%20-%20long.png)
Brendan Hargreaves: CFO, Officeworks
Overview
Published 16th July, 2025.
Brendan Hargreaves is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Officeworks, a $3B+ business with over 170 stores and 8,000+ team members. Previously, he held senior commercial and financial roles at Qantas ($17B+ revenue), Coles (800+ stores), Cleanaway (5,000+ employees), Village Roadshow, and The Warehouse Group (NZX: WHS, ~$3B market cap). Brendan is also a Director and mentor at the Financial Executives Institute (FEI), supporting the next generation of finance leaders through mentorship and professional development.
It’s time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy.
***
To support this podcast, check out our some of our sponsors & get discounts:
→ $1,000 off Vanta: Your compliance superpower — Vanta.com/high
→ Get up to 6 months of Notion’s Business plan for free with Notion AI included (worth $12K): Go to - https://ntn.so/highflyers & click “Apply Now”
***
If you're keen to discuss sponsorship and partnering with us, email us at contact@curiositycentre.com today!
Hosted by Vidit Agarwal, Founder of Curiosity Center and The High Flyers Podcast.
It’s now time to explore your curiosity.
***
In this episode, Brendan and our host Vidit unpack:
▪️ Growing up in a Wollongong garage and the grit it taught
▪️ The teacher who reignited his love of learning
▪️ Why he chose accounting over journalism or acting
▪️ Building a commercial mindset beyond debits and credits
▪️ Finance vs commercial: how great CFOs influence decisions
▪️ Stepping out of finance—and why it made him stronger
▪️ The moment he stopped reacting emotionally at work
▪️ How he mentors, remembers birthdays, and builds trust
▪️ Lessons from Qantas, Village, Coles, Cleanaway, and NZ
▪️ And why 60% of Officeworks’ sales are now from tech
and lots more!
***
Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly Here
Contact us 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!
Show notes
Timestamps
About us
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Product at Google), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Stevie Case (Chief Revenue Officer, Vanta), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Jean-Michel Lemieux (CTO, Shopify + Atlassian), Sweta Mehra (EGM, NAB; ex CMO, ANZ), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Sam Sicilia (Chief Investment Officer, Hostplus), Craig Tiley (CEO, Tennis Australia), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Niki Scevak (Co-Founder, Blackbird Ventures), Mike Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Peter Varghese (Secretary/Chief, Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Matteo Franceschetti (CEO, Eight Sleep) and more.
.png)
Contact us
We enjoy working with people and companies that align with our mission and values.
If that sounds like you, contact our team via the form.