Vanguard Podcast

Our guest today is Mikhil Raja. CEO & Co-founder of SonicJobs (www.sonicjobs.com), an award-winning job platform revolutionising the way candidates search and apply for jobs. One of the fastest growing business apps in the UK, receiving a job application through this app every 9 seconds. His mission as a CEO is to help millions of people find a job and enhance their lives.

Mikhil shares his life mantra "The inevitability of death is the framework I use to live my life".

Walking us through his incredible journey from moving all the way from Mumbai, India to glorious Somerset, and going to the exclusive Millfield School, graduating from the University of Edinburgh. Moving forward from an investment banker to co-founding SonicJobs is certainly an interesting story of serious work ethic, belief, and vision. Mikhil's consistent comment about living life as I want to lead is certainly inspiring. Another motivating story, an insightful lesson for all of us proves that all the best professionals in this life perceive failures as "steppingstones" instead of obstacles. And this is the only way to personal development and success.

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Matt Solomon has worked in sales & business development for 16+ years. He had the unique experience of working with a start-up company (ID Agent) and helped it grow from 0 to 2,000 partners in a two-year period through acquisition, then later to 4,000+ partners, making it one of the fastest-growing companies in decades within the channel.

Matt has spoken at more than 150 industry events in six countries and received 40 awards in recognition. Post-acquisition, he took on the role of Channel Chief at Kaseya. After 2.5 years, Matt started a consulting company, Channel Halo, working with vendors and MSPs on their go-to-market strategies.

After having many of the same conversations, Matt and his former CEO Kevin Lancaster decided to team up again and launch Channel Program. Channel Program is a platform designed to bring together the most innovative technologies in front of Channel Partners (MSPs, MSSPs, VARs, IT Services Providers) and give them a voice in how companies present, enter, and succeed in the channel.

My guest on the podcast today is Deborah Leary who is CEO and Founder of Forensic Pathways and the company's new brand “Clarifyi”, which is aimed at bringing together the Company’s threat intelligence consultancy and technology offerings.

Deborah takes us through her journey in the launch of Forensic Pathways and explains how she was inspired and motivated to create these two innovative companies. In this episode we also discuss adaptability and resilience, and how important it is to maintain them throughout your career.

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My guest today is Sean Lee who is an active member of the World Economic Forums Global Innovators community and the CEO of Algorand Foundation having previously held leadership roles within Dell Technologies, Pivotal and EMC, working with clients and partners across 20+ countries.

In this episode we talk about cryptocurrency and the transformational role it has into business industry along with an in-depth conversation about how cryptocurrencies could possibly change everyday life in the future.

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In this episode, our guest is Luke Swann - a professional cricket coach currently working for Northamptonshire CCC and Cricket East. Luke explains how cricket led him through his career as a coach, what sort of skills can someone get from being a coach and how these skills are transferable to the business world.

The main topic though is how important is failure in order to succeed and how realising this simple task, can turn around your attitude and career and set you up on the road to success.

Episode #6 is being produced in honour of World Keratoconus Day, celebrated around the world on November 10th. This episode is jam-packed with crucial insight from company Avellino - a leader in precision medicine, is making a global impact in genetics and bringing innovative diagnostics, therapies, and AI-driven data processing to patient care. A special thank you goes out to our 2 guests this week: 

Joe Boyd: Mr. Boyd is the Global Head of Sales and Marketing for Avellino, a global leader in gene therapy and molecular diagnostics at the forefront of precision medicine for eye care. He has more than 20 years of experience in life sciences and medical devices and is a sought-after speaker in the science and medical industry. 

Brandon Ayres, MD: Brandon Ayres, MD is a board certified ophthalmologist at Wills Eye Hospital who specializes in all forms of corneal transplantation and all types of refractive and cataract surgery, including LASIK. Dr. Ayres also treats infectious diseases of the eye and ocular surface disease (dry eye).  He has an interest in the diagnosis and treatment of keratoconus and has been involved in several FDA trials investigating new treatments for the condition.

Avellino has launched its first genetic test, AvaGen™.  AvaGen™ is an eye test that confidently empowers eyecare professionals to protect and preserve vision by providing personalized genetic data that accurately quantifies the risk or presence of sight-threatening conditions.

For episode 5, we're joined by well-respected industry veteran, Ken Bagnall - CEO of Silent Push Inc. a US based, detection focused Threat Intelligence Platform that reveals adversary assets and infrastructure and integrates with your network defences, whether on-prem or in the cloud. Ken was also VP of FireEye product management for the prior couple of years after FireEye acquired his Email Security business The Email Laundry. Ken plays a lot of sport but never seriously.

The key factors of Ken's story are vision, determination and levelling up, wrapped in a focus on the ever-evolving cyber threat landscape. People within all industries will find the business tips and advice extremely useful and insightful. Tune in today! 

In this episode, our guest is Diana Paredes - CEO and Co-Founder of Suade, a software platform that enables financial institutions to understand and deliver their regulatory requirements. Diana's approach to making a happy workplace is inspirational and infectious. Her drive to create future leaders, lobby governments for supported parental leave and helping the banking and regulated sector to streamline processes after her experiences in that industry is a wonderful story of vision and determination.

Prior to founding Suade, Diana had a successful career in investment banking, covering all asset classes at Barclays and Merrill Lynch, across sales, trading & structuring. Whilst working in the industry, she saw an opportunity to innovate and launch her current Fintech/Regtech start-up. She believes that a data-driven approach to regulation is the key to preventing the next financial crisis. 

Our next guest is a entrepreneur Paul Tomlinson, who recently found himself making an major pivot in his career from the IT industry to the fitness industry. During this episode, Paul exemplifies the importance of having a strong work ethic and taking risks, whilst reminding us to maintain a healthy work/life balance. Tune in to hear all about Paul's journey!  

Paul began his career in IT nearly 30 years ago and has been responsible for running successful companies. A large proportion of that time was spent focussing on Mirus - an IT services business, providing support to the SMEs. Paul exited Mirus in 2019 following an acquisition by a PE backed player– at this time it had more than 100 employees and was on course to achieve a turnover of £15m per annum. 

Our first guest of the series is Luis Giraldo, who made a life-changing pivot from Music to Tech! Luis started his career as a professional musician, playing at international shows for Pop Star Shakira; more recently, Luis’s stage-time consists of delivering speaking as an executive and industry leader to thousands of IT Providers across the globe. Luis is well-known in the technology and MSP space, having worked for IT Glue and N-Able. He now runs his own successful MSP and has recently been appointed as Chief Experience Officer of ScalePad - an application that automates asset lifecycle management for hardware, software, and warranty services for MSPs.