My guest this week is an inspiring woman and a brilliant leader, Fran Millar. Fran was recently appointed CEO of the UK fashion brand, Belstaff. Prior to Belstaff, Fran was the former CEO of Team INEOS (formerly Team Sky), the world famous cycling team. Fran led the development of the team’s operational and governance systems alongside all of the business and engagement strategies. Fran has been with team INEOS from the very beginning and during this time she has played a key role in the successes and gained considerable experience in all areas of the team. She previously held a dual role as both Director of Business Operations and Head of Winning Behaviours at Team Sky. Returning to head up all the team’s ‘off bike’ functions in 2015, her responsibilities included overseeing the team’s marketing and communications strategy, stakeholder management, and all the commercial and legal aspects that come with running the world’s number one cycling team. Fran worked alongside the incomparable Sir Dave Brailsford for over a decade, as well as leading sports psychiatrist, professor Steve Peters. Prior to working at Team Sky, Fran set-up and ran her own successful athlete and event management agency for 7 years, initially representing her brother, David Millar and going on to represent some of the UK’s highest profile cyclists, including 2011 Sports Personality of the Year winner Mark Cavendish and 2018 Tour de France winner and 2018 Sports Personality of the Year winner, Geraint Thomas. During her career in cycling, Fran had to deal with some tough challenges including getting caught up in tan infamous doping scandal that involved her pro cyclist brother David. Fran’s story is a fascinating one, one that has twists and turns, one that would have left a lot of people behind but not Fran. Fran is tough, she’s tenacious, she’s inspiring.  Follow Fran: Twitter - https://twitter.com/franmillar Follow me: https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest this week is kayaking legend Anna Hemmings MBE. Anna is Britain’s most successful female marathon kayaker with a staggering eleven World and European Championship medals, 9 of them gold. By the age of 24 she had been a World Champion 3 times and competed at the Olympic Games. In 2010 she was awarded an MBE for her services to sport. Hemmings achieved this success against all the odds. She was told by the British head coach that she was not big enough or strong enough to be a great kayaker. She proved him wrong. At the peak of her career, Anna was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and was told by medical experts she might never race again. She battled her way to full recovery and went on to win a further 3 world titles and compete at her second Olympic Games in Beijing 2008. She has become an expert in the field of resilience and high performance. Anna is now an Executive coach and founded Beyond the Barriers, a high performance training consultancy which works globally with leaders and teams giving them practical tools and strategies to enable them to thrive under pressure, build resilience, be mentally tough in challenging environments and deliver world class performance. Anna’s sporting achievements were recognised at the Sunday Times Sports Woman of the Year Awards, where she won the 2005 Champions Award and then again in 2007 when she was voted BBC London Sports Personality of the Year. This week's podcast gave me more realisations than I’ve ever had from a guest before. We spoke about the multiple challenges she faced throughout her career and how despite all of the hardships, she was able to keep going when all the signs were there to give-up. We also delved into her expertise in resilience and high performance, discussing the steps she takes to help people become the greatest version of themselves. Follow Anna: Website - https://www.annahemmings.com/ LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/anna-hemmings-mbe Follow me: https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices