Award-winning journalist Stan Grant explores this data-driven world with an all-star guest list – from a NASA astronaut tackling climate change, a fire chief battling increasingly destructive blazes to a Governor confronting a city in crisis. Also challenging guests to weigh in on a topic way out of their comfort zone, Stan unearths what makes them tick, their instincts under pressure, and the single thread that connects them all. From common leadership challenges to solving some of the biggest issues of our time – this is the podcast where leaders come to learn.
Find out more at directionspodcast.com
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This is a BGT Production created in partnership with Esri Australia.
Esri Australia is the nation’s leading GIS technology and services provider and part of the BGT group.
The power of “one”: Brian Boulmay wants multinationals to share their information
The proven formula for driving digital transformation at a global scale
Brian Boulmay is on a mission to democratise data.
He believes multinational companies can create greater efficiency, accuracy of insight, and collaboration if they share data sets.
During his tenure as the Global Integration Director for BP, Brian Boulmay developed the award-winning OneMap system; a one-stop shop for geospatial information and analytics used by more than 70,000 staff across the world.
Boulmay is driving a radical approach to transparency. He shares his tips on leading teams towards a more collaborative way of solving problems and adding value to projects and businesses through shared information.
“That's the beauty of geography, right? Regardless if you're the person drilling the well, the person dealing with the environmental permits, the person dealing with the construction and engineering, you all need the same core information. All of the information that was shared, we centralised and managed it once, so that many parties could use it.”
DirectionsPodcast.com
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Directions is a podcast hosted by award-winning journalist Stan Grant about how leaders use technology and innovation to solve problems and to shape our increasingly complex world.
This is a BGT Production created in partnership with Esri Australia.
Esri Australia is the nation's leading GIS technology and services provider and part of the BGT group.
22 Jun 2021
Flashpoint: Chief Kim Zagaris on disaster management
How can leaders use technological innovation to mitigate and respond to a crisis?
Kim Zagaris spent the first part of his career serving in the army, but a twist of fate saw him switch from army tanks to fire trucks.
As he drove home from a night out with his mates, he was confronted by a fire out of control. Pulling up, a firefighter directed him to grab a hose. It was a sliding door moment.
Decades on, Chief Kim Zagaris was named California’s Fire Chief of the Year. He’s been involved in every catastrophic emergency in California over a distinguished 40-year career and has placed technological innovation at the heart of modern-day firefighting – completely changing the way agencies respond to crises.
“We're actually looking at real-time vehicle location, or where resources are, and how quickly we'll get to an incident, and matching up those resources with a database… and we're using geographic information and technology to do it”.
Next episode: Brian Boulmay, global digital transformation leader.
DirectionsPodcast.com
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Directions is a podcast hosted by award-winning journalist Stan Grant about how leaders use technology and innovation to solve problems and to shape our increasingly complex world.
This is a BGT Production created in partnership with Esri Australia.
Esri Australia is the nation's leading GIS technology and services provider and part of the BGT group.
8 Jun 2021
Life and death decisions: Mike King shares lessons from the thin blue line
Criminal profiler Mike King on using data to find the truth in any situation
As one of the world’s leading criminal investigators, Mike King is intimately familiar with high-pressure, life and death scenarios.
For 40 years, he’s worked with law enforcement around the world, taught top police investigators the art of criminal profiling, and consulted on public safety strategy for large-scale events including SuperBowls, marathons, G20s, and the Olympics.
He’s been on the frontline in the hunt for serial predators and broken open some of the world’s most perplexing cold cases. He’s pioneered experimental training techniques and was one of the first to bring geospatial technology innovation into investigation war rooms.
Mike King’s unconventional methods have even seen him escort one of the USA’s most prolific living mass murderers from his Death Row stall to meet with investigators – giving them the ultimate tutorial in the workings of a serial killer’s mind.
A published author, documentary maker and guest speaker on popular talk shows, Mike King has been awarded the USA’s National Police Officer of the Year. His latest venture takes you deep inside the rapidly evolving world of criminal profiling in his breakout podcast series Mapping Evil with Mike King.
Explore some of the world's most chilling crimes and learn how understanding the geography of crimes, predators and victims can shed new light on unsolved cases. Subscribe in your podcast app or get more information here.
Next episode: Chief Kim Zagaris, wildfire policy and technology advisor.
DirectionsPodcast.com
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Directions is a podcast hosted by award-winning journalist Stan Grant about how leaders use technology and innovation to solve problems and to shape our increasingly complex world.
This is a BGT Production created in partnership with Esri Australia.
Esri Australia is the nation's leading GIS technology and services provider and part of the BGT group.
25 May 2021
Rising above: NASA pioneer Dr Kathryn Sullivan on space, oceans, and climate change
Geologist Dr Kathryn Sullivan tackles the world’s biggest challenges with a little innovation
Dr Kathryn Sullivan’s innate curiosity and love of exploration has led her to outer space, to ocean floors, and to leadership roles solving complex issues like climate change, poverty, inequality, and political unrest.
As a specialist geologist, Dr Sullivan was recruited by NASA to become the first American woman to walk in space in 1984. She was also the first woman to dive to one of the earth’s deepest ocean floors.
Dr Sullivan led the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the world’s most important agencies. There she worked to track and map how the earth is evolving and how our climate is changing.
Now she’s coupling her sense of exploration with spatial technology to help better understand how interdependent life on this planet really is.
Named by the BBC as one of 'the most influential women of 2020', Dr Sullivan leads so generations may follow.
Next episode: Mike King, criminal profiler and cold case investigator.
DirectionsPodcast.com
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For more from Dr Kathryn Sullivan, visit: KathySullivanExplores.com
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Directions is a podcast hosted by award-winning journalist Stan Grant about how leaders use technology and innovation to solve problems and to shape our increasingly complex world.
This is a BGT Production created in partnership with Esri Australia.
Esri Australia is the nation's leading GIS technology and services provider and part of the BGT group.
11 May 2021
Power and ethics: Dr Amen Ra Mashariki on balancing knowledge with utility
Where is the line when it comes to wielding the power of data-driven insight and when should it be crossed?
Each time you use your mobile phone, you leave a trail behind. Each app you’ve tapped on, every browser you’ve opened, each link you’ve clicked on, leaves a digital footprint.
That data can be used in so many useful ways – whether it’s planning for hospital beds so there’s no shortage, to urban planning for a world impacted by climate change, or in times of emergency to keep people safe.
But the storage of your data also raises important questions about privacy. In the era of meta-tagging and geo-tracking, how can we apply principles to data that are both robust and ethical?
Dr Amen Ra Mashariki is the Global Director for the Data Lab at the World Resources Institute. He has been the Director of the Mayor's Office of Data Analytics in New York City, where he used data insights to create public policy – and shape response to crises including the September 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Sandy.
Next episode: Dr Kathryn Sullivan, scientist, astronaut and explorer.
DirectionsPodcast.com
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Directions is a podcast hosted by award-winning journalist Stan Grant about how leaders use technology and innovation to solve problems and to shape our increasingly complex world.
This is a BGT Production created in partnership with Esri Australia.
Esri Australia is the nation's leading GIS technology and services provider and part of the BGT group.
27 Apr 2021
Going global: Linda Peters on advising world leaders on the future
How can we ensure the data that matters is informing our actions?
Linda Peters advises the US and other governments along with the United Nations on how to turn data into effective action and policies.
From forecasting the timing and scale of catastrophic food droughts, to formulating strategies for the mass deployment of foreign aid, Linda Peters holds firm on the frontline, working to combat some of this generation’s greatest challenges.
At the height of the COVID-19 outbreak, Linda Peters’ expertise in data analytics and statistics came to the fore.
Her work with the US Census Bureau on the first ever entirely digital Census took on new significance when the pandemic arrived and spread rapidly across the United States.
Linda Peters brings new meaning to the term ‘data-driven’.
“When you first go in and start looking at data, you don't know what you're going to find,” she says. “How rich is that data? How complete is that data? How current is that data? You're going to have to iterate through all of those different data sets to help you establish the patterns. As geographers, we always look for patterns”.
Next episode: Dr Amen Ra Mashariki, Global Director, World Resources Institute.
DirectionsPodcast.com
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Directions is a podcast hosted by award-winning journalist Stan Grant about how leaders use technology and innovation to solve problems and to shape our increasingly complex world.
This is a BGT Production created in partnership with Esri Australia.
Esri Australia is the nation's leading GIS technology and services provider and part of the BGT group.
13 Apr 2021
Entrepreneurial leadership: Martin O’Malley on transparency and accountability
Governor Martin O’Malley tackles crime and politics with his sleeves rolled-up
Imagine being elected mayor of a city declared one of America’s most violent and dysfunctional, with drug markets, criminal gangs, and murder rates all out of control.
That was the leadership challenge Martin O’Malley faced when he became mayor of Baltimore.
He knew the task at hand would require more than sheer determination. It would also require entrepreneurial guile backed by leading-edge tech to map, solve – and even predict – problems.
He’d need to show the electorate – and the criminals – he meant business.
Martin O'Malley was so successful in his technology-led approach that he went on to become the Governor of Maryland in the United States from 2007 to 2015 and even a democratic contender for the Presidential nomination.
He’s tackled many complex leadership issues in his political career, from being the first US leader to pass the marriage equality act to devising gun safety legislation.
“At the time people said, ‘Oh my goodness. It's going to be impossible. We're going to lose this part of our very religious-minded African American base. We're going to lose people over here and in the rural areas’.”
Martin O’Malley tells Stan Grant how he turned a city and a state around using innovative solutions and a commitment to transparent leadership.
Next episode: Linda Peters, global data strategist.
Directionspodcast.com
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Directions is a podcast hosted by award-winning journalist Stan Grant about how leaders use technology and innovation to solve problems and to shape our increasingly complex world.
This is a BGT Production created in partnership with Esri Australia.
Esri Australia is the nation's leading GIS technology and services provider and part of the BGT group
23 Mar 2021
Introducing Directions with Stan Grant
We’re living through incredible times. Technology has given us new ways to live and work we never would have thought possible.
We’re using data, technology and science to innovate and solve problems on a global scale. And we’re being challenged to unravel the complexities of today’s connected environments.
Directions is the leadership podcast where you learn how those at the top of their fields steer operations forward during times of trial. They tell you how to find opportunity in crisis, clarity amongst confusion, and steely purpose when the scales are tipped against you.
Join author and award-winning journalist Stan Grant as he explores the leadership styles of those people faced with extraordinary responsibilities across the globe.
Challenging these leaders to weigh in on a topic way out of their comfort zone, Stan Grant also unpacks their instincts under pressure to see how they solve real problems in real-time.
www.directionspodcast.com
Guests on Season One of Directions:
Martin O’Malley, former Governor of Maryland, Mayor of Baltimore & presidential candidate
Linda Peters, global data strategist
Dr Amen Ra Mashariki, global director, World Resources Institute
Dr Kathryn Sullivan, scientist, astronaut and explorer
Mike King, criminal profiler and cold case investigator
Chief Kim Zagaris, wildfire policy and technology advisor
Brian Boulmay, global digital transformation leader
Contact Directions with Stan Grant
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