First Person, with Matt Egan

About 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

Publisher

Matt Egan

Category

business · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Jun 2025

Latest episode

3 Nov 2025

Latest episodes

1 of 22 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   3 Nov 2025

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

   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 products that improve people's lives.

2. 

   20 Oct 2025

   Ep 21: Manu Gopinath - President, UST

   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 'yes, but...' to all opportunities, and that he considers his greatest achievement to be building and leading teams of great people.

3. 

   13 Oct 2025

   Ep 20: Mike Vaughan - CDO, Brown & Brown

   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 manufacturing to finance. He shares how he learnt along the way the value of a deep understanding on his organizations' goals, and the power of knowing what you don't know. But above all he speaks to the power of working with great people in a good team.

Inside a recent episode

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

Published 27 Jun 2025 · Transcript excerpt

[…] So looking at that, I kind of say again. No, I was just, I was completely agreeing with you. I think the infrastructure and architecture for AI conversation is such an interesting one because, you know, everyone's rushing forward towards something, but the practical realities and what the organization needs to date versus what we think it's going to need tomorrow require the architect to be really kind of flexible in building sustainable, growing solutions, right? Exactly 100 % and, you know, particularly with AI, it's very immature. You know, there's a lot of evolution to go. So it's a case of taking those, understanding the use cases and taking those baby steps and learning, you know, because there's a lot of change, you know, for the organization, a lot of change for IT, as well as changing the industry. […]

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Guest appearances

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Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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