Episode 95: Philanthropist Dr Ewan Kirk on giving £7m to causes he wants to see fail
"Nobody really knows what they're talking about and neither do I." Our guest this week co-founded The Turner Kirk Trust in 2007 and since then has granted over £7million to charitable causes across the UK and the developing world. His achievements include a PhD in General Relativity, chairing numerous businesses and launching the UK’s first algo-hedge fund. The perfect match for your host’s combined four GCSEs, 400m swimming certificate and a rather vague Culinary Skills badge from Beavers. We kick off with Kenneth’s employment reveal, and his plans to go full-time on the podcast between dog walks and the driving range. James wants to spend a million on paper clips and betrays a fondness for tie pins. From then it’s all business we meet the self-proclaimed ‘smuggest man in town’ fresh from his win at Midnight Madness. He tells us about growing up in an infamous location, a lifetime love of computing and embracing his inner-geek. Kenneth ruthlessly sacks Dan from the Pub Quiz Team live on air, we ponder buying a boat and agree on the concept for a new airport-bookshop business title. There’s the importance of good fortune, embracing experimentation and how we face government-sized problems in the third-sector before we discover how to run a hedge fund, form some long-term strategic goals and find that the answer is probably Cat. ---You can find us on www.domoregood.uk or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Get in touch if you'd like to feature or star on the show. It goes without saying really but the episodes contains our opinions - essentially things we overheard in meetings, stole from presentations and read in magazines. Thanks for listening.