The Middle

Frank Bandura was the chief financial officer for casual dining chain Carluccio's. He joins Stephen Willson to explore the ways in which the finance director can add value to their organisation through close co-ordination with the operations director.

Saleh Saeed OBE is the chief executive of the Disasters Emergency Committee. He joins Stephen Willson to explore how member charitable organisations prepare to be able to make a coordinated response when international disasters arise.

Deborah Cadman is the chief executive of the West Midlands Combined Authority. She joins Stephen Willson to explore developing regional growth through the devolution of centralised government powers and the inter-working of numerous local councils and related bodies.

Ananda Roy has been a senior strategy, data analytics and insights director and has over 20 years of commercial and operational responsibility. He joins host Stephen Willson to explore how organisations in a number of sectors are encouraging and supporting middle management leadership across their organisations.

Paul Anderson is a Managing Director of Deutsche Bank. He joins host Stephen Willson and explores the challenges of managing teams to achieve the best overall outcome in a highly complex distributed global context.

Sue is the chief transformation officer at Mediacom, the UK's largest planning and buying agency.  She joins host Stephen Willson to address the unique middle management challenges in the advertising industry. Here a strong collaborative culture pervades a matrix structure to meet customer needs amid changing tastes in emergent channels.

Carl Arntzen is the Chief Executive of Bosch Thermotechnology Limited. He joins host Stephen Willson to explore the organisational challenges of managing the transition from risk-averse gas boiler manufacturer to integrated home automation provider.

Professor Philip Plowden is Vice-Chancellor of Birmingham City University. He joins host Stephen Willson to explore the differences between managing professional staff and academics while maintaining a focus on organisational efficiency.

Sarah is an associate director at Rethink, a mental health charity. She joins host Stephen Willson to address the unique middle management challenges in commissioned charity work.  In addition we encounter familiar themes from previous episodes set in the private sector. 

Steve Allen is a partner heading the Birmingham office of Mills & Reeve, a leading UK law firm. He joins host Stephen Willson to explore the challenges of developing a local office and managing teams of lawyers with regional specialisations.