The WABChats
Podcast

Law exists in context.
Context is challenging.

As lawyers and business people, we believe the law doesn't exist in a vacuum. We know there are lessons, solutions and perspectives that are transferable to your context, to be found in all sorts of places.

WABChats provides engaging and informative conversations with contacts, clients, advisors and friends of White & Black Limited, whether corporate leaders, academics, sports people, thought leaders or small business owners.

Through these conversations we hope to provide transferable insight into the challenges, questions and opportunities that businesses are facing today.

Patricia White

Founder and CEO
Suited for Success

Building a multi-award winning charity, Suited for Success.

Sir John Crabtree

Chairman
White & Black Limited

Lessons from Organising the Commonwealth Games

Professor Jonathan Trevor

Professor of Management Practice, Said Business School

Facilitating innovation and creativity in the hybrid environment

Erin Kennedy MBE

Coxswain
Great Britain Rowing

From Paralympic Gold to Battling Breast Cancer.
The power of delayed gratification.

Why Listen

Why Listen?

Latest Episodes

Omid Moallemi

18. Redesigning gifting - can corporates harness the emotional power of gifting?

Omid Moallemi Is a creative and product designer. He is the Co-Founder of the social gifting app Prsnt. After graduating, Omid worked in furniture design, creating designs for tables, cutlery and kitchen products. Following this he joined other design consultancies which ultimately gave him the platform to start his own consultancy BlueSix Design in Brighton.

Mihir Warty

17. Building a successful strategy for a global sport and millions of stakeholders

Mihir Warty is Chief Statergy Officer for World Rugby. Originally an economist and management consultant, Mihir joined World Rugby from the global advertising network MullenLowe Group.

Before this, Mihir was Director of Strategy & Research at Sport England. His introduction of new insight and tools to the sector helped boost sports participation by 700,000 adults, the first-ever recorded increase. Mihir has also worked as Head of Strategy for BBC Sport, where he worked on rights and genre strategy and was Deputy-Chair of Sporting Equals, the body responsible for racial inclusion in UK sport. Mihir has a degree in Economics from Cambridge University and was the gold medallist on SDA Bocconi’s MBA Programme.

Mihir spends time discussing how one might go about building a strategy for a Global sport such as rugby with millions of stakeholders. The stages involved in designing and implementing a strategy and how to effectively communicate it. We also discuss how you can engage stakeholders, something World Rugby is not short of, in this process.

Francesca Muston

16. Balancing quantitative and qualitative intelligence in fashion trend forecasting

Francesca Muston is Vice President of Fashion at the world-leading trend forecasting company WGSN. WGSN uses expert trend forecasting and data science to help global companies and brands get ahead of the right trends. WGSN provide consumer insight, product design direction and trading strategies to help businesses create sustainably in the future and ultimately land the right trends at the right time to maximise sales.

Francesca started out as a Senior Editor with WGSN nearly 20 years ago and now leads a team of trend and data experts in delivering well-evidenced trend directions that enable clients to make decisions confidently. Francesca is a seasoned speaker, she has presented and consulted for global brands, retailers and manufacturers advising them on future strategies and sustainability.

Duncan McKay

15. Solving one of fashion's biggest problems with deep learning technology and computer vision

Duncan McKay is the Founder & CEO of Aistetic, an Oxford University spinout that aims to revolutionize the fashion industry by offering 3D body models generated from mobile devices. The accurate next-gen 3D body modelling platform is found in Aistetic's first product which is available to online clothing retailers and is designed to increase conversion, lower returns and excess inventory and ultimately this works to reduce clothing waste and increase sustainability.

Leo Campbell

14. Our journey to democratising healthy baking for the common good

Leo Campbell is Co-Founder of Modern Baker. Modern Baker is seen by many as the UK’s first truly healthy bakery. The business launched the latest iteration of the high-tech Superloaf, it's gut healthy bread brand, exclusively into Marks & Spencer in March 2023. The product –full of bioactive plant-based compounds – is co-manufactured and co-packaged by Hovis.

Rebecca Achieng Ajulu- Bushell

13. From professional swimming to CEO and addressing employment disparity for black and disabled students

Rebecca Aycheng Ajulu Bushell is CEO of the 10,000 Interns Foundation.

She is listed in Forbes 30 under 30.

Rebecca is the first black woman to have swam for Great Britain, becoming British Champion and ranking number 1 in the world. After retiring from competitive swimming in 2011, she became a communications consultant and founded NKG, a media and communications agency focused on social change.

We discuss Rebecca's incredibly varied career until now and how she came to be CEO of the 10,000 Interns Foundation and explore the vital work the 10,000 Interns Foundation do in addressing the issue of employment disparity for Black and Disabled students. We also spend time discussing why businesses should aspire to have as diverse a work force as possible, and what practical steps businesses can take to increase diversity in their workforces.

Peter Higgins

12. Co-founding Charles Tyrwhitt and running a smart clothing brand during a global 'work from home' pandemic

Peter Higgins is Co-Founder and now Non-Exec Director of Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts, which is a multi-channel clothing retailer, specializing in smart and smart casual wear. He is former director of luxury fashion retailers MeandEm and Peter also spent 4 years serving as Chairman at Cath Kitson, and 10 years and clothing brand Joe Browns, as well as some time at LK Bennet. Peter is also a NED at Mary’s Meals. Mary's Meals is a global charity that serves life-changing school meals to some of the world’s poorest children. Their vision is that every child receives one daily meal in their place of education and they are already reaching 2.4 million school children every day.

James Wilkes

11. Human vs. Data Driven Intelligence - and how I built a business from scratch

James Wilkes is a highly experienced trouble shooter in global shipping, marine and international trade. He has been helping companies manage issues arising from corporate malfeasance, criminal activity, political instability, terrorism and other complex problems, for over twenty years.

Jess Annison OBE

10. Burnout - the importance of a multifaceted approach to managing burnout within teams

Jess Annison OBE has worked across a variety of sectors including time at the Civil Service, during which she was as awarded an OBE for her roll in organising the 2012 Olympic Games, as well as time spent in higher and further education and time as a management consultant in the financial and logistics sectors.

Dominic Hare

9. Blenheim Palace, open innovation and sustainability on a landed estate

CEO of Blenheim Palace Dom Hare was born in Liverpool and studied Law at Oxford. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG, he spent the next ten years in corporate finance and investment banking and Prior to becoming Chief Executive Office, Dominic worked as Finance Director of Blenheim for 13 years.

Erin Kennedy MBE

08. From Paralympic Gold to beating breast cancer - How delayed gratification and compartmentalising helped me through my cancer battle

In episode 8 of WABChats we talk to Erin Kennedy, MBE. Erin Kennedy, MBE is a Coxswain with the GB Rowing Team and currently steers the mix4plus as a member of the Paralympic rowing squad. Erin is a Paralympic Champion, winning Gold in Tokyo, a two-time World Champion, a European Champion and a World Cup Champion.

Will Proger

07. Seeing opportunity in crisis and doing things differently in wealth management

William Proger is Founder and CEO of William and Partners. We discuss, spotting opportunities and starting a business in the middle of a global pandemic, how the pandemic led William and Partners to do things differently and why and how one should consider engaging wealth managers pre-deal completion.

Witney Ladies Hockey

06. Developing transferable skills through sports and the importance of community clubs

In a special episode of WABChats we talk to three members of the Witney Women 1st XI hockey team. Katie, team Captain of 14 years, and twin sisters Harriet and Lili, two young stars in this year’s 1st XI squad.

Karim Sekkat

05. Running one of the UK's leading precision engineering companies

We chat with the CEO and Chairman of Oxford Engineering, Karim Sekatt. We discuss what world-class really looks like, what Lego has to do with switching from batch to one-piece flow manufacturing and allowing your team to ask questions and challenge things.

Tess Taylor

04. How we created a successful ex-offender employment programme through craft beer

Tess Taylor is Co-Founder at The Tap Social Movement, an Oxford-based craft brewery and hospitality social enterprise that provides training and employment opportunities to ex-offenders and also a number of low-category prisoners who are preparing for release. 28% of their current workforce have lived experience of the criminal justice system.

Patricia White

03. Building a multi-award winning charity, Suited for Success

Patricia White is the founder and CEO of the multi-award-winning charity Suited for Success. Patricia had an illustrious career at the BBC as a journalist and before that she worked in the Corporate world as an IT Trainer. She left the BBC to follow her passion in community outreach work and set-up the first Trussell Trust Foodbank in Birmingham. Since then, Patricia has been an influential voice in citywide initiatives addressing social issues impacting the city from food poverty to unemployment, and of course, has founded and continues to run Suited for Success.

Professor Jonathan Trevor

02. Facilitating innovation and creativity in the hybrid environment

Dr. Jonathan Trevor is an Associate Professor of Management Practice at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. His main focus is on developing the strategic and organisational alignment of the firm. He teaches on the Oxford MBA, Executive MBA and international executive education programmes. Previously he was a University Lecturer at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School and Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge. He holds a PhD in management studies and economics from the University of Cambridge and was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also the author of 2 books – Align and Re:Align – which unpack themes such as strategic alignment in organisations, overcoming disruption and improving performance.

Sir John Crabtree

01. Lessons from organising the Commonwealth Games

Sir John is a former President of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce & Industry and was appointed Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant for the West Midlands in January 2017. John Chaired the Organising Committee for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games for which he was appointed Knight Bachelor for services to Sport and to the community in the West Midlands. In 2014 Government Secretary Eric Pickles named John as Chairman of the Birmingham Improvement Panel, charged with supporting the council as it pursues vital reforms.

Latest Episodes

About
White & Black

We are a specialist corporate and technology law firm. Our expert corporate and technology lawyers advise technology businesses across the globe on Corporate Transactions, IP, Technology and Life Sciences & Disputes.

Our goal is to be your trusted legal adviser. We provide technically excellent and relevant legal guidance that is designed to meet your commercial objectives.

We recognise that the law cannot exist in a vacuum, and we pride ourselves in our ability to think creatively and deliver strategic advice that meets the needs of your business.

Learn More

A stellar team of top lawyers,
huge levels of experience,
and a pragmatic edge.

The Legal 500

White & Black

The WABChats Podcast

The WABChats Podcast

Law exists in context. Context is challenging.

Patricia White

Founder and CEO Suited for Success

Building a multi-award winning charity, Suited for Success.

Sir John Crabtree

Chairman White & Black Limited

Lessons from Organising the Commonwealth Games

Professor Jonathan Trevor

Professor of Management Practice, Said Business School

Facilitating innovation and creativity in the hybrid environment

Erin Kennedy MBE

Coxswain Great Britain Rowing

From Paralympic Gold to Battling Breast Cancer. The power of delayed gratification.

Why Listen

Latest Episodes

About White & Black

A stellar team of top lawyers, huge levels of experience, and a pragmatic edge.

The Legal 500

The WABChats
Podcast

The WABChats
Podcast

Law exists in context.
Context is challenging.

Founder and CEO
Suited for Success

Chairman
White & Black Limited

Coxswain
Great Britain Rowing

From Paralympic Gold to Battling Breast Cancer.
The power of delayed gratification.

About
White & Black

A stellar team of top lawyers,
huge levels of experience,
and a pragmatic edge.