In this episode of The Angus Table, Scott Wright sits down with Angus Street, CEO of Zentera Wool Company, for a conversation about career journey, crisis leadership, people-focused management, and brand value-building in agriculture. Angus shares his journey from NSW bush kid to CEO of AuctionsPlus during COVID, via a GFC-era journalism redundancy and a stint at MLA during the live-export crisis. Angus describes the explosive AuctionsPlus growth story during COVID—jumping from 4,000 cattle listings to 30,000 within weeks as season turned, restocking market activated, and uncertainty around auctions being essential services drove online adoption 10-15 years ahead of natural trajectory. He emphasises that team execution and foundational work on systems, processes, culture, and people prior to COVID positioned them to manage the explosive growth and completely rebuild the platform after a critical ‘D-Day’ moment of near-failure. Angus outlines his leadership principles and core values including curiosity, accepting failure, and honesty. He shares his personal journey during COVID involving mental health support, addressing imposter syndrome and developing a people-focused rather than command-and-control leadership style. Now at Zentera Wool Company (formerly New Zealand Merino Company), Angus discusses the rebrand and expansion reflecting company evolution from pure Merino differentiation to value-add certification, digital traceability, and sustainability standards (ZQ and ZQ+ certification). Angus attributes leadership effectiveness to good people and team culture, advocates for one-page strategic plans and warns Angus Australia against complacency to maintain their leadership position. So pull up a chair at the Angus Table for this conversation about creating luck through mentorship, leading through crisis with purpose, and building consumer-driven branded businesses in commodity agriculture. Key topics covered: How Angus progressed from journalism aspirations through GFC redundancy at Fairfax to finding meaningful work at MLA during the Indonesian live export crisisThe importance of mentorship and people reaching out with opportunities during tough times, and how it led Angus to some instrumental career turning pointsThe explosive growth of AuctionsPlus during COVID, from 4,000 listings to 30,000 within weeks driven by season turn, restocking market, and online adoption accelerationThe Critical D-Day crisis that nearly caused platform failure, how the team handled it and how they approached the rebuild decisionWhy the foundation work on systems, processes, culture, and people prior to COVID positioned AuctionsPlus to manage the explosive growth and "not drop the ball."Angus’ leadership principles of linking decisions to meaningful purpose, continuous alignment and feedback loops (weekly/monthly not yearly), and keeping people at heart of decision-makingThe personal mental health journey Angus went on during COVID, and moving away from command-and-control leadership toward a people-focused approachCore values of curiosity, accepting failure, honesty, and operating with diversity of thought rather than command-and-answer approachRebranding New Zealand Merino Company to Zentera Wool Company, a value-add wool business built on certification (ZQ, ZQ+), digital traceability, long-term contracts and the consumer shift from synthetics to natural fibresZentera’s geographic expansion from New Zealand to Australia and South Africa driven by demand for animal welfare certification and sustainability standardsLong-term offtake agreements (5-10 years) providing price certainty and 15-20% premium versus commodity wool market volatilityThe power of a one-page strategic plan to force clarity and consistency, and building in regular review cycles (6-12 months for fast-moving sectors, 3 years for stable industry bodies)The warning against complacency for the Angus industry, using Jim Collins' How the Mighty Have Fallen framing leadership as maintaining position not defending turf. Contact details: Contact Angus or Zentera Wool via the website https://www.zenterawool.com/ This podcast is proudly brought to you by Angus Australia https://www.angusaustralia.com.au/ +Follow Angus Australia on + Facebook + Instagram + X + LinkedIn + +Follow Angus Youth Australia on + Facebook + Instagram + X + CREDITS: Host: Scott Wright, CEO. Get in touch via email ceo@angusaustralia.com.au Producer: Mel Strasburg mel.strasburg@angusaustralia.com.au Audio editing and post-production: Ellen Ronalds Keene at https://perkdigital.com.au