The Merri-Cast

Episódios

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  HR’s Moment of Truth: A Time to Lead 02.09.2026 50min

  Incoming CIPD CEO Neil Carberry OBE joins CIPD Chair Professor Chris Bones and President Chloe Smith for an exclusive Merri-Cast conversation about the future of HR, the direction of the CIPD and what the profession must do next. This week, we have a really special episode of The Merri-Cast podcast to bring to you. Neil Carberry OBE is preparing to take the reins as CEO of the CIPD later this month, at a pivotal moment for HR. And before taking office, he joins me on the show alongsid...
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  Emma Jones: ON Getting Small Businesses Paid On Time 18.08.2026 29min

  What does it really take to build a successful business – and how can we make life easier for the people running them? This week on The Merri-Cast, I’m really thrilled to be joined by Emma Jones, Small Business Commissioner and Founder of Enterprise Nation. Emma has spent much of her career starting, growing and supporting small businesses. And today, she’s tackling one of the biggest frustrations facing entrepreneurs: getting paid on time. Emma tells me that small business ow...
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  Dan Dunn: ON Taking Responsibility and Backing Yourself 18.06.2026 47min

  Many dream about starting a business. Far fewer understand what it takes to succeed. This week on The Merri-Cast, I’m excited to be joined by Dan Dunn, Co-founder and CEO of Paperplanes, a business that’s helping reinvent direct mail by combining traditional marketing with modern technology and data. Dan’s journey is striking. Like many others, he took the leap into entrepreneurship with courage. But what really comes through is a deep sense of personal responsibility. Nobody els...
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  Steve Dineen: ON Thinking and Acting at Speed 04.06.2026 47min

  Some entrepreneurs build businesses around products. Others build them around problems they can’t stop thinking about. This week on The Merri-Cast podcast, I’m joined by Steve Dineen – Founder and Chief Storyteller at Fuse Universal, and a pioneer of digital learning. From the early days of e-learning to launching fuseschool and Fuse Universal, Steve has spent decades exploring one central question: how do people learn better? What stood out to me most in this conversation is the ...
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  Kate Davis: ON Escaping The Trap of Doing Everything Yourself 20.05.2026 42min

  A common challenge founders face isn’t strategy, sales or even growth. It’s learning how to stop doing everything themselves. On this week’s episode, I’m joined by the brilliant Kate Davis – founder of Meraki People, leadership advisor and champion of building businesses where people genuinely thrive. Kate’s journey into entrepreneurship was anything but straightforward. From starting her career in law, to live events and then corporate change management, she eventually built a business h...
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  Robert Edmonds: ON Getting the right balance between Clients and Creativity 08.04.2026 43min

  Most businesses talk about creativity. But the real question is – who is creativity actually for? On this week’s episode of The Merri-Cast, I’m joined by Robert Edmonds - founder of NRG Studios, a creative agency helping organisations bring their stories to life through content, events and campaigns. Robert’s career began in broadcast television, working on major productions and building his craft in an environment where storytelling really matters. That experience has clearly shaped how h...
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  David Liddle: ON Self-Belief and Protecting Your Culture 25.03.2026 57min

  Most businesses don’t lose their culture overnight… they lose it as they grow. On this week’s episode of The Merri-Cast, I’m joined by David Liddle – Founder and CEO of The TCM Group and the People & Culture Institute. He’s a leading UK voice on people, culture and leadership. His latest book, “People and Culture” explores many of the ideas we discuss in this episode - you can find it here. I’ve known David on and off for around 20 years, and it’s been fascinating to watch his journ...
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  Chris Mole: ON Scaling Fast, Selling Smart and Starting Again 25.02.2026 48min

  This week on The Merri-Cast, I’m joined by Chris Mole - founder of FounderON and former Founder & CEO of Molzi by Brainlabs. Chris started his first business days after finishing his A-levels. What followed was a journey fuelled by curiosity, commercial instinct and what he calls the superpower of naivety. After building and selling his Amazon agency Molzi, Chris found himself facing a challenge many entrepreneurs never talk about: what happens after the exit? In this...
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  Alison Jones: ON The Power of Writing and Surviving the 3am Doubts 11.02.2026 41min

  This week on The Merri-Cast, I’m joined by the fantastic Alison Jones — entrepreneur, publisher, author and coach. Alison built her career in senior roles at Oxford University Press and Palgrave Macmillan before stepping away from corporate life to create Practical Inspiration Publishing – a business that deliberately broke the traditional publishing rulebook. In this honest and wide-ranging conversation, we explore what it really means to go it alone – from those 3am doubts and c...
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  Jonathan Bowman-Perks: ON Leading Calmly Through Chaos 07.01.2026 53min

  This week on The Merri-Cast, I’m kicking off 2026 with an inspiring and forward-looking conversation with Jonathan Bowman-Perks MBE – leadership coach, former British Army Officer, author and host of the Inspiring Leadership podcast. Jonathan’s career spans 20 years in the British Army, senior roles at PwC, IBM and Penna, and decades working with CEOs and leadership teams at the very top of global organisations. In this episode, we explore Jonathan’s journey – from early lessons...
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  A Year of Great Conversations: Our 2025 Highlights 16.12.2025 16min

  This end-of-year episode is a moment to pause and reflect on some of our brilliant guest insights from the past 12 months – completely honest conversations about the entrepreneurial and leadership journey. So many great insights – and we wish we had the room to include everyone. For this round-up episode, thank you to Bobby Dutton, Assim Ishaque, Zareen Roohi Ahmed, Emily Gill, Richard Barkey, Mindy Gibbins-Klein and Jenny Garrett for your gems and for making this episode a joy to put togeth...
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  David Horne: ON Tackling Funding Inequality 25.11.2025 44min

  This week on The Merri-Cast, I’m joined by the inspiring David B. Horne – founder of Add Then Multiply and Funding Focus. In this episode, we explore his career, one that spans global finance, corporate leadership, and a mission to level the playing field for underrepresented founders. From collecting newspaper payments as a boy in Canada to raising £60 million in funding for AIM-listed companies, David’s journey is full lessons and reflections for anyone starting and growing thei...
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  Suvianna Grecu: ON Leading a Human-Centred Future for AI 11.11.2025 29min

  This week on The Merri-Cast, I’m delighted to be joined by Suvianna Grecu – Founder of AI for Change Foundation and DevCraft Agency, and a passionate advocate for ethical, inclusive and human-centred AI. Suvianna’s career story is an interesting one. A law graduate turned serial entrepreneur, she first built DevCraft, creating custom AI chatbots, before realising that the conversation around AI needed to change. Out of this realisation came AI for Change, a non-profit organisation...
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  Steve Ramona: ON Why Your Network is Your Net Worth 28.10.2025 46min

  This week on The Merri-Cast, I’m joined by the brilliant Steve Ramona, host of Doing Business with a Servant’s Heart podcast. Steve is all about the network – he describes himself as a “super connector” specialising in impactful partnerships through personalised introductions. That doesn’t really cover it though. He specialises in the energy industry and is involved in $5bn dollar worth of projects and $125 million in partner deals. From his early days at his family’s health clu...
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  Charles Skinner: ON Humility, Failure, Resilience and Reinvention 16.10.2025 38min

  This week on The Merri-Cast, I’m delighted to be joined by Charles Skinner – CEO of Restore plc. I first met Charles 30 years ago and I have a lot to thank him for. He was the man who gave me my first job in journalism at Management Today magazine. Charles’s own career and entrepreneur journey is as fascinating as it is varied. From an early career in investment banking and private equity, then magazine editor, then CEO of several quoted companies before returning to Restore as CEO in t...
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  Jenny Garrett OBE: ON Playing the Long Game and Why AI is our Mirror 01.10.2025 48min

  This week on The Merri-Cast, I’m joined by the fantastic Jenny Garrett OBE – an award-winning Author, Speaker, Thought Leader and Founder of Jenny Garrett Global. Jenny’s entrepreneurial journey didn’t begin with a grand plan. It started cautiously, carving out one day a week to test her new coaching path. Now, it’s a thriving business that is 20 years strong. Along the way, Jenny has become a leading voice in inclusive leadership and empowerment, helping women and underrepresente...
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  Mindy Gibbins-Klein: ON Leading With Purpose and Why We Need Thoughtful Leaders 16.09.2025 40min

  This week on The Merri-Cast podcast, we had the pleasure of speaking with Mindy Gibbins-Klein – Founder of The Book Midwife and Giving 1%. Mindy describes herself as an “accidental entrepreneur”, but what an accident it turned out to be! Redundancy pushed her into building a career that’s empowered thousands of authors, leaders and entrepreneurs to share their stories with the world. In our conversation, Mindy shares powerful insights that will inspire anyone thinking about writin...
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  Richard Barkey: ON Reinventing Yourself and Coaching through AI 03.09.2025 43min

  This week on The Merri-Cast podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Richard Barkey – Founder and CEO of Imparta. I first met Richard almost 20 years ago, when his sharp questions about PR effectiveness left a lasting impression on me. Since then, he’s gone on to build and scale a business in a sector that is notoriously difficult to grow. How has he done it? With curiosity, resilience and innovation at every turn. In our conversation, Richard shared his journey and valu...
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  Celebrating the Life and Ideas of Charles Handy 19.08.2025 46min

  After a short Summer break, we’re back with a very special episode of The Merri-Cast. We depart from our usual format to pay tribute to the late, great Charles Handy – social philosopher, visionary thinker and one of the most influential voices in leadership and management. Charles’s insights heavily shaped my own journalistic and entrepreneurial journey. And his books including The Age of Unreason, The Elephant and The Flea, and The Second Curve, continue to inspire entrepreneurs, lead...
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  Emily Gill: ON Believing That Anything Is Possible and Embracing Imperfection 22.07.2025 33min

  What do you do when the career you worked so hard for no longer feels right? And how do you build something new that’s driven by purpose, not pressure? This week on The Merri-Cast, I’m joined by Emily Gill – Co-Founder of human skills platform Levra and a qualified coach. In this episode, Emily shares her fascinating career journey from lawyer to Oxford MBA student, to entrepreneurs. It’s full of insight, humility and real-world lessons. Other key highlights include: • Her fat...