‘Why’ and ‘No’ Stages and much, much more and is bursting with fresh ideas, tried and tested strategies and lots of practical tips to raise toddlers with strong self-esteem and good mental health – not damaged by living through a pandemic. 

Sue produces ‘The Sue Atkins Parenting Show’ a free weekly podcast which is bursting with Sue’s practical ideas, techniques, and down to earth strategies for raising happy, confident, resilient children with strong self-esteem. 

Sue has also created the ‘Parentverse’ her exclusive platform for her podcast interviews with global Experts from around the world in her ‘Sue in Conversation With …’ series. 

Sue is the host of ‘Navigating the Digital Jungle with Sue Atkins and Friends’ a podcast where tech meets family life, and she is also the global spokesperson for World Digital Detox Day. https://navigatingthedigitaljungle.com/home/ 

Her latest book is ‘Navigating the Digital Jungle: Scripts to Start Family Tech Conversations About Smartphones, AI, Online Safety, and Other Essential Topics’ is now available to download. 

Sue offers practical guidance for bringing up happy, confident, resilient children and helps parents create happy childhoods, free from finger pointing or judgement.

Websites: www.thesueatkins.com

www.navigatingthedigitaljungle.com

Sue on Twitter @sueatkins

Sue on Instagram

Sue on TikTok 

Sue on Facebook: Sue Atkins The Parenting Expert

Sue on LinkedIn: Sue Atkins

Sue on Pinterest: Sue Atkins Parenting Expert

Sue on YouTube: Sue Atkins Parenting Expert 

SEASON FIVE: In this weeks episode, I chat to Diana Kelley, CISO at Noma about a range of issues around AI integration, policy and governance and about what she is seeing when it comes to the impact of generative AI on recruitment and hiring. We also talk about the CISO role - is it becoming totally unmanageable and will we see a rise in the Deputy CISO position - or will CISOs need to become HR managers for AI Agents?

About Our Guest:

Diana Kelley is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Noma Security. She also serves on the boards of WiCyS, The Executive Women’s Forum (EWF), InfoSec World, CyberFuture Foundation, TechTarget Security Editorial, and DevNet AI/ML. Diana was CISO at Protect AI, Cybersecurity CTO for Microsoft, Global Executive Security Advisor at IBM Security, GM at Symantec, VP at Burton Group (now Gartner), a Manager at KPMG, CTO and co-founder of SecurityCurve, and Chief vCISO at SaltCybersecurity.

Her extensive volunteer work has included serving on the ACM Ethics & Plagiarism Committee, Cybersecurity Committee Advisor at CompTIA, CTO and Board Member at Sightline Security, Advisory Board Chair at WOPLLI Technologies, Advisory Council member Bartlett College of Science and Mathematics, Bridgewater State University, and RSAC US Program Committee.

She is a sought-after keynote speaker, the host of BrightTALK’s The (Security) Balancing Act, co-author of the books Practical Cybersecurity Architecture and Cryptographic Libraries for Developers, instructor for the LinkedIn Learning classes Security in AI and ML and Introduction to MLSecOps, has been a lecturer at Boston College's Masters program in cybersecurity, one of AuditBoard's Top 25 Resilient CISOs in 2024, a 2023 Global Cyber Security Hall of Fame Inductee, the EWF 2020 Executive of the Year and EWF Conference Chair 2021-Present, an SCMedia Power Player, and one of Cybersecurity Ventures 100 Fascinating Females Fighting Cybercrime.

SEASON FIVE: This episode was first aired in September 2024 - and it's incredible how much more complex things have become in that time.

I speak to Professor Sarah Jones, Pro Vice Chancellor for Education at Solent University. We talk about passions that we share - how to enhance learning and teaching through technology, digital equity and accessibility and the future of education.

We also discuss Sarah's work on AI literacy and her development of AI literacy frameworks for Higher Education students with a key focus on bias, privacy, verification, transparency and ownership.

A definite listen for anyone concerned about our young people and their future in this increasingly digital world.

About Our Guest:

Sarah Jones is Pro Vice-Chancellor Education at a Triple TEF Gold institution and a Professor of Education Innovation. She has worked at a range of institutions from Coventry, Birmingham City, Salford and De Montfort. She has a track record of leading strategic change and improving student experience and outcomes in each institution she has worked.

Sarah is often described as thinking differently, taking strategic risks, working collaboratively to challenge tradition to find new and innovative solutions to achieve success. She is values-driven and takes a collaborative and authentic approach to leadership, focusing on building high-performance teams and working in close partnership with students. She is experienced in designing and implementing new approaches to teaching and learning, student experience and international collaborations. She is a vocal supporter of the ‘block approach’ to support better outcomes for students and implemented this across an institution, working closely with key stakeholders, academic colleagues and professional services teams.

Sarah is a Senior Fellow or the Higher Education Academy, a Chartered Manager, Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and a Visiting Professor at Bournemouth University. Sarah has worked with Apple and Google and in 2015, was named an Apple Distinguished Educator. Sarah is committed to lifelong learning, recently gaining an MBA with Distinction.

Prior to working in universities, Sarah was a television journalist, in the UK and New York. Here she covered a wide range of stories, following Obama on his 2008 election campaign and appearing in the Sex and the City movie.