The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal

Jack Zhang, CEO of Airwallex, shares his journey from China to Australia, starting Airwallex, challenges in building a global FinTech company, transformative business models, diversity in entrepreneurship, and personal insights on pet peeves and inspiration.

This is the second and final part of a 2 part special conversation with Ahmed Fahour in a rare public interview appearance. Ahmed is a prominent business executive who has held leadership positions in various organizations around the world. He moved to Australia from Lebanon at a young age, and is currently CEO of The Gurner Group. Previously, he has held well known roles including as CEO of Australia Post, NAB, Citigroup and Latitude Financial Services alongside board roles with Invest Victoria and the $15B National Reconstruction Fund. Ahmed is an active member of Muslim community and was Australia’s Special Envoy to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and one of the founders of the Islamic Museum of Australia. Ahmed is married to Hannah and between them they have six children. He was born in Lebanon and now lives in Melbourne, Australia. ***CLICK HERE to read show notes and timestamps from this conversation between our host, Vidit Agarwal and this weeks guest, Ahmed Fahour. It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterGet in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly hereContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***The High Flyers Podcast re-imagines the traditional notion of a "high flyer" and is a premier product of the Curiosity Center. The podcast showcases the journeys of relatable role models from their sunrise (childhood) to today. Listeners love the unique and direct inside access to these relatable role models, companies and industries in every walk of life to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.150+ guests have joined Vidit Agarwal on the show from around the world including Heads of state, Olympians, Business and cultural leaders, Social Advocates, Investors, Entrepreneurs and more. The Curiosity Center is widely recognised as a leading on-demand intelligence network for founders, investors, executives and students with an audience of over 200,000 across this podcast + Association Series Newsletter and 7-Star Events. Find out more at www.curiositycenter.xyz***

This is part 1 of a 2 part special conversation with Ahmed Fahour in a rare public interview appearance. Ahmed is a prominent business executive who has held leadership positions in various organizations around the world. He moved to Australia from Lebanon at a young age, and is currently CEO of The Gurner Group. Previously, he has held well known roles including as CEO of Australia Post, NAB, Citigroup and Latitude Financial Services alongside board roles with Invest Victoria and the $15B National Reconstruction Fund. Ahmed is an active member of Muslim community and was Australia’s Special Envoy to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and one of the founders of the Islamic Museum of Australia. Ahmed is married to Hannah and between them they have six children. He was born in Lebanon and now lives in Melbourne, Australia. ***CLICK HERE to read show notes from this conversation between our host, Vidit Agarwal and this weeks guest, Ahmed Fahour. It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterGet in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly hereContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***The High Flyers Podcast re-imagines the traditional notion of a "high flyer" and is a premier product of the Curiosity Center. The podcast showcases the journeys of relatable role models from their sunrise (childhood) to today. Listeners love the unique and direct inside access to these relatable role models, companies and industries in every walk of life to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.150+ guests have joined Vidit Agarwal on the show from around the world including Heads of state, Olympians, Business and cultural leaders, Social Advocates, Investors, Entrepreneurs and more. The Curiosity Center is widely recognised as a leading on-demand intelligence network for founders, investors, executives and students with an audience of over 200,000 across this podcast + Association Series Newsletter and 7-Star Events. Find out more at www.curiositycenter.xyz***

Dr. Larry Marshall is a distinguished scientist, technology innovator, and business leader with over 25 years of experience. He holds a PhD in Physics and As the longest-serving chief executive of CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, he led a transformation that resulted in the first growth in 30 years and the first emissions reduction in 100 years, achieving 83% of Net Zero. He has led 2 companies to IPOs and served as CEO of 6 companies in various sectors, and has 100 publications and conference papers, holds 20 patents, and has served on 20 boards of high-tech companies operating in the US, Australia, and China. Larry was born and lives in Sydney, Australia. He spent 30 years living and working in the US.***CLICK HERE to read show notes from this conversation between our host, Vidit Agarwal and Larry Marshall. It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterGet in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly hereContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***The High Flyers Podcast re-imagines the traditional notion of a "high flyer" and is a premier product of the Curiosity Center. The podcast showcases the journeys of relatable role models from their sunrise (childhood) to today. Listeners love the unique and direct inside access to these relatable role models, companies and industries in every walk of life to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.150+ guests have joined Vidit Agarwal on the show from around the world including Heads of state, Olympians, Business and cultural leaders, Social Advocates, Investors, Entrepreneurs and more. The Curiosity Center is widely recognised as a leading on-demand intelligence network for founders, investors, executives and students with an audience of over 200,000 across this podcast + Association Series Newsletter and 7-Star Events. Find out more at www.curiositycenter.xyz***

Mark Suster shares insights on battling ADHD, selling to Salesforce, good vs bad acquisitions, and venture capital predictions for 2024. The podcast delves into his personal journey, entrepreneurship challenges, and evolving career from a financial analyst to a venture capitalist at Upfront Ventures. It also explores the importance of sales and programming skills in the tech industry, navigating success and failure, and venture capital trends in Los Angeles.

We're joined by Holly Kramer in a very rare public interview appearance. Holly is an experienced non-executive Director and Chief Executive. She is on the boards of leading companies such as Woolworths, ANZ, Fonterra and more. Holly is the former CEO of Best & Less and has more than 25 years’ experience in general management, marketing and sales, including roles at the Ford Motor Company (in the US and Australia), Telstra Corporation and Pacific Brands. She was born in Billings, Montana in the US and currently lives in the southern highlands, just outside Sydney in Australia. ***Learn about Holly’s sunrise in Billings, Montana with a deep connection to nature, and the influences of her parents -- her dad a doctor and mum having scholarships to Ivy League schools but giving that up to be a stay at home mum to Holly and her brother. In this candid conversation, we cover Holly’s relationship with money growing up, the fascinating story behind her move to Australia post university and the link with the Ford Motor Company, how she met her husband, Transition from the car industry at Ford to telecommunications at Telstra as marketing director (+ working for previous guest Daniel Petre in between those roles). Particular areas that stand out include:Learnings from a former prominent public company CEO and recollecting fascinating stories of dealing with conflictHow Holly learnt the importance of understanding people, building relationships, having open communication.Leaving Telstra to join Best & Less when it was struggling, and why she wanted to manage a P&L and a business end to end, rather than just a functionThe incredible role numerous mentors have played in opening doors for her career moves, often in sectors that she is new toReflecting back on 2012 and setting up foundations for a successful board career since which has included AMP, Australia Post, Woolworths, ANZ, and moreThe desire to build a familyRare inside view of how boards operate — aspects that a lot of you may not know aboutWhether she has built more courage as she has become more senior in her career.And why the most challenging experience she had was my time on the AMP board.And her current focus on helping companies with their climate and sustainability strategy and why that’s important. It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterGet in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly hereContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***The High Flyers Podcast re-imagines the traditional notion of a "high flyer" and is a premier product of the Curiosity Center. The podcast showcases the journeys of relatable role models from their sunrise (childhood) to today. Listeners love the unique and direct inside access to these relatable role models, companies and industries in every walk of life to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.150+ guests have joined Vidit Agarwal on the show from around the world including Heads of state, Olympians, Business and cultural leaders, Social Advocates, Investors, Entrepreneurs and more. The Curiosity Center is widely recognised as a leading on-demand intelligence network for founders, investors, executives and students with an audience of over 200,000 across this podcast + Association Series Newsletter and 7-Star Events. Find out more at www.curiositycenter.xyz***

This is a replay of our very popular episode with Anil Sabharwal (one of his only public interviews to date!). Anil is Vice President of Product Management at Google. The company has nine products that have achieved the coveted Billion active users goal, and Anil has built and led three of them in Google Photos, Google Chrome and Google Drive. He is currently heading up a new product in Fitbit. ****In this (replay) episode #118 w Anil Sabharwal learn about:Sunrise in Canada with Indian rootsReflections on his early influences and leaving home at age 17Highlights / Learnings from 10-15 year career prior to joining GoogleMoving to Australia in 2006Achieving momentum in early days at GoogleUnlocking skills working across new markets, segments and industries in building billion user products and becoming globally recognised product leaderBuilding Google Photos into a billion user productLeadership responsibility across product, design and engineeringPromotion to managing Google Chrome, ChromeOS and CommunicationsProduct DNA differences between Photos and ChromeTransition from Chrome to a blank canvas and prioritising valuesWhy is the product function king (or queen) at Google?Key metrics to monitor in your product functionMake a few people very happy vs a lot of people semi happySuccess at 50It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterGet in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly hereContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show!  ***The High Flyers Podcast is a global TOP ten ranked show that re-imagines the traditional notion of a "high flyer". The podcast showcases the journeys of relatable role models from their sunrise (childhood) to today. Listeners love the unique and direct inside access to these relatable role models, companies and industries in every walk of life to help us all be 1% better everyday, together. 150+ guests have joined Vidit Agarwal on the show from around the world including Heads of state, Olympians, Business and cultural leaders, Social Advocates, Investors, Entrepreneurs and more.  The Curiosity Center is widely recognised as a leading on-demand intelligence network for founders, investors, executives and students with an audience of over 200,000 across this podcast + Association Series Newsletter and 7-Star Events. Find out more at www.curiositycenter.xyz***

We're joined by Sam Sicilia in a very rare public interview appearance. Sam is the Chief Investment Officer for the multi-billion dollar superannuation Fund (Retirement savings) Hostplus, often referred to as a 'giant' in the industry with around 1.7 million members and over $100b funds under management.***Learn about Sam’s sunrise in Melbourne, Australia and the influences of his parents, who migrated from Sicily to Melbourne in the 1950s. Learnings from his Father who worked in heavy metal forging for aircrafts, heavy trucks, shaping hot steel and Mother was a seamstress. Sam refers to his childhood as “Economically poor but culturally rich”In this candid conversation, we cover his goals at age 18 to become an astronomer but then pursuing academia and a Phd in Theoretical physics. Sam shared his transition from academia to investment consulting thanks to a phone call from someone who saw him teach and supporting him to succeed. Our host Vidit asked him about his unique views on Balancing people/relationships with diligence/theory in the investment world. Particular areas that stand out are:Reflecting on 2008 GFC and Sam starting in CIO role at Hostplus (when they lost a Billion dollars in assets, going from 7.6B to 6.4B!)Why he believes in Venture Capital and the ability to tolerate illiquidity in private equityIf he had to redesign the VC model structure today on a white sheet of paper, how would he do it?Portfolio construction within private equity: buyout vs VC?Fee structures with VC funds when interacting with super fund moneySpecialised vs focused fundsAnd be sure to listen in on the non work related moments in Sam’s story including his life changing learning from doing a 42 days walk in Spain with his wife in 2019, his biggest area of learning over the next 6 months and the person who inspires him the most today. It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!*** Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here Contact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve!  Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show!  *** The High Flyers Podcast re-imagines the traditional notion of a "high flyer" and is a premier product of the Curiosity Center. The podcast showcases the journeys of relatable role models from their sunrise (childhood) to today. Listeners love the unique and direct inside access to these relatable role models, companies and industries in every walk of life to help us all be 1% better everyday, together. 150+ guests have joined Vidit Agarwal on the show from around the world including Heads of state, Olympians, Business and cultural leaders, Social Advocates, Investors, Entrepreneurs and more.  The Curiosity Center is widely recognised as a leading on-demand intelligence network for founders, investors, executives and students with an audience of over 200,000 across this podcast + Association Series Newsletter and 7-Star Events. Find out more at www.curiositycenter.xyz***

To celebrate this milestone episode 150, we're joined by Simon Holmes à Court in a very rare public interview appearance, and we believe his first about his own story!Simon has stood at the intersection of community, climate action and politics since May 2007 when he began chairing the community cooperative that set out to build Australia’s first community-owned wind farm. Fifteen years later to the month, at the May 2022 national federal election, one of this former Silicon Valley dot com engineer’s startups, Climate 200, harnessed community, climate awareness and politics to play a major role in shaking up Australia’s tired old political order. He is an energy analyst, clean-tech investor, climate philanthropist, director of the Smart Energy Council, The Superpower Institute and more. ***Episode guiding points:This conversation is truly wide ranging and covers a lot of ground. We discuss his upbringing in Perth, Australia with 3 siblings and his parents being on the road a lot, and his father’s South African heritage. Simon reflects on his boarding school experience in Geelong, near Melbourne and how that was physically and emotionally character building. Hear about his aspirations at age 18: set up a computer parts company with a friend to upgrade memory in people’s computers, Studying law but then loved the student organisation AIESEC and going down a different path. Our host, Vidit also was involved with AIESEC during my university studies and couldn’t speak more highly of the training it gave me. Particular aspects of this conversation that stood out to us include:Simon and his wife left the US on sept 10th 2001 with their first child and moving back to Australia, and living in Melbourne (cautious after his boarding school scars)Simon’s discovery of renewable energy during his 14 years scaling a company called Observant: Building remote monitoring technical solutions, and precision water management for farmers and their family cattle stations in the Northern Territory How leadership of the Hepburn Community Farm Project gave Simon exposure to everything from The capital raising, the media, the politics, the engineering side, the commercials of building environmental, on ground engagementThe fascinating story of The kids off naru project, the Sydney opera house and a horse race and Simon learning the power of Twitter through thisLearning clarity of communication and present information in a way that makes people engaged and willing to listen and not switch off?Two concepts that we haven’t stopped thinking about since this conversation is one: First The trim Tab from Buckminster Fuller (listen in to hear this context, small things like a trim tab can drive large scale changes), and second the Henry David Thoreau quote “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”  So be a trim tab and a root striker. Thank you for your support of the 150 episodes to date, this has been the most impactful and enjoyable work our host Vidit Agarwal has done in his life, and is excited for what’s ahead. As always, his details are in the show notes and he loves hearing from you. It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy ***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterGet in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly hereContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***The High Flyers Podcast re-imagines the traditional notion of a "high flyer" and is a premier product of the Curiosity Center. The podcast showcases the journeys of relatable role models from their sunrise (childhood) to today. Listeners love the unique and direct inside access to these relatable role models, companies and industries in every walk of life to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.150+ guests have joined Vidit Agarwal on the show from around the world including Heads of state, Olympians, Business and cultural leaders, Social Advocates, Investors, Entrepreneurs and more. The Curiosity Center is widely recognised as a leading on-demand intelligence network for founders, investors, executives and students with an audience of over 200,000 across this podcast + Association Series Newsletter and 7-Star Events. Find out more at www.curiositycenter.xyz ***

We're joined by Barnaby Marshall, Partner at Icehouse Ventures and Vignesh Kumar, Co-Managing Partner at GD1 in this special "round table musings" demystifying the fast growing New Zealand tech ecosystem.***Episode guiding points:Think of this conversation as a balcony view of the state of play in the tech ecosystem in NZ and a round table of musings. We deep dive into various aspects including Barnaby and Vignesh’s varied and interesting entry points into Venture Capital and how their prior experiences in different domains helped; Unpacking the historical and current state of play of the NZ Venture ecosystem (Generation 3 as Barnaby refers to it) and examples of the success stories to date such as TradeMe, PushPay, Xero, LanzaTech, Rocketlab etc. We dive into the thesis and fund construction of GD1 and Icehouse, their Investment Committee decision making process (this one is particularly relevant for founders looking to raise capital from VC’s like Icehouse and GD1). We review the cultural change starting to happen in NZ and What would Barnaby and Vignesh change if they had a magic wand. And you may find their areas of learning for the next 6 months intriguing, our host Vidit for one have exactly those points on his list.  It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterGet in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly hereContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve!Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***The High Flyers Podcast re-imagines the traditional notion of a "high flyer" and is a premier product of the Curiosity Center. The podcast showcases the journeys of relatable role models from their sunrise (childhood) to today. Listeners love the unique and direct inside access to these relatable role models, companies and industries in every walk of life to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.145+ guests have joined Vidit Agarwal on the show from around the world including Heads of state, Olympians, Business and cultural leaders, social Advocates, Investors, Entrepreneurs and more. The Curiosity Center is widely recognised as a leading on-demand intelligence network for founders, investors, executives and students with an audience of over 200,000 across this podcast + Association Series Newsletter and 7-Star Events. Find out more at www.curiositycenter.xyz***