A special broadcast, Friday 25 September 2026, 6pm BST
Six conversations. Six perspectives. One thread running through all of them.
Across Season 4 of Difference Makers Discuss, host Sinead Donovan sat down with entrepreneurs, Olympians, community builders and finance professionals who are doing things differently. For this special broadcast we have brought the very best of those moments together into a single episode.
You will travel from Sydney to London, from Olympic tracks to the maize fields of Mozambique, from online exam halls in South Africa to audit rooms in Zambia. Along the way you will hear six people explain, in their own words, what actually makes the difference.
Whether you followed every episode of Season 4 or you are joining us for the first time, there is something here that will stay with you.
What you will hear
Kingsley Aikins on the power of one conversation How a 12 person dinner club in Sydney grew into the largest Irish business network in any city in the world, and how a single letter to a stranger turned into a 21 year working relationship.
Aster Thackery on building a village Aster arrived in London pregnant, during a pandemic, knowing nobody. The coffee meetup she started now connects around 2,000 parents, and she has a sharp challenge for anyone who says they wish they had a village.
Manuel Rodrigues on impact at scale Inside Escolha do Povo, the Mozambican project that has brought around 55,000 maize farmers and 14,000 soya farmers into a working microeconomy, and the commercial insight that moved farmer income from once a year to every 35 days.
Caitriona Jennings on resilience under pressure Caitriona qualified for the 2012 Olympic marathon while working full time at PwC. What happened on race day is not a story you will forget quickly.
Nick Riemer on navigating AI with clarity One of the most nuanced takes we have heard on where AI belongs in assessment, why a human always makes the final call, and what real skill with AI actually looks like.
Liswaniso Namatama on the human core of audit Why professional judgment, risk assessment and honest conversations still need a person in the room, and why that is good news for the profession.
Who this is for
This episode is for Chartered Accountants at every stage of their career, for anyone weighing up how AI fits into professional work, and for anyone who suspects that the skills nobody grades at university might be the ones that matter most.
Watch past episodes on demand
In this special edition of Difference Makers Discuss, recorded for the Chartered Accountants Worldwide UAE community, host Carla Wilson is joined by international tax specialist Hugo van Zyl and HR leader Sarah Brooks. Together they unpack the tax, payroll, and governance risks of letting employees work across borders, along with the practical steps every organisation should take.
Have you ever been told to keep your head down, work hard, and let your good work speak for itself? It sounds like solid advice. It’s also, according to Kingsley Aikins, pretty much the worst career guidance you can get.
What does a fourth-generation New Zealander, with a Singaporean-Chinese mum, a law degree, a Chartered Accountancy qualification, and an Irish husband have in common with the Italian government, a 2,000-strong parent community in Greenwich, and a global mission to attract foreign investment? In this episode of Difference Makers Discuss, host Sinead Donovan finds out.
What does it really mean to be an auditor? Ask Liswaniso Namatama and he’ll tell you it’s far more than ticking boxes or crunching numbers — it’s about understanding people, organisations, and the world around you.
This is a genuinely remarkable conversation, one that challenges assumptions about what accountants do, what business is for, and what’s possible when commercial discipline meets genuine social purpose.
What does it take to train for the Olympics while studying for your chartered accountancy exams, and then go on to break a world record? If you’re Catriona Jennings, the answer involves meticulous planning, hard-won resilience, and a willingness to take calculated risks, both on the track and in the boardroom.
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