Awaiting Approval. Season 2, Episode 6 : Joel Gill - Integrity

Joel Gill has lived several creative lives in one. Musician, engineer, global design leader, single father, mentor, and now Chief Experience and AI Officer at Experience Artisan. His story stretches from hiding in a school music room and becoming a session synth player & pianist in 1980s London, to shaping early digital at British Airways, to leading design inside megacorps like Shell, HSBC and S&P Platts—while also contributing his craft to teams across Barclays, WPP, Santander, Hyatt, Sapient, Hogarth Worldwide, Vodafone and many others. Through it all runs a single thread. Integrity. Show up. Experiment. Tell the truth. Look after people.

In this episode, Joel joins Adam for a rich, funny, emotional and very human conversation about the real work of creative leadership. He talks about discovering design through music studios, building clickable prototypes in PowerPoint before UX existed, and being part of the early BA dot com team in the days before digital design really had a name. He shares how contracting across agencies, banks and tech companies gave him the scar tissue he now teaches his teams to embrace.

Joel speaks openly about walking away when a place no longer aligns with your values, the difference between delivery and maturity, and why introducing Design Ops at scale became both a battle and a breakthrough. He also reflects on raising two boys alone while travelling the world for work, the people who shaped him, and the moment his son unknowingly reminded him what matters more than any job title.

This is an episode full of integrity, humour, scar tissue, and heart. Joel’s stories are defining. His clarity is unmistakable. And his love for people, culture and craft comes through in every minute.

In this episode, we cover:

* How Joel went from session musician to early digital pioneer

* As part of the early BA dot com team, he learned UX by hacking together prototypes in the days before the discipline really existed

* Contracting across agencies and banks, collecting the scar tissue that shaped his leadership

* Why he left HSBC and how he recognises when it’s time to walk away

* Building design capability at Standard & Poor’s and later at Shell

* Introducing Design Ops and why resistance taught him hard lessons

* How to observe people, question everything and tell better stories

* Why every job needs an exit strategy as much as an entry one

* Raising two boys while leading global teams and what they taught him about presence

* Visibility as accountability and why smiling is a leader’s most powerful currency

* The three helium balloons he uses to measure his own growth: experience, expertise, enthusiasm

===This is Awaiting Approval. A podcast about the messy, human side of creative leadership.Hosted by Adam Jennings - a creative leader with three decades of experience leading teams and projects for global brands including Microsoft, Salesforce, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Ancestry, Dolby, BBC and many more - this show features honest, unscripted conversations with the leaders shaping design, storytelling, and innovation today.These are the conversations you don’t hear in keynotes. The ones about imposter syndrome, trust, failure, confidence, and finding your voice as a leader.Whether you’re just stepping into creative leadership or you’ve been at it for years, Awaiting Approval is your place to feel seen, challenged, and encouraged.Awaiting Approval is a Cordial Fox production.Hosted by Adam Jennings.Produced by Adam Jennings & Jasmin Egner.© Cordial Fox Limited, 2026.Ready to level up your leadership with real, honest support?Join the next cohort of Supercharged Creative Leaders - my flagship four-week programme for creative leaders who want clarity, confidence, and a community that gets it.✅ Small groups (just 6 per cohort)✅ Weekly live sessions with me and your cohort✅ Async access to me and your cohort via a private Slack community✅ Invitation to join my alumni community once you’ve completed the programme.Previous attendees have gone on to win major pitches, land new roles, get promoted and step into leadership with more purpose and presence.🚀 Learn more and apply here: https://www.growwithadamjennings.com

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit growwithadamjennings.substack.com/subscribe