Hosting a track at CIO 100 brought me back among my peers, this time as a founder too. Reflections on AI, commercial value and why people matter more than ever, with one clear takeaway for leaders: you’re not alone.

Speaking at pro-Manchester’s Trailblazing Tech, I challenged business leaders to reflect on their use of AI. AI literacy is now part of the leadership job: lean in, bring your people with you, and turn access to tools into better ways of working.

Hosting the Core Stage at London Tech Week reinforced why I love hosting events. Great hosts create the conditions for others to succeed, bringing energy, focus and confidence to every conversation.

How I Actually Use AI to Drive Personal Productivity AI for personal productivity is everywhere right now. Tools, hacks, prompts, automation workflows – all promising to make you faster, smarter, and more efficient. The reality is a bit less glamorous. I’ve been using AI consistently as a founder, running business development, marketing, and client delivery

AI, cyber, and humans collide in a world under pressure – leadership decides whether you survive disruption or turn it into advantage.

Cyber security doesn’t fail when technology breaks – it fails when people are under pressure. In this post, I explore why inclusive culture, psychological safety, and leadership behaviour are critical controls in building real cyber resilience.

AI won’t replace people — but it will expose leaders who fail to redesign how work gets done. This article was originally published in CIO Online and is republished here by the author. It explores why CIOs, people leaders and CEOs must co-own workforce redesign as AI reshapes roles, skills, culture and accountability.

This isn’t a year-end reflection. It’s a deliberate continuation. A build rooted in clarity, intent, and disciplined leadership. After a year of hard choices – including walking away from roles that no longer compounded value – this piece is about focus, boundaries, and doing work that truly matters.

2025: The Fastest, Hardest, Most Important Year of My Career The Speed of Years People often say the years get faster as you get older because each one becomes a smaller proportion of your life. Maybe. But I’m not convinced. For me the years feel faster because I’m doing more. I’m choosing more. I’m saying

The Wicked Truth About AI Artificial intelligence is having its Wicked moment – dramatic, polarising, and impossible to ignore. Depending on who you ask, AI is either the greatest technological breakthrough of our lifetime or the beginning of the end. And if you ask the millennials I spent time talking to recently, none of them

What Real Leadership Looked Like in 2025 – and Why 2026 Won’t Look Much Different Leadership in 2025 wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t inspirational TED-talk. It wasn’t “vision boards” and “empowerment slogans”.It was pressure, complexity, and contradiction – and the best leaders were the ones who didn’t hide from that. Looking back, the year was defined

The Race for AI Glory (doesn’t start with AI) The Race for AI Glory AI has become the new corporate arms race. Every boardroom is buzzing with strategy papers, pilot projects, and promises of transformation. But here’s the quiet truth most leaders already know: you can’t win the AI race if your technology estate is

Chaos exposes the truth about leadership. It shows who we are when the plan falls apart — when the structure slips, the to-do list grows, and energy runs low. Real leadership isn’t about staying in control all the time; it’s about how you respond when you can’t.

Cons We talk a lot about leadership traits – vision, courage, empathy, adaptability – but one of the most underrated is consistency. Not the glamorous kind. Not the motivational-quote, conference-stage kind. I mean the quiet, relentless kind – the kind that shows up every day, follows through, and delivers. Because consistency doesn’t just build reputation.

Jan the AI Mop – why I’ll let a robot my family, but not a colleague (just yet anyway) I said it on before and on stage, and I’ll say it again: AI is not your friend, it’s not your mate and it’s not your colleague. But let me tell you about Jan the AI Mop

AI should do our work, not our jobs. Progress always brings change, but it’s our role as leaders to prepare people, embrace adaptation, and make AI the start of better work — not the end of it.

Leadership isn’t about titles. In a VUCA world, consistency comes from value alignment, adaptability, and role-modelling every day – even when the world feels uncertain.

AI isn’t a reason to merge HR and IT – it’s just the latest buzzword used to justify structural change. People and tech are two sides of the same coin, but only one drives revenue, margin, and scalable growth. Let’s stop pretending this is anything new.

In the first week away from the day job, I haven’t slowed down – I’ve been planning, learning, fixing up the house, and reflecting on what comes next. This isn’t just a break. It’s a reset. And it’s a reminder that the first person you need to lead is yourself.

Future Mindset – Why Things Have to End for Growth to Begin There’s a truth we don’t always like to admit – some things need to end for better things to begin. It might be a relationship. A job. A hobby you once loved. A city, a habit, a dream. Sometimes you’ve simply outgrown them

A personal reflection on my mum’s recent health scare, the quiet grief she still carries, and the resilience we all need – at every age – to choose better for ourselves. It’s a reminder that it’s never too late to change, to grow, or to take your future into your own hands.

“If you can dream it, you can do it” (but how do you actually do it?) Walt Disney’s famous ethos, “If you can dream it, you can do it,” though not his original quote, resonates with many. It recently appeared in my Google feed, sparking my interest. Despite my struggles with creativity, I excel at

Serial or Parallel: Unraveling the Productivity Dilemma In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, the question arises – how do you approach tasks: serially or in parallel? What does it mean to be ‘done’ with something? Essentially, it’s about whether you patiently wait for one activity to conclude before diving into the next,

It’s that time for enjoying and reflecting (not panicking and stressing) It’s that time of year again – a mix of panicking and stressing, chilling and reflecting. Where did the last 12 months go? The mad rush into Christmas has begun – presents, food, travel, and picking up relatives. But why does a time meant

It’s during these challenging times that leaders need to be focussed, self-assured and role-modelling the behaviours you need from your team and organisation. Now is not the time to expecting things just to work out because of natural growth or assuming everyone is on the same page – now more than ever is the time for planning and strategy, thoughtful but decisive leadership and clear communication.

A battle is not the war – know the difference and choose yours One bit of advice I was given by my boss in my twenties was to ‘choose my battles’. These were indeed wise words I have since heeded and shared. What did she mean by this? For me it was about not wasting

A resounding success was the headlines. Happier, less stressed staff, sickness down, and more productivity and profits up. Sign me up.

The unshakeable, unchangeable Civil Service is there – plodding along, doing the right thing. Maybe a little late, maybe a little overbudget, maybe a little bit sarcastically, but they – the civil service and those civil servants are like an unmoving mountain.

What would I tell my younger self? I’m sat in my living room, the doors to the garden open wide, early on a Saturday morning. I hear the distant noise of a young girl talking to her parents in a garden not so far away. I’ve been thinking for the last few weeks after reading

Lost and Found – Finally I Reconnected With A Long Lost School Friend Friday 1st April was a big day for me. I only see the irony now of when I searched and added a long lost school friend on Facebook they might have thought it was a joke. Who are you? I was having

At the weekend I visited my son. It’s great having adult children. When you’re a parent of younger children you do have anxieties of what their future is going to be – of course it never goes away, but what does change is what you worry about.I’ve been keeping an eye on the Ukraine crisis

It was date night on two Saturday’ ago. We’d booked a table for 7pm. It was a new restaurant to us and we both love Italian food – what could go wrong (sorry about the spoiler title). Arrived just before 7pm, it was clear at the start that things weren’t going to plan. It all

This week the BBC withdrew from the Stonewall Equality index – it’s not the first organisation to do so recently. Stonewall has taken a very proactive stance on trans rights which has unsettled some organisations few on trans equality. However, Stonewall represents all LGBT+ people and their rights to live without fear or prejudice –

Whenever I start with a new client (I’m an interim digital and technology leader) I often begin thinking about three things: reflecting what kind of impression I need to make, what I need to be doing to show leadership, and what I need to do to role model the behaviours and ambition I want the

I think I’m turning into a militant vegetarian. I get asked often why I choose not to eat meat, and it’s for a few simple reasons The climate. Farming animals for food is very unfriendly for the environment. And of course it’s bad for the animals. It’s very bad. We don’t need to eat it

A couple of years ago I worked with a woman (Louise) who took photos everyday, I know who doesn’t take the odd selfie? But this was different, it was normally several photos – but she would share just one of these as her “Photo of the Day” – something meaningful for that day. I guess