Jo Drake | Living Technology Legend...and CTO @ THG

In this thought-provoking episode, we sit down with David Wascha, a seasoned product and technology leader whose career spans major names like Microsoft, Travelex, Moo and Zoopla. David opens up about the lessons he’s learned across industries, the evolving role of technology in shaping great products, and how his family life has profoundly influenced his leadership style and career decisions. It’s an honest conversation about ambition, balance, and what it really means to lead with purpose.

Jason Oakley is the CEO of Afin Bank, where he leads a dynamic and diverse team united by a clear purpose: to redefine value in financial services through innovation, agility, and purpose-driven leadership. With nearly 40 years of experience in banking and investment, Jason has a consistent track record of launching, scaling, and guiding businesses to success across a wide range of markets.At the core of Jason’s leadership is a deep passion for building high-performing teams creating the right conditions for people to thrive while bringing bold, entrepreneurial ideas to life. His latest venture, Afin Bank, reflects that vision and is currently poised to receive its full UK banking licence.Jason holds an MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School and a Fintech Disruption Certificate from Cambridge Judge Business School, among several other professional finance qualifications. He believes deeply in the power of innovation, trust, and people and his career reflects a unique blend of strategic vision, entrepreneurial drive, and a passion for transforming the future of finance.

In episode 41 of Leaders & Founders, we sit down with Nicole Olbe, a true force in fintech and the current UK Managing Director at Adyen UK - one of the world's most innovative payment platforms. With a career spanning Barclaycard, The Logic Group, and Verifone, Nicole brings unmatched expertise in global financial services, strategic partnerships, and payment innovation. She also opens up about her journey into leadership, the challenges and rewards of creating inclusive teams, and why diversity isn’t just a buzzword - it’s a business imperative.Whether you're in fintech, payments, tech leadership, or just love hearing from inspiring changemakers, this episode is packed with insights into life at Adyen and why the world of payments is so fast paced and exciting!

Jas Shah is a Fintech Product Leader, who has spent over 16 years ideating, developing and helping bring products to life in fintech and FS organisations.He's worked with organisations and led the build and launch of Digital Banks, Open Banking Products, Payments Systems, Trading Platforms, and many other FS products for consumers, businesses and enterprise, as well as advising several Seed and Scale up fintechs. It was great to sit down with Jas and discuss all things Product and Fintech. Tune in to hear:Where big banks are going wrong when it comes to innovation. What the future of Product looks like in an AI world. How founders can approach Product in the early days of scaling. Plenty of analogies (he is the king of analogiesReach out to him if you're looking for fintech product expertise for your for your bank, fintech, accelerator or innovation studio.

Hold on tight—this one’s a game-changer!In this episode of Leaders & Founders, we’re joined by the incredible Beth Horn, UK Managing Director at Pinterest—one of the world’s most inspiring and fastest-growing digital platforms.Beth is a powerhouse in the tech and digital space, with an impressive career spanning Meta, Spotify, and search-driven commerce before taking the helm at Pinterest UK. As MD, she’s driving commercial growth, partnerships, and innovation, helping businesses, creators, and users unlock the full potential of the platform.Outside of work, she is a passionate music and theatre fan and calls sunny Scotland her favourite place on the planet. Beth recently invited us to her London home to share insight on what 2025 looks like for Pinterest, the huge mission she is embarking on, and of course, we are ever-grateful for her kind hospitality and incredible Home DIY inspo!Pinterest: The Platform That Inspires ActionUnlike traditional social media, Pinterest is a place to plan, not just scroll. With over half a billion monthly users, the platform continues to grow while others struggle—proving that people crave a positive, forward-thinking digital space.🔹 1.5 billion Pins are saved every week🔹 10 billion boards globally🔹 85% of users visit Pinterest to plan a project—from home makeovers to career goals🔹 96% of searches are unbranded, making Pinterest a discovery powerhouse🔹 80% of users find new brands on the platform—a goldmine for businessesPinterest isn’t just about inspiration—it’s about taking action. Users come to the platform with intent, and with Pins lasting 6-12 months, content here has staying power far beyond the fleeting moments of other platforms.What’s Inside This Episode?We go deep with Beth on:✅ What makes Pinterest different from traditional social media✅ The secret behind Pinterest Predicts—an 80% accurate trend report shaping industries✅ The future of digital discovery & commerce—and how Pinterest is leading the charge✅ How to build high-performing teams and create a winning culture✅ What’s next for Pinterest in 2025 (PS: Cherry Red & Fisherman Aesthetic, anyone?)If you're in tech, e-commerce, social media, or leadership, this episode is packed with insights, strategies, and inspiration you won’t want to miss.🔊 Tune in now and get ahead of the trends before they happen!

Leda is a seasoned fintech executive and former banker, with a career spanning two decades working in transformation and technology functions across a variety of financial services verticals. She is the author of best-selling book‘Bankers Like Us: Dispatches from an Industry in Transition’ (Taylor and Francis, 2023) and of the upcoming‘Beyond Resilience: Patterns of Success in Fintech and Digital Transformation’ (Taylor and Francis, 2025). She a frequent keynote speaker at flagship industry events globally including Sibos, M20/20, Finovate as well as specialist regional and corporate events for banks, tech companies, issuers and regulators; and she is the author of the highly acclaimed #LedaWrites column on Fintech Futures. Leda is a Visiting Professor of Practice for the University of Loughborough London, focusing on fintech and the digital economy. She works as an external advisor to boards and executive teams for banks, financial institutions and technology companies globally, supporting leadership teams in transition: be it a process of transforming themselves, their business or their software infrastructure. Additionally, Leda works with established technology and younger fintech companies as a board director and advisor . Leda is the Chairman of the Board for Bourn and recently served as a Non Executive Director for Flagstone (who achieved one of the highest capital raises of its kind in the UK with backing from Estancia Capital). She was a NED at Simply Pay Me (until its acquisition by MyTown Technologies) and she chaired the Board of Geophy (now a Walker and Dunlop company) through its successful exit. Leda served as the Chief Client Officer of 10x Banking and the founding CEO of 11:FS Foundry (both in the cloud-native core banking space); she was the Chief Innovation Officer of Qatar National Bank and held a variety of innovation and transformation roles at BNY Mellon. Leda completed her undergraduate studies at King’s College Cambridge and holds an MSc and PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Want to know how to get that promotion you've always wanted? Ever wondered how some people are able to secure such a better package than you, despite doing the same job? Do you want to truly understand why you and only you are in control of your destiny? If you answered 'yes' to any of those questions, then this episode if for you! -------------------------------------------------------------- Our first episode back in 2025 brings us incredible insight from Jeremy Burns, Technology Advisor, Leader and Author of best-selling 'Earn More, Move Up'. In 'Earn More, Move Up', Jeremy dispels many misconceptions surrounding the appraisal, promotion and bonus review process. Often viewed as highly stressful and great opportunities, there is of course a correct way to plan for these events to maximise your own earning potential and development. Throughout his career, he has gained valuable insight on both sides of the fence (Manager <> Team Member), and has created a best-in-class guide for anyone in the professional world (regardless of industry) to ensure you reach your full potential. We explore and dive into the following super interesting areas:         •       Misunderstandings about pay raises, bonuses, and promotions:        •       Why you can’t barter for these in performance reviews.        •       The importance of a personal brand and connecting with the right people.        •       Ensuring the right people see the value you create.        •       The hierarchy of priorities: Customer -> Company -> Team -> Us. With a technology and leadership career spanning 30 years, Jeremy has worked with some of the UK's most successful technology businesses. Originally starting life in insurance and then marketing, he quickly earned his stripes in the world of investment banking, which led him on his path to technology leadership. What followed were successful leadership positions at companies such as Contentful, The Times, Clearbank and many others, to name a few. We are extremely grateful for the time we spent with Jeremy. We took so many learnings from this and thoroughly enjoyed getting to understand his view of the market, the industry and of course, learn how to achieve more in our own business! We're sure you'll love this one too...

Jo Drake is a highly accomplished technology leader and current CTO at THG, one of the UK’s most recognisable and successful e-commerce businesses. Once an aspiring professional tennis player, Jo was thrown into the world of technology when a career-ending injury changed her direction of travel. But what a change this was, with Jo’s career becoming a huge success that has seen her lead organisations at some of the world’s most successful technology companies, including THG, Betfair, Skyscanner, Wood Mackenzie and BBC. A huge sports fanatic - F1, football, tennis and horse racing are her go-to’s - Jo takes great inspiration from the intersection between sport and business. She is constantly looking to build the best team possible and make sure her players are in the right position, with the right coaches guiding them. She is very much a people-first leader that strives to develop her teams as best as possible, and loves challenging herself in every role that she does. In this episode, we get a glimpse behind the curtain at what has led Jo to becoming one of the UK’s most successful female technology leaders and previous CIO #100 winner. We also get the scoop on what THG - who run brands including LOOKFANTASTIC, MyProtein, ESPA and many more - are up to and how she leads this diverse and complex business. We also touch on how she tied the knot in a helicopter in Las Vegas, why Tottenham are both a blessing and a curse and of course, what tips she has for aspiring leaders. We love Jo, and we know you will too!

Carl is an inspirational leader that is currently guiding the incredible team at Super Payments as CTO. With a rich history of building and leading high-performing teams at businesses such as Beauty Pie, Funding Circle, GfK and a global credit business, it's safe to say that Carl gets leadership and how to build highly efficient teams. In this episode, we dive deep into what has led Carl to where he is today, as well as the amazing story of Super Payments. In 2022, Super closed one of Europe's largest ever funding rounds of £22.5M to supercharge their effort to take the payments industry head on. Founded by former Funding Circle Co-Founder Samir Desai, they are backed by leading Investors including Accel Partners, Union Square Ventures and LocalGlobe. They aim to save merchants and customers Billions of £'s in fees with their simple and easy to use platform, with their universal customer loyalty app opening the door to huge savings for customers, and increased sales for merchants and retailers. We also discuss how to build high-performing teams, what being a leader genuinely means and of course, anti-patterns and why they should be considered when building engineering squads and technology organisations. We loved this episode and truly hope you do too! We can't wait to see what Carl, his awesome team and Super go on to accomplish next!

Phil is a VP Engineering at Google, where throughout a 9-year tenure he's led a number of technical teams, including the Site Reliability Engineering group for Google Cloud Platform and Google's internal Technical Infrastructure. A UK native, Phil holds a BA in Mathematics from Oxford University and before joining Google, he spent 17 years as Chief Architect at Fidessa, where he led teams that designed and built databases and middleware technology for highperformance trading systems. He's passionate about the transformational opportunities created by Cloud computing, has a strong customer focus, and deep expertise in building highly reliable distributed infrastructure at scale. Phil has some incredible insight into what it takes to scale a company from 50 -> 2,000 people (Fidessa), just what working at Google is like on the west coast and of course, how we can all navigate a turbulent tech landscape in 2023. We hope you enjoy this one!