In this episode Jack chats to Lisa Kelly, Chief Operating Officer at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Raised in a small village in South Derbyshire (10 minutes from where she lives now), Lisa grew up a self-professed "teacher's pet", who tried very hard academically - a virtue which is demonstrated by the senior role she occupies today.

Her leadership qualities showed themselves early - in her pre-school nativity she played Mary and had a tendency to boss her schoolmates around. At university, she first studied Geography, involved a lot of human geography and international relations, furthering her interest in people and the social aspects of healthcare, sparked by a trip to Ethiopia when she was 16. To this day, in her current role, she manages the partnership with a hospital in Ethiopia.

As a leader, Lisa emphasises building relationships and connections, recognising the value of every team member's contributions, understanding what they bring to the table and how you can make the best use of that.

In this episode, Jack has the privilege of speaking with philanthropist and healthcare leader Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallet, Chairman of Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust, Founder and Chair of The Marshall Institute within the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Founder and Chair of Helpforce.

Sir Thomas gives a fascinating account of his life and career journey. He admits he has been privileged and lucky to attend some of the world's most prestigious institutions, including Eton ("it was a very privileged life wearing pretty unusual clothes") and Oxford University, where he sang every night in the choir at evensong and "fell in love disastrously on a number of occasions".

On a gap year from university, he lived in Zimbabwe for year teaching in the first mixed-race school, perhaps setting the scene for his passion for volunteer and charity work later in his career. Sir Thomas has spent the last few decades giving back - firstly heading up Marie Cure Cancer Care, then going on to set up his own charitable projects The Marshall Institute and Helpforce.

This episode offers a unique view on leadership, work, and life from someone who has been both in the fast-paced, world of investment banking as well as leading major charitable initiatives and healthcare organisations with a real passion for protecting and supporting the NHS.

This fascinating episode features Richard Stubbs, CEO of Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network. Richard grew up in a mining community in South Yorkshire - the first of four generations not to go down the pits. A self-professed "nerd", he was extremely competitive both academically and in sport - falling in love with golf at an early age, looking up to Tiger Woods as a mixed race kid in a white working class community.

After studying politics and economics at university, where he contributed to student radio, Richard worked at the BBC, which he values as an experience which taught him a lot about leadership and "making the impossible happen". Wanting to "do something he really cared about", he joined the NHS graduate scheme, starting an 18 year long career.

Richard provides insight on the diversity conversation - sharing his personal thoughts on systemic racism and unconscious bias, as well as his views on the wider issues highlighted by George Floyd and the pandemic. He acknowledges that the right conversations are starting to happen, but the statistics, particularly in senior leadership in the NHS, show a clear problem.

Jack has an enlightening chat with Adrian Ball, Chief Executive of Diocese of Ely Multi Academy Trust, one of the biggest primary Academy Trusts in the UK.

Adrian talks about how much he enjoyed growing up in Norfolk, and how he's maintained a strong connection to the area - "Norfolk's got me".

Although he had early ambitions to work in the stock market, losing out on a place at LSE meant having a rethink - driving him to attend Brunel University and study Sports Science and playing on the rugby team. Through his involvement in sport and outreach from club and university teams coaching in local schools, Adrian discovered a passion for education that set him on the path to where he is now. His strong background in sport has also instilled within him an unrivalled sense of camaraderie and the importance of not letting those around you down.

As a leader, Adrian understands the importance of setting the direction and the vision, but also the value of letting go - of recognising gaps in your own skillset and building a team around you that complements you.

In this episode Jack talks to Dr Harriet Dunbar-Morris, Dean of Learning and Teaching at University of Portsmouth. Harriet grew up pretty much as far from Portsmouth as you can get in Great Britain - in a small village near Inverness where everyone knew each other.

Her background is in linguistics, studying French at the University of Sussex and then the University of Toulouse. Naturally quite a shy person, moving to a new country and having assimilate whilst learning the language was a challenge, but Harriet speaks about how she often tells herself that things are difficult for a reason, and that she has to "pull her socks up" and get on with it, even if something is challenging.

Harriet worked incredibly hard to achieve a doctorate in her field, and is still working today towards becoming a professor. As leader, she is passionate about improving the student experience and therefore student outcomes, and prides herself on being a problem solver.

In this episode, we hear from James Rawlinson, Director of Health Informatics at The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust.

James talks about how some of the tough times throughout his life, his parents splitting up when he was 8, and his mom sadly passing away of cancer a little over 10 years ago, has moulded and shaped his outlook today. James is deeply connected to his Northern roots, commenting that where he lives today is "probably 300 metres from the house where his granddad was born". An operation at a young age left him deaf in one ear, thwarting his dreams of being an RAF engineer and how he "fell into" his degree in Computer Science at Manchester University based on his love of the rave scene in "Madchester".

With a career in the NHS spanning 25 years, James talks about how the ever-changing nature and positive purpose of the sector keeps him going. As leader, he emphasis maintaining tempo, a sense of purpose and direction, and keeping promises and commitments to build trust and stability.

This episode is sponsored by CommonTime.

In our first episode to feature a clinical leader, Jack talks to Dilshan Arawwawala, Chief Clinical Information Officer at Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Foundation Trust.

Dilshan talks about his early life - the advantages of being a middle child, how he had to get three buses to get to grammar school, and how attending grammar school gave him the foundation and the opportunities to be really strong academically. He continues his studiousness into his adult live - he can have 3 or 4 books on the go at once. In addition to being academically strong, Dilshan has always been a hard worker - from getting up at 6am at the age of 11 to do his paper round, to doing 120 hour weeks as a medical student.

He was driven to the CCIO role by wanting to make a real impact on quality of care through digital health. His thoughts on leadership can be summed up in this quote - "the most effective leaders are the ones who don't need to show off their shiny badges but are actually leading by example".

In this episode, Jack chats with Phillipa Winter, CIO at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust. After her brother was in a bad motorbike accident when she was in her first year of secondary school, she wanted to give back to the NHS and found the vocation of occupational therapy whilst at college for nursing.

Phillipa has had to work hard to get where she is – not finding out she was dyslexic until first year of university, Phillipa had a longer journey from school to uni but ultimately succeeded whilst learning to adapt. She acknowledges her year out doing management training for a major supermarket as giving her an excellent grounding in leadership, business, customer service, data and finances among other things. Phillipa values life experience and hard work and recognises how important various stages of her own journey were in getting here where she is today. Good leadership for her means identifying people’s strengths, giving them autonomy and honest communication – with her background as an occupational therapist giving her the emotional intelligence to learn and work with different people’s styles.

In this episode, Jack chats to Paul Bytheway, Chief Operating Officer at University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust and President of St John’s Ambulance.

A Midlands boy who’s always called Wolverhampton home, Paul talks about moving to London to find the person who he wanted to be after coming out as gay at 21, and how he found the big city both exciting and overwhelming. Paul is very passionate about working for the NHS, discussing a sense of family, belonging, and make a difference in other people’s lives. From the age of 14, Paul decided he wanted to be the real-life Charlie Fairhead (of Casualty fame) and be a nurse – he is still a registered nurse to this day and speaks incredibly highly of that profession.

From school, Paul has always been naturally drawn to leadership roles – being a librarian, prefect and chair of the school council. Outside of school, he was also a leader, and involved in activism and charity he was vice chairman of the British Youth Council, actively engaging with MPs and advocating for the rights of young people, as well as junior chairman of St John’s Ambulance – an organisation he is still proud to be involved with today as president. Paul emphasises engagement, involvement, resilience and being visible as a leader – qualities he also uses to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, particularly within the NHS.

In this episode Jack speaks to Arthur Charvonia, Chief Executive of Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils for an insightful episode focused around the idea of leadership and responsibility in local government.

Arthur talks about what attracted him firstly to law and then to local government – making a difference in people’s lives. His career in law taught him invaluable skills for this career as a leader in local government – advocating, presenting and negotiation, among others. As a leader, Arthur feels a tremendous amount of responsibility not just to his staff, but to every resident, business and visitor to his community.

Very much a people person who thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie at boarding school, he emphasises being human as a leader, using common sense and trusting people enough to take their advice at face value.