About Michael Watkins
Michael Watkins is an internationally recognised leader in pensions, savings, and retirement technology, with more than two decades of experience spanning operations, product, governance, and technology. He has built, launched, scaled, and sold award-winning platforms across four continents, and is regarded as one of the foremost innovators reshaping the future of workplace wealth and benefits.
About Aurem
Aurem is the intelligent operating system for retirement and wealth providers. They deliver a full service technology platform that brings together providers products, data and processes into a single AI-native platform.
About Matthew Taylor
Matthew Taylor is a seasoned business leader and transformation specialist with more than two decades of experience in high-risk industries. He is known for guiding organizations through complex challenges, enhancing safety, building stronger systems, and unlocking sustainable growth.
As founder of Meta Transform, Matthew created the MetaSense 7D tool—a pioneering framework that enables organizations to transform across seven critical dimensions: leadership, culture, systems, safety, sustainability, innovation, and growth. By integrating culture and consciousness with operational excellence, the tool reveals untapped potential and drives measurable results.
In his current role as Interim COO in the heavy lifting and transport sector, Matthew continues to apply this expertise to business transformation. Beyond the boardroom, he’s a devoted father of five—including two sets of twins—who brings the same passion for resilience and growth to family life. His mission is to empower C-suite leaders to align values with action, strengthen operational maturity, and achieve long-term performance and profitability.
About Matt OngMatt is the CEO and Founder of Ctrl Alt. Matt spent the first part of his career in investment banking, working across fund structuring, alternative investments and trading at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. Drawing on this experience, Matt has developed extensive knowledge of building financial products, structuring, regulation and asset raising.About Ctrl AltCtrl Alt is a leading tokenization infrastructure platform, combining blockchain technology with expert financial engineering to deliver tailored, compliant solutions in the alternative assets space. As of August 1, 2025, Ctrl Alt has tokenized over $325 million in assets, spanning real estate, private credit, funds, litigation finance and more.For further information, visit www.ctrl-alt.co or contact info@ctrl-alt.co.
About IanIan Mitchell began his entrepreneurial journey in a modest double garage in East London, with little capital and while still recovering from a serious car accident. Despite the challenging start, he built a business that grew to employ over 1,000 people and earned multiple awards for growth and service excellence. Throughout this journey, Ian discovered the critical importance of building high-performing learning cultures—ones that are aligned, capable, and effective. After selling Direct Response, he turned his focus to his true passion: reimagining how organizations understand and improve performance using next-generation auditing techniques. This led to the co-founding of DeepFathom, a technology company at the forefront of audit innovation.About Deep FathomWith more than 25 years of experience in systems thinking, auditing, service innovation, and business process outsourcing, Ian has worked with global brands to design quality, risk, and compliance systems that go far beyond box-ticking. At DeepFathom, Ian leads the development of digital tools that blend behavioral science with data analytics, transforming audit from a backward-looking compliance exercise into a proactive driver of performance. He continues to explore the evolving role of quality in the age of AI, ESG, and agile organizations. In this podcast, Ian will challenge conventional audit thinking and share a bold vision for how quality professionals and business leaders alike can unlock greater value in fast-changing, complex environments.
🎙️ Matt Williamson founded Vizzly (acquired by WPP) to help B2B SaaS companies build customer-facing analytics dashboards quickly, without compromising on flexibility. Traditional embedded analytics solutions were rigid and slow, forcing companies to choose between speed-to-market through no-code tools or spending months building custom solutions. Vizzly bridged this gap with a hybrid approach that enabled rapid deployment while maintaining developer control.
🚀 Vizzly demonstrated that founders can achieve significant exit outcomes without chasing headline fundraising numbers. The company maintained strong revenue per employee ratios with a minimal team, proving that raising modest seed funding and focusing on profitability can create attractive acquisition opportunities. This approach offers a middle path between bootstrapping and traditional venture scaling, enabling life-changing exits without the extended timelines and dilution of aggressive growth strategies.
🤖 WPP acquired Vizzly in October 2024 to integrate analytics technology into their comprehensive service offering for enterprise clients like DoorDash, HSBC, and Airbnb. As the world's largest advertising company, WPP's acquisition strategy focuses on building complete solutions that address every client need through in-house capabilities or strategic acquisitions. This enables them to deliver integrated marketing effectiveness and attribution platforms that individual agencies cannot match.
About Lewis Chawko
Lewis Chawko is the founder of RevOps Consulting, with a unique journey from sales to revenue operations expertise. Starting as an SDR and progressing to AE, Lewis discovered his passion for operational problem-solving and self-taught essential RevOps tools in his free time. He transitioned from sales into a full-time RevOps role before launching his consultancy, where he now helps tech startups and scaleups optimise their revenue operations and scale their go-to-market teams.
About RevOps Consulting
RevOps Consulting specialises in revenue operations for sales and GTM teams at tech startups and scaleups. They focus on scaling go-to-market teams, optimising RevOps tech stacks, and helping businesses transition from inbound to outbound motions. Through fractional RevOps services, the consultancy helps growing companies streamline their revenue operations, align their systems, and build scalable processes that support sustainable growth.
About Phil Mowat
With over 15 years in franchising, Phil joined Ashtons Franchise Consulting in 2019. As the first point of contact for new clients, Phil assesses their needs and creates tailored franchise development plans, then delivers franchise development work to help business owners turn their companies into successful franchise brands. Phil’s franchising career began in 2009, when he helped transform his sister’s makeup artist booking agency into a franchised business, moving operations from paper-based systems to digital processes and growing the network through recruiting and training franchisees. Before joining Ashtons, Phil worked with other franchise brands, gaining hands-on experience in building systems, supporting franchisees, and developing franchise networks. Phil brings deep insight into business growth, strategy, and franchise success
About Ashtons Franchise Consulting
#TheFranchiseDevelopmentSpecialists
Since 1981, Ashtons Franchise Consulting has helped businesses grow through franchising, supporting brands from startups to global expansions. The experienced UK-wide team includes former franchisors and franchisees, offering practical, real-world insight at every stage of the franchise journey. Ashtons tailors its services to each client’s goals, budget, and pace-avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach. In recent years, three clients have been finalists for the British Franchise Association Emerging Franchisor Award, with Get A Drip (2023) and My Window Cleaner (2020) winning, and Radfield Homecare (2019) recognized as a finalist.
🌍 Kostas Dimitros, a Greek senior professional in the construction industry with over 22 years of experience in the Middle East, shares his journey from Athens to Dubai. Kostas has worked with renowned companies such as Parsons, Bechtel, and Kerzner, delivering mega projects, developing comprehensive growth strategies and cultivating strong client relationships. Some of the large-scale projects include the ALBA Aluminum Smelter Expansion in Bahrain, the MINA Oil Tank Farm in Salalah, Oman and hospitality projects like the Atlantis Hotel and Theme Park on the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai and the Ferrari Theme Park on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. Currently, he leads the Strategic Programs and Aviation Programs growth initiatives for Parsons in the EMEA region.
🏗️ The Middle East, particularly the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, has undergone significant transformation through mega projects in the last 30 years. Dubai and Abu Dhabi began by diversifying their economies beyond hydrocarbons, focusing on tourism and infrastructure development. This involved creating a tourist ecosystem with large hotels, residences, and the necessary infrastructure like power plants and water supply systems. Qatar followed suit with its preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, while Saudi Arabia has embarked on groundbreaking giga projects such as NEOM and The Red Sea Project as part of its Vision 2030 initiative, as well as preparing for the 2034 World Cup.
👥 Stakeholder engagement and building trust is crucial in delivering these mega projects. Kostas emphasizes the importance of understanding the needs of various stakeholders, including those who run the cities before, during, and after project implementation. This involves stakeholder mapping, listening to their concerns, and having constructive discussions about their expectations and receptiveness to changes in their environment. Effective stakeholder management throughout the supply chain is essential for the successful delivery of these ambitious projects.
About Paul Stefiszyn
Paul Stefiszyn is a partner in ESP Consulting and an expert in electricity markets, energy trading, and risk management, with 25 years’ experience in industry and consulting in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and North America. Paul’s recent work has focused on supporting governments and system operators with market redesign to advance the decarbonisation of electricity systems. He also regularly advises both small and large energy companies on commercial strategy, risk control, performance measurement, and governance.
Prior to joining ESP Consulting in 2010, Paul held a number of senior risk management positions with Nuon Energy (now Vattenfall), a vertically-integrated European energy utility. Before joining Nuon in 2005 he was a Vice President at MSCI, where he led the European operations of FEA, MSCI’s commodity analytics business, providing specialist software models for valuation and risk management in the energy industry.
About Etienne Gillard Solutions-focused entrepreneur and investor with over 25 years of experience in the financial services, professional development, and training sectors. Etienne is a well-experienced investor, technology entrepreneur (Founder 3x), and senior business leader (CEO 2x) with extensive experience in Early Stage VC, Platform Business Models, and Application Software. He holds a degree in Political Science with a minor in Law from UCL in Belgium, has completed the Management Development Program (PDD) at IESE Business School in Spain, and mentors Latino entrepreneurs participating in an online course on scaling their business offered in collaboration between LBAN and the Stanford Graduate School of Business executive education program. About Mana Tech Mana Tech is part of billionaire Moishe Mana's project to turn Downtown Miami into the startup hub of the Americas. We provide the programs, events, and workspace to support this. Previously Mana revitalized Wynwood in Miami and has already acquired 80 properties in Downtown Miami.
About Roberto Arroyo
Roberto Arroyo is an Ecuadorian and French entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in the construction industry. As the founder, CEO, and Chairman of Construex, the fastest-growing and largest Construction Marketplace in Latin America boasting over one million subscribed companies, Roberto has showcased his ability to navigate and conquer the challenges inherent in developing economies through visionary leadership. Since 2009, he has initiated both for-profit and non-profit ventures in sustainable mobility, art, and social responsibility, demonstrating his commitment to impactful entrepreneurship.
About Construex
Construex is a marketplace founded in Ecuador in 2019, dedicated to the construction and architecture sectors in Latin America. Its mission is to digitalize the construction industry, a market valued at more than $1.5 trillion. Construex connects construction product suppliers with the clients who need them, facilitating the management and purchase of materials for projects of all sizes. With more than one million suppliers in its network, the platform covers all areas of the industry, from architecture and engineering to final finishes. The platform currently operates in Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala and Chile, helping suppliers increase their digital presence and customers find the products they need more efficiently.
About Becky Matheson
With two decades of digital performance expertise, Becky is now the CEO and partner at Wrapped Agency. She collaborates with CEOs and senior leaders to unlock new opportunities for business growth. Leading the Wrapped team, Becky ensures that all performance work is results-driven, placing clients front and center of their target audiences while delivering a strong return on investment.
About Kate Eady
With over 30 years of experience as a business owner and brand strategist, Kate works with CEOs, senior leaders, and stakeholders to build brand equity through effective brand strategy. Her expertise lies in brand architecture and structure, helping businesses expand, launch new products, grow globally, or prepare for acquisition.
About Wrapped
Wrapped is a full-service brand marketing agency known for delivering exceptional results. The agency takes a deep dive into understanding each business, using insights, consumer behavior, and strategic consultation to develop impactful brand and digital strategies.
Specializing in multiple sectors, including healthcare, fintech, technology, and property, Wrapped uses an audience-led approach to target ideal customers. Their strategies are designed to deliver the right message, at the right time, on the right platforms, ensuring maximum engagement and results.
Their expertise includes profiling key decision-makers, understanding their pain points, and crafting solutions that resonate emotionally throughout the buying journey. They use a funnel approach to guide audiences from awareness to consideration and purchase, employing retargeting and lead generation to boost engagement.
About Adam Wilkinson
Adam Wilkinson has spent the last 15 years working across a range of industries in Health, Safety and Environmental HSE Management. After 10 years with the world’s biggest real-estate firm, CBRE, he is currently in post as the group Quality, Health, Safety and Environmental (QHSE) Director for their Facilities Management (FM) business, Global Workplace Solutions (GWS), in the UK. He holds an MSc in Environmental Management for business, as well as a BSc (Hons) in Oceanography with Physical Geography. Outside of work he can be found balancing family life with a passion for endurance sport.
About CBRE CBRE is the world’s largest commercial real-estate services and investment company, with the #1 global market position in leasing, property sales, outsourcing, property management and valuation. CBRE's Global Workplace Solutions (GWS) business provides integrated facilities management (IFM), project management, and workplace consulting services to corporate occupiers. In the UK, the GWS Local business serves over 850 clients, across all industry verticals, at tens of thousands of physical locations.
About Juan Nieto
Juan Nieto is Founder & General Partner at Zacua Ventures. Juan previously worked as a ConTech investor for CEMEX CVC unit since 2018, where he developed Asia Pacific investment strategy, and set up the Shanghai Office in 2019. Prior to this, Juan worked as an alternative asset manager for Altamar CAM Partners, one of Europe largest private managers, in Madrid, and as a Consultant for Techedge Group in Chicago (USA). Juan holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from the Technical University of Madrid and Tongji University of Shanghai.
About Zacua Ventures
Zacua Ventures is a global early stage fund, focused on the Built Environment. The fund invests from the Pre-Seed to the Series A stages in the three themes of Sustainability, Productivity and Urbanization (within the Built Environment). Zacua was established in 2022 by a team of venture capital, technology, and construction experts with experience at Cemex Ventures, McKinsey and Company and Hilti Corporation and a combined 30 years of industry experience. Main office is in Silicon Valley, and with team members in every continent.
About Paul Clark
As the Founder and Chairman of HSE Global Series, Paul is passionate about creating and delivering high-quality content and engagement services for the health, safety, and environment (HSE) industry. With over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, and leadership, Paul has a proven track record of consistently winning and retaining business within a competitive marketplace, as well as establishing credibility with senior decision-makers across various sectors and regions.
About HSE Global Series
HSE Global Series connects experiences between virtual communities and live events across the UK, Europe, North America, and MENA, establishing itself as the leading events platform for HSE and Operations leaders aiming to accelerate their learning and development as industry change-makers. HSE Global Series' mission is straightforward: to champion cognitive diversity and bring together cross-industry HSE and Operations thinkers and doers, providing the sector’s leaders with a forum to share insights, shape new perspectives, and create a safer world for all.
Rather than focusing on large audiences and echo chambers, HSE Global Series emphasizes intimate discussions with open dialogue, designed to explore challenges and uncover what’s truly happening in the world of HSE. This approach builds year-long communities that transform insights into action.
Guided by expert Advisory Councils who help steer each event’s agenda, and featuring world-class speakers delivering human-centric sessions, HSE Global Series fosters a community of 60-100 strong delegations, including Heads, Directors, VPs, and Chiefs of HSE and Operations, all connected by passion and driven by change.
About iUGO iUGO specializes in tracking two essential types of data for fleets: vehicle data and driver data, with the aim of optimizing operations and improving fleet utilization. By leveraging this data, we ensure the safety of riders and drivers, enhance the speed of delivery, and elevate the overall customer service experience for Last Mile Delivery. Through real-time monitoring and analysis, we not only save costs and fuel but also improve compliance, thus gaining a competitive advantage and reducing carbon footprint. In the expanding realm of car leasing industry, in particular sharing business, our innovative strategy involves forecasting demand, offering dynamic pricing, generating real-time driving scores through advanced analytics and rewarding safe driving behaviors, based on location intelligence and safety approach. With us, car leasing becomes more than just a service—it becomes a safer and more efficient experience, all driven by technology. About Evren Ozatay Evren Ozatay graduated from Middle East Technical University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2001. He also completed his master's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the same university. For his PhD studies, he went to Penn State University in the United States, where he began his research on hybrid electric vehicles. After that, he returned to Turkey and started working at Ford as a research and development specialist. He took on significant roles in project development, innovations, and introducing new technologies to the company. Continuing his career, he began working at Coca-Cola, responsible for business development and sales. After working in various positions for many years, he left and became one of the co-founders of iUGO. For the past nine years, he has led iUGO's growth, the establishment of strategic business partnerships, becoming a desirable company to work for, and taking technological steps towards becoming a global company.
Alkin Akarslan, founder of Laranja and Global Golden Key, dicsusses medical tourism in Turkey and how to access international residency and citizenship opportunities. Laranja founded in 2014 provides medical tourism marketing & management support for select hospitals, small & mid size health care providers, large corporations, government entities and other instutions internationally. With a team of highly skilled professionals and partnerships in over 50 locations worldwide, Global Golden Key provides personalized solutions and expert guidance throughout the entire process, ensuring seamless access to international residency and citizenship opportunities.
About Colm Lyon
Colm Lyon is CEO and founder of fire.com – a digital payments business. He is one of Europe’s leading payments and fintech entrepreneurs. With a career spanning more than 30 years, Colm has built payment businesses, led change across the industry and supported the wider business community.
Previously Colm was the founder and CEO of Realex Payments, one of Europe’s largest and most successful online payments businesses, which was acquired by Global Payments in March 2015. Colm is a member of the UK Finance Payments Products and Services Board, Chair of the Digital PSP Group, a member of the Strategic Participant Group for the New Payments Architecture and a member of the JROC Open Banking Future Entity Working Group in the UK.
About Fire
Fire is a digital payments provider that helps businesses get paid, pay out and go digital with their payment processes.
Trusted.
Fire is regulated in the EU and UK, and we have been licensed to provide payments services for more than 10 years. We are members of payment schemes and networks across Europe and the UK and some of the largest financial institutions in the region work with us to deliver innovative solutions to their customers.
Digital.
Our payments API enables you to easily integrate your payment processes with our services, delivering automation, better reconciliation, and access to regulated services. We specialise in developing our own technology, ensuring that our solutions are not only state-of-the-art but also constant and reliable.
Payments.
Gain access to a range of payment services such as open banking payments, bank transfers, FX and debit cards. Instantly open all the Euro and Sterling accounts you need, each with its own IBAN and account number.
Fire Financial Services Limited trading as Fire and fire.com (Fire-EU) is regulated as a Payment Institution by the Central Bank of Ireland, Reference No: C58301. Registered address: Dogpatch Labs, The CHQ Building, Custom House Quay, Dublin 1, D01 Y6H7, Ireland. Registration No: 464819.Fire Financial Services Limited trading as Fire and fire.com (Fire-UK) is authorised as an Electronic Money Institution by the Financial Conduct Authority, Reference No: 900983. Registered Address: The Rise, 41 Luke Street, London, United Kingdom, EC2A 4DP. Registration No: 11549793.
About Dr. Cherif Massoud
Dr. Cherif Massoud is a key figure in dental and orthodontic care. He believes in leveraging technology to enhance the overall dental experience, making it better for patients and practitioners alike. As the CEO of BASMA.COM, Dr. Massoud focuses on equipping dentists and orthodontists with cutting-edge tools, aiming to make dental care more accessible and affordable. He advocates for the use of advanced technology not only to enhance treatment outcomes but also to transform the overall dental experience. His mission is to ensure that every dental professional has access to the best resources, thereby improving the efficiency and quality of care. By driving the adoption of innovative solutions in dental practices, Dr. Massoud is dedicated to making high-quality dental care available to more people.
About Basma.com
Basma.com is more than just an invisible aligners company; it's a pioneering team committed to transforming smiles through care and innovation. Founded by Cherif Massoud, a third-generation dentist, Basma.com aims to democratize orthodontic care, making straighter smiles accessible to all. By leveraging advanced technology and a focus on quality, Basma.com offers effective, convenient, and comfortable clear aligners tailored to individual needs. Moreover, the company prioritizes personalized care and support, ensuring every customer receives guidance and empowerment throughout their smile transformation journey.
Dan Stuart, known by his nickname 'Savage Dan', manages media relations for Boxxer, works closely with Chelsea FC and is owner of Jukebox Studios (where this podcast is filmed). Dan collaborated with WSTRN to produce their hit single In2, which peaked at number four in the UK charts.
