Share Sounds presented by Nigel Cassidy related to Entrepreneurs & Business Leaders - Profiles

Leah Hutcheon is the Founder of Appointedd, an Edinburgh based online booking specialist. She joined Share Radio Breakfast to talk about her company, which from nothing has built its way to international status, having won investment along the way. They are announcing a new US partner on Monday.

Big Sofa, a technology company of just over thirty people, is preparing to float on Aim, the debut investment market, and may begin trading next week. The founders apparently started the business seven years ago travelling the UK, interviewing consumers to get some insight into customer behaviour. They quizzed people on a large inflatable sofa, and videoed the results, believing the insights they got were better than those from more conventional research. But it was all a bit laborious transcribing the content, so today Big Sofa uses clever software that mines all the info. Simon Lidington, CEO of Big Sofa, joined Share Radio to discuss.

High profile executives, including Microsoft's Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, are investing one billion dollars in a fund for clean energy tech and addressing climate change. They're being joined by others such as Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Alibaba chairman Jack Ma. They hope to increase financing to emerging energy research, and help hit emissions goals set in the Paris Summit. Dr. Charles Donovan is Director of Imperial College London's Centre for Climate Finance, and he joined Share Radio Breakfast to discuss.

Head of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde is appearing in court today charged with negligence and misuse of public funds. Lagarde is under fire for a massive government payout to tycoon Bernard Tapie from her time as French finance minister. Share Radio's James Brydges has been finding out more.

There are only eleven shopping days left until Christmas and it's already apparent who some of the winners and losers might be on our high streets. But if the queues around their stores are anything to do by, one of the festive winners may be Flying Tiger Copenhagen, until recently known as Tiger. Flying Tiger stores sell everyday home and kitchenware, stationery and toys, often with a Scandinavian design twist. The first UK store was in Basingstoke, and now the company counts 80 stores in the country, 600 stores across 29 countries. What can we learn from how they trade? Philip Bier heads Tiger’s business in the south-east of England, and he joined Share Radio to discuss.

Gabriel Pirona, Group Finance Director at Photo-me International, the instant service equipment group, joined Share Radio Breakfast to discuss the company’s latest interim results. Once again the results were positive and Gabriel reflected on the performance.

Tata Steel has made a commitment to secure jobs and production at Port Talbot and other steelworks across the UK, unions have said. It could bring an end to eight months of uncertainty for thousands of workers who faced losing their jobs when Tata's UK business was put up for sale. Community Union made the announcement following talks with Tata and other unions Unite and GMB on Wednesday. But workers still have to agree to it and will be balloted in the new year. Councillor Anthony Taylor, former worker at the Port Talbot steel plant, joined Share Radio to discuss the deal.

Evgen Pharma, the clinical stage drug development company focused on cancer and neurological conditions, announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2016. CEO Stephen Franklin joined Share Radio to talk on future projects and discuss the results.

Alex Lydall, Senior 360 FX dealer at corporate forex broker Foenix Partners, joined Share Radio to give his market view on the Italian Referendum, Non-Farm payrolls and discuss what we should expect in the week ahead.

Impax Asset Management group has just announced results for the year ended 30 September 2016, describing it as one of the most successful years in their nineteen year history. Profit before tax are flat compared to last year, increasing to 5.2 million pounds from 5.1 million pounds, but these were up against more difficult background for investment. Ian Simm, Founder and Chief Executive, joined Share Radio to discuss the results.