UNFILTERED - ABSL Podcast

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Hosted by transformation and GBS expert and ABSL Founding Leader Board member Anna Wojt, the ABSL Unfiltered podcast series shares inspiring stories, celebrates the people behind progress in global business services, and fosters connections across the community that drives it. Unfiltered means what it says. We drop talking points and talk openly about careers: the turns, setbacks, breakthroughs, and decisions people rarely explain publicly. We also discuss how organizations operate, scale, and change beyond the corporate narrative.

Episodes

  1. 2d ago

    Seek first to understand: the art of cross-cultural leadership - LeDon Brooks

    In a business environment dominated by metrics, LeDon Brooks' conversation with Anna Wojt, Member of the ABSL Founding Leader Board, offers a human-centered take on leadership. This episode of ABSL Unfiltered follows Brooks' journey from a small town in rural Alabama, where he saw the ocean for the first time at 18, through the U.S. Air Force to a 30-year career at Schneider Electric, where senior leadership came to see him as "the transformation guy." LeDon talks openly about his experiences and the changes he led. As a young Air Force officer in charge of a finance team of 50 to 60 people, he reduced reimbursement processing from 15-20 days to just 2-3 by improving the process and listening to his team, all without new technology. Later, while working in six Asian markets and setting up Schneider's Global Capability Center in the Philippines, he followed Stephen Covey's advice to "seek first to understand." He paid attention to non-verbal cues and saw how career growth for first-generation professionals could help whole families. He became a coach himself before asking his leaders to coach. At team celebrations, the leadership served food and mixed drinks for everyone. His approach paired operational discipline with genuine care for the people around him. Tune in to this episode to find out how to lead cross-cultural teams with real empathy, make changes by working with those closest to the job, and set an example as a leader. About Anna Wojt Anna is a global business services expert, a partner at PwC Australia, and a member of the ABSL Founding Leader Board. She has led projects across EMEA, APAC, and the US, focusing on strategy, business reinvention, and operational excellence. As PwC Head of Corporate Transformation, Anna aligns business strategies across corporate functions with cutting-edge digital solutions. Her commitment to empowering leaders led to the founding of the Polish-Australian Business Forum in 2015 and the establishment of the ABSL ANZ chapter in 2023. About LeDon Brooks Global Operations & Transformation Leader | Chief Master Coach LeDon Brooks is a global operations and transformation leader with more than three decades of experience across supply chain, manufacturing, customer operations, and Global Business Services. During his career at Schneider Electric, he led major global transformation initiatives and helped build and evolve large-scale capability centers supporting operations worldwide. A certified Chief Master Coach, LeDon is passionate about building coaching-led leadership cultures that unlock human potential and develop leaders at every level. His work focuses on the intersection of leadership, operational transformation, and emerging technologies such as AI in shaping the future of Global Business Services and global organizations.

    Seek first to understand: the art of cross-cultural leadership - LeDon Brooks

  2. Sep 23

    From golden handcuffs to the entrepreneurial playbook - Gavin Ifield

    The first episode of the ABSL Unfiltered series brings its host Anna Wojt together with Gavin Ifield, co-founder of Peoplegig, to explore his path from a rural upbringing to executive boardrooms and, eventually, out of corporate life altogether. Gavin's career began on a forty-acre farm in Queensland and passed through a motor mechanic's workshop, a Sydney kitchen, and a debt-collection call center before reaching the boardroom. At AECOM, he led a global transformation covering greenfield builds in Manila, expansion in Bangalore and Bucharest, and operations in Shanghai and the US. He then left to found Peoplegig, which provides enterprise-grade offshore labor services to small and medium-sized enterprises. For listeners running delivery organizations, the conversation covers familiar ground from a candid angle: what a multi-country transformation demands of its leaders, why Gavin refused relocation to US headquarters and managed a global remit from Australia instead, and the mentors who shaped his leadership, including the CFO who taught him "show me, don't tell me." He is equally direct about the ego needed to shed an executive title and start again, and why he now measures everything against customer value. Listen to ABSL Unfiltered podcasts for the decisions behind the career, not the polished version. About Anna Wojt Anna is a global business services expert, a partner at PwC Australia, and a member of the ABSL Founding Leader Board. She has led projects across EMEA, APAC, and the US, focusing on strategy, business reinvention, and operational excellence. As PwC Head of Corporate Transformation, Anna aligns business strategies across corporate functions with cutting-edge digital solutions. Her commitment to empowering leaders led to the founding of the Polish-Australian Business Forum in 2015 and the establishment of the ABSL ANZ chapter in 2023. About Gavin Ifield Gavin is a global transformation leader with a track record of building, scaling, and optimizing GBS and shared services operations. With experience in finance, HR, IT, legal, sales, procurement, logistics, and administration, he led transformation, offshoring, and restructuring initiatives across APAC, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and the Americas. As Co-Founder & Managing Director of Peoplegig, he helps businesses in Australia, the US, UK, Canada, and Singapore design, build, and manage high-performance offshore teams in the Philippines.

    From golden handcuffs to the entrepreneurial playbook - Gavin Ifield

  3. Season 1 Trailer

    UNFILTERED - ABSL Podcast Trailer

    Hosted by transformation and GBS expert and ABSL Founding Leader Board member Anna Wojt, the ABSL Unfiltered podcast series shares inspiring stories, celebrates the people behind progress in global business services, and fosters connections across the community that drives it. Unfiltered means what it says. We drop talking points and talk openly about careers: the turns, setbacks, breakthroughs, and decisions people rarely explain publicly. We also discuss how organizations operate, scale, and change beyond the corporate narrative. Listen to the ABSL Unfiltered podcasts for the real stories, not the polished ones. About Anna Wojt Anna is a global business services expert, a partner at PwC Australia, and a member of the ABSL Founding Leader Board. She has led projects across EMEA, APAC, and the US, focusing on strategy, business reinvention, and operational excellence. As PwC Head of Corporate Transformation, Anna aligns business strategies across corporate functions with cutting-edge digital solutions. Her commitment to empowering leaders led to the founding of the Polish-Australian Business Forum in 2015 and the establishment of the ABSL ANZ chapter in 2023.

  • 1 Trailer
    2 Episodes

Trailer

About

Hosted by transformation and GBS expert and ABSL Founding Leader Board member Anna Wojt, the ABSL Unfiltered podcast series shares inspiring stories, celebrates the people behind progress in global business services, and fosters connections across the community that drives it. Unfiltered means what it says. We drop talking points and talk openly about careers: the turns, setbacks, breakthroughs, and decisions people rarely explain publicly. We also discuss how organizations operate, scale, and change beyond the corporate narrative.

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