UPFRONT | EDITOR’ S MESSAGE

BUSINESS CHIEF MAGAZINE TEAM

EDITOR ISAIAH MCCALL

DEPUTY EDITOR ALEC MCDONNELL

LEAD DESIGNER ANDY WOOLLACOTT

GLOBAL MEDIA DIRECTOR JODIE PARKES-ROWE MARK CAWSTON

PRODUCTION MANAGER YEVHENIIA SUBBOTINA

DIGITAL PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER FREYA REID

MARKETING LEADS LOTTIE TAYLOR ELLA TERRINGTON

MANAGING EDITORS LUCY BUCHHOLZ TOM CHAPMAN

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ

MANAGING DIRECTOR LONDON & EVENTS JAMES CALLEN

CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER JAMES WHITE

CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER LEWIS VAUGHAN

CEO GLEN WHITE

NOT MANY CHIEF EXECUTIVES get a pâté named in their honour, and fewer still pull off the harder trick our cover star managed: leaving a job he loved at precisely the right moment. John Ridding ran the Financial Times for 19 years, steered it through a Japanese acquisition and a pandemic, hit the two numbers he was set – a million subscribers and £ 50m of operating profit – and then took the advice a mentor gave him long ago, which was never to stay too long. The pâté is explained in the interview. Sort of.

Restraint, it turns out, is this issue’ s house wine. Paul Strouts, who runs Acacium Group’ s life sciences business, prices one wrong hire at £ 500,000 and spends accordingly. Julian Sawyer, CEO of Zodia Custody, is the least Bitcoin-y man in crypto and proud of it.

And our Top 10 Social Impact CEOs, led by Allianz’ s Oliver Bäte, shows what happens when principles get line items.

Business Chief, October 2026. Out now. Happy reading.

Isaiah McCall

Editor

BUSINESS CHIEF MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY

Business Chief Magazine October 2026 | Page 7

Isaiah McCall