Your Path to CEO is a podcast for ambitious executives and emerging leaders ready to take the ultimate step in their careers.
Hosted by the Executive Search team at [axr] Recruitment & Search, Path to CEO offers rare, behind-the-scenes insight into what it truly takes to reach the top job.
Join us as we sit down with accomplished CEOs from the [axr] network to explore their career journeys, pivotal decisions, leadership philosophies, and the lessons they learned along the way. From navigating board relationships to building high-performing teams, each episode uncovers the realities of stepping into - and thriving in - the CEO role.
It’s the closest you’ll get to stepping inside the mind of a CEO.
Episode 11: Scott Bowie | From Australia to Asia to the US: Building a Career Across Markets.
From wanting to be a pilot to a career in luxury, Scott Bowie, Managing Director at Moët Hennessy ANZ, joins host Mike Dickson to talk about the winding route that has taken him from Adelaide to Asia and the US. Scott talks candidly about packing a suitcase for Shanghai having never been to China, why he swapped a CEO role at Sotheby’s for a marketing director job at LVMH, and what surprised him most about stepping into enterprise leadership. His advice for aspiring leaders: stay open to di...
1 Oct 2026
Episode 10: Paul Hinds | What's the Worst That Could Happen? Taking the Leap into Leadership
From wanting to be an RAF pilot to nearly sleeping through the interview that changed the direction of his career, Paul Hinds, Managing Director at Circana, joins host Mike Dickson to talk about the wins, close calls and hard lessons behind two decades in data and insight. Paul talks candidly about the sliding doors moment that led him into the industry in the first place, the nerve-racking 'dragon's den' pitch that left him convinced he'd blown his shot at the top job, and the whirlwind of ...
18 Sept 2026
Episode 9: Esme Borgelt | Say What You Want: Why Naming Her Ambition Got Her to CEO
Esme Borgelt spent eighteen years at Kellogg's, working her way from sales into managing director roles in New Zealand and then ANZ. Five years ago, she became CEO of Kinrise. Her first step up, into the managing director's chair, traced back to one direct question. An HR leader at Kellogg's asked her outright whether she wanted to be managing director, rather than accepting the modest, coy answer she was inclined to give. Naming that ambition, she says, is what built her the right sponsors a...
3 Sept 2026
Episode 8: Colm Maguire | The 'backwards' move that built a path to CEO
This is a special crossover episode between Your Path to CEO and Your Future in Sales and Marketing. Mike Dickson and Andrew Cannock sit down together with Colm Maguire, CEO of the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC). Colm's career has rarely gone in a straight line. He set out to join the Royal Australian Air Force, found his way into sports administration with Touch Football Australia, then spent years inside the highly regulated world of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, before takin...
21 Aug 2026
Episode 7: Dean Carroll | From sales to CEO: Curiosity over certainty
Dean Carroll didn't set out to run a wine business. He started in car mechanics, foreign banking and grocery merchandising before finding his way into liquor through Diageo in the 1990s, then into family-owned businesses including Tucker Seabrook and Fine Wine Partners. A brief stint outside the industry, in car leasing, convinced him he belonged back in it. That path led him to Brown Brothers, now Brown Family Wine Group, where he spent sixteen years, the last eight as CEO. Stepping up wasn'...
9 Jul 2026
Episode 6: Swati Prasad | From chemical engineer to Managing Director: Why it's never too late to change direction
Mike sits down with Swati Prasad, Managing Director ANZ for Swisse, to talk about what changes the moment you move from functional leader to enterprise leader. Six years after her first appearance on our sister podcast, Your Future in Sales & Marketing, Swati returns having built her career across Unilever, Pernod Ricard Australia and Reckitt Benckiser, before joining Swisse, part of the H&H Group, in 2023. She talks candidly about the real shift from functional to enterprise leadersh...
25 Jun 2026
Episode 5: Caroline Waite | Never Fully Ready: How Patience, Breadth and Transparency Built a Path to CEO
In this episode of Your Path to CEO, Mike Dickson from [axr] Executive Search speaks with Caroline Waite, Group CEO of Stuart Alexander and recently appointed board member of the AFGC, about a career built on breadth, honest ambition and people-first leadership. Caroline knew she wanted to lead a business from an early age, shaped in no small part by school holidays spent on the factory floor of her father's plastics manufacturing company. From Bayer, time living and working in Hong Kong, al...
11 Jun 2026
Episode 4: Anthony Boyd | From finance to CEO: Why curiosity beats a career plan
In this episode of Your Path to CEO, Greg O’Shea speaks with Anthony Boyd, CEO of Sydney Markets, about what it really takes to step into the CEO seat. Anthony breaks down the shift from finance leadership to enterprise leadership, and why the biggest leap in his career wasn’t becoming CEO but moving out of his functional comfort zone into general management. Key themes from the conversation include: Why curiosity across the whole business accelerates leadership growth far more than sta...
28 May 2026
Episode 3: Leeson Brook | Beyond Readiness: How Broad Experience Builds CEO Capability
In this episode of Your Path to CEO, Mike Dickson from [axr] Executive Search speaks with Leeson Brook, Regional Managing Director & CEO of STIHL Australia, about a career shaped by ambition, discipline, and deliberately broad experience across global FMCG and manufacturing leadership roles. Leeson reflects on growing up in Adelaide and the formative experience of seeing financial pressure in his household at a young age - an early catalyst for his drive to build a career defined by grow...
14 May 2026
Episode 2: Trish Pegorer | Response Over Reaction: Leadership Lessons from Mutti’s MD
In this episode, Mike Dickson speaks with Trish Pegorer, Managing Director of Mutti Australia, to explore her unconventional path to executive leadership and the journey of building a challenger brand into a category leader. Trish’s career is a clear example of a non-linear trajectory, shaped by entrepreneurial roots and pivotal “sliding doors” moments. From early exposure in her family’s small business through to a chance professional connection that ultimately led her to Mutti, her story r...
29 Apr 2026
Your Path to CEO | Launch Episode: [axr] Executive Search
Welcome to Your Path to CEO [axr]’s newest podcast, created to explore one of the most ambitious and complex moves in any career: stepping into the CEO role. In this launch episode, you’ll hear from the [axr] Executive Search team - Mike Dixon, Shanthi Smith, and Greg O’Shea - who introduce the series, share why it exists, and outline what senior leaders can expect. At [axr], our mission is to enable better career decisions. And as more executives look beyond functional leadership towards ent...
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