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PODCAST

First Person, with Matt Egan

First Person is the show where we meet the most interesting people in IT, and learn from them what makes them tick by focusing only on their firsts. First job, first great boss, first failure or first pet. Learn from interesting people talking about serious things in a not-serious way. Contact matt_egan@foundryco.com

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All Episodes

36:42

Ep 22: Cameron Clarke - Co-Founder and CEO - Sunderstorm

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/11/03

We meet Cameron Clarke who explains how he studied computing after being inspired by early PCs, but immediately pivoted into industry where his software engineering skills could be put to immediate, practical use. Through explaining his career and experiences Cameron imparts incredible wisdom hard won through success and failure. He tells us how he finds himself today combining an obsession with scientific rigor, with entrepreneurial spirit, and a deep-rooted passion for natural healing, to build

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36:56

Ep 21: Manu Gopinath - President, UST

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/10/20

We meet Manu Goppinath, who tells us how he transitioned from spending his early years in a small town in India, to being President of a global organization with 30,000 employees. He explained how he wasn't initially keen to work in IT, hoping to use his engineering degree to support a career in sales. But the right leadership in the right organization saw him develop the technical, business and - critically - people skills to grow into the role of global leader. He tells us how he learnt to say

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26:06

Ep 20: Mike Vaughan - CDO, Brown & Brown

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/10/13

We meet Mike Vaughan, chief data officer of a large organization in the financial sector, and in his words blessed with a wonderful family and work life. Mike tells us how he got into technology through coding for his Commodore PC, inspired by the ability to do something creative. How he parlayed that into a computer science degree, then went to work in a textile mill because he chose to work with good people. He describes a career spend in app development, and then data; making the transition from

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28:11

Ep 19:Hal Lonas - Chief Technology Officer at Trulioo

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/10/03

We meet Hal Lonas, CTO of Trulioo and a recognized innovator in cloud security and machine learning. Hal is a long-standing champion of automation technology, having worked in C-suite roles for multiple household names. Hal has also co-authored several patents and holds a degree in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT. He tells us how he shifted from aerospace to software after he took a job as a coder whilst still in school. How he loved the immediacy of solving problems and creating things with

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31:39

Ep 18:Dr Francis Goh: Change is a constant

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/09/26

We meet Dr Francis Goh - academic, author and CEO. In a storied career Dr Francis Goh has been an innovator and technical expert. A strategist, board ember, leadership mentor and sought after public Speaker. He tells us about how he wanted to be an engineer rather than an IT professional, but fell into the industry as a strategist after completing an MBA. He describes his subsequent career as a serious of pivots that lead him to where he needs to be - solving problems with a mixture of technical and

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26:51

Ep 17: Stephen Kaufman: Solving problems with...

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/09/22

We meet Stephen Kaufman, who has spent 25 years architecting solutions on behalf of Microsoft. Stephen tells us that his defining characteristic is curiosity, and how his first memory was of taking things apart and putting them back together, more or less successfully. He says how that led him to a hobby in computers which in turn led him to a computer science degree. But he chose to major in both marketing and computers, because for him success is in solving problems with technology, for

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34:37

Ep: 16 Magan Naidoo: Using data to do good

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/09/15

We meet Magan Naidoo, Chief Data Office of the World Food Council. Magan tells us how he started out in software engineering but transferred into data when his bosses recognised his talent for connecting technology to business problems, and flew him across continents to have him lead on an important project. He talks about his desire to understand and solve problems from first principles rather than just do things on request. Magan gives advice to those starting out: figure out where you can add

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30:07

Ep 15: Greg Finnigan: Being your authentic self

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/09/05

We meet Greg Finnigan, who has navigated a career through hardware to security software and on to cloud; large corporates and startups. Greg tells us about how he found a career he loved through working with the right people, and made career changes based on major trends in IT. He talks about how his biggest mistake was not always being his authentic true self until well into his career, and advises people new to the world of work to focus on working with the right people who have the right

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48:23

Ep 14: Ian Mountford: Late life career change

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/08/28

We meet Ian Mountford, a governance, risk and compliance consultant who transitioned into cyber security late in his career after being the victim of a hack. Ian talks about his rich and varied career before cyber, which incorporated spells in professional sports, HR, banking, and running his own recruitment businesses. He tells us how difficult it was to find a path into cyber security and how a university tutor put him on the right track to incorporate his hard-won soft skills with new technical

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29:58

Ep 13: Mel Migrino: The power of boredom and why...

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/08/22

We meet Mel Migrino, an infosec and cybersecurity titan who in late career has pivoted to advocacy. Mel tells us how she got into software development in order to make money, then pivoted to infosec after a friend told her it was an opportunity, before becoming a business leader. She describes the powerful influence of her mentor, a true 'dragon lady' who could see that Mel's technical chops complemented her own strategic and business knowledge. Mel describes her career path and how it has been

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48:56

Ep 12: Chris Fuller: Building a rocket ship and...

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/08/15

We meet Chris Fuller, a reluctant student with dyslexia who was hand-picked to do a paid PHD. Chris spent time in the UK intelligence community before emerging to work in cyber security startups. Chris advises aspiring people to work harder than they expect they have to, and talks about how his success stems from being surrounded by interesting and interested people. Plus we learn why he doesn't have a pet cat. He talks about the value of failing, and learning from failure, and the value of spending

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34:49

Ep 11: Derek Ashmore: Always be learning

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/08/08

We meet Derek Ashmore, a career-long consultant who says the first thing we need to know about him is that he learns for a living. Derek talks about a fortuitous entry into the industry when accountancy turned into coding, but how a lack of political acumen (and patience) almost derailed him. The answer has been to work in consultancy, joining teams to act as mentor and mentee, learning and guiding to successful outcomes. Derek tells us how he doesn't believe in failure, but that his biggest

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40:32

Ep 10: Eamonn O'Neill: Be excited about technology

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/08/01

We meet Eamonn O'Neill, founder and CTO of Lemongrass. Eamonn tells us that he is a technologist first and foremost, as excited about tech today as he was decades ago when he got his first Spectrum computer. He describes his journey from typing out code from magazines through an engineering degree to getting the enterprise software bug working as a graduate. He explains how his peers have been his mentors, and advises those starting out in tech to be excited about the future, do the background

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32:43

Ep 9: Linus Hakansson: Why AI means it's a great time...

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/07/24

We meet Linus Hakansson, who became a Chief Product Officer by way of developing mobile apps, architecting cloud solutions, and a spell of consultancy. Throughout his career Linus has succeeded by applying technology to solve real problems. Linus explains how his progression was due to a mixture of skill, hard work and good fortune. Espouses the value of a mentor who knows talent where he sees it, and explains how he was never more stressed than when his job was stress free. We discuss why good

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36:02

Ep: 8 Aaron Momin: Empathy is a super power

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/07/18

We meet Aaron Momin, a seasoned cybersecurity and cyber risk professional with over 30 years of experience in managing cyber and technology risk. Aaron tells us how he studied computing at college after becoming obsessed with the technology taking to pieces his Compaq PC. He talks about taking that approach into the workplace and benefitting from a really hands on technical grounding, but building his career through knowing how to translate technical to business language - how to connect with

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31:22

Ep 7: Emma Philpott MBE: Diversity is good for business

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/07/11

We meet Emma Philpott MBE - academic, cyber security expert and business leader. Emma tells us how her career has meandered to a good place, and that is okay. That when she was underestimated and frustrated early in the piece her best boss saw her potential and gave her the support to grow in her own way. And how she landed in the right place through adversity: changing tack and building communities of cyber security firms, driven by a sense of fairness. She explains how mistakes and failure can be

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32:25

Ep 6: Daniel Avancini: Stay curious

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/07/03

We meet Daniel Avancini, an academic turned entrepreneur, analyst and business person turned coder. He tells us about how he doesn't always know his final destination, but he understands the direction in which he wishes to travel and makes decisions so he heads that way. How he hedged (in his parlance) by keeping one foot in academia and one in corporate life. And Daniel has some great advice for those starting out who are challenged by the impact of AI on the future of work: understand your passion

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37:07

Ep 5: Dr CJ Meadows: Shiny tech syndrome

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/06/27

We meet Dr CJ Meadows - from the US, based in Singapore, having worked around the world from Japan to India and beyond. An accountant by training and IT pro by practice, CJ is an entrepreneur, consultant, and educator who runs a not-for-profit using tech to bring access to education to excluded folks. We spoke about how her career (and life) path has never been linear or conventional. We discussed how the future of work will require leaders who can use design thinking to focus on solving new and

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30:32

Ep 3: Arno Schilperoord: Coding is magic poetry

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/06/27

We meet Arno Schilperoord, a global leader for Heineken who believes that coding is magic and poetry, offering the opportunity to create something from nothing and infinite possibility. Arno tells us how studying physics and using computer models and writing computer code to help in the analysis was his way into IT. He says that in IT everybody was learning things for the first time, and explains how designing resilient high-performance solutions was just a small step from his current practice of

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37:42

Ep 4: David Jones: Don't sweat the career

First Person, with Matt Egan ·

2025/06/27

We meet David Jones - a chief architect, CTO and CIO who describes his work as elevating business technology strategy through architectural excellence. David introduces himself as someone who loves collaborating, doesn't do politics and is always honest. He tells us how he got started by choosing to study electrical engineering inspired by his brother and a French pen pal, and espouses the value of practical, in-industry training over academic learning (although he returned to his own school to

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22 results

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