Today you will hear my conversation with a dear friend, colleague and all around great guy Gareth Chegwidden

Career Overview

• Educated in Sydney Australia at Macquarie and University of Technology, Sydney
• Big 4 experience with Deloitte
• AMP as head of relationship mngt and portfolio services
• Adjunct lecturer at University of Sydney going on over 5 years
• Currently at Telstra at their Transformation business Strategy Principle

Highlights

• Hated being a tutor while in high school
• Getting a McDonalds sponsorship
• Being a perfectionist, good advice on managing it
• Uni part time / full time work, Falling into a dual degree
• Being on a project with 550 bosses, impacting the entire business
• Strong beliefs loosely held
• When is it time to spread your wings
• Soft skills key to success
  
  • Change Management
  • Taking the bosses on the journey
• An all walk of life mentoring perspective
• Experience as much as possible
• Getting pulled to an awesome job
• Why an MBA
• Building a program affecting 16,000 people

Want to be a guest? Email me at gpnowak@gmail.com!

I'm your host Gary Nowak and today I have one of my dearest friends who I've know for over 15 years and has done so much with her career and I'm really humbled to be her friend and have her on my Podcast. Get ready for my conversation with Angel Hoover coming to us from Amsterdam

Career Background:

• Currently in her 9th role at Willis Towers Watson as Managing Director of Benelux (18 years experience)
• Prior to WTW we met at NiSource where she spent 5 years
• Accenture for 5 years
• University of Minnesota
  - BA in Biz Mngt, Communications and Economics
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Masters in Industrial Relations

Highlghts

• One of the best first job stories at the age of 13 (5 year gig)
• Aspiration early to start her own business / do her own thing
• Knew early that she needed to improve her sales skills
• Early on having no clue about consulting
• Hear about the best sales training she experienced
• Self awareness once again is front and center of a successful individual
• ALWAYS be open to new opportunities
• Her vision of success today, give you insight into Angel
• Say yes to get to no
• One piece of advice - Always find your courage to ask for mentoring and getting career advice
• Mentors should be brutally honest and how you can use them in your career
• Angel's reaction to being asked to be a mentor
• 2 great pieces of advice
• Many proud moments, always love that people have many
• Shock and Awe moments
• Living past 100

Want to be a guest? Email me at gpnowak@gmail.com!

I'm your host Gary Nowak and I've got my first 3 way . . . . Conversation with 2 great friends from Australia Levi Waters and Pete Collins. This was one of my favorite podcasts to record and I just had the best time with these two "Blokes".

Career Background:
- Normally I walk you through individually, however with this one these guys are very similar in background:

• They grew up in Brisbane
• Both joined the Navy for the same reason
• Both left the Navy for the same reason
• Both Joined consulting for the same reason

Check out their linked in Profiles

Highlights
- How to choose between which brand of the military you'd like to join
- Middle of the bush or duty free shopping in Singapore
- Don't fight the why
- Military you are given directional intent with not as command and control as you would think
- The plan is the basis for change
- Course you are taking is a pencil line drawn in a chart and can be erased
- The path of least resistance
- Everything they do well in business was learned in the Navy
- What they look for in young people
- Perspective on really ambitious people
- Take the opportunity that is in front of you and trust the process
- The customer is always right, but the client can be wrong
- Don't be afraid to challenge, don't just be a "yes" person
- It takes a team to get things done
- Relationships perspective, don't be afraid to share personal information
- Learning what drives everyone

Want to be a guest? Email me at gpnowak@gmail.com!

Highlights

• Moving around 10 times prior to age of 20
• Saw the world early and often
• Paris at 7 am is Magic
• The freedom of being a consultant
• You can take a 10 euro taxi home, c'mon
• No clue on what to do with her career, that changed quickly
• Learning something is a great day
• Falling in love with Japan and learning yet another language
• Traveling to China & Russia with her financial reporting floppy disks
• Bringing value at an early age and being very eager
• Working in the Salt Mines
• Being told how to make more money while in South Korea
• Not knowing what consulting was all about and starting the with KPMG at the beginning of their MC practice
• Many many small pride moments
• And being a life long learner

Career Background:

• Successful partner with KPMG for over 21 years
• Group Controller for Salins
• Business Analyst for SEB (Overseas experience)

Welcome to another episode of "Wish I Knew . . . "

A podcast where I speak with people about their careers focusing on their success, advice, mentoring and listening to interesting stories.

I'm your host Gary Nowak and I know when a guest comes on and doesn't feel like they have anything to share that it will be "off the charts" great and my conversation with @anne-claude was absolutely not exception, her career story is outstanding

Want to be a guest? Email me at gpnowak@gmail.com!

I'm your host Gary Nowak and you are going to have to "buckle up" for this one as I bring you a colleague and good friend from down under, Mr. Mark Bladon. As only Mark can do, he brings a unique, authentic perspective throughout our conversation.

Background overview

• KPMG Partner in IT Advisory since 2010
• Partner with IBM for 6 years
• PWC Partner for 13 years
• University of Queensland for a Philosophy degree

Highlights:

• Lacking enthusiasm at the chicken shop
• Comparing himself to:
  
  • Joe Biden
  • Tom Brady
  • Hitler
• Coiled mass of angry resentment
• Still trying to figure out what he wants to do when you grows up
• Working for a large conglomerate in Queensland
• Career is a cork bobbing on water
• Getting pulled over to PWC and looking to hold his own
• Never having a strong senses of what the future can be
• Looking at your career is like a Roller Coaster - enjoy the ride
• The company will move on without you
• Consulting Perspective
  
  • Comparing consulting with a race car team
  • His overview of what true consulting is
  • Having deep and broad skills in consulting
  • The ideal consultant is a thumb tack
  • Using the word cloud to predict proposal success
  • Being open to changing perspective during an engagement
• Talking about the ozone concern
• Doing a theatrical presentation instead of a power point slide
• Mark has a problem with mentoring
• Role models
  
  • Are about watching people
• Always wanted to be a writer, mission accomplished
• What Mark looks for in hiring a candidate

Want to be a guest? Email me at gpnowak@gmail.com!

Welcome to another episode of "Wish I Knew . . . "

A podcast where I speak with people about their careers focusing on their success, advice, mentoring and listening to interesting stories.

You are going to Love my conversation with Lee Ann Moore

Some guests "wing it" and some guests "Prepare", well my conversation with Lee Ann Moore will tell you that she came prepared and ready to go.

Career Highlights

- Began her career in commercial banking providing investment and lending support for businesses, real estate and high net worth individuals

- Transitioned to IT services and outsourcing serving in a variety of executive rules in business development and pains

- She led marketing, sales support, research, communications and business partner relations for EquaTerra a business an IT services advisor before it was acquired by KPMG

- At KPMG she led marketing for the consulting business through a period of exponential growth

- She recently joined a Healthcare startup, Green Imaging, as their Chief Operating Officer where she is responsible for growth and day to day operations

Highlights

• Looking for process improvements in High school
• Writing an article to kick off a company
• Recognizing the power of marketing
• Early in her career learning the value of being multifaceted
• Success in being a problem solver
• Leeann isn't a manger she is a leader
• Strong leaders allow room to grow and to fail as well
• Interview style and how she chooses candidates
• Hard vs soft skills and evolution over time
• Not having all the answers puts you in a stronger position
• Life Changing advice early in her career
• Greatest accomplishment realized upon leaving a job
• Finding a Mentor and an outdated model
• Great advice on obtaining mentors
• What motivates Lee Ann
• Creating better careers for people through outsourcing
• BHAGS - great acronym

Want to be a guest? Email me at gpnowak@gmail.com!

I've got a fun one for you today, Matt Booth

A bit about Matt:

• Spent his entire career with one Big 4 accounting Firm, bit of a dinosaur
• Focused on Internal and external audit
• Exposed to broad range of
  • Business Issues
  • Leadership styles
  • Board positions
  • Diversity and inclusion councils

Nice Guy

• Humble servant to his team
• Hard worker with a quick wit
• Father of 2 children and 1 dog
• Loves to cook
• Overall you'll find Matt is a great guy

Some highlights from our discussion

• Walking Beans
• Working hard and taking time out to have fun
• Failures sometime take time to see their value
• Building trust with transparency
• Two things that Matt looked for when hiring and building a team
• Kissing a Camel to get our of your comfort zone
• Helping people find their career path
• Consulting is a lifestyle that doesn't just impact you it impacts all those around you (positively and negatively)
• The irony (based on his last name) of who Matt would invite to a Rib Eye dinner that he will prepare.

Want to be a guest? Email me at gpnowak@gmail.com!

Welcome to another episode of "Wish I Knew . . . "

A podcast where I speak with people about their careers focusing on their success, advice, mentoring and listening to interesting stories.

I've got a personal and fun one for you with my guest Ning Wright

Career:
- Spent 16 years at KPMG in the UK, Hong Kong and Shanghai
- Prior to KPMG she work in Audit and Accounting for several companies which you will hear at the start of the podcast

Overall, Ning has an engaging personality and is a very special person.

Highlights
- First Job in Hong Kong
- Her overconfidence and where is comes from
- Accounting as a stepping stone to her success, seeing the whole picture
- Lesson Learned - NEVER assume people check your work
- 5% housing cost increase to UK residents
- Fallback career as a fork lift operator
- First meeting in Hong Kong - Silence was amazing
- 2004 starting management consulting in Shanghai
- Pound of flesh
- Partner interview is all about chemistry
- Standing up to clients and being yourself
- Taking guidance from the queen of England on solid management styles

Want to be a guest? Email me at gpnowak@gmail.com!