Vanguard Podcast

In this episode, our guest is Diana Paredes - CEO and Co-Founder of Suade, a software platform that enables financial institutions to understand and deliver their regulatory requirements. Diana's approach to making a happy workplace is inspirational and infectious. Her drive to create future leaders, lobby governments for supported parental leave and helping the banking and regulated sector to streamline processes after her experiences in that industry is a wonderful story of vision and determination.

Prior to founding Suade, Diana had a successful career in investment banking, covering all asset classes at Barclays and Merrill Lynch, across sales, trading & structuring. Whilst working in the industry, she saw an opportunity to innovate and launch her current Fintech/Regtech start-up. She believes that a data-driven approach to regulation is the key to preventing the next financial crisis. 

Our next guest is a entrepreneur Paul Tomlinson, who recently found himself making an major pivot in his career from the IT industry to the fitness industry. During this episode, Paul exemplifies the importance of having a strong work ethic and taking risks, whilst reminding us to maintain a healthy work/life balance. Tune in to hear all about Paul's journey!  

Paul began his career in IT nearly 30 years ago and has been responsible for running successful companies. A large proportion of that time was spent focussing on Mirus - an IT services business, providing support to the SMEs. Paul exited Mirus in 2019 following an acquisition by a PE backed player– at this time it had more than 100 employees and was on course to achieve a turnover of £15m per annum. 

Our first guest of the series is Luis Giraldo, who made a life-changing pivot from Music to Tech! Luis started his career as a professional musician, playing at international shows for Pop Star Shakira; more recently, Luis’s stage-time consists of delivering speaking as an executive and industry leader to thousands of IT Providers across the globe. Luis is well-known in the technology and MSP space, having worked for IT Glue and N-Able. He now runs his own successful MSP and has recently been appointed as Chief Experience Officer of ScalePad - an application that automates asset lifecycle management for hardware, software, and warranty services for MSPs.

Welcome back to the Vanguard Podcast - Series 2 is finally here! This first episode is a compilation of interesting and insightful moments from the first series, that we consider to be the 'key takeaways'. If you like the new branding, feel free to share in on social media or give us a rating on your favourite streaming platform. Stay tuned for more innovative stories, with episodes being released every 2 weeks! 

The latest innovator to join Scott is Ian Moore, also known as the "Most Influential Person in Fire Safety". With a versatile career behind him - including 13 years in the Royal Navy - Ian is currently putting his many years of experience working in security and fire safety to good use, as the CEO of the Fire Industry Association (FIA). The not-for-profit FIA now represents over 800 UK companies (the largest in Europe) and promotes professionalism of the Fire Safety industry to a number of Government departments.

Ian is well decorated with awards for contributions to the fire and security industry, including a DTI Millennium Award for Innovation for one of his solutions and the Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2013 for Video Smoke Detection (VSD). VSD technology is now World renowned and manufactured by many companies around the World.

For lucky number 11 Scott is joined by Vanguard, Robert Baugh, Founder and CEO of Keepabl. This May marks the 3rd anniversary of the GDPR legislation coming into effect, so it's only right we bring in an expert! Rob has a magical way of making compliance and governance seem less daunting and more approachable for SME businesses.

With entrepreneurship running in the family, Robert inspires us to explore what makes us happy, take opportunities to travel and to evolve through taking risks and pivoting, whilst reminding us that self-evaluation and reflection is important in order to stay on track.

This episode Scott is joined by Andra Hedden, a natural innovator who eats, sleeps and breathes entrepreneurship. Andra is Chief Marketing Officer at Marketopia - the premier B2B marketing and lead generation agency for technology companies. 

With over 20 years experience in marketing and business development and 12 years of experience focused specifically on the IT channel, Andra's expertise and deep passion enables technology service providers to realize their growth potential. Over the past six years, Marketopia has evolved from a team of two to over 120 staff and recently expanded into Europe and APAC. Her passion has created an organisation recognized as a three-time Inc. 5000 award winner and ranked among the Tampa Bay Best Places to Work. 

We're excited to be joined by digital advocate, Andrew Grill - the 'Pragmatic Futurist'! Andrew has a broad career spanning over 30 years in large corporates such as IBM, British Aerospace and Telstra, as well as 12 years running technology start-ups. 

Andrew is a highly experienced keynote speaker and opens up a wide range of discussion points related to 'the workplace of the future', technology trends and the digital world. Unlike traditional Futurists who paint a picture of the future in 10, 20 or even 50 years’ time, Andrew can deliver practical and immediately actionable insights. Episode #9 is not one to miss!

The latest innovator to join the guest line-up is George Grant - CEO, Co-Founder and Publisher at Housing Technology - the leading technology information service and publisher of tech news and insights for the UK housing sector and local governments with over 20,000 readers.

During the podcast, George makes us aware that there are 300,000+ people homeless in the UK. He believes the housing crisis could be solved using the right mix of technology and social action and it’s his mission to do that by bringing together diverse housing experts globally to collaborate and help solve these problems.

In lucky number #7, Scott is joined by Tony Dalwood, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Gresham House plc - the second business he has built. Tony shares his incredible industry insight, tips for investment and the innovation that he has seen in the finance industry over the years. 

Tony has over 25 years of experience in investing and advising numerous public and private equity businesses. He holds a Master of Arts in Management Studies from the University of Cambridge where he was also a junior rugby international and Blue. Tony is also a children's coach at rugby and cricket.