Stafford Unplugged

Global Philanthropy | Colleen Ebbitt (J.P. Morgan | Vice President for Global Philanthropy EMEA)

Global Philanthropy — "...stakeholders, not just shareholders." Colleen Ebbitt (J.P. Morgan | Vice President for Global Philanthropy EMEA) Colleen and I met in 2019 and I walked away so impressed with her work and remarkable views of the world; her brief bio below speaks for itself. In this conversation we…

17 Sep 2020 51 min

Making sense of 'Resilience' | Taryn Marie Stejskal Ph.D. (Resilience Leadership | (CRO) Chief Resilience Officer)

Making sense of 'Resilience' — Approaching any challenge an allowing it to enhance you! - Taryn Stejskal Taryn Marie Stejskal Ph.D. (Resilience Leadership | (CRO) Chief Resilience Officer) Resilience' is the new, global, C-suite buzzword and what an honour to present to you the leading mind within this emerging, critical,…

11 Sep 2020 59 min

Woman pioneering science | Rachel Chikwamba (CSIR-Leadership Industrial Development | Group Executive and active member of the Academy of Science of S..

Woman pioneering science — Leading female scientists' journey and fascinating perspectives Rachel Chikwamba (CSIR-Leadership Industrial Development | Group Executive and active member of the Academy of Science of South Africa) Finally managed to corner Rachel and now you all have the opportunity to listen to this incredible scientist and thought…

7 Sep 2020 49 min

Female entrepreneurship | Arlene Mulder (Entrepreneur | WeThinkCode and BiB | Co-Founder)

Female entrepreneurship — A truly successful, inventive, African (woman) and tech entrepreneur Arlene Mulder (Entrepreneur | WeThinkCode and BiB | Co-Founder) I first met Arlene when she reached out to me about a crazy idea; establish an entity that could identify and truly uplift disadvantaged (even uneducated) humans by giving…

21 Aug 2020 45 min

Female leadership personified | Jacqui O'Sullivan (MTN | Communication and Reputation Management Executive)

Female leadership personified — A woman's fascinating executive journey, challenges, and lessons Jacqui O'Sullivan (MTN | Communication and Reputation Management Executive) This is one my favourite interviews to-date; I absolutely loved Jacqui's posits, experiences and perspectives! We covered so many areas in this episode : 5G, WFH, BLM, EQ, PR…

19 Aug 2020 50 min

State of (our) nations | Ferial Haffajee (Daily Maverick | Associate Editor | Author and Award-winning Journalist)

State of (our) nations — An incredible woman's take on our sociopolitical landscape Ferial Haffajee (Daily Maverick | Associate Editor | Author and Award-winning Journalist) We start off season 2 themed (in conversations with) 'Incredible Women' and Ferial Haffajee was one of the first names that came to mind. My…

14 Aug 2020 43 min

HR during a pandemic | Professor Shirley Zinn (Non-Exec Director of Boards, Author of 'Swimming Upstream', Coach, Mentor, and Entrepreneur)

HR during a pandemic — What do you do when your staff test C19 positive and die? Professor Shirley Zinn (Non-Exec Director of Boards, Author of 'Swimming Upstream', Coach, Mentor, and Entrepreneur) Human Resource (HR) executives have found themselves in the corporate nucleus of this pandemic storm. COVID-19, WFH...through to…

15 Jun 2020 53 min

Origins of Africa's arterial Internet veins | Brian Herlihy (SEACOM | Founder, Black Rhino Group | Founder, and World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) 192..

Origins of Africa's arterial Internet veins — An audacious marine-fibre project to reticulate Africa's eastern seaboard Brian Herlihy (SEACOM | Founder, Black Rhino Group | Founder, and World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) 192 Young Global Leaders for 2012) Imagine deciding that you're going to connect Africa to the Internet...then actually going…

11 Jun 2020 1 hr 13 min

Philosophies of technology's future | Scott Lemon (Technologist, Futurist, and Twilio IOT Solutions Engineer)

Philosophies of technology's future — What if we are just AI's biome and Bitcoin married IOT? Scott Lemon (Technologist, Futurist, and Twilio IOT Solutions Engineer) My favourite 'Lemon' quote (which he coined about 20 years ago!); 'The Internet is the developing nervous system of the human organism on Earth!' Scott…

9 Jun 2020 59 min

Bitcoin Understood and Contextualized | Farzam Ehsani (VALR | 'Bitcoin Seer', Co-Founder and CEO)

Bitcoin Understood and Contextualized — Bitcoin's history, status today, and futures beautifully articulated Farzam Ehsani (VALR | 'Bitcoin Seer', Co-Founder and CEO) Farzam (or Zom as I know him) is my 'go-to' guy for all things Bitcoin and crypto-currency. His faith, respect for history and ability to assimilate the humanities,…

29 May 2020 1 hr 16 min

The dynamic (European) future of work | Jesper Frederiksen (Okta, Inc | Vice President and General Manager, EMEA)

The dynamic (European) future of work — Fascinating WFH stats and insights into security challenges/opportunities Jesper Frederiksen (Okta, Inc | Vice President and General Manager, EMEA) Jesper and I first met when I established Google's presence here in South Africa (2006). We've been friends ever since and I've always highly…

29 May 2020 50 min

Geeks Reminiscing | JD Marymee (Microsoft HQ Seattle | Applied Innovation Architect, Professional Flight Instructor and Author)

Geeks Reminiscing — Looking back over aged (tech) shoulders JD Marymee (Microsoft HQ Seattle | Applied Innovation Architect, Professional Flight Instructor and Author) JD and I met in the USA in 1996 when I started working at Novell’s Utah (Provo) HQ. His tech background and experience is jaw-dropping! JD’s history…

20 May 2020 53 min

The reinventor of education | Robert Paddock (GetSmarter | Co-founder, Valenture Institute | CEO, Hubble Studios | Executive Director, Injini | Board ..

The reinventor of education — Inventive entrepreneurship, founder PTSD and next generation learning Robert Paddock (GetSmarter | Co-founder, Valenture Institute | CEO, Hubble Studios | Executive Director, Injini | Board Member) From a drummer who almost lost his hearing, to logistics, to compost, to disrupting the education sector; Rob shares…

15 May 2020 1 hr 01 min

Early childhood development and COVID-19 | Meg Faure (Occupational Therapist, Author, Speaker and Founder of 'Play Sense')

Early childhood development and COVID-19 — Parents of toddlers - heads up! Amazing insights, guidance, and advice! Meg Faure (Occupational Therapist, Author, Speaker and Founder of 'Play Sense') Parents in COVID-19 lockdown (and in general) are extremely concerned about their child's development. Many of us are stuck at home with…

14 May 2020 48 min

The upside of down in Bruce Whitfield's world | Bruce Whitfield (A multi award-winning business broadcaster, journalist, author, speaker, MC and confe..

The upside of down in Bruce Whitfield's world — Perspectives making sense of our new world; historically and economically Bruce Whitfield (A multi award-winning business broadcaster, journalist, author, speaker, MC and conference facilitator) Bruce Whitfield (@brucebusiness) doesn't need any introduction if you're a South African (for the few who don't…

13 May 2020 49 min

Digital, Innovation, Humanity and the Virus! | Lee Naik (TransUnion Africa | CEO | LinkedIn Top Voice | Columnist | Speaker)

Digital, Innovation, Humanity and the Virus! — True invention and innovation only exist when people are having fun Lee Naik (TransUnion Africa | CEO | LinkedIn Top Voice | Columnist | Speaker) Lee and I shoot the breeze on his thoughts about this new world order and where he thinks…

11 May 2020 51 min

The economic disaster of COVID-19! | Dr. Adrian Saville (Chief Executive at Cannon Asset Managers and Prof of Economics, Finance and Strategy at the G..

The economic disaster of COVID-19! — Our money, businesses and world finances are incinerating - now what? Dr. Adrian Saville (Chief Executive at Cannon Asset Managers and Prof of Economics, Finance and Strategy at the Gordon Institute of Business Science) Adrian is my 'go-to' person when the economic world just…

8 May 2020 48 min

Education and governance in a COVID-19 world | Professor Jonathan Jansen (Distinguished Professor of Education at Stellenbosch University and Presiden..

Education and governance in a COVID-19 world — Amazing insights and observations for our new and strange world! Professor Jonathan Jansen (Distinguished Professor of Education at Stellenbosch University and President of the Academy of Science of South Africa) Prof JJ and I casually shoot the breeze generally talking about the…

8 May 2020 54 min