Change Makers: Leadership, Good Business, Ideas and Innovation

Elisa Moscolin is Executive Vice President of Sustainability for Sage, the integrated accounting, payroll and payment systems market leaders supporting the ambition of the world's entrepreneurs.

 With a mission to transform the way people think and work, and enable organisations to thrive, Sage grew from a small business itself to one of the UK's most successful scaled up stories, and a member of the FTSE100 with 11,000 employees around the world. 

But if you thought this was where Elisa’s story began, you'd be wrong. It begins with a trip to Ecuador at age 16, which Elisa said changed her life and made sustainability her mission.

Jason Knights is Managing Director of Ground Control, the fast-growth external maintenance business and biodiversity expert committed to enhancing and improving the physical environment. 

He recently penned a piece for Fast Company making the $5 trillion case for improving biodiversity and the essential role that businesses can play in addressing the challenge. It's an ambition propelling the rapid growth of Ground Control through an environmentally friendly approach to commercial landscaping and fostering new approaches to protect the natural environment.

Change Makers is delighted to bring you the first episode in a brand new series with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Journeys of Discovery. This major new season with a great deal of creative expression, focuses on three core questions: What does it mean to be human? What is our place in the world? What are we dreaming of? All fundamental issues humans have pondered for centuries, and composers have attempted to answer through music. 

Over the course of nine conversations, we explore fundamental questions about what it means to be human that accompany nine incredible concerts.

The first theme of the season is Awakening. And while Wagner, Grieg and Strauss provide the soundtrack, Michael will be joined by Kamal Ahmed, Co-Founder and Editor-in-chief, The News Movement, to offer the commentary.

Listen now to hear Kamal’s words of reflection there from his outstanding memoir, The Life and Times of a Very British Man, and a very personal take on his own journey of discovery.

With special thanks to our audio partners at RODE, and to the BBC for providing the soundtrack, Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra. Find out more and book tickets for the RPO’s Journeys of Discovery series at rpo.co.uk/journeys.

After 12 years running Twitter in Europe and YouTube in the UK, Bruce turned to writing and speaking about one of the topics of our time, the modern workplace. His first book, The Joy of Work, was the Sunday Times number one business best seller and draws on the experiences of psychologists, neuroscientists, and workplace experts to understand how we can improve our jobs. It was to go on to inspire the creation of his podcast, Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat. 

Now, his attention is on the topic of resilience in fortitude, and unlocking the secrets of inner strength. Bruce seeks to disprove the myth that only extraordinary people are successful, and demonstrate how we can draw on those around us to empower ourselves and build our inner strength.

Never in the history of resilience, has someone become more resilient by being told to be more resilient. Listen now.

“Black economic empowerment relies on thinking bigger than you may have ever imagined before. Much bigger.” 

These are the words of Michael’s guest today, Eric Collins, and are contained in his new book, We Don't Need Permission. It's a clarion call to change the world for good, and it's far more than the words of an author; because this is the story of an economic activist.

Eric’s career highlights include successfully building the value of companies including AOL, Time Warner and SwiftKey; working on President Obama’s Small Business Administration Council for underserved communities; as well as being named by Powerlist as one of the most influential black people in Britain and by the Financial Times in the UK’s Top 100 BAME leaders. 

Now CEO of the London based venture firm Impact X, Eric has built a business with a double bottom line mission to advance progress and social mobility for underrepresented founders, and to generate returns for investors by funding the undiscovered and creating the extraordinary. 

If you're looking for the story of business as a force for good, this is it. Listen now. 

It’s 10 years since the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. To celebrate, Change Makers is delighted to welcome one of our greatest ever Olympians, who many say is one of the trailblazers that paved the way for the world class athletes representing Team GB today.
 
Duncan Goodhew MBE scored gold in the 100 metre breaststroke in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, in a dramatic nail biting finish that went down to the wire. It marked a remarkable transformation for a young man who described himself as “drowning” during his time at school, struggling with the challenges of dyslexia. 
 
In a story of resilience and ambition, Duncan overcame the odds to become one of the most recognisable British sporting figures of the 20th century, and lives by the motto, you're only as good as your worst day. 
 
Listen to his conversation with Michael now. 

Bella Lack is a conservationist, campaigner, writer, filmmaker, board director and foundation ambassador.

It's an impressive CV for the most storied of careers, but in Bella's case, she's achieved it all before most people have even got going with their own careers. At only nineteen, Bella has carved out a name for herself as an inspirational and respected environmental campaigner.

Her first book, Children of the Anthropocene, tells stories from young people at the heart of the climate crisis, and received plaudits, including the former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, and the legendary environmentalist Jane Goodall, among many others. It's been described by the Green Party MP Caroline Lucas as an inspirational manifesto for change, and the naturist Steve Backshall as a remarkable and important book, adding that Bella can change the world.

Taban Shoresh is founder of the Lotus Flower, the non-profit empowering vulnerable women and girls affected by conflict and humanitarian crises, and an ambassador for the Global Youth Movement, One Young World. 

Taban’s remarkable story started in Kurdistan, where her family were amongst the many persecuted by Saddam Hussein’s regime in the Kurdish genocide. Her horrific ordeal saw Taban imprisoned at the age of just four and later, narrowly escaping a mass live burial.

Coming to the UK as a refugee in 1988, Taban built her life here, later moving into asset management. But in 2014, amidst the persecution of the Yazidis by Islamic State, she turned her attention to humanitarian aid and peace-building, supporting survivors of genocide, and women and girls displaced by conflict.

Cheryl Giovannoni is CEO of The Girls Day School Trust (GDST), a cohort of 25 independent schools that encourage girls to learn without limits. With alumni including Olivia Colman, Helena Bonham Carter, Afua Hirsch, Miriam Margolyes, and Mary Beard, among many others, the Trust schools look to develop character beyond curriculum and individual progression for each of its students.

The GDST was founded in 1872 by four pioneering women and Suffragettes, Mrs Maria Grey, her sister Miss Emily Shirreff, Lady Stanley of Alderley and Miss Mary Gurney. They believed that girls should be entitled to the same academic education as their brothers. Today, with 19,000 students and almost 4000 staff, the Trust has doubled down on its commitment to work with future generations of women who will change the world for the better, for us all.

Cheryl joins Michael on Change Makers to discuss the education landscape in the UK today, the power of learning to shape lives, and leadership lessons from her career in advertising as well as education ahead of her speech at the National Coalition of Girls Schools’ Global Forum in Boston, next week.