Difference Makers Podcast

Chartered Accountants Worldwide
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We created this podcast in order to celebrate the lives and work of people who have transformed communities, businesses, and the wider world, making a real difference in the lives of others. We call them "Difference Makers". Some overcame great personal adversity in their journey. They all showed the knowledge, perspective, skills and capabilities to lead, to achieve, and to make real change when it is needed most. Oh, and by the way... they are all Chartered Accountants! Find out more at https://www.charteredaccountantsworldwide.com

  1. Young Difference Makers: How Khethiwe Sibanyoni uses Ethics and Systems Thinking to tackle Gender-Based Violence

    3 NGÀY TRƯỚC

    Young Difference Makers: How Khethiwe Sibanyoni uses Ethics and Systems Thinking to tackle Gender-Based Violence

    What if the rigour that keeps companies honest could also save lives? We sit down with social impact activist and aspiring chartered accountant Khethiwe Sibanyoni to unpack how ethics, systems thinking, and real accountability can turn good intentions into measurable change. From Saturday mornings in GBV shelters at age 11 to auditing across oil and gas, pharma, and FMCG, Khethiwe shows how credibility becomes a tool for communities when it is used with care. We map the architecture of Khethiwe’s youth-led foundation across three pillars: detection rooted in research and data, prevention that works with both girls and boys to shift norms before harm occurs, and correction focused on survivor support through 13 Gauteng shelters—prioritising psychosocial care, education, and economic empowerment to end dependency. Khethiwe explains how controls, budgets, and outcome metrics translate from audit checklists to fieldwork, building programmes that endure beyond any single leader. Along the way, we explore setbacks that forged resolve—losing a scholarship, raising tuition in a month, and recommitting to a career anchored in public trust. We talk about meeting a prominent global philanthropist, why team trust is a hallmark of real leadership, and how social investment drives economic performance when paired with clear social impact KPIs. Khethiwe’s message to business is direct: define impact with the same precision you bring to profit. Her message to young changemakers is practical and brave: start with what you have, stay authentic, and fall in love with the problem until the solution reveals itself. Join us for a grounded, hopeful look at responsible corporate citizenship, nonprofit sustainability, and youth-led action against gender-based violence. If this conversation sparks you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review with the one impact KPI you’d set tomorrow.

    13 phút
  2. Young Difference Makers: Rebecca Casey talks Numbers, Nerves, and a One-Planet Pledge Walk into a Conference

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    Young Difference Makers: Rebecca Casey talks Numbers, Nerves, and a One-Planet Pledge Walk into a Conference

    If you’ve ever been told to “wait your turn,” this conversation politely declines. We sit down with chartered accountant and risk professional Rebecca Casey to unpack how young leaders move from potential to presence—using expertise, community, and conviction to shape business and society right now. Rebecca charts a clear route from a school enterprise in Sydney to Deloitte, Young CA panels in New South Wales and the UK, and a career leap to London. Along the way she shows why qualifications like the CA are more than letters: they open doors, build networks, and give you the platform to speak plainly on the issues that matter. We get specific on AI governance, data integrity, and ethics—what good looks like, where it breaks, and how to make accountability a daily habit rather than a compliance checkbox. The energy from One Young World threads through the episode as we translate inspiration into action. Rebecca shares a grounded take on the circular economy, from volunteering with a hard-to-recycle plastics programme to making a personal pledge centred on reuse and repair. We connect those grassroots choices to workplace change—procurement standards, lifecycle thinking, and practical steps that reduce waste and build integrity into systems. This is a playbook for focused impact: choose one problem, apply your skills, start small, and show results. If youth are the present, the question becomes simple—what will we build today? Listen for candid insights, actionable ideas, and a refreshing kind of optimism that pairs vision with the first step. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who leads from the front, and leave a review so others can find it.

    10 phút
  3. Young Difference Makers: Saad Bin Asim Zubairi and his journey of Learning, Empathy, and AI

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    Young Difference Makers: Saad Bin Asim Zubairi and his journey of Learning, Empathy, and AI

    What if a ten-year-old’s love for maths could spark a career that blends finance, empathy and AI for social good? We sit down with Saad Bin Asim Zubairi of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan to unpack how curiosity, grit and global perspective can reshape what a chartered accountant does today. From finding the profession at an education expo to thriving in multinational teams through geopolitical turmoil, Saad shares concrete ways leaders can protect psychological safety while raising standards. The conversation dives into the shifting toolkit of modern finance: automation, data analytics, and generative AI alongside audit and controls. Fresh from a One Young World workshop, Saad explains how he built a demo app for the Sustainable Development Goal of quality education in under an hour, proving that non-coders can prototype impactful solutions with GenAI. We reflect on powerful moments from the summit, including insights from Queen Rania and Nobel laureate journalist Maria Ressa, and why combating disinformation and online hate is now a core leadership duty, not a side issue. Mentorship sits at the heart of Saad’s approach. He outlines practical steps for young CAs to balance study and work, use AI responsibly, and move beyond rote tasks into analysis, advisory and product thinking. The result is a roadmap for lifelong learning that keeps you valuable in a changing market while staying rooted in ethics and empathy. If you care about building a career that matters—and tools that help people—you’ll find real takeaways you can apply this week. Subscribe for more candid stories from global professionals, share this episode with a friend who needs a nudge to level up, and leave a review with the one skill you plan to learn next.

    10 phút
  4. Young Difference Makers: Sophie Sweeney On Education, Courage, And A Human-Centred Accounting Career

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    Young Difference Makers: Sophie Sweeney On Education, Courage, And A Human-Centred Accounting Career

    A teenage mum, a bus to Galway, and a toddler in the back row of a lecture hall—this is where Sophie Sweeney’s story begins. That early proximity to learning didn’t just open a door; it rewired what a career could be. We sit down with Sophie, a lecturer at the University of Galway and a member of Chartered Accountants Ireland, to explore how a love for numbers became a mission to serve people through education, mentorship, and purpose-driven accounting. Sophie shares how structure became her launchpad. The chartered pathway offered clarity—training contracts, exams, professional standards—while her curiosity turned financial statements into narratives that reveal choices, risk, and values. When the day-to-day of practice no longer aligned with her desire for visible impact, she followed the signal toward lecturing. In the classroom, technical rigour meets empathy, and the ripple effect is real: one educator can equip hundreds of future professionals to combine accuracy with ethics and to measure what truly matters. Fresh from the One Young World Summit, Sophie reflects on the power of networks, representation, and stepping onto big stages with grounded pride. Carrying the Irish flag and connecting with delegates from around the world, she absorbed a simple mandate: you don’t need to fix every problem; you need to leverage your position to move good work forward. We talk imposter syndrome, how to claim belonging without losing humility, and why time pressure—from motherhood to research goals—can sharpen ambition. Looking ten years ahead, Sophie sees a human-centred academic career, a completed PhD, and a community of former students who return with stories of impact. If you’re curious about purpose in accounting, the value of professional qualifications, or how education can multiply social change, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review with the moment that hit home for you.

    14 phút

  5. 21/11/2025

    Resilience, Flow, And The Future Of Accounting

    Ever feel like your day is a blur of pings, context switches, and late-night messages that steal your sleep? We sat down with Brad Hook and Declan Scott to unpack why the profession’s greatest strengths—kindness, curiosity, creativity—can be undermined by hypervigilance and constant multitasking, and how simple, science-backed rhythms can restore focus and energy. We dig into the data from the inaugural global resilience and well-being report for Chartered Accountants and preview what the next survey aims to measure after practical interventions. Brad explains why “measure, train, measure” beats guesswork, and shares tactical calm tools that create quick wins: one-minute breath resets, bookending the workday, and clear evening boundaries. Declan brings an experienced lens to early-career overwhelm, showing how coaching-led leadership and mentoring across generations can reduce anxiety, build confidence, and connect daily work to real purpose. You’ll learn how attention is being fragmented by constant digital stimuli and why monotasking outperforms multitasking for quality and speed. We walk through the conditions for flow—clear goals, the right challenge-skill match, protected time, and fewer distractions—and how teams can pilot weekly or daily “flow zones” to unlock meaningful progress. We also dive into sleep as the bedrock of performance, from chronotypes and consistency to practical checks for issues like sleep apnoea, plus everyday habits that recharge your mental battery. The episode closes on presence—the underrated skill of pausing, widening your view, and asking what matters most right now. If you’re ready to replace false urgency with real effectiveness, this is your playbook for calmer focus, better sleep, and stronger leadership. Enjoy the conversation, then share it with a colleague who needs permission to switch off notifications. If it resonated, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what single change will you try this week?

    34 phút

  6. 14/11/2025

    Carla S. Vijian - From Malaysia to Manhattan – A Journey in Ethics, Audit, and Marathon Running

    Curiosity isn’t a personality trait—it’s a practice that can shape a career and safeguard public trust. That idea runs through our conversation with Carla S. Vijian, whose path from Malaysia to New Zealand, Sydney, London and now New York traces a throughline from hands‑on audit work to ethics standard setting. We dive into how fieldwork hardens your scepticism—the kind that looks past headlines and asks who funds what, where assumptions hide, and how incentives bend outcomes—and why that habit is essential when claims move markets, pensions and policy. Carla opens the black box of ethics standards and shows how practical and global the work really is: listening to regulators, investors and firms, and crafting principle‑based guidance that scales across 130+ jurisdictions without losing the self‑awareness professionals need day to day. We test the ideas against live issues: Norway’s Northern Lights CO2 storage milestone and debt‑for‑policy swaps that promise conservation and reconstruction. Both raise the same hard questions—measurement, transparency, accountability—that ethics can answer when applied with rigour. We also tackle AI without the hype: it’s a powerful tool, but not a moral agent. The IESBA’s technology guidance helps identify risks like bias, data integrity and over‑reliance, reminding us to validate models, document judgement and remain accountable for outcomes in the public interest. Threaded through the technical is the human: marathon training as a blueprint for resilience, discipline and humility. You don’t run 42 kilometres at once; you run one at a time. The same is true for building trust—small consistent choices compound. Carla leaves three anchors for the next generation: make curiosity a daily discipline, choose courage over convenience, and pair purpose with patience. If you care about trustworthy reporting, sustainable finance and responsible AI, this conversation will give you practical ways to strengthen your judgement and your impact. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a review with the bravest professional decision you’ve made recently.

    27 phút

  7. 07/11/2025

    Nicola Ellam on why AI won’t take your job—it will take it to a whole new level

    The myth that accountancy is just numbers falls apart fast when you hear Nicola Ellam’s story. Trained in the UK, seasoned in Hong Kong, and now a managing principal in New York, Nicola joins us to unpack how a global career can thrive at the intersection of regulation, culture, and bold technology bets. From the maze of US CPA licensing to the daily realities of leading teams in a fast-moving market, she lays out what changes, what doesn’t, and how to stay relevant when the tools of the trade are being rewritten. We dive into CLA’s decision to invest $500M in AI and a broader solutions master plan, and why the firm insists on staying people-led even as automation accelerates. Nicola walks us through the practical wins: less data entry, faster insights, cleaner visuals, and client conversations that shift from “what happened” to “what should we do.” Inside the firm, connection centres and the CLA Academy create a learning engine—sandboxes, simulations, and persona-based pathways—so interns, associates, and partners can build the skills that matter now: relationship building, project management, and critical evaluation of machine outputs. It’s a training model designed for multi-generational teams that learn in different ways and at different speeds. Global work brings added nuance. Even when language is shared, culture, compliance, and expectations vary—sometimes state by state. Nicola explains how to bridge those gaps with empathy and structure, helping foreign-owned businesses land and scale in the US without losing momentum. And we tackle the big anxiety head-on: will AI take our jobs? Her answer is simple and sharp—AI will take your job to a whole new level. Roles will evolve, judgment will matter more, and the time we get back can be invested in better advice, better teams, and a better life outside the office. If you care about the future of accounting, professional growth, and turning technology into real client value, this conversation offers concrete steps and fresh optimism. Subscribe, share with a colleague who needs a nudge toward the future, and leave a quick review to tell us what skill you’re focusing on next.

    22 phút

  8. 30/10/2025

    Mark Scully on compassion, masking, and changing how firms manage people

    What if the story you’ve told yourself about your career is missing the most important chapter? Mark Scully trained in law, pivoted into tax at a Big Four firm, climbed to director, and then made the bravest move of all: reframing his entire journey through a late autism diagnosis and launching Braver to help leaders manage people, not processes. We unpack the messy middle between academic success and workplace reality—unwritten rules, social subtext, and the survival tactic of saying yes to everything. Mark shares how burnout led him to counselling and coaching, and how a simple screening opened the door to a diagnosis that replaced self‑criticism with self‑compassion. Confidence followed via practice: learning to say no, asking “what are the expectations?” and co‑designing sustainable ways of working. The outcome is striking: fewer hours, better results, and his first top performance rating—achieved before he disclosed his diagnosis. From there, we zoom out. Mark explains why many “neurodiversity problems” are human problems experienced at different intensities, and why the fix isn’t a checklist—it’s culture. We explore the shift from process‑first to person‑centred, outcome‑focused management; practical supports that help diverse thinkers thrive; and how normalising conversations through training and employee groups moves people from “don’t know” to “know and ask for help.” We also talk visibility: the outsized impact when senior leaders share their stories and make it safer for others to follow. If you lead teams in professional services—or anywhere you rely on thoughtful, precise work—this conversation offers a clear path to better performance and wellbeing: clarity of expectations, flexible routes to outcomes, and compassion that shows up as action. Listen, share with a colleague, and tell us: what one change would make your team’s work more sustainable? Subscribe for more conversations on leadership, inclusion, and the future of work.

    33 phút
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Giới Thiệu

We created this podcast in order to celebrate the lives and work of people who have transformed communities, businesses, and the wider world, making a real difference in the lives of others. We call them "Difference Makers". Some overcame great personal adversity in their journey. They all showed the knowledge, perspective, skills and capabilities to lead, to achieve, and to make real change when it is needed most. Oh, and by the way... they are all Chartered Accountants! Find out more at https://www.charteredaccountantsworldwide.com

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  • Nhà sáng tạo
    Chartered Accountants Worldwide
  • Năm hoạt động
    2021 - 2026
  • Tập
    68
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    Sạch
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    © 2026 Chartered Accountants Worldwide
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    Difference Makers Podcast