Venturi's Voice: Technology | Leadership | Staffing | Career | Innovation

Ian is head of research and development at Quantexa. A background in physics has equipped Ian with an analytical mind. One he has used extensively in his consulting career and beyond into his role with Quantexa. A savvy problem solver with a mind for numbers Ian has been instrumental in the growth of Quantexa. Quantexa Quantexa empowers organisations to drive better decisions from their data. Using the latest advancements in big data and AI, Quantexa uncovers hidden customer connections and behaviours to solve major challenges in financial crime, customer insight and data analytics. Podcast Ian chats to Andy about all aspects of people management. They discuss how to maintain a positive work culture when faced with a company's rapid growth. They also talk about getting the balance right between formality in the workplace and creating a comfortable environment for everyone.

Sean is Head of IT at CTIL. Sean is a highly motivated and commercially aware Information Technology Executive. He has a track record of delivering increased levels of productivity, efficiency and customer satisfaction. Sean has over 20 years’ experience of leading & mentoring teams spanning the full range of global IT operations, infrastructure, business systems and, service management. CTIL Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited (CTIL) was founded in 2012 as a joint venture between Vodafone and Telefónica to manage the network sites for both companies including the consolidation of sites to create a single grid. Podcast On the show, Andy asks Sean about implementing artificial intelligence into a business. They also discuss running hackathons and constantly innovating as a company.

Chris Astall Twenty years of success in various technical roles has equipped Chris with a deep knowledge and passion for cutting edge tech. He is a gifted communicator who relishes the opportunity to convey the benefits of technology to stakeholders and business leaders alike. A strategic leader Chris has built, developed and motivated IT teams across a variety of companies ranging from large enterprise companies and innovative startups. Photobox Photobox Group is Europe’s leading digital consumer service for personalised products and gifts. From photobooks and unique artwork to the very latest personalised apparel, gifts, and greeting cards. Photobox products enable customers across 15 countries to share memories, celebrate great moments and inject personal expression into their everyday lives. Podcast Creating non-traditional career paths into technical roles is a key focus of the show. Chris discusses the pro’s and con’s of a technical degree when there are so many resources online. He also wades into the waterfall vs agile debate talking us through his own experiences with both methodologies and decides on a favourite.

Richard Eaton is founder and Managing Director of Appware. A stalwart of the software industry, Richard has over 25 years experience working as a developer. He produced and released his first piece of software when he was 14 years old and never looked back from there. Richard has the rare combination of both technical and commercial skills. He can design concepts and architect systems. Then successfully take these developments to market and monetise them. Appware Appware develop cross-platform mobile apps for clients across all major mobile devices including: iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Mobile and Blackberry. They also provide backend development services to support these Apps as well as websites for marketing them so you only have to deal with one company for your entire App project.

Marta Jasinska is Chief Technology Officer at Moo. Marta is a leader in both technology and engineering. She specialises in mid to large scale web platform development for e-commerce, gaming, apps and more. MOO MOO launched in 2006 and aims to disrupt the trillion dollar global print industry by combining the values of professional design with accessibility and reach of the web. With rapid annual growth, MOO has become one of the fastest growing print businesses in the world and has over 500 employees in 6 locations across the UK and US. Podcast How to successfully scale a company is the key focus of this podcast. Andy asks Marta about the various factors both within a tech team and a business as a whole that can both drive growth and hamper it.

John is CTO at Financial Times John exemplifies the values of the FT. He values high-quality journalism which is becoming increasingly rare in this fake news era. John is a big advocate of diversity, inclusion, fairness and wants to belong to an empowered, data-driven, outcome-driven organisation. He loves working with technology to solve engineering challenges. Financial Times The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading business news organisations, recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. The FT marks 130 years in 2018 with a record paying readership of more than 930,000. The FT is now a majority digital content business, with digital subscriptions up to 739,554, representing more than three-quarters of the total paying audience. Content revenues represent almost two-thirds of total revenues, double the share of five years ago. Podcast On the show John talks to Andy about the recent LinkedIn article he’s written about diversity and inclusion. They go on to discuss how best to build a diverse workplace and what value that can bring to your business. Chat also turns to the role of automation in the 21st century and taking a cautious approach to innovation. About the Financial Times The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading business news organisations, recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. The FT marks 130 years in 2018 with a record paying readership of more than 940,000, three-quarters of which are digital subscriptions. It is part of Nikkei Inc., which provides a broad range of information, news and services for the global business community.

“Business advice can be really dangerous. If people are taking advice as gospel it’s dangerous because you can receive advice off a mentor that applied to them 20, 30 years ago. There business problems are different to yours and the pressures they were facing can be miles away from the ones you face today. What advice is, most of the time, is what’s worked for someone else. So with advice, take it in but don’t use it, don’t look at it as advice. It’s just knowledge and experience. Make sure you soak up as much experience as you can and apply it to your own problems.” Jamie commenting on the dangers of taking business advice at face value. Jamie is founder and CEO of Jungle Creations There’s exciting times ahead for Jamie and Jungle Creations. He’s four years into his startup journey and currently going through his series A funding round. Jamie is a serial entrepreneur, starting his first business whilst at university in Manchester. Jungle Creations Jungle Creations is a leading media company for the social age, solely focused on delivering high quality content to their audience of over 80 million followers generating up to 5.5 billion video views and 20 million unique users to their sites each month. With millions of followers at their fingertips, they create original content for some of the biggest brands in the world and share that content with their unique communities, which include the likes of VT, Twisted, Level Fitness, Four Nine and World Unknown. Podcast He sat down with Andy to talk about growing your business, ensuring you get a healthy work-life balance and why you should always take advice with a pinch of salt.

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David is Director of engineering for eCommerce at Photobox. David joined Photobox to help them restructure their approach to engineering and deliver a new eCommerce experience and platform. His overall aim is to return the company to significant growth. David currently runs 9 teams of over 70 people spread across London, Paris, and Lviv. Photobox Photobox has grown to become the European market-leader in photo-based products serving millions of customers a year in over ten markets. Whether it's personalised canvases, calendars, mugs, jigsaws, phone covers, or our classic photo books, Photobox has a wide range of products perfect for every occasion. Podcast On the show, David talks to Andy about the stresses and excitement of moving into a management position. They also discuss providing technical solutions to real-world problems and how to take a disciplined approach to work.

Sherin is Founder at AI Tech UK & a Microsoft Analytics and AI Solution Architect at IBM. Sherin is an expert in helping businesses with Cloud adoption and AI-readiness by defining a Cloud Data Strategy, AI Strategy and ultimately architecting a fit-for-purpose Enterprise scale architecture. He builds solution that are scalable to meet the current BI and Analytics demand and also the future AI and Big Data requirements! He has over 12 year’s experience working in technical and analytical roles within multinational companies. Sherin specialise in applying Business Intelligence and Azure E2E Cloud implementation experience in Data Warehousing and realising the BI Strategy. AI Tech UK AI Tech UK is a collaborative platform for AI Innovation. It’s a forum for AI expression and innovation, welcoming decision makers to decision influencers along with the hustlers, enablers, thinkers and disruptors all under one roof talking about the new trend - Intelligence! AI-Tech is a platform to bring like-minded, passionate and AI-enthusiasts together. Podcast On the show, Sherin talks Andy through everything AI. They discuss how best to combat the public's fears around AI and chat about how AI will create more jobs not less.