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

Azeem Azhar is an entrepreneur, investor and adviser with a two-decade career in technology. He runs the highly-cited newsletter, Exponential View, which covers the societal implications of technology and is a totemic source for the investors, entrepreneurs and policy-makers. Azeem is the Senior Advisor on AI to the CTIO of Accenture. Azeem also advises breakthrough entrepreneurial firms, including Kindred Capital, Onfido, Ocean Protocol, as well as the Harvard Business Review. Show Notes: 00.30 Automation is making our lives busier. 01.23 The behaviour patterns needed to make automation a success. 03.49 Why human behaviour is so difficult to change. 7.24 Viewing technological change through the lens of a journalist. 15.21 Azeem’s motivators for moving into tech. 20.33 Will coding be a requirement for individuals in the near future? 26.17 Making coding accessible for everyone.

Peter is an award-winning analytics/ data executive who has held the top data job at either group or divisional levels since 2000. Peter is a globally recognised expert in data management, analytics, big data, business intelligence, data warehousing and driving business value via technology. His background in maths has equipped with a rigorous, analytical approach to learning skills from the ground up. Peter knows that if you truly want to understand a new topic or tech you cannot skip the fundamentals, something that is all too easy today due to the number of tools at the disposal of a data team. Using an orchestra as an analogy Peter acts as the conductor and lays out the roles and responsibilities of a Head of Data with Andy on the show. Show Notes: 00.37 How do you choose what tool to use for your analytics? 03.04 Are we missing learning the fundamentals of the tech we operate? 08.26 What makes individuals valuable from a data perspective? 11.55 The introduction of the CDO role. 12.30 Great

Sramana is CEO and Founder of One Million by One Million. One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first and only global virtual accelerator. Its goal is to help a million entrepreneurs globally reach a million dollars in annual revenue, build a trillion dollars in global GDP, and create 10 million jobs. Sramana founded 1Mby1M in 2010 after a decade as a consultant at some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. A serial entrepreneur at heart, she has never worked for anyone other than herself. Helping others become their own boss is a motivator that fuels her work at 1Mby1M. Sramana adopted inbound marketing tactics in 2005, back when many people were still figuring out what blogging was. And today, she still places quality content at the forefront of everything she does    She sat down with Andy to discuss Silicon Valley’s influence on the entrepreneur's journey, morning routines, avoiding burnout, and the joys of being your own boss. Show Notes: 00.32 Win the morning, win the day. 03.55 Buil

Tiffany is CIO and director of technology at Cancer Research UK. Before working in the nonprofit sector Tiffany held several positions at the BBC including the Head of Technology at BBC News. She also spent over 5 years as a member of the CIO advisory board at The Tech Partnership. Tiffany has experience of strategy definition, technology roadmaps, business transformation, change management, outsourced IT services, programme delivery, fostering innovation, public-sector procurement processes, central IT platforms, IT migration, system upgrades, delivering added value through the adoption of new technologies. Show Notes: 00.33 Is it important to have a rigid definition of what a CIO does? 04.17 Has there been an increased awareness of data in recent years. 06.58 Making sure your company has consistent messaging. 08.18 Tiffany’s background and career progression. 11.27 Technologies impact on the charitable sector. 15.16 Better research, better information, better decisions. 16.18 How do you struc

Mark is a Consultant, Professional Speaker, Author, Podcaster, Improvement Geek, Coach, & Senior Advisor to KaiNexus. His passion lies in applying Lean and Toyota Production System principles in hospitals to improve quality of care and patient safety, improve patient experience, help the development of medical professionals and employees, and build better workplaces and stronger organizations for the long term. Mark has written several well-received books on lean healthcare including; Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Engagement Healthcare Kaizen: Engaging Front-Line Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements Both books received the Shingo award for research into operational excellence. Mark also runs LeanBlog.org and is a regular speaker at healthcare conferences. He joins Andy to discuss the issues and lessons presented in his latest book ‘Measures of Success’. Show Notes: 00.30 Talking podcasting. 02.32 Countering the demand for traffic with quality content

Sam Stagg is VP of Engineering at Pusher. Managing a growing team of developers can be like herding cats, not our words but the words of today’s guest Sam Stagg. A gifted communicator Sam is an expert at managing a large team of cross-disciplinary developers. Heading up the development team at Pusher Sam is responsible for building a multi-tenant distribution system. Show Notes 00.56 Pusher’s developer outreach. 02.35 Scratching your coding itch. 03.56 Having a competitive edge in software development. 06.59 Software developers are the product. 08.40 Finding your management style. 12.27 Hiring the right people. 15.45 What have you learned from your experiences of the hiring process? 17.57 Sam’s background and career progression. 20.55 Making your interview process smooth and efficient. 22.55 Sam’s journey at Pusher. 27.44 Moving to management vs staying technical. 32.06 The role your product plays in keeping your team motivated. 36.07 Advice for young developers starting out in thei

Samir is a data strategy and analytics expert and currently founder and CEO at Datazuum. Samir works with companies to help create and execute data strategies. His current clients include; high-end luxury, retail, aerospace & defense, government, postal, telecoms, banking, utilities, insurance, mutual Insurance, and media. He advises board members, the C-suite and directors on how to get the most out of their datasets. Samir loves to use data to tell stories. Seeing clients extract value from data is a real motivator for him. Show Notes: 00.35 Connecting with people using podcasts. 05.34 Hiring talent that is committed to growing professionally. 09.17 Taking a disciplined approach to work. 12.53 The benefits of podcasting. 19.13 Samir’s background and career progression. 26.17 Did you ever get frustrated with the corporate world? 31.02 Taking your business from idea stage to full time. 35.34 How the people around you can help you succeed.

Andrew is Director of Big Data & Analytics at Atos. Andrew specialises in enabling businesses bring their data to life. He is Atos’ chief data storyteller. His roles is to write a company’s story with data. Combining the hard maths of a data scientist with the flair and insight of an analyst means Andrew can tackle any data challenge thrown at him. Show Notes: 0.33 Dissecting the CDO role. 2.51 Catching up with data from a macro perspective. 7.08 Collaborating across departments with data. 11.37 Using education to integrate data into a business. 17.00 The typical questions asked of a data team. 20.50 Europe vs America. 22.43 Attributes required to become a head of data. 26.06 Always being willing to learn.

John Cline is Senior Engineering Manager at Blue Apron. Is it important that managers retain their technical skills? How do you keep yourself grounded when the company you’re working for is expanding rapidly. Should we be providing alternate career paths for individuals who don’t want to go into management? John Cline draws on his experiences in program management, event planning, software development, public speaking, strategic leadership, and team development to answers these questions. Show Notes: 1.05 John’s background and career development. 3.05 Working for Ebay. 5.16 Transitioning into management. 8.35 Transfering your skills from a small to large company. 11.35 Joining a company during a period of growth. 13.23 Looking at technological change from a macro perspective. 16.40 Do managers still have to be technically savvy? 17.55 Technical and management skills. 20.50 Career paths for those who don’t want to get into management. 23.49 Do you still work on side projects? 25.17 Carv

Mark Weiss is a senior software engineer at beeswax. Mark has mastered a multitude of coding languages during his career. A software developer through and through his passion has always been solving problems with code. Mark is also a proponent of the tech sectors open source, sharing community. Host of his own podcast, Using Reflection, he has combined his technical expertise with communication skills to share what he knows with as many people as possible. Mark knows that software engineers don’t exist in a vacuum and stresses the importance of inter-team communication on this podcast. Show Notes: 0.33 The community culture that has developed around tech. 5.07 Developing a thirst for knowledge. 7.04 Recognising and improving personal flaws. 11.36 Factors that can you accelerate your career. 14.37 The difficult parts of leadership and management. 20.14 Working on your soft skills. 27.56 Beeswax position in the ad-tech space. 36.20 How ad-tech is shaping the internet.

Noelia Martinez is the Head of Data Science and Astrophysics at Unbound.com Noelia’s has worked in both a corporate and educational environment. Her wide range of experiences has made her an expert at being able to apply data to any scenario. She is an advocate of using data to tackle global problems such as; pollution and climate change. Noelia knows that the only way to protect our planet is through the application and use of data. Show Notes: 0.32 Noelia academic research. 4.01 Does the ‘data scientist’ role even exist? 4.53 Why did you move from academia to data science. 8.23 What was the biggest shock for you when you moved careers? 12.29 Will automation allow people to stop doing boring tasks. 15.38 Noelia’s opinions on earth day. 22.44 Global warming shouldn’t be a political issue. 24.06 Consumption factors around reusable factors. 26.17 What can we do with data to influence global decisions?

Aubrey is Head of DevOps at Arcadia Group Aubrey counts DevOps amongst her biggest passions. Her past experiences have seen her working for the likes of likes of Pizza Hut and Travel Lodge. Aubrey enjoys reducing the friction between development and operations, especially the SRE model that emerged from Google. Aubrey is a massive advocate of creating a company culture that is supportive and innovative. She hasn’t always led a team this way though. She used to evangelise ‘cutthroat’, target driven methods to get her team’s projects completed on time. In her own words: ‘for those who knew me by another name, I am immensely sorry for being a massive asshole’ Aubrey discusses why she changed her attitude for leadership on today’s show. Show Notes: 0.29 Being a member of the software development club. 4.47 Collaborating with tech talent. 7.15 Celebrating failure. 9.28 Creating career paths for technical people. 13.46 Reducing bureaucracy and increasing innovation. 18.20 Dress down in the office.

Morgan Craft is CTO at Hickory. Managing a mixed team of psychologists, data-scientists and machine learning experts sounds like a daunting prospect. Not for Morgan though, he has 14+ years of development experience under his belt and knowledge that ranges from psychology to coding. Morgan is also a firm believer in the necessity for continuous learning and enjoys mentoring his peers and helping others grow professionally. We’re the students on today’s podcast as Morgan chat with Andy about disrupting the education sector, making sure you staff remember their training and starting startups. Show Notes: 0.30 NYC, the startup hub. 4.20 Finding a location where you can hire the best talent. 5.30 Morgan’s career progression. 7.27 Working with YCombinator. 8.21 Getting involved in a startup. 10.20 Don’t give attention to unproven technology. 14.08 Working at Hickory. 18.13 Education is primed for disruption. 23.19 Educating peers about GDPR. 28.06 Discussing memory. 29.22 Hickory’s te

Geoff Cunningham is Data Science Manager at Masternaut. To say Geoff has had a varied career is an understatement. From testing materials in Kazakhstan to reading Aerospace engineering at Cambridge he has a strong background in analytics and statistics. He has ended up working in data science and view’s his varied career as a great asset to both himself and his company. Show Notes: 0.29 Geoff’s varied background. 4.58 Taking a gap year and working throughout uni. 7.51 Data as a viable career path. 10.22 Money being the driving factor for new data professionals. 14.50 Changing careers. 17.31 The value of teaching yourself. 19.13 The cost of education influencing career decisions. 23.36 Weighing up the value of university. 26.12 Clearing up the misconceptions about data science. 28.54 What do you enjoy most about data science. 35.02 Getting to grips with the interview process.

Richard Jarvis Director of Big Data Solutions UK & Ireland at DXC Technology. Richard has worked in IT & telecommunications for 15 years and is currently mentoring and directing a team of 25 people. He is leading teams spread over several continents using cutting edge technologies leveraging Hadoop, Spark, Angular, Electric Search and more. Richard enjoys sharing his technical knowledge and is a regular speaker at events. Show Notes: 0.33 Pushing yourself to be creative in the top level of business. 3.52 A more customer-centric model is in demand in the 21st century. 4.58 Staying technical as a business leader. 5.49 Creating alternate career routes for those not wanting to go into management. 7.36 Finding the best leaders. 10.17 The ‘one company man’ is dead. 13.44 What makes people stay at a company for a long time. 18.21 The freedom to move around in your career is empowering. 21.49 Don’t lie on your CV, show a willingness to learn. 23.38 Having the ‘right attitude’ as a new hire

John Rouda is host of the Geek Leader Podcast, a TEDx speaker, and currently the IT Director at INSP LLC. John is a self professed geek leader. He has spent his professional life inspiring, educating, and motivating leaders the world over. In recent years he’s shared his expertise on stage at TEDx events. For those unable to catch him in person he also hosts leadership podcast ‘ageekleader.com’. John wouldn’t class himself as a natural born leader. Initially, he was more comfortable cutting code than leading a team. But through his own determination and drive he progressed through a journey, gradually learning the skills necessary to become a head of business. The journey started with his podcast and snowballed from there. John believes the path he took is open to anyone, technical or not. All it takes is a first step. Show Notes: 0.36 The most enjoyable aspects of making your own podcast. 3.22 Improving with incremental goals. 7.03 Teaching a concept to others as a way to strengthen your own know

Mairead O’Connor is Partner and Engagement Manager at Equal Experts. Mairead is responsible for managing the relationships with Equal Experts largest clients. She works with high performing software development teams to quickly and effectively solve business problems. Motivated by fairness and equality Mairead chooses to work with organisations which actively build diversity into their working culture. Her experiences reading computers science at Cambridge university placed these issues at the forefront of her mind. Since then she has worked tirelessly to increase diversity in the contractor market. Show Notes: 0.31 Are we as busy as we think we are? 2.07 The difficulty of delegating responsibility as a leader. 5.01 Studying at Cambridge University. 7.42 Being aware of your own biases when recruiting technical talent. 9.00 Hiring people with multiple years of experience. 11.54 Creating equal opportunities in technology. 13.48 Driving new behaviors in the workplace. 15.45 What did you find mo

Azat Mardan is Head of front-end development at Indeed.com and Co-Founder at Node University. Azat knows coding has the power to change lives. That’s why he founded Node University. As an advocate of teaching coding skills, Azat is an expert in instructing through a variety of mediums. Teaching people online, in person, and via books has made him a skilled communicator. He infuses his infectious enthusiasm for programming into everything he teaches. Azat Mardan has taught over 1,000 software engineers in-person and even more online through ebooks and video. He has published 14 books and dozens of online courses and has more than 15 years of experience in web, mobile and software development. Azat has a Bachelor’s Degree in Informatics and a Master of Science in Information Systems Technology degree. Show Notes: 0.59 Azat’s work at Node university. 6.05 The diminishing return of education. 8.20 Corporations, education and hack reactor. 13.56 The institutionalised dream of a one company man. 14.33 c

Omari is Chief Product Engineer at yoti. A hacker at heart, Omari has been tinkering with computers and code since he was thirteen. He started his career as a web developer but as the years went on his passion migrated towards product engineering and strategy. Working on solutions that provide new ways for people to interact with the digital world is what makes Omari tick. Omari has worked across the entire business spectrum; from technical product development to database management. He has a broad set of technical skills and the entrepreneurial acumen to apply them in a way that’s in line with a company’s wider business goals. He uses those skills on today’s podcast to discuss building software teams and how computer games and DJing kept him focused on his career. Show Notes: 0.29 Professional career breaks. 4.29 Taking a disciplined approach to business. 5.54 Developing good habits for business when growing up. 7.41 Remaining focused throughout your career. 9.52 Traits of great software engineers

Tej Singh is Talent Acquisition Manager at Wonderbly. Tej’s approach to recruitment is built on a foundation of ‘marketing best practices’. He believes the old intrusive methods of recruiting are dead and encourages all recruiters to focus on building a trustworthy personal brand. In a market that has been saturated for years, recruitment consultants need to be creative with their marketing to stand out and thrive. On this podcast Tej and Andy chat about personal branding, inbound marketing, and having dogs in the office. Show Notes: 0.31 The positives of starting a podcast. 4.02 What does good marketing look like in recruitment? 6.58 How to maintain curiosity throughout your career. 9.26 Changing your job and career frequently. 15.31 Moving from agency recruitment to internal recruitment. 20.51 The importance of understanding a company’s brand when recruiting for them. 24.54 How recruiters present themselves online. 29.02 Marketing and copywriting best practices for recruitment consul