The Irish Tech News Podcast

Description: Join us for the Irish Tech News Podcast where Henry Fox interviews mindfulness expert and the Father of Soft Leadership, Professor M.S. Rao in a talk about his work, what inspired him to work in mindfulness and gender equality, and the professor’s advice for the younger generation. Bios: Professor M.S. Rao, PhD, is an international leadership consultant and leadership guru from India, known as the Father of Soft Leadership. His past work has been in a multitude of sectors, from teaching, consultancy, and philosophy to research and the military. He has written over 50 books, including the award-winning See the Light in You, with a foreword written by the Dalai Lama. Professor Rao has a vision of gender equality and soft leadership in business. He currently works as a C-Suite advisor and global keynote speaker, while also contributing to Entrepreneur Magazine, CEOWorld, and other publications. Professor Rao was recently ranked #1 Thought Leader and Influencer in Business Strategy globally by Thinkers360. Henry Fox is a freelance journalist and student at Coventry University in the UK, currently interning at Irish Tech News. Originally hailing from Limerick, Henry has a passion for all things nerdy, from emerging computer technology to cult movies.

As diversity has become a major part of working life, it’s great to see an increase of women in senior management positions in Ireland. Anne Keogh is the CFO of Ambisense, and the perfect role model for women in business. Ronan talks to Anne about women in c-suite management role and more. Anne talks about her background, what Ambisense does, why choices are good, women in c-suite management roles, mentors, and quotas at work. Anne also talks about being impressive, willing to learn from mistakes, what Michael Smurfit taught her, the art of the possible, work environments and having respect and manners. More about Anne Keogh: Anne is the CFO of Irish start-up and environmental analytics company Ambisense, an IoT and AI analytics business focussed on monitoring environmental risks including risks from climate change and Covid 19. Prior to this, Anne was the CFO and COO of Pharmapod, an innovative cloud-based software developed by pharmacists for pharmacists to maximise patient safety across the global healthcare system. Anne also has 7 years experience in being a woman of the c-suite.

Description: Henry Fox from Irish Tech News speaks with Survival International's Sarah Shenker, a human rights campaigner and organiser about the work she does, what inspired her to join Survival International, and the progress still to be made in protecting indigenous lands. Bios: Sarah Shenker is a British campaigner for Uncontacted Tribes with Survival International. Her work has spanned the world, from the Amazon to South East Asia. She has a passion for human rights and protecting indigenous lands. Henry Fox is a freelance journalist and student at Coventry University in the UK, currently interning at Irish Tech News. Originally hailing from Limerick, Henry has a passion for all things nerdy, from emerging computer technology to cult movies.

In this podcast Melanie Boylan speaks with former Tech Journalist and Executive Director of E2 and author of the very recent book on the subject entitled Climatenomics: Washington, Wall Street and the Economic Battle to Save Our Planet.  It's sad that we have reached this pinnacle in our climate journey, but with Bob's attitude and the shift that we can make using economics alone, this is not just a job for the children now.  It's a whole new area where we can capitalise and actually help protect our planet and find other communities that want this as badly as we do. Bob Keefe is executive director of E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs) a nonpartisan organization of more than 10,000 business leaders who  advocate for policies that are good for the economy and good for the environment. In addition to overseeing  E2’s work and its nine U.S. chapters, Bob speaks regularly about the economic benefits of smart environmental policies, the clean energy economy, jobs and related issues, and has been widely quoted in publications nationwide. He is the author of “Climatenomics:  Washington, Wall Street and the Economic Battle To Save Our Planet” (Rowman & Littlefield, May 2022) and co-author of several other business-related books. Prior to joining E2 in 2011, Bob spent more than 20 years as a political, business and environmental journalist. He served as the chief Washington correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, as a California-based national reporter for Cox Newspapers/Cox News Service, as technology editor for the Austin (Tx) American-Statesman and as a business and investigative reporter for the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was a fellow at the University of Southern California’s  Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Ian Foley is an executive with over 20 years' experience in sales and finance in Silicon Valley. He is currently the Chief Business Officer at Arweave, a Web3 company with an innovative business model for decentralized cloud storage for ever (permenanty).  Ian has been the CEO/founder or head of sales for 4 startups, which resulted in 3x M&A and 1x IPO. He has also been a venture investor in 8 companies, which resulted in 4x acquisitions and 6x return. His industry experience is in FinTech, Marketing Tech, Cyber Security and Telecoms. He started his career in investment banking, strategy consulting and journalism.  #fintech #tech #SiliconValley Ian`s monthly cartoons in Fortune Magazine - https://fortune.com/newsletter/termsheet Ian Foley Twitter - https://twitter.com/Ian_california Ian Foley`s Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/foleyian/ Ian`s Cartoons  - https://iantoons.com/ Dr. Efi Pylarinou is the No.1 Global Woman Influencer in Finance & the Data conversation by Refinitiv, a Top Thought Leader by Onalytica, and a Top Digital Futurist, Linkedin and Twitter Voice, by Engatica. A seasoned Wall Street professional & a recognized technology thought leader on innovation topics. Founder of Efi Pylarinou Advisory servicing Big Tech, Financial Services and Fintech clients. She strongly believes in building bridges between the old and the new economy. She shares her passion of content creation with her 190,000+ followers on Linkedin and 18,000+ on Twitter.  Join her on the social platforms https://linktr.ee/Efiglobal Listen to more podcasts here.

Recent market volatility has decimated fintech valuations and funding has become harder to come by. Instead of growth at all costs, startups are facing increased pressure to show profit.  In this new episode of One Vision, Theo chats with Tiffani Montez, Principal Analyst at Insider Intelligence, on the era of uncertainty. Can neobanks continue to drive user growth rates and move to black fast, while weathering regulatory changes and intense competition? How will BNPL evolve as delinquency goes up and economic uncertainty continues? And as big tech pushes further into financial services, how will the industry respond?

Toya Zhang hails from a traditional communications background in Finance, but in 2015, part of her job involved investigating Bitcoin for a client. She went down the rabbit hole and never looked back. “The whole industry is evolving – from ICOs, IDOs to Web3 and NFTs – I am really fascinated by the evolution, and now as CMO at Bit.com, a cryptocurrency exchange specializing in options trading, I am evolving with everyone else.” Zhang joined Bit.com in January 2022 and is very committed and connected to the growth of the exchange. Bit.com was founded in 2020 as a spinoff from Matrixport, a crypto bank established in 2019. Matrixport was valued at $1 billion in 2021, while Bit.com is ranked in the top 3 crypto options exchanges in terms of trading volume. Bit.com is registered in Seychelles with offices in Singapore and Hong Kong. “Bit.com has a solid team. They began at the hard end, if you will – by launching a sophisticated crypto options exchange. It took eight months to go live, but it propelled them into the top of the space.” Two years on, Bit.com has fleshed out its offering from just options trading to adding futures, perpetual futures, spot markets, and several savings products. “We are consolidating this growth and looking to expand further in Europe. Beginning life as we did an options exchange, we also have a lot of institutional traders, many of which are registered with offshore companies.” It is evident from our conversation that Zhang aligns her personal values with that of Bit.com and the care it extends to its customers – from building solid products to ensuring client money is genuinely theirs. And the good news is that Bit.com is hiring despite this bear market. When asked why now, the answer is uncomplicated. “We weren’t aggressive until we were ready. We began with options, futures, and the spot market. Today we have about 50 tokens listed and added yield products. But they are only added once everything was fully bedded in and our UI was fine.” Not that Zhang likes the bear market, but as she says, it’s possible to breathe and take time to think in a bear market. “It’s exciting to have this time to consider what might be coming down the track next. Web 3 – however it is defined – is the next big thing, along with GameFi and the metaverse. We are all building now. “As an exchange, we are at the heart of the cryptocurrency movement. We are deeply rooted in this space, the engine of the industry, if you will. We need to keep on offering the best services, provide liquidity, and continue to manage risk. “It’ll take time, but bear markets provide great building opportunities. I’d say within five years; these innovations will be here.” And where does Bit.com fit into all this? “We are simply a centralized service provider on top of the decentralized digital world.”

During the pandemic how we worked has changed for ever. Hybrid and remote working has become the new norm and this has impacted on tech recruitment. Phoenix is a global specialist search agency that was set up by founder and co-CEO Ed Rossiter in 2018. Offering recruitment services to companies in tech, fintech, financial services and professional services, Phoenix has scaled rapidly throughout the course of pandemic, while servicing many Irish companies with the same ambitions. Ronan talks to Ed Rossiter about the latest tech recruitment trends and more. Ed talks about what Phoenix has seen in the work place, remote working, the tech jobs that are most in demand, videoconferencing, the pandemic, interviewing for jobs remotely, working for startup or an established company and up skilling. More about Phoenix: Phoenix is redefining the way recruitment is executed, by creating a more personalised, modern and bespoke approach. They are helping companies scale globally and conquer the world by finding the right people at the right time. Providing agile, tech-enabled recruitment services to help scaling companies reach their goals. As a young company who have grown rapidly throughout the pandemic, Phoenix understands the needs of a new workforce, helping companies expand internationally and hire top talent in targeted areas.

Henry from Irish Tech News speaks with Professor Wulf Kaal about his experience with DAOs, horizontal governance, equity online,and his own project, Menagerie. How does this counter big companies’ data farming? How can this upgrade level 1 governance? We speak about all this and more. Bios: Wulf Kaal is a professor, lawyer, and economist. Originally hailing from Germany, he immigrated to the United States as a young adult, where he worked with top US firms, such as Goldman Sachs and Swain & Moore. He has taught at several universities across the globe, and is the co-founder of Menagerie.is, an internet tool that helps anyone begin their own decentralized community online. Wulf’s vision is to decentralise the internet in a way that will lead to more equity among users – this includes employing the use of DAOs and combatting data farming by large corporations. He is currently working at the University of St. Thomas Law School in Minnesota, the United States. Henry Fox is a freelance journalist and student at Coventry University in the UK, currently interning at Irish Tech News. Originally hailing from Limerick, Henry has a passion for all things nerdy, from emerging computer technology to cult movies.

During these strange times global manufacturing companies who are in heavily regulated sectors, such as pharma and healthcare face several issues. The biggest being maintaining budgets as raw materials prices and other costs swing upwards. Macmarts a Limerick based provider of cloud applications for manufacturing companies has the solution. Spendbooks is a one of a kind spend management software for manufacturing companies or companies who are in heavily regulated sectors such as pharma and healthcare. Ronan talks to Tony Frawley, CEO of Macmarts about Spendbooks more. Tony talks about his background, what Macmarts do, sustainability, how Spendbooks works, budgeting, digital transformation, approval of requisitions, change management, why they are a scale up, their future plans, and Brexit. More about Macmarts: Macmarts was originally developed by their parent company Macnovate in 2017, Macmarts delivers spend management and project resource management applications for the life science, healthcare and other heavily regulated industries. Macmarts is a flexible and fully customisable platform ideally suited to manufacturing organisations ranging from medium-sized businesses to large enterprises. With four decades of real life experience working at the coalface in the ever-changing, high-octane manufacturing arena, we’ve harnessed our collective industry intelligence to develop a SaaS platform to support manufactures in building Digital Manufacturing Enterprises.