Ep. 21: Tony Haile - On Polar Expeditions, Media in the Digital Age, and Just About Everything in Between

How many people can draw a line in their lives that connects living in the West Bank, yacht racing around the world, doing polar expeditions, and becoming the CEO for a highly successful technology firm?  Probably one - and this week, he joins me on the All Things Risk Podcast to talk risk, digital media, leadership, and much more.  Meet Tony Haile, founding CEO of Chartbeat (www.chartbeat.com), explorer, adjunct Professor, and many other things.

The things that Tony has done may, at first glance, seem disparate and unrelated.  However, as you'll soon grasp, the way that Tony looks at them, they are completely connected.  One of the threads that runs through Tony's endeavours is around risk and risk-taking.  Tony has for instance, applied many lessons from his polar expedition days to the world of tech start-ups.

Chartbeat, the company Tony led as CEO for seven years is similarly an interesting story - not only because it went from start-up to market leader in its field, but also for what it does.  Chartbeat helps media companies understand how its audience engages with content (as opposed to the blunt instrument of measuring clicks and page views). Tony's work at Chartbeat revealed that in spite of the click bait economy of which we are a part, there is a massive demand for thoughtful and nuanced content.  We talk about this, including the future of digital media and investigative journalism in part of this episode.

This all makes for a fun, wide-ranging and very insightful conversation that I am certain you will not only enjoy, but also take away some practical things you can use.  We cover:

• Tony's background, including studying International Relations and living in the West Bank Palestinian territory;
• Polar expeditions and working with explorer and endurance athlete Ben Saunders;
• Lessons in risk management Tony took from the world of yacht racing and polar expeditions and applied to the world of tech start-ups - this part of the conversation will perhaps challenge any preconceptions you might have about tech entrepreneurs being risk-seeing mavericks prone to recklessness;
• Chartbeat - what it does and how he helped make it a success;
• Lessons from his time as a CEO;
• The state of digital media;
• The future of investigative journalism;
• Book recommendations - Tony is a avid reader and lists the books he as read each year on his website (www.tonyhaile.com) - this led to an interesting discussion on genes and transhumanism (although we did not have enough time to cover this properly!)
• And much more!

Show notes:

Tony's website - www.tonyhaile.com 

Tony on Twitter: https://twitter.com/arctictony 

Tony on Linkedin: http://bit.ly/2c7fb7E 

Chartbeat: https://chartbeat.com/ 

Tony's article in Time Magazine "What You Know About the Web is Wrong" - http://time.com/12933/what-you-think-you-know-about-the-web-is-wrong/ 

Feature on Tony and Chartbeat in the Columbia Journalism Review: http://www.cjr.org/innovations/tony_haile_chartbeat.php 

Ernest Shackleton - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Shackleton 

Ben Saunders - http://www.bensaunders.com/ 

The Scott Expedition: http://scottexpedition.com/ 

Control Risks: www.controlrisks.com 

Article "What ISIS Really Wants": http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/384980/ 

The Last Lion 3 by William Manchester and Paul Reid (although also check out 1 and 2): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/746673.The_Last_Lion_3?from_search=true 

The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddharta Mukherjee: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27276428-the-gene?from_search=true 

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