Disrupt by Distology

We're so excited to introduce the brilliant Lisa Venture, CEO & Founder of the UK Cyber Security Association, on our next episode of Disrupt by Distology.  Hosted by our CEO, Hayley Roberts, they're discussing Lisa's journey into the tech industry, the impact of understanding and talking about Neurodiversity, the future of Tech in a post-COVID world & of course, Lisa's wonderful win of CISO magazine’s InfoSec Superwoman of 2020!

We're kicking off the first episode of 'Disrupt by Distology' by raising awareness of cyber security with the brilliant Ian Murphy, Co-Founder, LMNTRIX, CEO of CyberOff, scouser & general comedy genius - There isn't a better place to start really! Ian progressed into Tech after an interest in computers at a young age whilst completing an Apprenticeship in Mechanics. He later studied IT at University and worked with the ministry of defence which kickstarted Ian into the world of IT & Security. Join Hayley & Ian for a hoot of an episode as they talk about Ian's journey into technology and why funny works!

We're excited to launch the first episode of our new podcast series: Tech Team Talks, hosted by our Technical Manager, Chris Collier! As we're reaching the end of our Join the Club: Women in STEM campaign, it only seemed right to have Alice Broadhurst as the guest for the first episode! The Join the Club campaign opened with her incredible win of Technical Employee of the Year at CRN's Women in Channel Awards 2020, so it only seemed right to close it with this podcast & discover Alice's thoughts on the win, the campaign and the Women in Tech topic as a whole! Join Chris & Alice, for an inspiring and thought provoking episode!

Welcome to this month’s episode of Disrupt! In this episode, Hayley sits down with Sally Nursten, to discuss her journey into tech, transferable skills and perceptions and stereotypes in the IT industry. Sally began her career as a ballet dancer, training relentlessly at The Royal School of Ballet and Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. After a career-ending injury, Sally swiftly moved into production where she worked as a runner and soon became the assistant producer. Finding love for media, she has worked in a variety of media roles, such as writing for Big Brother, PR and marketing consultancy. Sally is now the chief marketing officer at ITHQ an award-winning tech solutions company. Discussion Points Intro [00:00 - 00:30] Sally’s path into tech [00:31 - 02:30] Transferable skills: ballet dancer to working in the media [02:31 - 04:44] First job: fake it till you make it [04:45 - 05:46] What drove Sally to learn media? [05:57 - 08:00] Which of Sally’s past skills have helped her in business today? [08:00 - 10:09] Ballet, tech or media? [10:10 - 13:02] What does a CMO do on a day-to-day basis [13:03 - 14:19] Perceptions of women in the tech world [14:20 - 25:42] Calling out behaviours in business [25:25 - 27:59] Tips on staying authentic and being truly authentic [28:00 - 31:43] Who inspires Sally the most [31:44 - 33:30] What advice would Sally give to her younger self? [33:31 - 34:55] Favourite pub snack? [34:56 - end]

Welcome to this month’s episode of Disrupt! In this episode, Hayley sits down with Managing Director at SHI Corporation, Donavan Hutchinson, to discuss his journey into tech and how business leaders can be doing more to encourage diversity and inclusion in the workplace, without it being a tick-box exercise. Like many people who work in tech today, Donavan started on a completely different career path. After leaving school, Donavan joined the army at a very young age, but during his recovery time after having an accident he found a job working in sales for a value-added reseller (VAR), Insight, and eventually the top sales rep there. He is now the managing director of the award-winning IT company SHI Corporation and is passionate about making change within the IT channel - especially when it comes to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Listen to the full episode to learn more about creating diverse groups in the workplace and the steps business leaders can be taking towards encouraging open-mindedness. Discussion Points How did you get into the industry? From the army to tech The transition from army to sales, what did you learn and why did you stay? Pinkwashing, rainbow capitalism and copycat syndrome What have you changed at SHI to make it more inclusive? Have you seen productivity increase due to the groups you’ve created?  What drives you? What hurdles have you jumped through to get to where you are today? Coming out during IT career. Challenging organisations and others. Becoming authentic self. What advice would you give to other organisations/leaders to encourage open-mindedness? What can we hire taking D&I into consideration, without tick-boxing?  What do you see the next 5 years looking like for you and your organisation? Actions vs likes on social media How can organisations do better to help with mental health? Who inspires you the most? Advice you’d give your younger self?  Favourite pub snack: crisps, nuts or olives? Follow Donavan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/donavan-hutchinson-b767a811/ Follow Hayley - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayley-roberts-69b5562/ Follow Distology - @Distology https://www.linkedin.com/company/9222136/ About Disrupt Disrupt is a podcast where host Hayley Roberts, CEO of cybersecurity distributor, Distology, is joined by guests to challenge the stereotypes in the IT industry and highlight the innovative ways businesses are working and overcoming these issues. And generally just having a good time being disruptive!

Welcome to this month’s episode of Disrupt! Hayley sat down with CEO of ANS Group - Paul Shannon, and discussed his journey into tech and how business leaders can be doing more to recruit talent into the industry. Despite not succeeding in academia, Paul found a love for technology at an early age. He quickly realised studying business and economics at university was not for him, and landed his first IT job working as internal support. Working for VM-Aware was the turning point in Paul’s career, where he truly realised what he wanted to do with his career. In 2009 he began working for the tech firm, ANS Group, where he said yes to all the opportunities that came his way, and eventually became CEO. Discussion Points How did you get into this industry? What’s your career journey? [01:10 - 03:33] Saying yes to the opportunities in life [03:30 - 04:51] Regrets about not finishing university [04:52 - 05:44] What drives you? [05:45 - 07:22] From game tester to CEO at ANS Group [07:23 - 09:03] Recruiting and retaining staff in 2022 [09:04 - 10:12] UK Fast and ANS Group merger challenges [10:13 - 13:02 What are you passionate about in the IT industry? How can you get more people involved? [13:03 - 14:43] Diversity and Inclusion in the IT industry [14:44 - 17:31] Rapid advancements in technology and the future of ANS [17:32 - 19:09] The great resignation and staff retention [19:10 - 22:09] Recruiting and training employees with no tech experience [22:10 - 24:37] Who has inspired you the most? [24:38 - 25:47] What advice would you give to your younger self? [25:48 - 26:40] Favourite pub snack? Crisps, nuts or olives? [26:41 - 27:25]

We're excited to be joined by CEO of In4Group, Mo Isap for our first episode of Season 2 for Disrupt, hosted by our CEO, Hayley Roberts! Join both Hayley and Mo as they discuss how businesses are becoming "lazy hirers" as well as the invisible and visible barriers for candidates vs the barriers of employers.

In the final episode of our Join The Club podcast series for 2021, Hayley is joined by Grace Shaffi, Distology's Senior Technical Specialist. As someone who has experienced significant career changes in her life moving from a teaching role to cyber security, Grace is talking about the importance of looking for transferable skills when recruiting for your business - and how candidates can communicate their skillsets better during the application process.

In this podcast series, Hayley is joined by some of the most highly respected business leaders to discuss their thoughts on the current situation of women in STEM and what we can do to help more people to ‘Join the Club’. For this episode, Hayley is joined by Culture Director at CAE Technology Services, Aggrey Lutta where they discuss Aggrey's experience seeing people grow and develop in their careers, how the tech industry has matured, and the different working situations that have evolved post pandemic.

In this podcast series, Hayley is joined by some of the most highly respected business leaders to discuss their thoughts on the current situation of women in STEM and what we can do to help more people to ‘Join the Club’.   For the first episode of this series, Hayley is joined by Group Business Development Director for Certus Recruitment Group, Charlotte Hallam where they discuss diverse talent pools, the technology and sales buzz and how there’s something for everyone in the technology industry.

In this podcast series, Hayley Roberts is joined by some of the most highly respected business leaders to discuss their thoughts on the current situation of women in STEM and what we can do to help more people to ‘Join the Club’. In our final episode, it was about time we flipped the tables and interviewed the interviewer! So, in episode 8, Claire Stott, our Marketing Manager is interviewing Hayley Roberts, CEO of Distology to gain her insight into the tech industry, experience and how she balances home and work life – most importantly find out what her ideal Come Dine With Me course would be! As we have released the individual interviews with the team across the past 6 weeks of the campaign, the question we kept to ourselves was: 'If you could ask Hayley one question, what would it be?' and now it’s time to let you in on the thought provoking answers that Hayley provided. ‘Success is subjective – if you’re making a difference and that’s what you want then that is successful’ – Tune in to discover more about Hayley.

In this podcast series, Hayley is joined by some of the most highly respected business leaders to discuss their thoughts on the current situation of women in STEM and what we can do to help more people to ‘Join the Club’. In episode 7, Hayley is joined by Nima Sherpa Green, Multimedia Editor for CRN and Channel Partner Insight! Nima’s varied experience has taken her around the world writing for the likes of Vice Magazine, The Guardian, The Flash Pack Travel, Huffington Post, before ending up at Incisive Media writing for Incisive Media in the UK. Responsible for creating the Women in Channel Awards and Women in Tech Festival, CRN & Incisive Media demonstrate that through exposes, news and events we can all be protagonists of positive change.

In this podcast series, Hayley is joined by some of the most highly respected business leaders to discuss their thoughts on the current situation of women in STEM and what we can do to help more people to ‘Join the Club’. In episode 6, Hayley is joined by Kate Wood, Founder of Culture as a Service! Kate Wood is the leading expert for creating cultural change within businesses. Kate was the Culture Director for Chess and founder of Engage Your People Ltd before setting up Culture as a Service in 2020. Kate continually drives the Women in Technology agenda and sits on the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partner Board, Women in Technology North, Women in Technology UK Boards and Women of the Channel Advisory Board.

In this podcast series, Hayley is joined by some of the most highly respected business leaders to discuss their thoughts on the current situation of women in STEM and what we can do to help more people to ‘Join the Club’. In episode 4, Hayley is joined by Stephen Rowlands, Sales Director of Distology! Steve heads up the Sales team at Distology which is one of the company's fastest growing department in terms of headcount. This rapid growth requires an eye for identifying talent and skillset that will further enhance the team's structure and existing strengths. Steve has a wealth of experience to draw upon following his time as Sales Manager for the business development team at Virgin Media and uses this to carefully craft a close-knit sales team that strive for success without bias towards gender.

In this podcast series, Hayley is joined by some of the most highly respected business leaders to discuss their thoughts on the current situation of women in STEM and what we can do to help more people to ‘Join the Club’. In episode 3, Hayley is joined by Shelina Begum, CEO of Shelina Begum Media! Shelina is an award-winning English journalist and host of the Working Mama’s podcast series. She was chosen as one of the 100 role models in the EU’s gender/race equality campaign and was featured in the Northern Powerhouse Women power list 50 in 2020. Shelina is the former business editor for the Manchester Evening News and GMBW exploring themes such as the lack of female representation in senior leadership roles.

In this podcast series, Hayley is joined by some of the most highly respected business leaders to discuss their thoughts on the current situation of women in STEM and what we can do to help more people to ‘Join the Club’. In episode 2, Hayley is joined by Gemma McCall, CEO of Culture Shift! Gemma is CEO and co-founder of software development business Culture Shift that builds products such as Report + Support to empower organisations to tackle harassment and bullying in the workplace and in educational environments such as universities. By building a company based on values of empathy, courage, and innovation, Gemma is driven to use technology to create positive change for people all over the world.

Annabel is not only CEO of Sapphire but is also host of the popular podcast series SecuriTea & Two Sugars. Annabel has been recognised by CRN as one of the most influential women in the UK IT channel and has been included in their A-List for 2019 and 2020. Annabel is an active advocate of encouraging more women into the cyber security industry and excels in leadership and development.

Drum roll please... Introducing our brand new podcast Delve hosted by our very own Chief Product Officer Lance Williams! Featuring special guests in each episode, Delve has been created to take us deep into technology, trends and those areas that may be confusing to understand. In our first episode, Lance is joined by founder of the Cyber Hut, and expert in digital identity, access and information security, Simon Moffatt where they unpack the cybersecurity predictions for 2022, worries and concerns of key IT decision makers from across the UK.

Join Chief Product Officer for Distology, Lance Williams as he hosts our Disruptor Day panel session to discuss what customer identity is, the importance of customer experience and the rise in businesses become tech-based with panel guests: Founder for Atlas, Stephen Williams and Founder & Analyst, The Cyber Hut, Simon Moffatt

Join Chief Product Officer for Distology, Lance Williams, Okta’s Customer Success Director for EMEA, Andy Bryars and M.D. & Founder for Atlas, Stephen Williams for our Disruptor Day workshop 1 as they delve into the evolution of identity, the common misconceptions and complementary integrations as well as your chance to ask them questions