The archive

Articles, talks & ideas.

Everything I've written, presented and taken part in — on fintech, AI, risk, and helping small businesses digitise.

Jan 2025
INTERVIEW

Working across cultures: the most important sound in Finnish is silence

Interview with Craig Livingstone

From a Middlesbrough steelworks to leading global teams in Finland: Craig on language, silence, aspirational culture and why leadership sets the tone.

Read the interview →
2025
INTERVIEW

Made redundant: “I never had a job. The job had me.”

Interview with Chris Crespo

A bank’s chief futurist on taking the severance package, turning down a director role, and building a business from scratch.

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INTERVIEW

A career in risk: the chance of something bad happening to something you care about

Interview with Kiril Angelov-Manin

What risk managers really do, how to break in without experience, and why AI won’t replace the risk manager.

Read the interview →
INTERVIEW

Passed over for promotion: turning the setback into career capital

Interview with Yusra Ahmad

Yusra Ahmad, from Lehman Brothers to global head of data and her own consultancy, on why promotions get missed, finding sponsors, and not letting a setback define you.

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INTERVIEW

Unapologetic confidence: leading in a male-dominated industry

Interview with Randa Ahmed

Randa Ahmed on 27 years in the water sector, why women stop apologising, and why real leadership means empowering others rather than competing with them.

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2025
INTERVIEW

From executive search to children’s author: walking away to follow a passion

Interview with Katarina Ausenius

Why Katarina left a stable career recruiting CFOs to write children’s books: the fears, the finances, and what it really takes to make the leap.

Read the interview →
Coming soon
EVENT

EntreConnect launch session — Skills, technology & real business insights

Started and sponsored through Vidhav
PRESENTATION

Legal design: when design meets financial regulation

Copenhagen Fintech Week

On stage on how principles from design can make legal and regulatory communication clearer, and improve customer experience and trust in financial services.

See the post →
Feb 2025
PRESENTATION

The AI Revolution: Fueling Innovation, Guarded by Compliance, Driven by Humanity

Stockholm Fintech Week 2025

From data as the new gold to AI as the ultimate tool: why GDPR, DORA and the EU AI Act are the guardrails, and why empathy, ethics and purpose will always be the driving force.

Jun 2026
PRESENTATION

Governance, Risk & Scaling — founder office hours

Real Futures: Catalyst Converge · UCL Centre for Sustainability and Realtech Innovation

The closing session on how resilient startups protect what they build: black swans, operational and liquidity risk, governance for startups, and knowing when to scale.

May 2026
PRESENTATION

Finance, Funding & Sustainability — founder office hours

Real Futures: Catalyst Converge · UCL Centre for Sustainability and Realtech Innovation

Why startups fail and how resilient ones survive: a financial mindset and runway, bootstrapped vs funded, investor readiness and metrics, and keeping good records.

Mar 2026
PRESENTATION

Idea, Problem & Market Fit — founder office hours

Real Futures: Catalyst Converge · UCL Centre for Sustainability and Realtech Innovation

An hour with early-stage founders testing whether their idea solves a real problem for a real market: an Idea → Problem → Market framework, assumption mapping and lightning hot seats.

Apr 2026
PRESENTATION

Marketing & Go-To-Market — founder office hours

Real Futures: Catalyst Converge · UCL Centre for Sustainability and Realtech Innovation

A practical hour on reaching first customers: a Who → Where → Message framework, what has worked for founders so far, useful tools, and one action each founder commits to.

ARTICLE

The Next Digital Divide: Will Small Businesses Be Left Behind by the AI Revolution?

The next divide won’t be access to AI. It will be whether small businesses can weave it into how they actually operate.

ARTICLE

The Future Isn’t About Building More Apps. It’s About Building the Environment That Runs Them.

As AI makes apps easier to build, value shifts to the environment that connects tools, agents, data and people, and to the trust that holds it together.

ARTICLE

The Paradox of Innovation: Are We Building Technology Faster Than We Can Govern It?

Governance isn’t the brake on innovation. Built into the architecture, it’s what lets AI be deployed with confidence.

ARTICLE

The Future of Banking: Will Traditional Banks Become Utilities in an AI-Driven Financial Ecosystem?

If customers bank through their own AI agents, where does a bank’s value sit? Infrastructure, trust and regulated capability.

PUBLICATION

[Paper, report or chapter title]

Feb 2025
PUBLICATION

From Compliance to Competitive Edge: Why Europe’s Fintech Future Lies in Purpose, Humanity, and Trust

Nordic Fintech Magazine · Winter 2025 issue, pp. 56–57

If AI can do everything, what will humans do? Why GDPR, DORA and the EU AI Act are guides for building fintech people trust, not boxes to tick.

Read in the magazine →
May 2022
PUBLICATION

When Design Meets Financial Regulation: a legal design interview

Nordic Fintech Magazine · interview by Chris Crespo

How borrowing principles from design can make legal and regulatory communication clearer, and improve customer experience and trust in financial services.

Read the interview →