James Turner, CEO at Hg Foundation: Transforming 100,000 Young Lives Through Tech Careers

My Duvet Flip by Jack Parsons

Jack Parsons

Business, Careers

4.2 • 5 Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Episode Guests

James Turner is the CEO of the Hg Foundation, leading its mission to drive social mobility through technology and education.

Elona Mortimer-Zhika is a Board Trustee at the Hg Foundation and a passionate advocate for diversity, inclusion, and access to tech careers.

Episode Timestamps

0:00 Introduction

0:49 Meet James and Elona from the HG Foundation

1:27 Why tech access is a social mobility issue

2:29 James’ journey from law to education leadership

3:42 Elona’s powerful story: from Albania to tech boardrooms

5:00 Why opportunity is everything — and not equally shared

6:07 What the HG Foundation actually does

8:01 Scaling impact: 100,000 tech opportunities

9:24 Behind the partnerships driving change

11:00 The diversity crisis in tech

12:27 Why inclusion powers better businesses

13:40 Data-backed impact and smarter giving

15:00 Why Elona believes “playing small does not serve the world”

16:26 Who backs the HG Foundation — and why it matters

17:58 The unique power of the HG network

19:46 Why tech careers are ideal for young people

21:26 Mira Murati, ChatGPT & tech role models

23:06 How to future-proof your career with tech

24:52 Real programs, real opportunities

26:07 Final message to the next generation

28:07 James' duvet flip moment

28:43 Elona’s reason for showing up — every single time

29:50 Closing thanks

Episode Partners

Hg Foundation

Together with The Hg Foundation, we’re on a mission to motivate and inspire young people like you to explore, or even start a career in technology through inspirational talks from industry.

https://bit.ly/4mwzRGs

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, my name is James Turner. My name is Alona, I'm Orden-Rizika. I'm the CEO of the HG Foundation.
0:21.0	And I'm a trustee of the HG Foundation. We're on a mission to provide 100,000 opportunities to young people in tech, and this is my duvet flip. Why tech? It shapes our lives in so many ways. You're born in the wrong geography. You're not going to have the same opportunities. This is the real deal. Can we think
0:21.3	about how we can help give those young people the right advice to make those good choices later on?
0:26.5	When you surround your world with diversity, it gets bigger. Playing small does not serve the
0:31.7	world. Go and make an impact. What's your dovet flip? What flips the do day in the morning
0:36.0	is and get out of bed every morning and do what you do at HG Foundation?
0:45.8	My name is James Turner. I'm the CEO of the HG Foundation. My name is Elona Mortawatero Marcia and I'm a trustee of the HG Foundation.
0:56.0	I'm so excited having met Jack before, I can't wait.
1:00.0	This isn't the usual place you'll find a charity CEO so I was a bit nervous
1:04.0	but I really want to share the news about what we're doing, about the opportunities in tech
1:09.0	and this show has fantastic reach into the people we absolutely want to get to.
1:13.6	Hey Alona.
1:15.6	Hi James.
1:16.6	Hey Jack.
1:17.6	So welcome both to my dovet flip. How are we?
1:20.6	Very well, Jack. How are you?
1:22.6	Yeah, not bad, not bad.
1:23.6	We're great. It's great to be back again. Thank you for having us.
1:26.6	You're welcome. Today we're
1:28.6	talking about impact, impact, impact and technology. I want to start with you, James. A lot of the
1:35.0	audience will see a familiar face that we'll talk about in a minute, but tell me a little bit about
1:39.5	you. Who is James? How did you get involved with HG Foundation? Where did you come from? Tell us a little bit about your story.
	...

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