Brad Mancini
Brad has spent over twenty-five years leading teams and programmes at the intersection of technology, strategy, and large-scale organisational change — across Europe, Australia, and the Asia-Pacific region.
Over sixteen years based in Switzerland, Brad led transformation programmes for one of Europe’s largest telecommunications carriers — managing budgets exceeding $150 million, teams of over 200 people, and rollouts spanning more than a dozen countries. He led a corporate merger workstream, established an enterprise architecture function across eight European operations, and directed nationwide network construction. But the lesson that stayed with him was never about the technology. It was about the people. The programmes that succeeded were the ones where leaders created psychological safety, pursued opportunities rather than fought fires, and trusted their teams to think — not just execute.
Back in Australia, Brad held General Manager and Director roles in national telecommunications and government — leading AI and emerging technology deployment at scale, driving transformation programmes affecting thousands of people, and owning enterprise strategy for state and territory government. His programmes have collectively delivered over $1.5 billion in value and earned CEO and COO awards for outstanding contribution. In every case, the highest-performing teams shared the same characteristics: clarity of mission, a bias toward experimentation, ruthless focus, and a deep mutual respect that made the sum far greater than its parts.
Brad holds a Bachelor of Engineering and an MBA.
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Simon Fennessy
Simon’s career spans over twenty-five years of executive leadership across telecommunications, financial services, digital media, and management consulting — from Switzerland to South America to Australia. Early in his career, he noticed a pattern that would eventually become a conviction: the organisations that won weren’t the ones with the best plans. They were the ones that saw the world differently.
Across eight years in Europe, Simon rose from strategy and marketing leadership to Director of Products and IT Solutions — responsible for teams of over 220 people, budgets of $70 million, and product strategy for a major European telecommunications carrier. He led a corporate merger workstream, built out strategy and value marketing functions, and drove business transformation across multiple country operations. The pattern held everywhere: performance followed perception. Teams that saw change as opportunity outperformed teams that saw it as threat — even when the talent and resources were identical.
Back in Australia, Simon held Director and General Manager roles at a leading national telecommunications carrier, then led field contract delivery for one of Australia’s largest national broadband infrastructure programmes — managing over 1,000 field staff and subcontractors. As CEO of a telecommunications infrastructure company, he operated over 1,400 sites nationally. Most recently, he has been delivering a $1.4 billion critical communications programme for a state government authority. Across all of it, the same truth emerged: when leaders invest in people, purpose, and long-term thinking, the returns compound in ways that zero-sum thinking can never achieve.
Simon holds an MBA from one of the world’s top-ranked business schools and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).
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Between us, we’ve led teams of thousands across continents, managed billions in programmes, and sat in the rooms where perception becomes strategy. The pattern was always the same: the highest-performing organisations don’t compete harder — they think differently. These essays are our attempt to make that pattern visible.