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Rating
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This podcast has
251 episodes
Language
EnglishPublisher
Andy FollowsExplicit
No
Date created
2021/02/15
Latest episode
2025/12/08
Average duration
39 min.
Release period
8 days
Description
CAREER-VIEW MIRROR offers career lessons from the experiences of senior leaders and rising stars in the exciting global automotive industry. Aquilae's Managing Director, Andy Follows, hosts candid conversations, reflecting on their career journeys to help you with yours.
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Check latest episodes from CAREER-VIEW MIRROR - biographies of colleagues in the automotive and mobility industries. podcast
Ep. 250 Side Mirror: Celebrating 250 Episodes and Sharing Some Changes
2025/12/08
This is episode 250 of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR. I searched how many podcasts make it to 250 episodes and am advised it's less than 2%.
We published our first episode on 1 March 2021 and have published weekly on Mondays at midnight in the UK ever since. Our initial aim was to celebrate the lives and career stories of senior leaders and rising stars in the global automotive industry.
Along the way we evolved and added Side Mirror episodes to cover specific topics. Sometimes we invite along a guest expert and other times like this episode I fly solo.
I'm going to take the opportunity of this being a landmark episode to share a little about what I hope to achieve from all these conversations and let you know about some exciting changes as we continue to evolve.
I am happy to guess that a large proportion of our weekly audience is made up of transient listeners who join to listen to a specific guest, perhaps a friend or colleague or senior leader from their organisation. I'll say more about the value of this later.
It's difficult to be sure but I have a sense from the data that we are privileged to also have a loyal core of regular listeners. I don't believe you're a huge group but what you lack in numbers you make up for in taste and intelligence and I imagine looks and I am incredibly grateful for you showing up each week. The changes I'm going to talk about later will mostly affect you, I hope to your benefit, so please do keep listening to find out more.
About Andy
I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—a simple, practical way to help leaders cut through silos, get people pulling in the same direction, and build ownership and accountability, so organisations perform better and their people thrive.
Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and delivered leadership programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In 2016, I founded Aquilae (The Fulfilling Performance Company) to support CEOs and senior leaders in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, peer mentoring, and coaching, we help reduce the unseen friction that drags on performance — and create teams where people deliver, grow, and work constructively together.
I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world to surface insights leaders can apply in their own context.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
If you enjoy hearing our guests’ career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.
Episode recorded on 4 December, 2025.
Ep. 249 Side Mirror: Billionaires with Six Packs
2025/12/01
In this Side Mirror, I want to talk about something we all experience — the knowing–doing gap.
We live in a world where more knowledge is available to us than to any humans who lived before us. And yet… if knowledge alone were enough, we’d all be billionaires with six-packs by now.
Clearly, there’s more to performance than just information.
Today, I want to explore why that gap exists — and invite you to cross it by actually using the Fulfilling Performance framework, rather than simply understanding it intellectually.
About Andy
I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—a simple, practical way to help leaders cut through silos, get people pulling in the same direction, and build ownership and accountability, so organisations perform better and their people thrive.
Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and delivered leadership programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In 2016, I founded Aquilae (The Fulfilling Performance Company) to support CEOs and senior leaders in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, peer mentoring, and coaching, we help reduce the unseen friction that drags on performance — and create teams where people deliver, grow, and work constructively together.
I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world to surface insights leaders can apply in their own context.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
EIf you enjoy hearing our guests’ career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.
Episode recorded on 26 November, 2025.
Ep. 248 Hacia Atherton: Culture That Pays - Empowering Women in Trades
2025/11/24
Hacia Atherton is the author of The Billion Dollar Blind$pot, global speaker, and the first female CEO of a major plumbing company in Australia. After surviving a near-fatal horse-riding accident, Hacia turned personal adversity into a global mission—founding Empowered Women in Trades and championing a new era of leadership grounded in psychological safety, inclusive strategy, and bold cultural reform across male-dominated industries.
In our conversation, we talk about Hacia’s family background as the fifth generation of a successful Australian business, and how the complementary strengths of her parents—her father’s business discipline and her mother’s creativity—have influenced and inspired her.
We then follow an exploratory journey as Hacia heads toward commercial law, refines her choices, and consistently tests opportunities adjusting the mix of business and creativity until she’s truly forging her own path and bringing everything she’s learned to each new role.
There’s a wonderful moment on the shop floor, learning to weld, when a simple piece of feedback reframes her thinking about gender in trades—a spark that ultimately contributes to founding Empowered Women in Trades.
Her story is brutally interrupted by a serious accident in 2017. We talk about the incident, her long recovery, and how she applied positive psychology to keep moving forward—demonstrating servant leadership even in rehab.
Finally, we discuss her book, The Billion Dollar Blind$pot, which explores the link between workplace culture and financial performance.
I loved getting to know Hacia through this conversation and I’m excited to share it with you. I look forward to hearing what resonates.
We don’t talk explicitly about Fulfilling Performance in this episode, but Hacia’s story is a live example. As you listen, I encourage you to notice the four Guiding Principles at work — Know Why, Be Clear, Equip Yourself, Support Others.
Connect with Hacia
LinkedIn
Billion Dollar Blind$pot book
Website
Empowered Women in Trades
About Andy
I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework.
Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
Episode recorded on 17 November, 2025.
Ep. 247 Side Mirror: The Curse of Knowledge
2025/11/17
In this Side Mirror, I explore a blind spot that affects all of us. It’s something that slowly creeps in as we gain experience, and it quietly widens the gap between what we think our people understand and what they actually do.
I’ll share a couple of recent examples — one from a global organisation trying to gather insight, and another from a leader who chose a more hands-on approach — plus a slightly embarrassing personal story from early in my automotive career.
All of them highlight the same human tendency… one that reduces Clarity, Capability, Culture and Purpose without us even noticing.
About Andy
I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—a simple, practical way to help leaders cut through silos, get people pulling in the same direction, and build ownership and accountability, so organisations perform better and their people thrive.
Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and delivered leadership programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In 2016, I founded Aquilae (The Fulfilling Performance Company) to support CEOs and senior leaders in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, peer mentoring, and coaching, we help reduce the unseen friction that drags on performance — and create teams where people deliver, grow, and work constructively together.
I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world to surface insights leaders can apply in their own context.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
If you enjoy hearing our guests’ career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.
Episode recorded on 15 November, 2025.
Ep. 246 Side Mirror: Marginal Gains and Fulfilling Performance
2025/11/10
My guests often share stories from their careers of stepping into a new role which they know is going to require them to grow but is also going to allow them to leverage knowledge, skills and experience that they have developed in multiple previous positions.
It's a very satisfying scenario to find ourselves in because we know that there's a good chance we will be able to bring more of what we've already got — our existing capability — to bear in this new position. It increases our opportunity to add value, perform well and experience fulfilment from doing so.
I was able to draw on my own roots and background experience recently when invited to a customer event. My past roles in fleet management, leasing, retail automotive finance and mobility consulting meant that I thoroughly enjoyed being immersed in the topics of the day alongside good people. What made it extra special was that it came with a completely unexpected and highly relevant link to the work that I do now to enable Fulfilling Performance.
About Andy
I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—a simple, practical way to help leaders cut through silos, get people pulling in the same direction, and build ownership and accountability, so organisations perform better and their people thrive.
Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and delivered leadership programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In 2016, I founded Aquilae (The Fulfilling Performance Company) to support CEOs and senior leaders in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, peer mentoring, and coaching, we help reduce the unseen friction that drags on performance — and create teams where people deliver, grow, and work constructively together.
I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world to surface insights leaders can apply in their own context.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
If you enjoy hearing our guests’ career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.
Episode recorded on 9 November, 2025.
Ep. 245 Glenn Wilson: Backing Himself — Building Digital Auto Finance in NZ and Australia
2025/11/03
Glenn is the Co-Founder of Simplify Holdings International, a company specialising in personal and automotive finance across New Zealand and Australia. Ten years ago, Glenn and his team spotted a gap in the New Zealand market—limited consumer finance options and an almost non-existent online experience—and built Simplify to solve it.
Today, over 17,000 customers have used Simplify, and the business is on track to write over $150 million in finance volume this financial year. Glenn now plays a more strategic role in the group while the day-to-day is led by the team.
In our conversation we talk about Glenn’s foundations: growing up just outside Melbourne, Australia, being told by a teacher at 16 that he’d prefer it if Glenn left school, and how he turned that moment into fuel. We revisit his early career in IT, leading teams older than him, and the leadership lesson that it’s more important to be respected than liked.
We explore his move to BMW Australia, starting in customer service, building relationships across the organisation, and the practical value of curiosity. We discuss the impact of losing his mum, a period of travel and reflection, and the shift from finance broking as a sole operator to deciding—after a pivotal Tony Robbins event in Los Angeles—to build a bigger business.
We then trace the path to Simplify: seeing the New Zealand opportunity, starting small, persevering through perceptions of being “too Australian,” growing a distributed team across NZ and Australia, installing a CEO, and stepping into a strategic role while keeping close to the team and partners.
Connect with Glenn
LinkedIn
Website
About Andy
I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.
Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.
I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world to surface insights leaders can apply in their own context.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.
Episode recorded on 23 October, 2025.
Ep. 244 Side Mirror: Four Real Stories of Handbrakes in Action
2025/10/27
When I introduce leaders to the Fulfilling Performance framework with its four Diagnostic Questions, they invariably appreciate its simplicity. They find Step 1 relatively easy. This is the part where we use the four questions to identify the most likely sources of unseen friction or handbrakes as we call them.
I covered Step 1 in last week's Side Mirror episode where I explained how Fulfilling Performance is a simple tool we can use to act on engagement every single day.
Step 2 is to consider options, decide on an action and create a plan to release the handbrake.
Depending on the nature of the handbrake, Step 2 can be more complex and less straightforward. The options at your disposal and the quality of your plan will vary according to your level of leadership capability, experience and authority.
When we get to Step 2 in our workshops, leaders often ask me to share handbrakes that I or previous participants have identified with examples of how they released them.
So in this episode, I want to share four stories from my own career—each one showing a handbrake in action, linked to one of the Four Fundamentals: Clarity, Capability, Culture, and Purpose.
They’re real examples of what happens when a Fundamental is lacking—and what could have been done to release the friction.
About Andy
I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—a simple, practical way to help leaders cut through silos, get people pulling in the same direction, and build ownership and accountability, so organisations perform better and their people thrive.
Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and delivered leadership programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In 2016, I founded Aquilae (The Fulfilling Performance Company) to support CEOs and senior leaders in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, peer mentoring, and coaching, we help reduce the unseen friction that drags on performance — and create teams where people deliver, grow, and work constructively together.
I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world to surface insights leaders can apply in their own context.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.
Episode recorded on 21 October, 2025.
Ep. 243 Side Mirror: A Simple Tool to Act on Engagement Every Single Day
2025/10/19
I was listening to an interview with Ellyn Shook recently. Ellyn is the Chief Human Resources Officer of Accenture where she is responsible for 774,000 people. She told Michael Gervais on his Finding Mastery podcast that if companies could figure out how to give their leaders tools to act on engagement every day they would see a big difference.
The Fulfilling Performance framework is that tool and in this Side Mirror episode I share how I introduce leaders to how it works and get them up and running with it in just a few hours.
About Andy
I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.
Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.
I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.
Episode recorded on 15 October, 2025.
Ep. 242 Side Mirror: Uncertainty High, Morale Low — Providing Clarity When You Don’t Have it Yourself
2025/10/12
In this Side Mirror, I share a recent frustration that a leader presented to me in a one to one and I use it as an example of how we can apply the Fulfilling Performance framework to a real world business issue - specifically a dip in engagement and morale caused by an impending organisational restructure.
About Andy
I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.
Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.
I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.
Episode recorded on 9 October, 2025.
Ep. 241 Side Mirror: When the Thing is Not the Thing
2025/10/06
In this Side Mirror, I want to talk about “the thing is not the thing.” It’s about those situations where what looks like the issue on the surface turns out not to be the real issue underneath.
For the amusing bit on how the UK has been shaped by immigration over the years:
Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, S03E02
About Andy
I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.
Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.
I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.
Episode recorded on 29 September, 2025.
Ep. 240 Side Mirror: Releasing Handbrakes - Don't Try to Boil the Ocean
2025/09/28
In today’s Side Mirror, I reflect on a week working with three different teams in Melbourne—one was a peer mentoring group and two were the leadership teams at automotive OEMs. It was a fulfilling week, and their feedback reminded me how quickly people can grasp the Fulfilling Performance framework—and how much more they want time to practice releasing handbrakes once they’ve spotted them.
So I want to share how you can move from identifying friction to defining practical actions—and why those actions need to be big enough to make a difference, but not so big that you try to “boil the ocean.”
About Andy
I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.
Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.
I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.
Episode recorded on 25 September, 2025.
Ep. 239 Richard Savoie: Intentional Choices and Pragmatic Turns on the Road From Corporate to Startup
2025/09/21
In this episode of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, we’re celebrating the career to date of Richard Savoie.
Richard is the co-founder and CEO of Adiona, which uses AI to power millions of efficient, lowest-carbon deliveries around the world for brands such as Coca-Cola and Amazon. He’s a sought-after speaker and thought leader on transport, mobility, and AI.
His career has taken him from New Hampshire to Boston, and eventually to Sydney, Australia, through roles at EMC, Smiths Medical, and Medtronic. Along the way, he’s gained experience across engineering, medical devices, and entrepreneurship — building resilience, adaptability, and the insight to eventually launch his own business in sustainable technology.
In our conversation, we talk about Richard’s early years in Nashua, New Hampshire, where family challenges and early responsibilities shaped his determination. He shares how severe asthma inspired him first toward medicine, then pivoted him into engineering after falling in love with physics.
We follow his path through Northeastern University, internships with Panametrics and EMC, and his transition into medical devices with Smiths Medical and Covidien. He reflects on career setbacks during the financial crisis, lessons from mentors, and the importance of empathy and relationships in leadership.
We also talk about his relocation to Australia, his experience running a small medical device company, and the difficult decision to leave after equity disagreements — a setback that ultimately led him into entrepreneurship. Richard describes how Adiona’s optimisation technology, developed through a partnership with Coca-Cola, delivered dramatic reductions in emissions and on-road time, and how branding, support structures, and resilience are critical to startup success.
Connect with Richard
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richsavoie/
Website: https://www.adionatech.com/
About Andy
I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.
Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.
Episode recorded on 09 September, 2025.
Ep. 238 Side Mirror with James Warren: Empathy at Scale - Unlocking Insight through Storytelling and AI
2025/09/14
In this Side Mirror episode, I’m joined by James Warren.
James Warren is the Founder and CEO of Share More Stories, a human experience insights company. The company’s primary offering is the SEEQ Platform, which helps organizations and brands uncover the emotional drivers behind employee and customer experiences. James is a researcher, strategist, writer and facilitator who blends storytelling, AI, and insights to help companies better understand themselves, their customers, and their communities. With nearly 30 years of experience in marketing, insights, strategy, and innovation, he is passionate about the intersections of humanity, technology, brands, communities, and culture. An active community leader, he volunteers on several boards. He studied economics and literature at Princeton, and creative writing at Columbia. Originally from New York, James now calls Richmond home.
In our conversation, James shares his journey from corporate life at Altria to creating a storytelling platform that helps organisations uncover the emotional drivers behind customer and employee experiences. We talk about vulnerability, leadership, and how creating space for people to share their stories can deepen connection and engagement. James also introduces SEEQ GPT, a new tool that uses generative AI to analyse stories and deliver context-rich insights while preserving human nuance.
Connect with James
Connect with James on LinkedIn
Connect with Share More Stories on LinkedIn
IG + YT: @warrenjwric
IG + YT: @sharemorestories
Web: sharemorestories.com | SEEQPlatform.com
About Andy
I'm an experienced business leader and a passionate developer of people in the automotive finance industry, internationally.
During over twenty years, I have played a key role in developing businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Corporate Finance UK, BMW Financial Services Singapore, BMW Financial Services New Zealand and Tesla Financial Services UK.
At the same time, I have coached individuals and delivered leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe and North America.
I started Aquilae in 2016 to enable “Fulfilling Performance” in the mobility industry, internationally.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a guided peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.
Episode recorded on 08 September, 2025.
Ep. 237 Davina Saranna: Carrying a Legacy and Forging Her Own Path With Top Women in EV
2025/09/07
In this episode of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, we’re celebrating the career to date of Daveena Saranna.
Daveena is the EV Campaigns Manager at Green.TV Media, where she heads up Top Women in EV—making waves in both sustainability and media. With a career that includes Everything Electric, EZOO, Blenheim Palace, and the England Men’s & Mixed Netball Association, she’s mastered the art of blending content, sustainability, and being a 25-year-old woman with a big passion for what she does.
In our conversation, we talk about Daveena’s entrepreneurial family story, beginning with her grandfather moving to the UK from India and her father going on to establish Europe’s largest independent Porsche dealership. We explore her early exposure to the family business, and how her parents’ complementary skills shaped her understanding of leadership and teamwork.
We also cover her personal journey through education, including the challenges of dyslexia and a later autism diagnosis, and how she turned setbacks into determination—securing her place at Warwick University and becoming the first woman in her wider family to graduate with a first.
Daveena shares her perspective on the importance of role models, particularly women in STEM, and how she’s creating community and visibility through Top Women in EV. We also hear about the mentoring and coaching that have helped her embrace her achievements, as well as her academic path to Oxford and her ongoing projects across sustainability and media.
Connect with Daveena
LinkedIn
Website
About Andy
I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.
Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.
Episode recorded on 20 August, 2025.
Ep. 236 Side Mirror: Leadership Lessons from a Brain Surgeon
2025/08/31
In these shorter Side Mirror episodes, I introduce concepts, tools, and experts to help you enable Fulfilling Performance for yourself and the people you lead and care about.
Today I want to talk about humility, mistakes, and leadership — inspired by a remarkable brain surgeon and what we as leaders can learn from his journey.
Listeners in the UK can watch Confessions of a Brain Surgeon on BBC iPlayer:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002hfbw
About Andy
I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.
Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.
Learn more about Fulfilling Performance
Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub
Connect with Andy
LinkedIn: Andy Follows
Email: [email protected]
Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy
Thank you to our sponsors:
ASKE Consulting
Email: [email protected]
Aquilae
Email: [email protected]
Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror
If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.
Episode recorded on 28 August, 2025.
Podcast reviews
Read CAREER-VIEW MIRROR - biographies of colleagues in the automotive and mobility industries. podcast reviews
VB Case 2021/03/07
Brilliant in-depth podcast
A great listen with pertinent questions to someone who has already had many chapters in my her life book. For someone so young to have been exposed to...
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