The People Keeping Us Safe: Satia Rai on Safety, Visibility and Purpose

Security professionals are everywhere.

In our hospitals, shopping centres, supermarkets, workplaces, transport hubs, major events and some of the UK’s most sensitive infrastructure.

Yet the scale, capability and importance of this workforce is often overlooked.

In this episode of The Impact Room, Michelle Ansell is joined by Satia Rai, CEO of the International Professional Security Association (IPSA) and Founder and CEO of Women in Protective Services (WIPS).

Having started her own career on the frontline around 30 years ago, Satia has experienced first-hand both the opportunities within the security profession and the barriers that can prevent people from seeing it as a long-term career.

She shares why professionalising the sector means more than licensing. It means better training, development, working conditions, recognition and career pathways for the people entrusted with public safety every day.

The conversation also explores Satia’s drive to bring more women into protective services.

Through WIPS, she wants to make successful women more visible, connect women across security, policing, fire and other protective services, and build stronger pathways into leadership.

Satia also discusses an area particularly important to her: violence against women and girls.

With security professionals often among the first people to notice when somebody is vulnerable or at risk, Satia believes this workforce could play a much greater role in public protection through awareness, training, empathy and partnership.

Her own story runs throughout the conversation too. From frontline security to CEO, from feeling underrepresented to becoming a visible industry leader, Satia describes finding her purpose through people and learning the importance of authenticity, representation and belonging.

As she puts it:

“It’s important that we reflect the communities that we protect.”

A conversation about security, certainly, but also about leadership, visibility, opportunity and what happens when people finally see somebody like themselves succeeding.

Learn more about this episode here:

Contact Satia https://www.linkedin.com/in/satia-rai/

More from IPSA https://www.ipsa.org.uk/

Learn More about WIPS https://www.ipsa.org.uk/wips

AI is moving quickly, but many organisations are still struggling to turn experimentation into genuine business value.

In this episode of The Impact Room, Michelle Ansell speaks with Maggie Sarfo, who helps growth-focused organisations and leadership teams connect AI ambition to measurable commercial outcomes.

Rather than starting with the technology, Maggie starts with the business problem. She explains why so many AI pilots fail to scale, why adoption is more than usage, and why leadership teams need to understand their readiness before investing further.

The conversation covers AI maturity, AI literacy, governance, ethics, data readiness, culture, trust and the changing skills leaders need as AI becomes embedded into the way organisations operate.

One of Maggie’s most striking observations is:

“If you add AI on top of the chaos, it will become more chaotic.”

Michelle and Maggie also explore the future of work, the rise of agentic AI, the risk of cognitive overload, and why leaders may need to rethink the foundations of their business rather than simply adding AI tools to existing systems.

This is a practical and thought-provoking conversation for senior leaders, founders and transformation teams who want to move beyond AI pilots and start building the foundations for sustainable growth, better decision-making and measurable impact.

Maggie is the Founder and CEO of Meres Consult Learn More about Meres Consult,

website: https://www.meresconsult.com/

Complimentary AI Readiness & Maturity Assessment: https://meresconsult.com/ai-assessment.html

Complimentary AI Exploration Consultation: https://tidycal.com/maggiesarfo/explore

Connect with Maggie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggie-sarfo/

Global business growth and AI adoption consultancy

Watch the Full episode on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/2FOicTBmWGw

Learn more about Douglas Jackson Executives Search and Leadership Advisory for Permanent and Fractional AI leadership and direction. https://www.douglas-jackson.com/executive-search-proven-diverse-leaders-headhunters/

Sean Keane, Co-Founder of Service Economics, joins Michelle Ansell on The Impact Room to discuss why many organisations are unintentionally designing inefficient service systems, and how this is impacting cost, customer experience and operational performance.

Drawing on extensive experience in regulated industries, Sean introduces the concept of service effectiveness, challenging traditional approaches focused purely on efficiency, automation and cost reduction.

Key themes include:

• Understanding value demand vs failure demand
• Why up to 80% of customer contact can be avoidable
• The financial and operational impact of “service waste”
• The limitations of traditional metrics such as Average Handle Time and First Contact Resolution
• How organisations overspend on technology by solving the wrong problems
• The importance of leadership curiosity and operational visibility
• Practical steps for new COOs and Customer Leaders in their first 100 days

Sean highlights a critical shift in thinking:

“If you chase quality, the cost takes care of itself.”

This episode is essential listening for leaders responsible for customer operations, transformation, cost management and service delivery in complex, customer led and regulated organisations with real world examples for Housing Associations, Utilities and Banking, Financial Services and Insurance.

To learn more about Service Economics please go here: Service Economics - The experts in Effective Service

To learn more about Sean Kean, Managing Director and Co-Founder go here. Seán Keane, CCXP | LinkedIn