Talking with Tech Leaders

For this episode of Talking with Tech Leaders, we’re talking Architecture. And there are few more qualified to talk about the subject than Jem Anderton. As the Chief Architect at the Student Loans Company, he’s a member of the Technology Group leadership team, heads up a team of 25 architects and plays a key role in modernising an organisation with more than 8m customers.

Together with host Michael Phair, Jem chats through the journey to his current role – charting a 20-plus-year career across both the public and private sector, including the likes of ACCA, Heineken and Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council. He also discusses the discipline of architecture and talks about the challenges and rewards of building and leading teams. And, as ever, we get to know the personality behind the tech leader, with a quickfire round of personal questions too.

Jem is just the kind of tech leader we love speaking to – experienced, engaging and ready to share his insights. It’s a great listen: enjoy!

In our latest episode of Talking with Tech Leaders, our host Michael Phair chats with long-time colleague, client and friend, Jonathan McNamee – a seasoned pro and leading voice in digital strategy, continuous improvement and automation. They discuss the ins and outs of Jonathan’s career, tracing his path from Dublin City Universe to the likes of Salesforce, the Student Loans Company and the Test Factory.

They cover Jonathan’s work setting up a Student Loans Company outpost in Darlington – a contingency during the Scottish independence referendum campaign – as well as his foray into founding a gifting app. Along the way, they talk about leadership in the digital age: what it takes to manage teams, how to handle conflicts, motivating different personalities and much more.

And, as ever, Michael finishes off with a few searching questions to get to the person behind the leader. Packed with insight and opinion, it’s a great listen: enjoy!

If you asked an expert on Scottish tech for a list of the biggest success stories of the past few years, you can bet that Skyscanner (a true Scottish unicorn) and Current Health (sold to US retail giant Best Buy for $400m) would top it. Richard Lennox played a big part in both – working his way up to Senior Director at the former, before joining the latter as Chief Operating Officer.

We were lucky enough to talk to him about the lessons learned, the insights gleaned and his view on the Scottish tech ecosystem. And, as you might expect, he knows his stuff – so strap in for a bumper episode!

He takes us through his own journey in tech, from his formative years in education through to his most recent role. And, as his time with Current Health came to an end since we recorded this episode, he was kind enough to come back and discuss his plans for the future. Sounds like the first few lines of yet another Scottish tech story to us...

Our latest episode is all about the power of tech to do good for our communities, as we meet Kirsty McIntosh of the Scottish Tech Army. The charity was founded during the pandemic to bring tech-savvy volunteers together with third-sector organisations in need of support – on everything from managing websites to bolstering cyber security. With over 2,500 volunteers supporting 300 organisations (so far!), it’s vital work.

Together with host Michael Phair, Kirsty discusses the Tech Army’s activities, growth and impact – as well as her role as Head of Partnerships. As ever, we also get to know the person behind the role, charting Kirsty’s journey through the tech sector and into her current position as a tech leader. And, finally, Michael puts Kirsty on the spot with a few personal questions around her motivations and recommendations.

All in all, it’s a great episode – we hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did producing it!

In this episode of Talking with Tech Leaders, Alan Mayberry chats host Michael Phair through his journey from the early days of his career in his hometown of Dunoon to the top tier of software engineering with Planet DDS today. It’s quite the journey, not only stopping off at the places you might expect, with roles at the likes of Brightree, Amec and Global, but also taking a few detours that might surprise, with a stint on a fishing boat and a role working on a cruise ship.

It's all a far cry from the challenges he’s faced in senior roles like Director of Engineering at Planet DDS. We hear all about scaling a SaaS business – how to strike the between meeting demand and chasing growth, between building a team quickly and maintaining a vibrant, positive culture.

And, as we always do, we’re keen to meet the human behind the leader – getting to know the real Allan with a few personal questions about his motivations, hobbies and dream dinner party guests.

In many ways, Hamish Grierson is the archetypal tech entrepreneur: sharp, single-minded and innovative. But, as this episode of Talking with Tech Leaders shows, that’s really just a tiny part of his story.

For starters, we chat through a career that is varied, to say the least – from studying international politics and paying his way through university with landscape gardening, to pursuing roles in advertising and starting a skiing business. As we said: varied.

A stint with the New Entrepreneurs Foundation put him firmly on today’s path. He talks about the lessons he learned and support he received, before co-founding Thriva Healthcare with two others in 2016.

Hamish chats us through the Thriva story since then: the rounds of investment, supporting the health service through the pandemic and their plans for the years ahead. He also offers some wise words around founding businesses and entrepreneurship, overcoming imposter syndrome and achieving the right balance between professional passions and home life.

It’s insightful, fascinating and well worth an hour of your time. Enjoy!

For most of the tech leaders we’ve interviewed on this show, one career is enough. But Brian Reid, Director of Corporate Transformation & Workplace at the Scottish Government, seems to be onto his fourth or fifth career now.

In this episode of Talking with Tech Leaders, he tells us all about the story of his first career – with the 30+ years he spent with Standard Life, working his way up from entry level to executive level. He also discusses some of what he calls his shadow careers. First, as a Taekwondo instructor, guiding others on the tenets and principles still clearly important to him today. Then, as a wedding photographer, having grown from the “amateur who annoys the professional”, to doing a favour for a friend, to doing around 80 weddings.

And he also shares more about his role today, having swapped financial services and travel & tourism for the public sector. With host Michael Phair, he chats through how different (and not so different) it can be, as well as describing some of the transformation he’s driving there.

Along the way, we hear all about the discipline of project and change management – how methodologies could never be a one-size-fits-all solution, the role of technology and the qualities you need to succeed – and get to hear more about what makes Brian tick.

It’s must-listen stuff. Enjoy!

When we’re not Talking with Tech Leaders, we’re at our day jobs at Be-IT – Scotland’s largest independent Technology Recruiters. And, if you’ve heard anything about Be-IT, you’ve probably heard that we’ve recently celebrated our 10th birthday.

So, to mark the milestone, we’ve had a chat with our very own Tech Leader: our CEO, Nikola Kelly.

Having spent more than 20 years in the world of recruitment, she not only sits on the board of Career Ready and the Scotland IS Diversity & Inclusion group, but she has been recognised as the Young Star by Scottish Women in Business and nominated for both the APSCo Business Leader of the year and Businesswoman of the Year at the Scottish Women’s Awards.

We chat through her career journey and, along the way, chart the growth of Be-IT through Nik’s eyes – from the early days of the setting up a Glasgow office all the way through the pandemic and, in the last few months, our MBO.

We may be biased, but it’s a fascinating chat with an inspirational lady. Enjoy!

As you might expect, we are huge fans of CodeClan. After all, they’re in the business of bringing talent into Scotland’s tech sector, and that’s something that drives us every day in our recruitment day jobs. So it’s a real privilege to have CEO, Loral Quinn, as our guest for episode 29 of Talking with Tech Leaders.

We take a tour of Loral’s career, chatting through her brief roles in advertising and music management in London and, following her return to Edinburgh, her time with Aberdeen Asset Management. She tells us about her experiences of co-founding Sustainably, a charitable giving app which won multiple industry awards, including Richard Branson’s startup of the year 2019. And she shares some of her plans for the future of CodeClan.

Much like Karen Meechan in our last episode, Loral is someone passionate about closing the tech skills gap in Scotland. She tells us about some of the great work CodeClan are doing to do just that, with some fantastic stories of careers remade in the tech sector. Get listening and get inspired...

Let’s face it, a show about the Tech Sector in Scotland probably should’ve had Karen Meechan on a whole lot sooner. As the CEO of ScotlandIS, she has an insight and understanding of our world that few others do. She knows the country’s challenges, problems and priorities when it comes to IT & Digital jobs – which this episode well worth your time, all by itself.

But, it just so happens that Karen’s own story is pretty inspirational too. Having left school to jump straight into the workplace via a YTS (the modern apprenticeship of its day), she has truly worked her way up in tech – including spending almost two decades with ScotlandIS, taking on the mantle of CEO in 2021. 

As she says, it’s the kind of role she never dreamed about as a child. But it’s a role we think she was born for: you simply won’t find anyone more passionate about the tech sector in Scotland. (Especially when it comes to opening doors to fantastic career paths for bright young minds.)

We’re delighted she could join us – it’s a fantastic and fascinating chat.