University of Birmingham University of Birmingham

Joining Christopher Pietroni for our sixth episode of the ‘Leadership Exchanged’ podcast is Kirsty McNeill, Executive Director of Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns at Save the Children. 
Kirsty is Labour’s parliamentary candidate in the Scottish target seat of Midlothian. She is also Chair of Our Scottish Future, the Civic Power Fund, Larger Us and the Aid Alliance, and non-executive director for the Centre for Countering Digital Hate. 
Kirsty is well-known for being an innovative and effective local and national campaigner, with a particular focus on social and economic injustice. She has gained extensive experience in leadership during her career, but also throughout her education, including her time at the Rockwood Leadership Institute where she completed an intensive leadership programme on the Art of Leadership in 2018. 
In this episode, Kirsty shares her personal experiences with democracy and equality, learnings from moving from single-issue advocacy into government, and her thoughts on what good leadership looks like. This shapes her views on collective leadership and her approach to her role at Save the Children today. 
 The Leadership Exchanged podcast asks if the world's biggest and most complex problems could be solved if the right leadership approach was applied? Do we need to exchange current approaches to leadership for something new? In each episode, Leadership expert Professor Christopher Pietroni discusses with guests what kind of leadership is needed if you want to make real, lasting change.  
Find out more about the Leadership Exchanged podcast: birmingham.ac.uk/leadership-exchanged 
Follow Kirsty on Twitter here: 
https://twitter.com/kirstyjmcneill 
 Follow Christopher on Twitter here:  
https://twitter.com/pietroni_c 
 Resources mentioned in the interview:  
 Save the Children – https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/ 
 IPPR Report – Making change: What works? - https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/making-change-what-works  
Report – Counter Culture: How to resist the culture wars and build 21st century solidarity, by Kirsty McNeill and Roger Harding – https://fabians.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/FABJ9000-Fabian-Ideas-pamphlet-210628-WEB.pdf 
Steve Akehurst’s Substack - https://strongmessagehere.substack.com/ 
Doc Society - https://docsociety.org/ 

Joining Christopher Pietroni for our fifth episode of the ‘Leadership Exchanged’ podcast is Andy Street, the West Midlands Metro Mayor. 
 Before being elected as the Conservative Mayor of the West Midlands in 2017, Andy had an extremely successful career at John Lewis, starting as a graduate and ending at the top of the shop as Managing Director. Andy now applies his previous experience in leadership, training and learning from role models to his service to the three million citizens of the West Midlands.
 In this episode, Andy delves into his personal experiences and learnings, his value set including inclusivity, modesty and honesty and how this now shapes his role as a representative ‘leader for people’.
 The Leadership Exchanged podcast asks if the world's biggest and most complex problems could be solved if the right leadership approach was applied? Do we need to exchange current approaches to leadership for something new? In each episode, Leadership expert Professor Christopher Pietroni discusses with guests what kind of leadership is needed if you want to make real, lasting change. 
 Find out more about the Leadership Exchanged podcast: birmingham.ac.uk/leadership-exchanged
 Follow Andy on Twitter  
 Follow Christopher on Twitter
 Resources mentioned in the interview: 
 John Lewis 
 Birmingham Youth 
 West Midlands Leadership Commission 
 WMCA 
 Net Zero Strategy 
 COP26

Joining Christopher Pietroni for our fourth episode of the ‘Leadership Exchanged’ podcast is Mark Lomas, Head of Culture at Lloyd’s of London, the world’s leading insurance market. Mark continues to break the mould in terms of employee stereotypes and recruitment practices across a wide range of sectors.

In this episode, Mark delves into how he is leading change by implementing innovative programmes to help organisations deliver their set promises around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Some of these organisations include the NHS, BBC, HS2 and Arts Council England.

Mark discusses how he has applied his own personal experiences with industry stereotypes and the importance of confronting history to help to form more diverse and inclusive working environments.

The Leadership Exchanged podcast asks if the world's biggest and most complex problems could be solved if the right leadership approach was applied? Do we need to exchange current approaches to leadership for something new? In each episode Leadership expert Professor Christopher Pietroni discusses with guests what kind of leadership is needed if you want to make real, lasting change.

Find out more about the Leadership Exchanged podcast: birmingham.ac.uk/leadership-exchanged

Follow Christopher on Twitter.

Resources mentioned in the interview:

Lloyd’s of London

Lloyd’s of London Culture Strategy

HS2

NHS

BBC

Arts Council England 

Jürgen Klopp

Joining Christopher Pietroni for the third episode of ‘Leadership Exchanged’ is Nöella Coursaris Musunka, an award-winning philanthropist and international model. Nöella is the founder and CEO of Malaika Foundation, based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which began as a school and has now grown into a community-driven ecosystem working to transform the lives of young girls and their families.
In this episode, Nöella discusses how she uses her leadership in philanthropy to empower young girls into becoming the next leaders of Africa, and the challenges she has faced both in her own life and whilst setting up a charity. As well as discussing her experience in the third sector, Nöella also delves into the contrasts between her modelling career and her philanthropy career.
The Leadership Exchanged podcast asks if the world's biggest and most complex problems could be solved if the right leadership approach was applied? Do we need to exchange current approaches to leadership for something new?
Find out more about Leadership Exchanged: The Podcast: birmingham.ac.uk/leadership-exchanged
Follow Nöella on Instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/noellacoursaris/
Follow Malaika on Instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/malaikadrc/
Follow Christopher on Twitter here:
https://twitter.com/pietroni_c
Resources mentioned in the interview:
Malaika - https://malaika.org/
Vogue – https://www.vogue.co.uk/
Vanity Fair - https://www.vanityfair.com/

In this episode, I am joined by Carolyn Wilkins, a Professor at Birmingham Leadership Institute and a well-experienced public sector leader. Carolyn holds a wealth of experience across the local government, health and care and the wider public sector landscape. Carolyn has led as the Chief Executive Officer in numerous organisations, such as the Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council and Rossendale Borough Council.
In this episode, we talk about the responsibility of speaking up, leading with kindness and humanity, discuss the concept of ‘leaders of the future’, and examine what people expect a leader to look and act like.
If leadership is something that interests you, check out the University of Birmingham’s website here.
Follow Carolyn on Twitter here:
https://twitter.com/ProfCWilkinsOBE
Follow Christopher on Twitter here:
https://twitter.com/pietroni_c
Listen to more ‘Leadership Exchanged’ episodes here:
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/university/colleges/socsci/bli/leadership-exchanged-podcast/leadership-exchanged.aspx
Resources mentioned in the interview:
The Greater Manchester Strategy: https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/media/1084/greater_manchester_summary___full_version.pdf
NHS Test and Trace: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/nhs-test-and-trace-how-it-works

Joining Christopher Pietroni for our first-ever episode of the ‘Leadership Exchanged’ podcast is Paul Richardson, a successful entrepreneur across sectors as varied as waste management, fashion, e-commerce and cyber security. Paul discusses his journey as a serial entrepreneur at just 18 years old in his father’s skip-hire to strategically directing Gymshark to become the billion-dollar global sportswear brand it is today.
In this episode, Paul and Christopher discuss taking a helicopter view on leadership to stay ahead of competitors and how empathy, communication and consistently developing on your learnings are key to a modern-day leadership approach.
The Leadership Exchanged podcast asks if the world's biggest and most complex problems could be solved if the right leadership approach was applied? Do we need to exchange current approaches to leadership for something new? In each episode Leadership expert Professor Christopher Pietroni discusses with guests what kind of leadership is needed if you want to make real, lasting change. 
Find out more about the Leadership Exchanged podcast.
Follow Paul on Twitter here:
https://twitter.com/paul5richardson
Follow Christopher on Twitter here:
https://twitter.com/pietroni_c
Resources mentioned in the interview:
Gymshark - https://uk.gymshark.com/
HERA - https://heraclothing.com/
Haru - https://www.haru.co.uk/
Birmingham City Football - https://www.bcfc.com/
EnerGym - https://energym.io/