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ANNOUNCEMENT: Join our live Impact Equation podcast with Ark, exploring their journey, impact on education and social innovation and the vision behind the exciting EdCity project in West London. Thurs Nov 13th 2025, sign up here: https://tinyurl.com/tieark

This episode features Dame Ann Limb, a powerhouse in education, philanthropy, and regional growth. From becoming the UK's youngest college principal at 34 to chairing prestigious organizations like the Lloyd's Bank Foundation and City & Guilds, Dame Ann shares insights on purpose-led living, leadership, and inclusion. Discover what drives her extraordinary capacity for service and her vision for the future of philanthropy and technology.

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Phill Burton is Co-CEO of Otto Car, a company quietly reshaping how London moves. Otto is now Europe’s largest provider of electric vehicles to private-hire drivers, helping over 20,000 drivers get on the road and accelerating the city’s transition to clean transport. Before Otto, Phil helped scale one of the UK’s great consumer success stories - Bloom & Wild - from £2m to £100m+ in revenue, leading across eight countries and every major function from Operations to Marketing. Today, he’s combining that experience with purpose, investing in ventures like Lune, Maeving, Climate X, and Shellworks, mentoring founders through Seedcamp, Tech Nation, and Carbon13, and proving that climate innovation and commercial success can go hand in hand. In this conversation, we dive into: What it takes to scale responsibly; How to build ventures that make systems better; Why purpose and profit don’t need to be opposites.

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Alex Stephany is rethinking welfare for the 21st century. As Founder & CEO of Beam, Alex has built a platform that partners with 100+ government bodies to help thousands of people experiencing homelessness and long-term unemployment into stable homes and jobs. Combining expert caseworkers with smart AI software, Beam’s Magic Notes, is cutting admin for frontline staff and freeing them to do what they do best: supporting people. It’s why Beam has been named one of LinkedIn’s Top 15 UK Startups, with backing from the Mayor of London and some of the UK’s leading tech entrepreneurs. Now, Alex is scaling Magic Notes across the UK and US. Before Beam, Alex scaled JustPark as CEO, raising investment from Index Ventures and closing what was then the UK’s largest equity crowdfunding round. He’s also the author of The Business of Sharing and a mentor to the next wave of social entrepreneurs. His insights have been featured on the BBC, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and NPR, shaping the conversation on tech, homelessness, and social impact. This episode is about leadership, talent, and how to build companies that matter.

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We're joined by Michelle Brown, a former teacher who has built one of the most impactful literacy platforms in the world. Michelle is the Founder & CEO of CommonLit, a free online reading program now reaching 30 million+ students across the U.S. and Latin America. Her journey began in the classroom, where she saw first-hand the barriers to literacy. What started as a small library of curated reading material has since grown into a global movement for open education.

Since founding CommonLit in 2014, Michelle has raised over $40 million from leading philanthropists and education innovators, been named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Mid-Atlantic, and become a mentor to the next generation of edtech founders

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We’re joined by Sunny Patel, biomedical engineer, co-founder of VectorCam, and one of the driving forces behind a breakthrough that’s turning heads across global health and even on Bill Gates’s personal blog. Developed at Johns Hopkins, VectorCam is an AI-powered mosquito identification tool that works straight from a smartphone. It can tell you a mosquito’s species, sex, and even where it is in its reproductive cycle - vital intel for tackling diseases like malaria, dengue, and Zika. Before VectorCam, this kind of surveillance needed a microscope and years of training. Now, thanks to Sunny and his team, tens of thousands of community health workers can do it in real time, helping health systems act faster and smarter. This conversation is the next in our series with our friends at Fast Forward.

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This episode we’re joined by Sayyeda Salam, a remarkable leader whose career has spanned humanitarian aid, international development, and philanthropy.

In September 2024, Sayyeda became Executive Director of Concern Worldwide (UK), bringing her wealth of experience to the fight against extreme poverty. Previously, as Director of Partnerships and Philanthropy at Save the Children, she secured £300m+ for children’s rights, building transformative collaborations with philanthropists, foundations, and the private sector. Her journey has taken her from Jordan and Lebanon to Egypt, Tanzania, and the Gulf; always with a focus on empowering local operations and partners across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Beyond her executive leadership, she also serves as a Trustee of the Refugee Council, underscoring her lifelong commitment to supporting marginalised communities. This episode is a powerful conversation about leadership, global development, and what it really takes to create systemic change for the world’s most vulnerable.

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Nick Temple OBE is at the forefront of the UK’s social economy as CEO of the Social Investment Business. Nick leads an organisation backing charities and social enterprises with the capital and support they need to grow and thrive. His contributions were recognised last year when he was awarded an OBE for services to social enterprise. In this conversation, Nick shares his journey, his philosophy on what makes social investment work, and his vision for the future of the sector. 

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In this episode we’re joined by Paul Ronalds - lawyer, founder, policymaker, NGO leader, and now CEO of Save the Children Global Ventures. Paul’s career has been anything but conventional: Advising on M&A at a top-tier law firm, Co-founding one of Australia’s first e-commerce start-ups, Serving two Australian Prime Ministers at the highest level of government, Leading Save the Children Australia for nearly a decade. Now, at Save the Children Global Ventures, he’s on a mission to rewire how the world funds and scales solutions for children. From edtech and e-health to impact investing and innovative finance, Paul is bringing entrepreneurial energy to one of the world’s oldest NGOs. This is a conversation about how to build systems that last, and what it takes to marry innovation with impact at global scale.

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Mikela Druckman is the visionary Co-Founder and CEO of Greyparrot - a groundbreaking company transforming waste management through cutting-edge AI and waste analytics. Under Mikela’s leadership, Greyparrot has earned global accolades, making the World Economic Forum’s “Tech Pioneer” list, the Global Cleantech 100, and Fast Company's "Most Innovative Companies" of 2025 all while accelerating progress toward a more sustainable and circular future. Mikela has roots in both business and technology. She was a founding leader at Blippar where she shaped the landscape of computer vision and augmented reality. Named among the UK’s top women digital leaders Mikela has consistently championed diversity, mentorship, and the possibilities of ethical tech. Fluent in multiple languages and a dedicated mentor to emerging startups, Mikela proves that entrepreneurship can be a force for environmental good. Join us as we explore her journey; from building bridges between technology and sustainability to inspiring the next generation of changemakers.

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Matt Hyde OBE started out as a young Scout and went on to lead the student movement as Chief Executive of NUS. He then returned to his roots by taking the helm of The Scout Association. Under his stewardship, Scouting grew to record numbers, reached into new communities through the pioneering Squirrel Scouts programme, and placed inclusion and civic duty at the heart of youth engagement. From co-founding The Big Help Out, which mobilised millions into volunteering, to now leading the Lloyds Bank Foundation in support of small and local charities, Matt’s career is a masterclass in creating and growing people-powered movements. He also serves as a trustee at Comic Relief and a patron of UNLOCK, helping people with convictions move forward with dignity and hope.

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In this episode we’re wrapping up our Scaling Social Unicorns series with a special episode alongside the brilliant team at 100x Impact Accelerator - Fan, Chief Investment Officer, Amelia who leads 100x’s partnerships and Shanzeh who heads up strategy. 100X exists to back ventures that can change the world, and to learn and share what it really takes to scale. From Uganda to India to Pakistan, we’ve heard from founders reshaping health, education, finance, and justice.

We met Labhya’s cofounder Richa, scaling social-emotional learning across Indian public schools; Batya from Chancen International, pioneering income-linked education finance for underserved students in Africa; Taleemabad’s Haroon, making quality education accessible to millions in Pakistan through EdTech; Intelehealth co-founder Neha, delivering AI-powered healthcare where doctors are scarce; and Nick from One Day Health, launching ultra-low-cost rural clinics in Uganda and beyond. In this episode, we reflect on the breakthroughs, trade-offs, and bold bets it takes to reach millions. 

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In this episode we are joined by four of the most insightful voices shaping the future of nature: Tony Juniper CBE – Chair of Natural England, veteran campaigner, and author of Just Earth, shares his views on nature recovery and economic reform. Eva Zabey – CEO of Business for Nature, outlines how leading companies are embedding nature into their strategies, and why policy ambition is essential. Merlin Hanbury-Tenison – Founder of The Thousand Year Trust and author of Our Oaken Bones, speaks from the frontlines of Britain’s rainforest restoration efforts. Jessica Smith – Head of Nature at UNEP FI, explains why finance is the hidden lever and how Earth observation, insurance, and regulation can shift global capital. #TheImpactEquation #NatureRecovery #Biodiversity #BusinessForNature #ClimateAction #Sustainability #Leadership #PodcastDrop

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We're joined by Sam Freedman - writer, policy advisor, education reformer, and the writer of the UK’s most popular politics Substack. Sam’s career spans the frontline and the engine room of public policy. From lobbying on education reform to advising Michael Gove at the Department for Education, to senior roles at Teach First and Ark, he’s always been focused on making systems work better, especially for those with the least power. Now, as a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government and co-author of the brilliant Comment is Freed newsletter with his father Lawrence Freedman, Sam brings clarity, honesty, and pragmatism to a political climate that too often lacks all three. This is a conversation about influence, impact, and what it takes to drive change that actually sticks. Sam doesn’t pull punches. 

#ImpactEquation #Leadership #PublicPolicy #Education #Podcast #SystemChange #SamFreedman #Politics #CommentIsFreed

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