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Rowena Samarasinhe is the Founder of GENSport and a Consultant at LEVEL. With almost 20 years of dedicated experience in the sports industry, she has made significant contributions across football, athletics, and other Olympic sports. Her early career included a notable stint in motorsports while employed by a top ten London law firm.

Rowena is an accomplished Non-Executive Director within the sports sector and was admitted as a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales on 1 March 2006. She holds an MBA in International Sports Management and has a robust background in event operations, rights acquisitions and sales, tender processes, and bid evaluation.

Recognised for her expertise, Rowena was featured in the Legal 500 General Counsel Powerlist: Switzerland (2018) and has been named a Legal 500 "Next Generation Partner" in Sport for five consecutive years (2020-2024). She is also a TEDx Speaker, sharing her insights and experiences in the sports industry with a broader audience.

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Dr. Matthew Paschall serves with United World Mission in Budapest. He has served 15 years in pastoral ministry in California and New York and 15 years in cross-cultural mission in France, Senegal and Hungary. Matt earned his Masters of Divinity from Talbot Theological Seminary and his Doctor of Ministry in Global and Contextual Leadership. His dissertation, “Diaspora, Migration and Refugees in Europe: Developing Servant Leadership Within Multi-cultural Teams” is the result of several years of research and ministry experience.

Matt is a husband, father of four, singer and guitarist and always open to hearing from people interested in developing community.

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-paschall-74b77335

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David and Richard discuss the seven episodes that have made up Series 2 of 'Leading Stories'. In this episode they share their reflections and learning having spent time with eight wonderful people.

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Andy began his educational journey at Queen Mary’s Grammar School in Walsall. Despite not excelling academically, he managed to secure a place at Staffordshire Polytechnic (now Staffordshire University), where he studied Computer Science. His final year project, a route planner for Windows, marked the beginning of his tech career in 1992.

Andy's first job in the industry was at a small software company in Cannock, which didn't turn out as expected, leading him to pivot to building PCs. In 1994, he joined Nextbase, the company behind Autoroute. This turned out to be a pivotal move, as Nextbase was acquired by Microsoft just three months after he joined. Andy seized the opportunity and relocated to Seattle in February 1995, shortly before getting married.

At Microsoft, Andy spent eight years primarily developing in-car entertainment software, including notable projects like the Clarion Auto PC. In 2002, he left Microsoft to start his own company, Omega One, which achieved notable success with the No.1 selling mobile app for two consecutive years.

After Omega One naturally concluded in 2007, Andy returned to Microsoft, experiencing both highs and lows. In 2015, his time at Microsoft ended, and he transitioned to INRIX, where he had the best professional experience of his career over two years.

In 2017, Andy "retired" but soon felt the urge to embark on something creative. In early 2019, he launched his Big Car channel, and the journey has been incredible ever since.

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Sara Lodge is director of Beehive Coaching & Leadership Development Ltd. Apart from a couple of breaks, one working in marketing and one on the Leadership Fast Track of the West Yorkshire Police, she has been in the field of learning and development since 1985, working in places as diverse as Japan, Africa, Canada, Austria and France.

Sara is passionate about organisational learning and the importance of learning to leadership, and sees action learning, coaching and mentoring as two of the most important elements of developing both. She also sees Beehive's mission of sustainable learning as being directly applicable to the fields of Human Performance and safety culture, as it provides a model of operating experience feedback.

Ever since Mark Sykes first 'taught'​ rock climbing to beginners in the early 1980's he has believed that people hold the answers to the challenges they face within themselves. Mark could tell people where the holds were and how to pull on them, but then it felt like he had done the climbing for them.

For Mark, the key element was to ensure they were safe to 'have a go' and he was responsible for creating the safe space. That philosophy still holds true. Mark strongly believes that his clients know the answers to their work challenges and his role is still to create a safe environment for them to have a go, only this time it is a psychological and emotional safety that he creates. Together they are Beehive Coaching.

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In this episode Rhiannon shares the time when her own mental health suffered and how this changed her view of what is important in life.

As a passionate class teacher and wellbeing leader, Rhiannon works closely with staff, students and parents to support them in prioritising wellbeing and mental health. Rhiannon develops wellbeing programmes that aim to teach the entire school community about the awareness, tools and strategies we all need to look after ourselves and to look out for others.

She is keen to connect with like-minded colleagues to discuss how the wellbeing of international school students can be supported even further.

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Andy trained as a teacher in the UK and Australia, and has worked in international education for most of his career. As a teacher and school leader he specialised in curriculum design and school start-ups. He is now CEO of Consilium Education, an educational consulting company of highly experienced education professionals offering support with school start-ups, strategic planning, preparation for inspection or accreditation, feasibility/bench-marking studies and campus refurbishment. They also offer professional development programmes and careers advice for teachers who wish to work internationally. Consilium also publishes International Teacher Magazine.

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A passionate and avid cyclist, Andy Ferns is driven to help others in every way possible to repair, customize, and restore their bicycles. When not tinkering in his workshop or out riding, he splits his time between his wife Tina, their children, and serving the community as a dedicated full-time firefighter.

For as long as Andy can recall, the simple joy of riding a bike has been a constant in his life. He finds it fascinating how something so basic in engineering can deliver such excitement and freedom, propelled solely by human power. The unencumbered feeling a ride provides, the ability to explore new places unconfined, all while staying physically active - these never fail to fill him with wonder. As he matured, his skills advanced, carrying him faster and farther afield, fueling youthful fantasies of one day competing in the Tour de France.

The first bicycle Andy lovingly restored was a Raleigh Panasonic Team Corsa, his original road bike from childhood. Devastated when that cherished Raleigh was stolen in the 1980s, years later he serendipitously discovered an identical model listed for sale across the country, still in its factory-issue condition. An instinctive feeling told him he simply had to reclaim that bike. Though weathered and neglected, he instantly recognized every intimate detail, all still intact - a thrilling rediscovery of where his passion began.

From those humble beginnings sprang a lifelong dedication, with Andy painstakingly reviving hundreds of bicycles, from road racers to fixed-gears and more obscure models. That first restoration was just a few years ago, but in that span he has faced projects both pristine and decrepit, yet his enthusiasm remains bright. Experience the origin of BikeitUK by watching videos of Andy's bike renewals https://www.bikeituk.club/

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