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This is part 1 of a 2 part 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.
It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Click the links below to listen and enjoy now!
Show notes
Our guest this week is Ahmed Fahour in this episode 155 (and this is part 1 of a 2 part special conversation)!
Ahmed Fahour is a prominent Australian business executive who has held leadership positions in various organizations. 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.
In this part 1, learn about Ahmed’s sunrise in Lebanon and moving to Australia at a young age, the influences of his family, particularly his parents who had to take on various jobs to make ends meet. Ahmed, being one of 8 kids shares candidly how his father’s accident very early on forced him to grow up, and be the adult in the household.
Our host Vidit, loved asking Ahmed about the source of his self belief and confidence from an early point in his career, how he planned his career including his move to New York with Citigroup in a senior role relatively quick.
We cover how to understand people, how to build relationships, how to set the right foundations in a new role and questions he asks perspective hires. Ahmed candidly shares how work impacted his family, his divorce and re-marriage, the 5 people in his metaphorical hall of fame room, his framework for saying yes to jobs, and why and how he said yes to his new role as CEO of the Gurner group.
In Part 2, we deep dive into Ahmed’s career, his various roles, how he got them, his highlights, lowlights and lots more.
It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to the High Flyer Podcast
01:01 Meet the Guest: Ahmed's Journey and Achievements
03:11 Ahmed's First Public Interview in Five Years
04:10 Fun Facts about Ahmed
09:25 Ahmed's Early Life and Family Influence
12:04 Ahmed's Career Beginnings and Challenges
17:40 Ahmed's Career Growth and Success
22:39 Aspirations at age 18
26:26 Ahmed's source of self belief
38:03 Reflecting on Formative Experiences and Career Beginnings
38:21 Transitioning to Citigroup and the Impact of Change moving to New York
41:03 Podcast Break and Reflection on Covered Topics
41:45 Navigating Personalities and Building Relationships
47:24 The Impact of Work on Family Life
50:49 The Importance of Diverse Interests and Opportunities outside the day job
01:00:39 Framework to choose opportunities and his new role at Gurner Group
01:12:21 Final Sprint Rapid Fire Round
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, Singapore, India and New Zealand.
Launched over 6.5+ years ago - our 275+ guests come from various industries around the world including:
Investing and Finance (VC, PE, Pension Funds, Family Offices)
Our guests across venture capital, growth investing, institutional capital, banking, pension funds and family offices include: Keith Rabois (MD, Khosla Ventures), Jason Collins (CEO, BlackRock Asia Pacific), Ryan Beiermeister (Partner, Founders Fund), David Haber (General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz), Kevin Hartz (Managing Partner, A*), Mike Vernal (Partner, Conviction; Ex-Sequoia), David Schneider (Growth Fund Co-Lead Partner, Coatue), Venky Ganesan (Managing Partner, Menlo Ventures), Mark Suster (Managing Partner, Upfront Ventures), Kelland Reilly (Partner, Airtree; Ex General Atlantic, D1), Niki Scevak (Managing Partner, Blackbird), Paul Bassat (Managing Partner, Square Peg), David Neal (CEO, IFM Investors), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Michael Kim (Partner, Cendana Capital), Beezer Clarkson (Partner, Sapphire), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), David Shein (Managing Partner, OIF), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Rowan Simpson (Founder, Hoku) and more.
Technology, AI and software (Startups, Big Tech, Publicly Listed)
Our technology, AI and software guests include Jodie Auster (Uber’s Global Head of Travel), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Mel Silva (MD, Google), Jean-Michel Lemieux (former CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Google Chrome, Photos and Drive), Shiv Rao (CEO, Abridge), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Dylan Babbs (Co-Founder & CTO, Profound), John Willett (Co-Founder & COO, Rogo), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Andrew Fraser (President, Halter), Bowen Pan (creator of Facebook Marketplace) and more.
CEOs, Boards and Major Company Senior Executives
Our guests leading some of the world's largest and most recognisable organisations include Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths Group), Aleks Spaseska (CEO, Kmart) Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Paul Grosmann (CEO, R.M.Williams), Andrew Penn (CEO, Telstra), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Craig Tiley (CEO, Tennis USA), Brendan Hargreaves (CFO, Officeworks), Andrew Fraser (Board Chair, Bank of Queensland), Jaddan Cummerford (CEO, Unified Music), Ed McManus (CEO, Deliveroo) and more.
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Our government, diplomatic and public-policy guests include Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Amit Singh (Managing Partner, Mandala), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Australia's Foreign Service), Philip Green (Australia’s High Commissioner to India), Brendan Dowling (Deputy Secretary, Australia's Department of Home Affairs), Mukund Narayanamurti (General Manager for South Asia, Austrade) and Ryan Neelam (CEO, Centre for Australia-India Relations, Australian Government).
Professional Athletes
Steve Solomon (400m Olympic Sprinter), Ed Cowan (Former Test Cricketer), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Lisa Stahelakar (World Cup Winning Captain, Australian Womens Cricket Team).
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