Business Leader

Guest speaker Steve Sargent has led an admirable career of more than two decades at General Electric. He is a participant in GE’s 45-member Corporate Executive Council, one of 180 GE Officers and the first Australian to be made Officer in the company's storied 130-year history.

Steve has extensive international experience, having run businesses in the U.S., Europe, Asia-Pacific, Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.

In 2014, the Chinese government invited Steve and only 19 other GE executives to attend the country's federal leadership program at the ‘Party School’, marking the first time in China's history foreigners have been invited to participate in the program.

Steve's experience in financial services, oil and gas, electrical energy generation, transmission and distribution, healthcare, locomotive transportation and mining industries give him an expansive foundation of wisdom and knowledge. He has a formidable understanding of infrastructure projects and technology.

Steve isn't just an expert though, he's an innovator. He specialised in combining an innovative culture, technology development and deep commercial experience with organic growth (start-ups, new product introduction), in organic as well as turnaround acquisition and integration situations and divestitures. He has voluminous experience with industrial internet in the fields of healthcare, oil and gas, financial services and mining.

Steve also has extensive experience in fostering a culture of innovation, Six Sigma process performance, change management, building services and industrial internet businesses as an additional revenue stream to industrial businesses. Steve's expertise is based, in part, on his completion all of GE’s highly regarded leadership training and development courses.

Steve has also used his wealth of business acumen and innovation to consult with foreign governments and policy makers around the world. He led one of four B20 task forces under the Australian presidency of the G20 (Andrew McKenzie, BHP, Trade Task Force; David Thodey, Telstra, Infrastructure; Mike Smith, ANZ Bank, Financing Growth; Steve Sargent, GE, Human Capital).

Steve has enjoyed non-executive director roles at the Business Council of Australia; the American Chamber of Commerce; Bond University and as a member of Peter Costello, Wayne Swan and Joe Hockey’s Financial Services Advisory Council.
One of Australia's most influential international business speakers, Steve's keynote presentations have the potential to provide your company with the spark it needs to sharpen its pursuit of innovation, expand its influence and create executives of great magnitude and managerial excellence. He weaves his years of GE experiences with his numerous global consultations and travels, providing you with a unique look into the world of one the business worlds most well-versed guest speakers.

Presentation Topics Include

• Leadership and people development
• Leading and driving a performance culture
• Creating an environment of innovation
  Ways to create the right climate within an organisation so you get the cross fertilisation of ideas as innovation occurs at the intersection of sciences and ideas
• The future of work
  Following the work Steve did in 2014 with the G20 chairing the Human Capital Task force