Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL Interviews the world's leading thinkers, and the people shaping the century.

Myleene Klass has had a remarkable career. She is a classically trained musician, TV & radio presenter, businesswoman, and designer. In 2023 however, she changed history. Following four of her own ‘tortuous’ miscarriages, Myleene joined forces with MP Olivia Blake and spent over four years campaigning for changes to the Women’s Health Strategy in UK Parliament. It was in July of 2023 when the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care announced a package of new measures which included a pilot scheme providing much-needed medical intervention and support for women after every miscarriage. The changes Myleene successfully campaigned for mean that women in the UK will no longer have to wait until they’ve had three miscarriages to receive the medical help, mental health support and pre-conception advice they need after such a major health event. The taboos which sadly remain around pregnancy loss (of which there are over 23 million annually, worldwide) and the impact such health events have on women’s physical and mental health showcase that whilst we have come some distance, we still have a long road ahead of us to achieve equity of consideration for women’s health. In this interview I speak to Myleene Klass, businesswoman, musician and campaigner. We talk about her extraordinary campaign to change the laws surrounding pregnancy loss, her own journey experiencing the injustices women face around health, and how campaigning can create real change.  

John Chambers is an extraordinary leader. During his 25 years at Cisco, he took the business profitably from $1 billion, to over $49 billion in annual revenues. Not only is this one if the internet-era’s greatest success stories, but one which built much of the infrastructure of the modern internet. Today, John Chambers is the founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures. Chambers focuses on helping disruptive start-ups from around the world build and scale, while also promoting the broader development of start-up nations and a start-up world. He invests in companies across categories and geographies that are leading market transitions, such as ASAPP, Aspire Food Group, Balbix, Bloom Energy, Cloudleaf, Denim, Lilac, OpenGov, ParkourSC, Pensando, Pindrop, Privoro, Quantum Metric, Rubrik, SAFE Security, SparkCognition, Sprinklr, Uniphore, and Virsec. Prior to founding JC2 Ventures in 2018, Chambers spent 25+ years with Cisco, serving as CEO, Chairman and Executive Chairman. He currently holds the title of Chairman Emeritus with the organization. With countless lessons learned during his tenure at Cisco and working with startups, Chambers wrote Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Startup World in 2018, sharing his management, leadership, and business principles. Chambers is also the Chairman of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) and Global Ambassador of the French Tech, as appointed by President Emmanuel Macron of France. In this interview I speak to John Chambers, Former Chairman & CEO of Cisco & CEO of JC2 Ventures. John shares his learnings on leading one of the internet-era’s greatest growth journeys, how to spot market transitions and opportunities, his reflections on leading hundreds of acquisitions & investments, and what it takes to lead a scaling, global business.

Bryan Johnson is the world’s most measured human. Johnson sold his company, Braintree Venmo, to PayPal for $800m in 2013. Through his Project Blueprint, Johnson has achieved metabolic health equal to the top 1.5% of 18-year-olds, inflammation 66% lower than the average 10-year-old, and reduced his speed of aging by the equivalent of 31 years. Johnson freely shares his protocols and data publicly for everyone to use. Project Blueprint, is an endeavour to achieve humanity and earth scale cooperation starting within Self.  In 2023, Johnson launched Rejuvenation Olympics, a leaderboard assessing one’s speed of aging using DNA methylation. Of the 1,750 people who have been using this state-of-the-art aging algorithm to track their progress longitudinally, Johnson ranks #1 in speed of age reduction. Johnson is also the founder & CEO of Kernel, creator of the world’s first mainstream non-invasive neuroimaging system; and OS Fund, where he invested $100M in the predictable engineering of atoms, molecules, and organisms into companies now collectively valued over $6B. In this interview I speak to Bryan Johnson, entrepreneur, investor & the world’s most measured man. We discuss the need to radically rethink the future of our species through the lens of our health & wellbeing and how his own multi-million-dollar exploration into health & ageing has reduced his aging by over 31 years.  

Sridhar Vembu is the CEO and Co-founder of Zoho Corp, which he describes as “…a state-of-the-art tech company with a very old-fashioned approach to company building.” Founded in an apartment, in 1996, Zoho now has over 15,000 employees, more than US$1 billion in annual revenues, and over 100 million users. All of this ‘bootstrapped’ as a private business, with no external or public investors. In 2005, he launched the Zoho University (now called Zoho Schools of Learning) programme with six rural high-school students, trained for two years in computer science, maths and communication before being absorbed into the company. Today, around 15% of Zoho’s workforce is made of ZU Graduates who benefit from the business wishing to open offices in small towns, suburbs and rural locations rather than metros. Today, Zoho continues to scale, and Sridhar Vembu is a self-made billionaire, recognised as one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs & philanthropists. In 2021, he was recipient of the Padma Sri (one of India’s highest civilian honours). In this interview, I speak to Sridhar Vembu, CEO and co-founder of Zoho Corp, recognised as one of the world’s most successful technology entrepreneurs who has bootstrapped his business from launch to over US$1 billion in revenues, whilst making huge social impact. 

Rebecca Heiss, PhD, is an evolutionary biologist and stress physiologist who empowers the current and next generation of leaders to live more, fear(less) lives.  Through her deep understanding of how evolution has shaped our brains in a less than optimal fashion, Dr. Heiss breaks down the barriers that hold us back and helps us to live lives of meaning and purpose by playing ALL-IN, even when we are afraid.  A science-backed leadership and performance expert, Dr. Heiss teaches audiences, including business leaders, parents, and students, how to use stress as a tool of empowerment, embrace our worthiness, and recognise the power we all have to change our brains, behaviours and outcomes to exceed what we thought was possible.  Dr. Heiss is the author of INSTINCT, and founder of icueity, a 360-review app and self-awareness tool that gives users continuous, valuable, anonymous feedback from people they trust that confirms or contradicts what they believe to be true about themselves. A passionate educator, Dr. Heiss spent much of her early career in the classroom at high school and college levels, teaching students entrepreneurial thinking and impact-based learning. In this interview I speak to Dr. Rebecca Heiss, one of the world’s foremost experts on the psychology of stress. We discuss the fundamental nature of stress, and how to harness stress for human performance.  

Chatri Sityodtong is the Founder and CEO of ONE, Asia’s largest global sports media platform with a worldwide broadcast to over 190 countries. According to Nielsen, ONE ranks amongst the world’s top 5 biggest sports media properties (alongside NBA, F1, Champions League, EPL, etc) in terms of viewership and engagement. Through its marquee sports properties (ONE Championship and ONE Esports) and its passionate millennial community, ONE is a celebration of Asia’s greatest cultural phenomena, Martial Arts and Gaming, and the deep-rooted Asian values of integrity, humility, honor, respect, courage, discipline, and compassion. Sityodtong is a self-made entrepreneur and lifelong martial artist from Thailand. He is also the latest star of The Apprentice, the award-winning, global reality TV show on Netflix. His rags-to-riches life story has inspired millions around the world on BBC, CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, and other major media. Sityodtong has over 35+ years of martial arts experience. He is a certified senior Muay Thai instructor under the legendary Kru Yodtong Senanan. He also holds a Brown Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Master Renzo Gracie. In this interview, I speak to Chatri Sityodtong. Chatri is the self-made entrepreneur & martial artist who founded ONE, Asia’s largest global sports media platform, home to ONE Championship and ONE Esports. We talk about the role martial arts played in his entrepreneurship journey, and how he’s built some of the world’s most powerful sports brands.   

Bruce Buffer has been the ‘Official Voice of the Octagon’ for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) since 1997 and continues to announce UFC events internationally. Bruce is President & CEO of Buffer Enterprises, Inc., through which he manages his entrepreneurial ventures. He has proven himself as a motivational speaker and has received praise from across the industry for his management and guidance of the successful career of his brother, Michael Buffer, the world-famous sports and entertainment announcer. Bruce’s work involves the creation, design and management of all product and promotional licensing surrounding Michael Buffer’s world famous, ‘Let’s Get Ready to Rumble®’ trademark phrase, which has grown into a major international enterprise with over $400 million in retail sales. He is also a successful writer & podcaster. In this interview, I speak to Bruce Buffer, Entrepreneur, Announcer & Icon of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). We discuss the power and attraction of combat sports, the growth of the UFC, and dive into what it really takes to prepare, fight and succeed in one of the world’s most extreme sports.

Roxie Nafousi is a self-development coach, inspirational speaker, manifesting expert and 2 x Sunday Times Bestselling author. Her debut book MANIFEST: 7 Steps to Living Your Best Life has become a global success since it entered the market in January 2022, and is widely regarded as the must-have guide to manifestation. It has been translated into 22 languages and has spent 25 weeks in the Sunday Times Bestseller charts. Roxie’s much anticipated follow-up book, MANIFEST: Dive Deeper debuted straight at number 5 in the charts and has already received acclaim from the UK’s top publications. Hailed as ‘the manifesting queen’ by Forbes & the Financial Times, Roxie brings her unique approach to self-development across the world, hosting corporate workshops for the world’s largest companies including Google, Meta, Rothschild, and many more. In this interview I speak to Roxie Nafousi. We talk about the practice of Manifesting, how to find out what we really want in life, and how to get over our own blockers to achieve success.

“The quest for happiness is a universal, scientific, fact. We can measure happiness, we can assess it, and we can devise strategies to make ourselves happy and fulfilled human beings.”  This is the assessment of Professor Gad Saad, one of the world’s most sought after experts on psychology, marketing & evolutionary behaviour. Professor Saad, who has been described as ‘…the Lionel Messi of public intellectuals’ is author of the sensational bestseller The Parasitic Mind and the irrepressible host of The Saad Truth podcast. In his latest book, The Saad Truth About Happiness, he roams through the scientific studies, culls the wisdom of ancient philosophies and religions, and draws on his extraordinary personal experiences of coming to Canada as a refugee from war-torn Lebanon, and becoming an academic celebrity. In this interview on happiness, I speak to Professor Gad Saad, evolutionary behavioural scientist, and one of the world’s foremost public intellectuals. We discuss the fundamental nature of what happiness is, the evolutionary basis of happiness, and strip back layers of culture to better understand what it takes to be happy, and live a good life.   

Bjørn Lomborg is President of the Copenhagen Consensus and Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. His new book Best Things First brings together 12 new, peer-reviewed studies which highlight how to make the world a better place, in the best [and most cost-effective] way. These studies show that by spending $35 billion a year (the same as the increase in annual global cosmetics spend in the last 2 years), on 12 specific policies, we could save 4.2 million lives a year, and generate over $1.1 trillion in new wealth. For every dollar spent, these policies generate $52 in global benefits. In this interview, I speak to Bjørn Lomborg, President of the Copenhagen Consensus. We discuss the 12 most impactful solutions to some of our world’s most pressing challenges – saving millions of lives, generating trillions in economic gains, and huge returns in the process.

Suneel Gupta is redefining our understanding of work, ambition, and well-being. He is a tech entrepreneur, visiting scholar at Harvard, and has been featured in NYT, CNBC and TED. He researches and promotes how ancient wisdom, reimagined for modern times, can help us replace the relentless pursuit of success with a balanced and joyous life. In this interview, I speak to Suneel Gupta. We talk about how ancient philosophies have relevance in today’s world, and why we need to redefine our work, ambition and well-being.

Professor Andy Galpin is a tenured full Professor at California State University, Fullerton. He is the Co-Director of the Center for Sport Performance and Founder/Director of the Biochemistry and Molecular Exercise Physiology Laboratory. He is a Human Performance scientist with a PhD in Human Bioenergetics and over 100 peer-reviewed publications and presentations. Dr. Galpin has worked with elite athletes (including All-Star, All-Pro, MVP, Cy Young, Olympic Gold medalists, Major winners, World titlist/ contenders, etc.) across the UFC, MLB, NBA, PGA, NFL, Boxing, Olympics, and Military/Special Forces, and more. He is also a Co-founder of Absolute Rest, BioMolecular Athlete, and RAPID Health & Performance. In this interview, I speak to Professor Andy Galpin, one of the world’s foremost experts on human health & performance. We discuss the key components of health & fitness for those in high performance careers.

Professor Mike Berners-Lee is one of the world’s foremost experts on climate, carbon foot-printing and sustainability. He is the founder of Small World Consulting, an associate company of Lancaster University, which is a world leader in the field of supply chain carbon metrics and management. Small World works with organisations of all sizes and sectors, from the world’s largest tech giants to SMEs. Mike is a professor at Lancaster University, where his research includes sustainable food systems and carbon metrics. He has made numerous speaking, radio and television broadcast appearances to promote public awareness of sustainability and climate change issues, and most notably appeared in Climate Change: The Facts alongside Sir David Attenborough. He is the author of three acclaimed books. His 2019 book, There Is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years is a practical and holistic tour of the 21st century’s biggest challenges, laced throughout with practical guidance for individuals, businesses and politicians. On his first book, How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything, Bill Bryson wrote “I can’t think of the last time I read a book that was more fascinating, and useful and enjoyable all at the same time”. A fully updated version of this book was published in Summer 2020. His book, The Burning Question, co-written with Duncan Clark, explores the big picture on climate change and the underlying global dynamics, asking what mix of politics, economics, psychology and technology are really required to deal with the problem. Al Gore described it as “Fascinating, important and highly recommended”. In this interview, I speak to Professor Mike Berners-Lee, one of the world’s foremost experts on climate, carbon foot-printing and sustainability. We discuss the fundamentals of carbon foot-printing, why we need to measure carbon equivalents, the reality of carbon offsetting and how we can effectively decarbonise our world.  

Dr. Stan Tatkin, is a PsyD, MFT, clinician, researcher, and developer of the Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy® (PACT), best-selling author of his most recent book, In Each Other’s Care. And the relationship must have book, Wired for Love and More than 1.7 million people have tuned in to Dr. Tatkin’s TEDx talk. Dr. Tatkin and his wife, Tracey Boldemann-Tatkin, PhD, created the PACT Institute in 2010 to train mental health professionals to successfully integrate a psychobiological approach in their clinical practices. Dr. Tatkin is an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine. He is on the board of directors of Lifespan Learning Institute and serves as a founding member on Relationships First, a nonprofit organization founded by Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt. In this interview, I speak to Dr. Stan Tatkin, one of the world’s foremost experts in relationships. We discuss what it takes to make relationships work and the common reasons they don’t. We also learn some of the most important factors he has seen, through decades of clinical practice and research, for why the most resilient relationships stand the test of time.

Apollo Tyres Ltd. is one of the world’s largest family businesses. Founded in 1972, Apollo now has over 19,000 employees, serving 100 countries. Neeraj Kanwar is the grandson of founder, Ranuaq Singh. He became MD in 2009 (in his mid-thirties) and has led the growth of Apollo from revenues of US$450 million to over US$3 billion; Apollo is on track to reach US$5bn in revenues by 2026. Neeraj continues to work closely with his father, Onkar Kanwar, who is the company chairman. In this interview, I speak to Neeraj Kanwar, Vice-Chairman & MD of Apollo Tyres and his Father, Onkar Kanwar, Chairman of Apollo Tyres. We discuss the complexities, challenges and opportunities of running one of the world’s largest family businesses including effective succession planning, leadership, culture and change.

Uri Levine is a passionate entrepreneur, a 2x ‘unicorn’ builder (Duocorn), and the author of the book Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution – A Handbook for Entrepreneurs. He is co-founder of Waze, the world’s largest community-based driving traffic and navigation app, which Google acquired for $1.1 billion in 2013, and former investor and board member in Moovit, ‘Waze of public transportation, which Intel acquired for $1 Billion in 2020. Levine’s vision is building startups that are doing good and doing well, focusing on solving problems and hence changing the world for the better. He has been in the high-tech business for the last 40 years, more than half of them in the startup scene, and has seen everything ranging from failure, to moderate success, and big success. In this interview I speak to Uri Levine (Co-Founder of Waze) who has built 2x ‘unicorn’ companies with values exceeding $1bn. We discuss the realities of entrepreneurship, what it takes to build some of the world’s most successful technology companies, and why we need to fall in love with problems, not solutions.

Bellingcat is an independent investigative collective composed of researchers, investigators, and citizen journalists, all united by a shared fervour for open-source research. Established in 2014, the collective has blazed a trail in the realm of open-source research methods, investigating a vast array of topics of public interest. The subjects they have probed into span from the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine to police brutality in Colombia and the unlawful wildlife trade in the UAE. Their meticulous research frequently finds mention in international media and has been quoted by numerous courts and investigative missions. In this interview, I speak to Eliot Higgins, the Founder & Creative Director of Bellingcat. Eliot was named one of Foreign Policy magazine’s Global Thinkers in 2019 and one of Politico Europe’s top 28 most influential people in Europe in the “Disrupters” category in 2021. He was also awarded the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award for excellence in journalism in 2015. In 2022, he was awarded the Swedish based Monismanien Prize for freedom of speech. He is the author of ‘We Are Bellingcat: An Intelligence Agency for the People‘ (paperback -2022), a Sunday Times best seller.

Girish Mathrubootham is a renowned figure in the global tech industry, an entrepreneur who has rewritten India’s startup narrative through his determination, innovation, and entrepreneurial acumen. As the CEO of Freshworks, he has propelled the company to new heights, carving a niche in a domain that was previously dominated by established industry giants. A visionary, he set his sights beyond just commercial success, co-founding SaaSBOOMi and Together Fund. These ventures reflect Girish’s commitment to leveraging technology and resources to help the burgeoning start-up ecosystem in India, illuminating a path for countless budding entrepreneurs. But Girish’s influence extends beyond the realm of tech and start-ups. His philanthropic initiatives paint the portrait of a leader who believes in giving back to society. His passion for nurturing talent is manifested in FC Madras, a testament to his belief in India’s potential on the global stage. Establishing this football club was a deliberate act of providing young Indian athletes the infrastructure, support, and opportunity they need to excel in their field. His life’s mission, as he succinctly puts it, is to “create world champions from India,” a purpose that unifies his roles in entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and sport. In this interview, I speak to philanthropist & entrepreneur, Girish Mathrubootham. We discuss his journey as an entrepreneur leading Freshworks from start-up to $Multi-Billion IPO, what it takes to lead scale-up global businesses, and the power of philanthropy to create change.

In this interview I speak to Ajaz Ahmed, Founder & CEO of AKQA, a design & innovation agency who now employee over 7,000 people in 50 countries – and work with more than half of the Fortune 500 top 20 companies. Ajaz has co-authored and written three books about business, creativity, scaling and technology: Velocity (2012), Limitless (2015), and Defeat (2019). Ajaz has also been involved in philanthropy since the start of AKQA for over two decades, and launched ajaz.org which has made over 15 grants since it was launched in August 2021. In addition to his own charitable organisation, Ajaz sits on the board of Mission 44 (founded by Sir Lewis Hamilton: empowering young people from underserved groups to succeed), Elton John AIDS Foundation (founded by Sir Elton John & David Furnish, funding frontline partners preventing infections, fighting stigma and providing treatment) and Virgin Unite (founded by Sir Richard Branson, uniting people & entrepreneurial ideas to change the world). In this interview, I speak to Ajaz Ahmed MBE on what it takes to build a global creative business, the power of creative industries as a force for good, and his learnings from working with some of the world’s greatest brands.

Start-ups rarely survive their second birthday. Even established firms in the UK and the US average a life of only fifteen years. So how can your company build and sustain success for decades to come?  Professor Alex Hill has conducted thirteen years of groundbreaking research into a clutch of organisations that have outperformed their peers for over 100 years – from NASA to the New Zealand All Blacks, from Eton College and the Royal College of Art to the Royal Marines and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In his new book, Centennials, Professor Hill shares the twelve traits that have set these organisations apart for over a century, from the way they analyse success and failure to their approach to finding the best people and the brightest new ideas. In so doing, he identifies the strategies and habits that you can employ in your company to create a strong, stable core and ensure the same long-term prosperity while remaining dynamic. In short, he shows you how to build a promising enterprise into an enduring, great organisation. In this interview, I speak to Professor Alex Hill, Director of The Centre for High Performance (a collaboration between senior faculty at the Universities of Kingston, Duke CE, London Business School and Oxford). We discuss how some of the world’s longest living companies have endured, and how we can do the same.