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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.
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Hosted by Vidit Agarwal, Founder of Curiosity Center and The High Flyers Podcast.
It’s now time to explore your curiosity.
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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!
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Show notes
Timestamps
About us
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most relatable role models in business, tech, finance, government and sport in the US, Australia, India and New Zealand. Launched in 2020, it ranks in the global top ten ranked podcasts, with listeners in 27 countries, 250+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our 250+ guests over the past 6.5 years include: Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (CEO, BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear) and Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America).
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