University of Birmingham

Joining Christopher Pietroni for our sixth episode of the ‘Leadership Exchanged’ podcast is Kirsty McNeill, Executive Director of Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns at Save the Children.

Kirsty is Labour’s parliamentary candidate in the Scottish target seat of Midlothian. She is also Chair of Our Scottish Future, the Civic Power Fund, Larger Us and the Aid Alliance, and non-executive director for the Centre for Countering Digital Hate.

Kirsty is well-known for being an innovative and effective local and national campaigner, with a particular focus on social and economic injustice. She has gained extensive experience in leadership during her career, but also throughout her education, including her time at the Rockwood Leadership Institute where she completed an intensive leadership programme on the Art of Leadership in 2018.

In this episode, Kirsty shares her personal experiences with democracy and equality, learnings from moving from single-issue advocacy into government, and her thoughts on what good leadership looks like. This shapes her views on collective leadership and her approach to her role at Save the Children today.

The Leadership Exchanged podcast asks if the world's biggest and most complex problems could be solved if the right leadership approach was applied? Do we need to exchange current approaches to leadership for something new? In each episode, Leadership expert Professor Christopher Pietroni discusses with guests what kind of leadership is needed if you want to make real, lasting change.

Find out more about the Leadership Exchanged podcast: birmingham.ac.uk/leadership-exchanged

Follow Kirsty on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/kirstyjmcneill

Follow Christopher on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/pietroni_c

Resources mentioned in the interview:

Save the Children – https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/

IPPR Report – Making change: What works? - https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/making-change-what-works

Report – Counter Culture: How to resist the culture wars and build 21st century solidarity, by Kirsty McNeill and Roger Harding – https://fabians.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/FABJ9000-Fabian-Ideas-pamphlet-210628-WEB.pdf

Steve Akehurst’s Substack - https://strongmessagehere.substack.com/

Doc Society - https://docsociety.org/

Joining Christopher Pietroni for our fifth episode of the ‘Leadership Exchanged’ podcast is Andy Street, the West Midlands Metro Mayor. 

 Before being elected as the Conservative Mayor of the West Midlands in 2017, Andy had an extremely successful career at John Lewis, starting as a graduate and ending at the top of the shop as Managing Director. Andy now applies his previous experience in leadership, training and learning from role models to his service to the three million citizens of the West Midlands.

 In this episode, Andy delves into his personal experiences and learnings, his value set including inclusivity, modesty and honesty and how this now shapes his role as a representative ‘leader for people’.

 The Leadership Exchanged podcast asks if the world's biggest and most complex problems could be solved if the right leadership approach was applied? Do we need to exchange current approaches to leadership for something new? In each episode, Leadership expert Professor Christopher Pietroni discusses with guests what kind of leadership is needed if you want to make real, lasting change. 

 Find out more about the Leadership Exchanged podcast: birmingham.ac.uk/leadership-exchanged

 Follow Andy on Twitter  

 Follow Christopher on Twitter

 Resources mentioned in the interview: 

 John Lewis 

 Birmingham Youth 

 West Midlands Leadership Commission 

 WMCA 

 Net Zero Strategy 

 COP26

Joining Christopher Pietroni for our fourth episode of the ‘Leadership Exchanged’ podcast is Mark Lomas, Head of Culture at Lloyd’s of London, the world’s leading insurance market. Mark continues to break the mould in terms of employee stereotypes and recruitment practices across a wide range of sectors.

In this episode, Mark delves into how he is leading change by implementing innovative programmes to help organisations deliver their set promises around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Some of these organisations include the NHS, BBC, HS2 and Arts Council England.

Mark discusses how he has applied his own personal experiences with industry stereotypes and the importance of confronting history to help to form more diverse and inclusive working environments.

The Leadership Exchanged podcast asks if the world's biggest and most complex problems could be solved if the right leadership approach was applied? Do we need to exchange current approaches to leadership for something new? In each episode Leadership expert Professor Christopher Pietroni discusses with guests what kind of leadership is needed if you want to make real, lasting change.

Find out more about the Leadership Exchanged podcast: birmingham.ac.uk/leadership-exchanged

Follow Christopher on Twitter.

Resources mentioned in the interview:

Lloyd’s of London

Lloyd’s of London Culture Strategy

HS2

NHS

BBC

Arts Council England 

Jürgen Klopp

Joining Christopher Pietroni for the third episode of ‘Leadership Exchanged’ is Nöella Coursaris Musunka, an award-winning philanthropist and international model. Nöella is the founder and CEO of Malaika Foundation, based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which began as a school and has now grown into a community-driven ecosystem working to transform the lives of young girls and their families.

In this episode, Nöella discusses how she uses her leadership in philanthropy to empower young girls into becoming the next leaders of Africa, and the challenges she has faced both in her own life and whilst setting up a charity. As well as discussing her experience in the third sector, Nöella also delves into the contrasts between her modelling career and her philanthropy career.

The Leadership Exchanged podcast asks if the world's biggest and most complex problems could be solved if the right leadership approach was applied? Do we need to exchange current approaches to leadership for something new?

Find out more about Leadership Exchanged: The Podcast: birmingham.ac.uk/leadership-exchanged

Follow Nöella on Instagram here:

https://www.instagram.com/noellacoursaris/

Follow Malaika on Instagram here:

https://www.instagram.com/malaikadrc/

Follow Christopher on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/pietroni_c

Resources mentioned in the interview:

Malaika - https://malaika.org/

Vogue – https://www.vogue.co.uk/

Vanity Fair - https://www.vanityfair.com/

In this episode, I am joined by Carolyn Wilkins, a Professor at Birmingham Leadership Institute and a well-experienced public sector leader. Carolyn holds a wealth of experience across the local government, health and care and the wider public sector landscape. Carolyn has led as the Chief Executive Officer in numerous organisations, such as the Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council and Rossendale Borough Council.

In this episode, we talk about the responsibility of speaking up, leading with kindness and humanity, discuss the concept of ‘leaders of the future’, and examine what people expect a leader to look and act like.

If leadership is something that interests you, check out the University of Birmingham’s website here.

Follow Carolyn on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/ProfCWilkinsOBE

Follow Christopher on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/pietroni_c

Listen to more ‘Leadership Exchanged’ episodes here:

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/university/colleges/socsci/bli/leadership-exchanged-podcast/leadership-exchanged.aspx

Resources mentioned in the interview:

The Greater Manchester Strategy: https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/media/1084/greater_manchester_summary___full_version.pdf

NHS Test and Trace: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/nhs-test-and-trace-how-it-works

Joining Christopher Pietroni for our first-ever episode of the ‘Leadership Exchanged’ podcast is Paul Richardson, a successful entrepreneur across sectors as varied as waste management, fashion, e-commerce and cyber security. Paul discusses his journey as a serial entrepreneur at just 18 years old in his father’s skip-hire to strategically directing Gymshark to become the billion-dollar global sportswear brand it is today.

In this episode, Paul and Christopher discuss taking a helicopter view on leadership to stay ahead of competitors and how empathy, communication and consistently developing on your learnings are key to a modern-day leadership approach.

The Leadership Exchanged podcast asks if the world's biggest and most complex problems could be solved if the right leadership approach was applied? Do we need to exchange current approaches to leadership for something new? In each episode Leadership expert Professor Christopher Pietroni discusses with guests what kind of leadership is needed if you want to make real, lasting change. 

Find out more about the Leadership Exchanged podcast.

Follow Paul on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/paul5richardson

Follow Christopher on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/pietroni_c

Resources mentioned in the interview:

Gymshark - https://uk.gymshark.com/

HERA - https://heraclothing.com/

Haru - https://www.haru.co.uk/

Birmingham City Football - https://www.bcfc.com/

EnerGym - https://energym.io/ 

Could the world's biggest and most complex problems be solved if the right leadership approach was applied? Do we need to exchange current approaches to leadership for something new? Join Birmingham Leadership Institute for their new podcast, Leadership Exchanged, where Professor Christopher Pietroni will speak to guests across different sectors to find out what leadership means to them, and how they make meaningful change.

What will easing the Covid-19 lockdown will look like and what are the challenges we face?

Listen to the first of the The Institute of Global Innovation series Living with the Pandemic where our experts will be sharing their research.

The panel are:

• Prof John Bryson: Social distancing and why people are the problem.
• Prof Heather Widdows: The ethical and privacy implications of the Covid Symptom Tracker app.
• Prof Willem van Schaik: The lessons we can learn from those countries ahead of the UK.

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/global-goals/igi/living-with-the-pandemic.aspx

Join us for an exciting panel debate looking at the challenges we face in trusting social media.

The debate, filmed on Thursday, 21 May, is hosted by journalist and presenter Ritula Shah, joined by:

Anne McElvoy, Senior Editor of The Economist

Will Moy, Chief Executive of Full Fact

Isabel Oakeshott, political journalist and commentator

Alice Roberts, Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham.

Join the conversation #UoBreatDebate

To keep up to date with the latest University of Birmingham Distinguished events visit http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/distinguishedlectures

Join us for a tour of the galaxy to discover how research here at the University of Birmingham relates to the Star Wars universe and discover why the Force is strong with our academics . . .  Professor Scott Lucas, Department of Political Science and International Studies, and Dr Richard Langley, Department of Film and Creative Writing discuss if the latest Star Wars movies carry a political message. 

www.birmingham.ac.uk /the-rise-of-research