The Bottom Line BBC Radio 4

With the entrepreneur, philanthropist and author.

The Decisions That Made Me A Leader is a mini-series from The Bottom Line. It features one-on-one interviews with entrepreneurs and business leaders, including Duncan Bannatyne, Martha Lane Fox, and the boss of Depop, Simon Beckerman. All of these episodes are available on BBC Sounds and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer. To find the series, just search: The Decisions That Made Me A Leader.

Host: Evan Davis
Producers: Paige Neal-Holder and Farhana Haider
Assistant Editor: Matthew Willis
Senior News Editor: Sam Bonham
Commissioning Editor: Hugh Levinson

Evan Davis hosts the business conversation show, with insight from the people at the top.

Evan Davis sits down with Richard Walker the Executive Chairman of Iceland foods a company founded by his father. Richard started at Iceland Foods in 2012 from the bottom up working as a shelf stacker at the start.
A qualified chartered surveyor he is an entrepreneur in his own right having set-up a property business, Bywater Properties, of which he is still chairman.
A fan of physical challenges he’s climbed Everest and was running his first London Marathon this year when he collapsed less than two miles from the finish line and says ice saved his life.
Evan asks about the key personal and business-related decisions that got him to where he is today.
A Long Form Audio Production for BBC Radio 4.

Evan Davis sits down with Timo Armoo, the founder of social media advertising business Fanbytes, which he set up when he was 21 with two friends.
Aged 27 he sold the company, which connects social media influencers with brands, for an eight-figure sum, saying he can now retire a multi-millionaire.
Timo was born in Hackney in London but moved to Ghana to live with his grandmother when he was 3 months old. He returned to the UK and grew up on a council estate in south London and says he always had this burning feeling that he was destined for more.
Evan asks about the key personal and business-related decisions that got him to where he is today.
A Long Form Audio Production for BBC Radio 4.

Simon Beckerman is the founder of Depop, a platform where people can buy and sell pre-loved fashion, it currently has around 35 million registered users. He sold the company to Etsy for £1.25 billion in 2021.
Simon grew up in Italy to British and Italian parents who he describes as rebels in their own way and even as a teenager he knew he had to build his own business because ‘I was unemployable’
His latest business, is DELLI a food app connecting independent retailers with consumers.

Evan asks about the key personal and business-related decisions that got him to where he is today.
A Long Form Audio Production for BBC Radio 4.

Martha Lane Fox was first catapulted into the public eye during the dot.com boom as co-founder of lastminute.com the online agency she set up with Brent Hoberman in the late 1990s.
It was valued at three quarters of a billion pounds when it floated on the London stock exchange in 2000.
She then experienced a life change road accident while on holiday in Morocco when she was thrown from the passenger seat of an open-top car. She says she very nearly died. ‘They rank you in trauma I was a 37, 39 is dead’
Her career has ranged from launching karaoke chain Lucky Voice to serving as the government’s digital champion and being on the board of twitter, during one its most complex times. She is currently the President of the British Chamber of Commerce
Evan asks about the key personal and business-related decisions that got her to where she is today.
A Long Form Audio Production for BBC Radio 4.