John Vincent and Craig Hassall join James Ashton to discuss putting on a show, screwing up, finding the right mentor and how to tackle US expansion. John Vincent is co-founder and chief executive of Leon, the healthy fast food chain whose hot chicken boxes and plant-based burgers have reinvented lunchtime for city workers since it opened its doors 15 years ago. Leon has more than 50 outlets in the UK and employs 1600 staff. With annual sales of close to £100m, now Vincent is eyeing expansion in ...
Nov 11, 2019•48 min
Dame Alison Nimmo and Amanda Wakeley join James Ashton to discuss juggling responsibilities, the power of coaching, trusting your team and putting your name over the door. Dame Alison Nimmo is chief executive the Crown Estate, a diverse £14bn property portfolio that plays landlord to high-end retailers along London’s Regent Street as well as offshore wind farms along the coastline. The estate is owned by the Queen but independently managed and a portion of its profits fund the Royal Family. Dame...
Nov 04, 2019•41 min
Jack Buckner and Peter Simpson join James Ashton to discuss learning from the approach of top athletes, developing a winning culture and the power of long service. Jack Buckner is chief executive of British Swimming, the elite aquatics governing body going for gold at the Olympics and other international competitions. Buckner works closely with the home nations’ swimming organisations to find and train the next Adam Peaty and Tom Daley, as well as encouraging mass participation in swimming and d...
Oct 28, 2019•46 min
Dame Janet Beer is vice-chancellor of the University of Liverpool, the 138-year old institution with more than 22,000 students on campus that leads the way researching fields such as advanced materials and infectious diseases. She studied English at Reading and Warwick universities, specialising in late 19th and early 20th century American literature including the novelist Edith Wharton. Initially working at the Inner London Education Authority, she lectured at Roehampton Institute before gravit...
Oct 21, 2019•45 min
Mark Evans and Stuart Murphy join James Ashton to discuss coping in a crisis, the myth of creativity, keeping connected and standing your round. Mark Evans is chief executive of O2, the mobile phone giant with 33m customer connections and 6,700 staff that range from contact centre workers to network engineers. His mission is to keep up with multiplying customer demand for internet access on the move. That means sinking £2m a day into O2’s network and introducing 5G technology to soup up speeds. ...
Oct 14, 2019•48 min
Sir Jeremy Farrar and Nick Pearson join James Ashton to discuss taking risks, campaigning voices and making a difference in the world’s wellbeing. Sir Jeremy Farrar is director of the Wellcome Trust, the British medical charity that spends close to £1bn every year to improve global health through research and education funded by a £26bn endowment. Wellcome has spent 25 years unravelling the human genome and has also been involved in breakthroughs that track the inner workings of the brain, diagn...
Jul 02, 2019•41 min
Polly Neate and Alice Black join James Ashton to discuss delighting visitors, the joy of campaigning, forever fundraising and the importance of self-knowledge. Polly Neate is the chief executive of housing charity Shelter which last year helped 4.7m people struggling with homelessness and bad housing. Shelter has successfully campaigned to improve tenants’ rights and is still pressing for greater provision of social housing. Originally a journalist, Neate joined the charity sector in 2005 at Act...
Jun 17, 2019•42 min
Peter Jackson and Michael Gidney join James Ashton to discuss digital transformation, personal development, empowering their people and switching from non-executive to CEO of the same organisation. Peter Jackson is the chief executive of Flutter Entertainment, the newly renamed FTSE 100 gaming company whose trading brands including Paddy Power, Betfair and Fanduel. The group employs 8,000 people in 16 offices around the world and last year handled 3bn punters’ transactions. As tougher regulation...
Jun 10, 2019•43 min
Joe Gordon and Mark Skipper join James Ashton to discuss keeping up with customer expectation, battling budget cuts, riding your luck and the excitement of opening night. Joe Gordon is the head of First Direct, a trailblazing phone bank when it launched 30 years ago. Part of HSBC, today it has 1.5m customers largely transacting on the internet and smartphone and gearing up for the open banking revolution that could see it recommend insurance and energy deals alongside savings accounts and mortga...
Jun 03, 2019•40 min
Julie Maxton and Robin Mortimer join James Ashton to discuss the art of problem solving, tracking public opinion, natural leadership insecurity and keeping maritime traditions alive. Julie Maxton is executive director of the Royal Society, which has existed since the 1660s to promote and support excellence in science. Past presidents include Sir Christopher Wren, Samuel Pepys and Sir Isaac Newton. Today among its 1500 fellows are 74 Nobel laureates. In support of the next generation the Society ...
May 27, 2019•37 min
John Holland-Kaye and Kate Mavor join James Ashton to discuss investing in the past, building for the future, being yourself as the boss, changing staff culture and selling the best cake. John Holland-Kaye is the chief executive of Heathrow, the UK’s largest airport through which more than 80m passengers passed last year. It’s no slouch at cargo either, handling about £130bn of goods annually. If all goes according to plan, Heathrow should become significantly larger in 2026 when a third runway ...
May 20, 2019•47 min
Amanda Mackenzie and Matt Hyde join James Ashton to discuss promoting better business behaviour, mobilising a volunteer force, magpieing great ideas and showing some vulnerability. Amanda Mackenzie is the chief executive of Business in the Community - The Prince of Wales’ Responsible Business Network. Its 700 members seek to do business better - whether that is helping the environment, their own staff, or society at large. If they get it right, they might even boost levels of public trust in lar...
May 13, 2019•42 min
Paul Farmer and Paul Geddes join James Ashton to discuss staying in touch with the frontline, respecting the past, picking the right mentor and the importance of leaders’ own wellbeing. Paul Geddes is the outgoing chief executive of Direct Line, the £5bn insurance group whose brands include Churchill, Privilege and Green Flag. In a decade at the wheel, Geddes has demerged the business from its former parent company Royal Bank of Scotland, overseen a successful stock market flotation and grown th...
May 06, 2019•44 min
David Sproul and Kate Collins join James Ashton to discuss humanising tough decisions, being elected as leader, retaining a maverick spirit and making staff talk in the lift. David Sproul is senior partner and chief executive of Deloitte, one of the Big Four accounting firms that offers a multitude of services to companies including audit, tax, deals advice and consulting. Coming to the end of his time in charge, Sproul has increased sales eight years running, but is among leaders who have faile...
Apr 29, 2019•44 min
How do leaders learn to lead? In this podcast, journalist James Ashton brings together people from the top of very different organisations in the worlds of business, charity, the arts and beyond to discuss their take on leading vital causes, famous brand names and multi-million-pound enterprises. His two guests swap stories of success and failure, the skills they have picked up, the challenges they face every day and the advice they offer to others. Find out more @leadingpod on Twitter...
Apr 24, 2019•1 min
