The Lens – UK Responsible Business Podcast

This month our host Oli Barrett MBE is joined by Starling Bank Founder and CEO, Anne Boden and Cecila Chapiro, Executive Director of Yunus & Youth.

In this episode our host Oli Barrett MBE gets an understanding of why standing for something is integral to business success, the difference between for-profit and profit-driven and using technology for good.

And of course, our host asks both Anne and Cecilia who they’d most like to meet for coff­ee and which books they’ll be adding to the famous Lens Reading List.

Our Guests

Anne Boden Anne Boden is founder and CEO of Starling Bank, a fast-growing UK digital bank targeting millions of users who live their lives on their phones. After a distinguished career working in senior leadership at some of the world’s best-known financial heavyweights, among them Allied Irish Banks, Royal Bank of Scotland and ABN AMRO, she set out to build her own bank from scratch in 2014. Starling was voted Best British Bank for the past three years and has opened more than 1.5 million accounts, including more than 200,000 accounts for small business owners. Anne is a board member of UK Finance and was awarded an MBE for services to financial technology in 2018. 

Cecilia Shapiro is the Project Coordinator of Emerging Technologies for the UNICEF Innovation Fund. The Innovation Fund allows UNICEF to quickly assess, fund and grow open-source solutions that can improve children’s lives. Financial and technological support is available for companies that are using technology in innovative ways to improve the world. She is also the Co-founder and Executive Director of Yunus &Youth, helping promising young people build impactful social businesses, anywhere in the world.  

The Lens Reading List

Anne chose The Hard Thing about Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, adding "I've been known to pick chapters out for my executive teams - starting a business is tough."

Cecilia chose Becoming by Michelle Obama, commending: "I think she's a force of nature."

The Lens Podcast

Powered by Fujitsu, supported by McCann and in partnership with One Young World, The Lens represents the breadth, diversity and priorities of the responsible business agenda. From gender equality to zero hours contracts, learning on the factory floor to activist businesses, The Lens covers a range of topics from a host of varying perspectives. 

Each episode brings together a business and future leader to foster disruptive conversations and fresh connections. Innovators and CEOs join Oli Barrett in the studio for a unique conversation covering their journeys, lessons learned, advice, insight and of course, the inspirational person they’d most like to meet for coffee. 

Business in the Community is The Prince's Responsible Business Network. We convene a unique network of purposeful leaders to share insight, expertise and create innovative programmes that deliver impact. Together our ambition is to make the UK the world leader at responsible business. 

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