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

Christian Moroy is the Co-Founder & CTO at Edge Health. Christian’s aim is to make hospitals more effective and efficient with Artificial Intelligence. Whether that’s by using algorithms to increase available bed spaces or by using AI to make sure theatres are being utilised to the full. Christian splits his working day between coding and client meetings. Conveying the benefits of AI to non-technical people is a crucial part of what he does. He uses the same skills on today’s podcast as he explores exactly how AI is revolutionising the healthcare sector. Show Notes: 0.35 Selling the practical applications of AI to clients. 4.39 What does ‘good’ look like in terms of AI? 5.40 Validating AI to clients. 8.11 Why drew you towards the healthcare sector? 9.54 Things you want to do vs. Things you have to do. 11.13 AI-driven practicality 14.01 Emerging opportunities in the health tech space. 16.00 How to deal with unexpected problems. 17.19 What aspect of your role do you enjoy the most? 19.29 Predicting the future of AI. 22.25 Making complicated problems simpler. 24.11 Aligning your vision with your business goals. 25.27 How is society adapting to technological advancements. 28.14 Predicting AI’s impact at a global scale.

Greg Hawkins is the Chief Technology Officer at Starling Bank. Starling is a mobile-only current account that gives people full control over their money and data. Greg is bringing his customer’s finances into the present with an app that harnesses the full power of modern tech. Moving beyond the traditional confines of an app and cash card, Starling makes financial management effortless and empowering. In essence, it’s a bank that doesn’t look much like a bank at all. Greg joined Starling as the Head of Engineering before progressing to CTO. Working during a period of rapid expansion, Greg has relied heavily on agile methodologies. He combines his agile mindset with his proven track record of introducing change and improving development practices. This has made him a one-stop shop for advice on managing teams in an agile way, Fintech app development and the disruption Blockchain is sowing in society.         Show Notes: 1.05 Learning to code. 2.45 Technology as a solution to real-life problems. 4.18 Making better business decisions. 5.42 Broad understanding vs niche understanding in tech. 8.01 The sharing economy in tech. 10.54 Choosing a career path as a technical person. 14.17 How external factors can change your perspective on work. 15.55 Getting your first management position. 18.50 Vision in business. 21.34 Why changing culture is difficult.   23.24 Current state of affairs at Starling Bank 25.42 The value in office location. 27.36 What banking will look like 5 years from now. 30.39 Why constant innovation is now a necessity.

Chris Osborn is the Chief Technical Officer at Voxy Over 4 million people in 150 countries have expanded their horizons by learning English through Voxy. Launched in 2010 it was one of the most disruptive technology startups that year. Chris, Voxy’s CTO, has been instrumental in ensuring the company’s continued growth. Chris is a serial startup entrepreneur and has been the in the first dozen employees of 3 successful startups. Building up business, acquiring assets, and selling companies are what makes Chris tick. His experience in the startup world given him a unique perspective on managing startup acquisitions, keeping a handle on company growth, and dealing with disruption. His conversation with Andy centres around these topics. In addition, Chris shared his views on transparency and culture in management. Show Notes: 1.05 Acquiring a startup and issues when a company changes hands. 4.35 People are your companies main commodity and building a culture and organizational structure. 6.52 Management approaches to business acquisition. 11.09 Constant communication and reassurance in business. 14.03 Transparency and clearly communicating intended business outcomes. 17.38 Can culture be quantified? 21.52 Justifying decision making to others. 23.35 Advice for technical people who want to stay relevant. 29.07 Tech as a highly-collaborative community. 31.25 What is the most important psychological factor underpinning your success?

Jamie Khoo is an associate director of marketing sciences at Mindshare. If the Police get into trouble, they call the SWAT team. If the analytics or programmatic trading team hits a roadblock... they call Jamie Khoo; the bridge between media, tech, and general analytics. Seven years at Mindshare have made Jamie an expert in using data to streamline processes in media & advertising. He is also responsible for training new staff on the world of media & media analytics tools. Jamie has a real knack for explaining the applications of analytics in advertising and is a big proponent of ‘data-driven’ thinking. In the episode, Jamie shares his thoughts on the growing influence of automation as well as the importance of encouraging creativity when working with data. Show Notes: 1.28 How did you get involved in data science? 3.52 Why do you think the data science space has become so confused? And how do you navigate the cross-functionality now demanded of tech professionals? 8.11 The difficulty of articulating the different roles in Data science. 9.05 Clarity of vision when looking at your business goals & having business acumen as a tech specialist. 12.21 Will everything be automated in the future? 15.18 Drawing inspiration and motivation from the unknown. 16.30 Moving into management. 19.06 Most effective business strategy methodologies. 22.00 Getting creative with data. 24.03 Data and workplace diversity. 25.48 Daily sources of motivation.

Emmanuelle Johaadien is the Director of commercialisation at Visa. She’s the woman who turns ideas into money. With a focus on FinTech authentication, payments, and telecom - she has honed her skills working for companies such as the Department for Transport, British Telecom PLC and the Greater London Authority. Emmanuelle’s taken managerial positions in a variety of industries. And she has a keen eye for a spotting the juicy job opportunities that others might miss. She’s also an expert in self correction; cutting your losses and moving on when a career change doesn’t go your way. Underpinning all this is her forward thinking leadership style which places transparency & communication at the heart of her management mentality. We discuss all this and more on the podcast and Emmanuelle lays out her strategy for removing the bias inherent in your own management style. Show Notes 1.07 Emmanuelle’s career progression and professional interests. 2.17 Do you enjoy moving from project to project? 3.36 Ensuring you don’t become “stale” in your career. 7.29 Do you like a great sense of ownership when deciding on a job to take? 9.16 Transitioning to management. 12.03 Understanding how to get through to people in management. 13.35 Tackling personal bias in your managerial style. 15.30 Discussing the role of a COO. 18.03 How do you manage the multiple aspects of your role? 20.32 Transparency in business. 23.14 Who were your influences when starting your career? 24.42 Being given freedom to work the way you want. 26.54 Opportunities as an incentive to take jobs over salary. 29.13 Navigating through your career when you make an incorrect job decision. 30.13 What continues to motivate you in your career?

Harley Richardson is the design and development director at Discovery Education UK Harley Richardson has spent the last decade at the cross section of education and technology. Working his way up the ranks at Discovery Education, he now provides high quality digital content to primary and secondary schools throughout the UK. His ten-year stint at Discovery has given Harley a unique insight into how technology has transformed education. He is an expert in managing remote workers and navigating the (sometimes tricky) office politics that surround the implementation of new tech. The episode centres around the ways companies engage with and consume content. Harley discusses how companies that see content as currency can survive in a ‘free content’ world. Show Notes: 1.30 Advice for people starting a career in tech. 11.00 discussing various approaches to career development. 15.30 Approaches to hiring. 18.00 How are remote workers and flexible working changing the face of the industry. 26.00 What technologies have had the biggest impact on the way you work? 33.05 Discussing ways to disseminate information from the tech teams to other departments. 35.20 Discussing the challenges of working on content and working in the content space. 39.07 Discussing new ways in which people consume content and how a company can adapt to this.

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Isaac Jospehson, the SVP of Data Platform at Viacom. On the show they discuss how to create consistency across your team. Andy asks Isaac how he deals with disruption. They also chat about balancing your soft skills and technical skills. Isaac tells Andy how he quantifies the ROI of a data team. Isaac Josephson is an executive with two decades of digital media experience building products and businesses for best-in-class brands. Prior to Viacom, he was on the product leadership team at Audible - Amazon's audiobook division. There, he oversaw the company's primary web, mobile web, and mobile app experiences. Show Notes: 1.07 Having a sense of purpose in business and a vision. 3.13 People care about outcomes and thinking about the bottomline. 5.03 Creating consistency across your team to ensure your aligned with your business's goals. 6.27 When you look back at your career do you chuckle at some of the behaviours you undertook at work? 7.50 How do you navigate disruption in your sector and look forward and plan for what’s coming next? 9.30 You naturally gravitate towards things that interest you. 10.39 Is it necessary to place yourself in tech hubs like London and New York to truly be successful in your career? 13.29 What are some of the key traits you think are essential to be successful in your career? 15.03 Are softer skills now essential in the hiring process? 16.06 You can teach the technical side of a role but you need to see your company from a macro perspective. 17.10 The product management mindset. 19.47 Managing people within data and everything really being a people problem. 21.15 What do try and continually learn and strive to be good at? 22.31 Has it been difficult for you to learn the hard skills around data? 23.41 Having the belief in yourself that you can figure stuff out. 25.00 Data leadership and the journey data is on. 28.44 Do you think that Data is fully understood outside of the data department? 31.51 Quantifying the value add of Data and do you feel confident you can directly quantify the ROI of a Data team.

‘I went to a local authority in the midlands to chat to them about making an investment in Data. I was put on the spot by the chief constable, he let me talk about the benefits of Data in a business sense. When I’d finished he asked isn’t there something far more profound here? In the sense that there’s a moral imperative to use Data to identify and help individuals in crisis’ Richard Walker is the associate director of public sector advisory at KPMG UK. Richard works with public sector clients to unlock the value in their data. He believes that the better use of data is critical to the future of public services. As an associate director Richard has experiences leading teams in the public sector where every choice is underpinned by cost. This has given him a knack of making business savvy decisions and leading a team with limited resources. He used his 30 minutes on the podcast to stress the importance of Data in the public sector and highlights how it has, in real terms, saved people's lives. Show Notes: 1.41 When you started your career could you envisage the direction data was heading. 4.27 Has the public sector managed to keep up with the rate of innovation in the Data space. 8.15 Using Data to tackle real tangible human issues. 12.32 What are some of the common issues people tend to ask you about in relation to Data? 15.26 Are there any situations where you have to manage expectations around Data. 20.12 Answering the “why” for the application of Data. 23.20 What problems do you think we’ll be tackling in the future, specifically in the public sector. 27.13 The impact of Data in the public sector.

Johnnie Ball is currently the Chief Data Scientist at Fluidly. In a previous life though he was a busy trader working for one of London’s top brokerages. This diverse background has given Johnnie many unique skills that he has carried forward into his career in data science. With such a varied CV Johnnie is an expert at navigating career change. He is also well versed in transferring his skills from one career to another. All the while using the knowledge he’s gained over the years to grow as an individual and lead a Data Science team. He used his 30 minutes on the podcast to chart his career progression and highlight some of the lessons he learned when moving from job to job. “It’s not like the Wolf of Wall Street, but it is a high pressure, highly competitive environment. But I did enjoy it” - Johnnie on the trading floor Show Notes: 1.05 Johnnie’s experience on a trading desk. 2.38 The unique skills picked up trading. 3.03 Working a career that requires you to be competitive. 4.18 Having an awareness of the value you add to your business. 5.18 Johnnie’s Educational background. 6.30 The satisfaction in trying to solve hard problems. 8.25 How did you end up in Fluidly. 9.56 The incubator environment. 11.07 Comparing the culture of the trading floor and working in Fluidly. 13.04 How was your initial transition to data science? 14.52 What aspects of Data Science did you find the most difficult. 16.25 Defining Data Science. 18.40 Was there a vision of the kind of Data Science team you wanted to be? 20.48 What has your approach been to finding new talent? 22.54 Do you collaborate a lot with your peers? 24.25 Having a sense of purpose when going to networking events. 25.51 What are you the most excited about working on at the moment?

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Isaac Jospehson, the SVP of Data Platform at Viacom. On the show they discuss how to create consistency across your team. Andy asks Isaac how he deals with disruption. They also chat about balancing your soft skills and technical skills. Isaac tells Andy how he quantifies the ROI of a data team. Isaac Josephson is an executive with two decades of digital media experience building products and businesses for best-in-class brands. Prior to Viacom, he was on the product leadership team at Audible - Amazon's audiobook division. There, he oversaw the company's primary web, mobile web, and mobile app experiences. Show Notes: 1.07 Having a sense of purpose in business and a vision. 3.13 People care about outcomes and thinking about the bottomline. 5.03 Creating consistency across your team to ensure your aligned with your business's goals. 6.27 When you look back at your career do you chuckle at some of the behaviours you undertook at work? 7.50 How do you navigate disruption in your sector and look forward and plan for what’s coming next? 9.30 You naturally gravitate towards things that interest you. 10.39 Is it necessary to place yourself in tech hubs like London and New York to truly be successful in your career? 13.29 What are some of the key traits you think are essential to be successful in your career? 15.03 Are softer skills now essential in the hiring process? 16.06 You can teach the technical side of a role but you need to see your company from a macro perspective. 17.10 The product management mindset. 19.47 Managing people within data and everything really being a people problem. 21.15 What do try and continually learn and strive to be good at? 22.31 Has it been difficult for you to learn the hard skills around data? 23.41 Having the belief in yourself that you can figure stuff out. 25.00 Data leadership and the journey data is on. 28.44 Do you think that Data is fully understood outside of the data department? 31.51 Quantifying the value add of Data and do you feel confident you can directly quantify the ROI of a Data team