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

June Sarpong, MBE has spent over 20-years at the forefront of broadcasting in the UK and USA.  She has also become a fierce advocate for diversity and equality, working extensively with HRH Price Charles as an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust, and as Co-Founder of WIE Network (Women: Inspiration & Enterprise) which has drawn partners and speakers including Melinda Gates, Arianna Huffington, Queen Rania and Nancy Pelosi.  Her recent book and campaign, Diversify ” …examines the research behind diversity and discrimination while grounding them in personal narratives, highlighting our common humanity.” (Kofi Annan) and I caught up with June to learn more about why we must all fight for a more diverse world.

In these exclusive interviews, we talk to two Philippe Starck and Olafur Eliasson, two of the world’s most prominent artists, designers and innovators. We explore the very fundamentals of why we design, why we make art and explore the relationship of art and design to our culture, economy, society and experience of the world.

In 2015, New York City announced an unprecedented commitment to create a mental health system that works for all the city’s residents, and a commitment to empower citizens’ mental health and well-being.  This initiative was titled to match its desired outcome: ThriveNYC. To learn more about how New York City is empowering the mental health of its citizens, and becoming an international leader in creating a mental health friendly city, I spoke with theFirst Lady of New York City, Chirlane McCray.

My conversation with Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of Wall Street who- in the 1990’s – built one of the most dynamic and successful sales organizations in Wall Street history. During that time, he soared to the highest financial heights, earning over $50 million a year, a feat that coined him the name “The Wolf of Wall Street.” As the owner of Stratton Oakmont, Belfort employed over 1,000 stockbrokers and raised over $1.5 billion and started more than 30 million-dollar-companies from scratch. Along the way, he succumbed to some of the traps of the high-flying Wall Street lifestyle, going through a spectacular—and well-publicized—fall from grace. Taking invaluable lessons from the mistakes he made and the prices he paid, he has re-emerged as a globally recognized potent force behind extraordinary business success.

My interview with David Blaine, described as “…the greatest magician who ever lived” and has performed endurance feats ranging from being entombed in a plastic box between a three-ton water tank for seven days with no food and little water to encasing himself in a block of ice for almost three days, holding his breath for over 17 minutes, and receiving over one million volts of electricity through his body- continuously- for 72 hours from seven Tesla coils.

My interview with Jules Evans – author, philosopher, journalist & researcher.

In these exclusive interviews, we speak to Moby (Multi Award Winning International Recording Artist, DJ and Photographer), Hans Zimmer (International Award Winning composer and music producer who has composed music for over 100 films), Rita Ora (multi award winning singer & actress), and Rusty Rueff (Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation).  We discuss the fundamental question of ‘what’ music is and the role of music in human culture.  We also explore the business of music, and how technology has impacted the production and consumption of music around the world.  Digging deeper, we discuss the secrets of what makes a great piece of music and look at why music is fundamental to our very experience of being human.

The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women supports women entrepreneurs in developing and emerging economies to access the skills, technology, networks and financial services they need to become successful business owners. They have supported over 140,000 women from 100 countries, and I caught up with Cherie to learn more about how we can empower women’s entrepreneurship worldwide.

My interview with Virginia McKenna OBE, Founder of the Born Free Foundation – on humanity’s relationship with the animal kingdom.

My interview with Ella Mills – an award winning cookery author and entrepreneur, and a champion of eating well.

On Gender & Science – A Conversation with May-Britt Moser, Nobel Prize Winning Scientist

On Europe: My interview with Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Former President of Estonia.

I caught up with Miguel McKelvey, WeWork Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, to learn more about the work revolution.

Ai Weiwei is an artist, renowned for making strong aesthetic statements that resonate with timely phenomena across today’s geopolitical world.  I spoke to him to learn more about his art.

One of the characteristics linking our greatest entrepreneurs is their ability to create platforms.  These are the mechanisms that bring others on the entrepreneur’s journey, creating wealth, success and impact along the way. Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce have created hundreds of multi-million dollar businesses through their sales-channels.  Apple and Google…

War is a deeply physical act, but ideologies are the muscle behind them. In this interview, I spoke to Haras Rafiq, CEO of Quilliam International – and one of the world’s foremost experts in counter-extremism. 

The World’s Most Profound Health Challenge. In these exclusive interviews we speak to: Dr. Thomas Insel (Former Director of the National Institutes of Mental Health, NIMH – Co-Founder, Mindstrong Health), Dr. Shekhar Saxena (Director: Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the World Health Organisation, WHO), Paul Farmer CBE (Chief Executive of Mind, the world’s largest Mental Health NGO), Sergeant Kevin Briggs (Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge), Marcus Trescothick (International Cricketer and Mental Health Campaigner) Professor Vikram Patel (Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Public Health Foundation of India), Professor Andrew Solomon (Writer and lecturer on politics, culture and psychology, a Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University Medical Center, and President of PEN American Center),Professor Green (Rapper, Singer, Songwriter, Actor and Television Personality) and Matt Haig (Author, Journalist & Activist). We look at the realities of mental health worldwide, understand the true burden on individuals, communities and countries and look at the opportunities to deal with our global mental health crisis.

My interview with John Sculley, CEO of Apple Inc from 1983-1993 who grew the company from $800 million to over $8 billion in revenues

In this exclusive interview, I spoke to Garry about democracy, dictators, the instability in our world, his hopes for the future and how artificial intelligence will allow us to embrace our humanity.

My conversation with Guy Hands, Founder & Chairman of Terra Firma who (since 1994) have invested over €16 billion in 34 businesses with an aggregate enterprise value of over €48 billion.