Leadership Insights

This episode shares the leadership journey of a once aspiring album cover artist who became an award-winning CEO. Bob Keiller CBE, former CEO of Wood Group and previous Chairman of Scottish Enterprise, discusses a wide range of topics from early life choices to CEO succession, and shifting an organisational culture by winning hearts and minds.

This episode shares insight into the leadership journey of School for CEOs Chairman, Patrick Macdonald. Having qualified as an engineer, Patrick worked in atomic energy and built war ships for the Royal Navy in his early career. In business, he worked for one of the World's most famous CEOs, Jack Welch, before carving his own path as a Chief Executive, leading a number of listed and private equity backed businesses. This interview explores his experience of dealing with the demands of the top job.

This episode shares the story of a scientist who became a Chief Executive, almost accidentally. Dr Helen Rippon leads Worldwide Cancer Research, a Scottish charity established to provide grants to fund innovative and ground-breaking research initiatives to combat cancer. The interview explores the transition from the lab to the boardroom and uncovers the pioneering spirit that makes up the DNA of the organisation and its culture.

With Tokyo less than 1 year away, this episode features Team GB Olympic prospect Katherine Douglas. Having discovered the sport of rowing by chance Katherine shares her personal journey as a professional athlete, offering insights into leadership, teamwork and the mental and physical toll that comes with an unwavering determination to make that boat go faster.

In this episode, we interview Tom Kitchin, award-winning chef proprietor and the youngest to achieve a Michelin star in Scotland. Tom shared the key ingredients to his success as a leader, highlighting the importance of the team, how his personal leadership style has adapted and modernised over time and how he fell in love with the pressure of high performance.

Rosemary McGinness cut her teeth as a leader in a line management role in hospitality, where she discovered a passion for leading people and seeing them grow. She has since held several global positions as HR Director across a range of sectors. In this episode Rosemary reflects on the experiences and people who have shaped her as a leader. She also shares her personal story of dealing with breast cancer after being diagnosed when she was Group HR Director of William Grant & Sons.

This episode is a special feature with guest speaker Doddie Weir OBE, Scottish rugby legend and founder of the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation. After his own diagnosis, Doddie set up the Foundation both to support other sufferers and their families and also to raise funds to aid research into MND, to find a cure for disease. Here he is with old friend and teammate David Sole OBE, as they reminisce about the good old days, dealing with diagnosis, and the work of the Foundation.

Shaun Kingsbury's leadership journey begins in Belfast, where he learnt the power of persistence. An entrepreneur who is 'attracted to things most sensible people would run away from', Shaun shares some important lessons that he has garnered from his experiences working on a number of ground-breaking projects in renewables and sustainable finance, including his role as Chief Executive Officer of the UK Green Investment Bank, which he led from its inception up to its sale in 2017 for £2.3 billion. We also asked Shaun what he felt the biggest developments will be in his sector over the next five years.

Martin Smith CB MBE and Peter MacDonald have led distinguished careers, both of which began in the special forces. Martin spent over three decades in the Royal Marines, reaching the role of Commandant General and was most recently NATO advisor to the Minister of the Interior in Afghanistan, while Peter moved into business after 11 years of military service and held global leadership roles in Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Now Martin is Chief Operating Officer at Cyber Prism and Peter is Chairman of Castle European. In this episode they compare their experiences leading in the military and in business.

This episode shares the emotional life story of Sue Pascoe. Sue has had a successful career in professional services, reaching senior leadership positions in the worlds' leading accountancy firms. Her life changed forever when she decided to go through a complete gender transformation at the age of 55. Today, Sue runs a support group for people with gender identity struggles, she is a Board Member of a charity that supports the LGBT+ community and her company Soaring Spirit advises organisations on how to become more inclusive. In this episode Sue shares her story with real candour, offering insights into the challenges she has faced and overcome in order to become Sue physically, emotionally, socially and mentally.

The son of pub landlords in Sunderland, Craig's leadership journey begins as a young lad, when he was exposed to the strong leadership of his parents, during challenging times. In this episode, Craig shares an intimate account of life during the miners' strikes, the impact of failing his A levels and how he made the decision to leave a promising career at one of the UK's largest Banks to join a start-up. One of the original four executives who created Metro Bank, Craig reflects on his own leadership style as Chief Executive in a fast-paced and high growth environment.

As a child all he wanted to do was look after animals and play rugby. Today he is a leading Executive Coach and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of School for CEOs. In this episode we learn about the experiences that shaped David Sole OBE as a leader; his experience of leading one of the most successful sides in the history of Scottish Rugby; how he discovered his sense of purpose after leaving the comforts of large corporate life and the qualities that he most admires in other leaders.