Intelligence Forums ‘Who Are You’ Podcasts are interviews with people who are creating Inspiration and Opportunities today in Great Britain.

 INTELLIGENCE FORUMS ‘WHO ARE YOU’ PODCAST with Zoë Russell

Zoë Russell is the co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of Rethink Carbon, a climate-tech startup based in Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands. At Rethink Carbon, Zoë helps to drive the company's mission to equip land managers worldwide with cutting-edge technology, enabling them to make informed, sustainable decisions that support carbon capture, biodiversity, and land stewardship aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

With a background in ecology and land management, Zoë’s career began with a PhD focused on red grouse population dynamics. She spent 16 years at NatureScot, Scotland’s nature agency, where she specialised in monitoring protected species, collaborating with land managers, and managing software development projects. This blend of science and technology spurred her transition into the tech sector in 2018, where she joined Ginger to lead agile development as a Certified Scrum Master. In 2022, Zoë co-founded Rethink Carbon, where she now oversees product development, scientific direction, and business operations.

 INTELLIGENCE FORUMS ‘WHO ARE YOU’ PODCAST with Jez Collins

Jez Collins is the founder and director of the Birmingham Music Archive C.I.C., a creative and cultural arts organisation that captures, documents and celebrates the music history, heritage and culture of Birmingham and its communities through a range of diverse and engaging projects. He is the founder of Atticus Creative & Cultural Consultancy, a cultural and creative consultancy that help develops cultural, creative, community and place-making strategies for those working in the built environment sector. Collins is also a co-Director of Un-Convention C.I.C., a global grassroots music network that helps build sustainable music infrastructures.  He is a board member of Soul City Arts and a member of Bearwood Promoters in the Black Country, a group of music lovers who programme live music on a Victorian Bandstand.

INTELLIGENCE FORUMS ‘WHO ARE YOU’ PODCAST with James Newby

James Newby is President & Chief Executive of New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering. Prior to joining NMITE, James worked for the University of Surrey in a range of roles involving the leadership of teams responsible for most non-academic aspects of the University’s activities including Estates, IT, Commercial Services, Community relations, Fundraising and Institutional Governance. In his final year at Surrey, he led an organisational change team to reshape the University to prepare it to meet the many challenges facing the Higher Education sector. In addition to his role at Surrey, James has worked with other Higher Education institutions as an advisor on organisational change and as a trustee of their Students’ Unions. This combined his HE and governance experience with his desire to work closely with students to improve the universities they attended. James specialises in organisational development and business change having worked with a number of organisations on restructuring projects. He is also a data compliance specialist so spent considerable time working on projects across the HE sector to prepare universities for the changes resulting from the introduction of the GDPR regulations in 2018. Prior to joining the University sector, James worked in High Street retailing splitting his time between working in operations for companies such as WH Smith Limited and running his own businesses.