The Irish Tech News Podcast

Great interview by Melanie Boylan with Abigail Harrison Abby is an aspiring astronaut who dreams of becoming the first astronaut to set foot on Mars! She is a dynamic leader and the co-founder of the international nonprofit organization The Mars Generation. Through her nonprofit, Abby now has almost one million people joining her on this mission to excite kids about STEM/STEAM education (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) and also to educate people everywhere of the importance of STEAM and space exploration to the future of humankind. A rising star in her field, she holds a degree in biology from Wellesley College, has interned at a NASA-funded astrobiology lab, and has been featured in TIME, Forbes 2019 30 under 30, the BBC, and even gave her own TEDx talk! https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622542/dream-big-by-abigail-harrison/

Helene Li - Co-Founder, GoImpact A firm believer in applying market-based solutions to fast track social and environmental impact; and a passionate advocate for Sustainable Finance, Helene is a management consultant by training ( Boston Consulting Group and Willis Towers Watson alumni ) and a seasoned finance industry professional with long tenures in strategic planning and marketing roles at global financial institutions such as J.P. Morgan Private Bank, Lombard Odier, and BNP Paribas Wealth Management. Having worked in the ultra-high-net-worth space for most of her banking and consulting career, Helene is committed to leveraging the financial power and heart of the 1% to accelerate the impact in helping the 99%. It is in this spirit that she co-founded GoImpact as an action driven ecosystem to connect stakeholders in accelerating the Impact momentum. She has been spearheading and curating industry recognized and highly rated Next Generation Family Business programs, and a regular contributor to Impact and Entrepreneurship research throughout her banking and consulting career. She partnered with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in organizing the “Creative Capitalism” Forum in 2010, which formed a cross-sector platform to debate and deepen the call for action in driving sustainable family legacy and socially meaningful engagements for the ultra- high-net-worth families. Since then, she has built up a closely connected network of fore-runners, thought leaders and practitioners in this area across family businesses, corporate, government and private sectors. A sought-after speaker and moderator at Impact Investment and Sustainable Finance forums, Helene graduated from the University of Hong Kong with First Class Honors degree in English and Economics. See more on her website here https://www.goimpact.today/home

The Schrems II landmark ruling decision in July and it impacts on privacy shield, plus the Brexit transition period ending on 31st December, has meant data compliance has never been busier. Many businesses are unsure of the updates that impact international data transfers and what is required to process data correctly. With the UK being a non-EU member come 1st January Article 27 of the GDPR will be an important focus also. Ronan talks to Conor Hogan, Global Practice Lead in Privacy at BSI about all this and the latest elephant in the room BYON (Bring Your Own Network).

Melanie Boylan interviews Laura Ryan, Director of International HR at Dropbox Laura Ryan is the Director of International HR at Dropbox, the content collaboration platform that helps keep work organised in the new world of distributed working. Laura joined Dropbox in 2015 to lead the company’s international people strategy and operations - and her team ensures that Dropbox continues to grow as a great place to work. Prior to this, she spent five years at Google building out their fast growing geo operations function for Europe, leading recruitment activities and building HR policies. Today, Laura has over 16 years of experience within the HR industry, having previously started her career at the insurance company Aviva, where her commitment to “making work human” was awarded with fast-tracked progression during her seven years at the organisation. Laura also holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Galway University and is committed to her personal mission as an HR leader to shape the way of working for future generations. Melanie Boylan Freelance Journalist / Podcaster 085 286 0502 Host | Speaker | Moderator Space|Science|Sustainability|StartUp|Tech

Interesting and entertaining chat with Alon Gorne, we talk about early-stage blockchain investing, Bitcoin's recent high and what's driving its growth, the adoption of decentralized finance, and digital securities among other things. Draper Goren Holm was founded as Goren Holm Ventures in 2018, a limited partnership between founders Alon Goren and Josef Holm, then later joined by Tim Draper and rebranded to Draper Goren Holm in 2019. The firm is a venture studio focused on accelerating and incubating blockchain and crypto startups, while simultaneously producing leading blockchain and cryptocurrency events, Security Token Summit and Crypto Invest Summit (CIS). In addition to producing the world's largest blockchain conference, Draper Goren Holm has been operating a blockchain venture studio that actively accelerates and incubates early-stage startups. The venture studio, which now has 18 portfolio companies, has seen tremendous internal growth, primarily in the decentralized finance (DeFi) and the security token and digital securities sector, and as a result, has positioned itself as one of the top venture funds in the industry.

Over the past 20 years, the media landscape has changed as the internet has brought new challenges leading to bloggers and online publications changing the way we consume media. One of the innovative online publications is Bellincat an investigative journalism website that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence. Ronan talks to Eliot Higgins the founder of Bellincat about what Bellincat does, the online media landscape and fake news.

We interview Sarah Frier about the growth of Instagram and then what happened when it was bought by Facebook. Sarah Frier reports on social media companies for Bloomberg News out of San Francisco. Her award-winning features and breaking stories have earned her a reputation as an expert on how Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter make business decisions that affect their future and our society. Frier is a frequent contributor to Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg Television. She attended the University of North Carolina, where she earned a degree in journalism and edited the school paper before joining Bloomberg in 2011. Her first book, No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, won the Financial Times/McKinsey & Co 2020 Business Book of the Year award, and has been listed as a top book of the year by The Economist, Fortune, NPR and others.

Interesting conversation with Minter Dial about how to be a great leader, and why he decided to write his next book about this concept. More about Minter on his website here https://www.minterdial.com/ and in his words -> I'm Minter Dial and I serve my clients by elevating the energy and connecting people and ideas. I relish being an engaging professional speaker on leadership, transformation and branding with a specialization in digital transformation since 2009. I'm known for being someone who walks the talk and delivers on or above expectations. I'm the author of three award-winning books, including my latest book Heartificial Empathy, Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence that won the Book Excellence Award 2019 and was shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2019. My next book on leadership, You Lead, How Being Yourself Makes You A Better Leader, published by Kogan Page, comes out January 2021. I'm also the producer of the award-winning book and film The Last Ring Home and co-author of Futureproof that won the Business Book Award 2018.

Rose Barrett, Co-Founder and Community Manager with Grow Remote, a nonprofit with the mission of making remote work local. Growing up in a small pub in the West of Ireland meant that community has been in her veins from early on. Now being involved in a social enterprise that connects people and knowledge, Rose is helping to enable our communities to embrace the benefits of remote working.

Wayra X is an Open Innovation Digital Hub that Telefónica recently launched and they are actively looking for new startups to apply to be on it. Ronan talks to Luisa Rubio the Head of Wayra X about what Wayra X is, how it came about, how they managed to set it up during a pandemic, and the type of startups they are looking for. Luisa also talks about the two startups already accepted into Wayra X, the closing dates for applications and where you go to apply.