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Sean Wilson brings more than 20 years of executive and commercial leadership experience, including over 10 years in Board-appointed CEO roles (BetterHR, Zonda, Kolling Foundation) and Group Executive and senior leadership positions, including COO (BetterHR), Group COO (Venturely), Commercial Director (Sharing Minds), Country Head (Bettersource), Director of Sales & Marketing (ColorTile), Senior Advisor to an MP (DPS), National General Manager Sales & Marketing (The Housing Industry Association), National Sales Director (Sensis) and IT Manager (Government).
His experience spans country and national management, multi-business operations, commercial strategy, sales, marketing, technology, product development, financial management, HR and people leadership and organisational transformation.
He has led organisations through the full business lifecycle, from establishing and commercialising start-ups to scaling and leading large, complex businesses, executing turnarounds and transformations, and delivering successful business exits. His experience includes P&L responsibility of up to $89M and leadership of more than 300 people across 50+ sites.
He combines whole-of-business leadership with hands-on commercial and operational capability, bringing the perspective of an experienced CEO together with the practical instincts of an operator who has built sales pipelines, won customers, managed complex operations and closed millions of dollars in sales.
Having progressed from frontline operational roles to senior executive leadership, Sean understands how organisations work across functions, where performance can break down and what it takes to turn strategy into coordinated execution and measurable results.
He can lead from the front as CEO and public representative, setting strategic direction and building stakeholder relationships, or work within an executive team to strengthen commercial performance, operational execution and organisational alignment. He is equally comfortable engaging at Board level and working through the practical detail required to deliver results.
His governance experience includes serving on more than 20 boards and committees, and in office-bearer roles (Chairperson, Company Secretary and Public Officer).
His qualifications span business, governance, technology, human resources, legal services and engineering. His professional body admissions include the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Governance Institute of Australia, CEO Institute, Australian HR Institute and Information Technology Professionals Association.
He has an an international outlook and network shaped by global travel to more than 35 countries and extensive experience working with people and organisations across different countries and cultures.
Executive & Operator Experience
Sean's career combines executive leadership, commercial accountability and practical operating experience.
His executive experience includes CEO roles at BetterHR, Zonda and Kolling, alongside Group Executive and senior leadership positions including Chief Operating Officer at BetterHR, Group COO at Venturely, Commercial Director at Sharing Minds, National General Manager Sales & Marketing at HIA, National Sales Director at Sensis, and IT Manager in government.
Across these roles, he has worked with Boards, founders, owners, executives, employees, customers, investors and other stakeholders to address business challenges, improve performance and deliver organisational change.
His proven track record includes:
BetterHR: Conceiving, building, and launching the ‘BetterHR’ brand (previously Workforce Guardian), delivering 150%+ share-value uplift, double-digit revenue and profit growth, and scaling the business to 60,000+ SaaS users and 300+ partners (Telstra, ADP, industry associations, franchise groups, accountants).
Zonda Group/M7: Transforming a $20M+ multi-business group from losses to profitability through operational improvement, stronger financial controls and acquisition integration.
Housing Industry Association: Leading commercial operations across an $89M+ portfolio, restructuring 23 offices into a national operating framework and growing membership by 10,000+ to more than 50,000.
Sensis: Achieving 366%, 217% and 116% of sales targets across B2B and B2G roles, ranking as a top sales performer, and establishing and growing a government sales team serving 5,000 accounts to $33M+ annually.
Kolling Foundation: Strengthening financial reporting, governance, organisational accountability and fundraising for the medical research charity partner for Northern Sydney Local Health District (Royal North Shore Hospital, the Kolling Institute, North Shore Private Hospital, etc).
Sharing Minds: Building a SaaS business from zero to $2M+ in sales, including generating $1M+ in banked revenue within six months and delivering the migration of 700,000+ legal clients, 1.5m legal records & 10TB+ sensitive documents while maintaining business continuity.
ColorTile: Transforming retail stores to improve sales and profitability, and establishing new business units (bathroom products, tiling installations).
Public Sector: Implementing GIS and leading digital transformation, improving access to information, asset management and operational efficiency.
Governance: Serving on 20+ boards and committees, including office-bearer roles for 10+ years (Company Director, Secretary, Chair).
These outcomes reflect a combination of commercial discipline, operational improvement, leadership, business development and the ability to translate decisions into action.
Creating Measurable Value
Sean works at the intersection of strategy, commercial performance, people and execution. He identifies what is holding an organisation back, determines where intervention will have the greatest impact and turns decisions into focused action.
His approach combines pace with judgement. He moves quickly when action is required, while taking the time to understand the problem, challenge assumptions and consider the implications before committing resources. The objective is not activity for its own sake, but measurable progress.
He is particularly experienced working with founders, owners and Boards where the challenge goes beyond developing strategy. Whether the priority is stabilising operations, restoring profitability, scaling a business, improving accountability or preparing for a transaction, he focuses on the changes that will materially improve performance and enterprise value.
Sean operates with an owner's mindset. Whether leading as CEO, working alongside a founder, contributing as an executive or Board member, or advising an organisation, he focuses on outcomes rather than titles or personal recognition.
He is typically engaged where an organisation needs to stabilise, scale or reposition, improve commercial performance, strengthen leadership and accountability, unlock growth, prepare for succession, navigate transformation or increase enterprise value.
Process Improvement & Operational Excellence
Sean analyses how work actually gets done, maps processes end to end and identifies friction, duplication, bottlenecks, unnecessary complexity, risk and opportunities for automation.
He works with teams to redesign workflows, document standard operating procedures (SOPs), clarify responsibilities and implement practical improvements. His focus is on creating processes that are easier to manage, measure and scale, improving productivity, accountability, consistency and operational performance.
Commercial Leadership & Performance
With experience spanning frontline sales and marketing through to senior commercial leadership, Sean understands the drivers of sustainable revenue, margin and growth.
His experience covers B2B, B2G and B2C commercial strategy, go-to-market planning, sales, key account management, customer acquisition and retention, pricing, pipeline management, business development, major bids and sales training.
He has led national sales and marketing functions, built commercial pipelines, developed strategic partnerships and personally won and managed significant client relationships. His approach connects commercial strategy with the systems, processes, people and performance measures required to turn opportunities into sustainable results.
More about Commercial Leadership
Technology, Data, Systems & Decision Making
Sean's experience in technology spans frontline operational roles, government IT and executive leadership. He understands how technology, data and systems support business performance, improve decision-making, streamline operations and create competitive advantage.
Having progressed from digitising hard-copy government records to leading organisation-wide IT, he brings a practical understanding of the relationship between technology investment, business requirements, process design and operational outcomes.
His focus is on ensuring that systems and technology support the organisation's objectives, provide reliable information for decision-making and enable people to work more effectively.
More about Technology, Data & Systems
People, Culture, HR & Employment Law
Sean combines frontline and executive people leadership with practical experience in HR management, workforce strategy and employment compliance.
His experience spans organisational structure, workforce planning, culture, employee experience, performance management, leadership development and employment law. He understands the importance of aligning people practices with business objectives while maintaining fair, consistent and compliant employment practices.
His approach focuses on clear expectations, capable leaders, strong accountability and a workplace culture that supports both employee contribution and organisational performance.
More about People, Culture, HR & Employment Law
Board & Governance
Sean has more than 10 years of Board and governance experience, including Company Director, Company Secretary and Public Officer responsibilities.
His experience combines executive accountability with an understanding of governance, financial oversight, risk, compliance and stakeholder interests. He has worked with Boards and business leaders on organisational performance and complex business issues, advised an MP, represented Sensis at the National Press Club, and contributed to community organisations across health, sport and legal services.
Recognising Patterns & Solving Business Problems
Having led organisations through growth, transformation, underperformance, integration and change across different industries, Sean understands that many business challenges share common underlying causes.
Growth can expose weaknesses in systems and processes. Complexity can slow decision-making. Poor alignment can undermine execution. Weak accountability can erode performance. Leadership change can create uncertainty, while changing markets can expose both risk and opportunity.
Sean brings the perspective to look beyond symptoms, understand the factors driving performance and identify where intervention will have the greatest impact. He combines that insight with practical executive experience to turn observations into decisions, coordinated action and measurable results.
Executive Expertise
Leadership, Governance, Strategy & Value Creation | Board Accountability & Governance | P&L & Financial Management | Growth & Commercial Strategy | Business Transformation & Turnaround | Risk & Compliance | Stakeholder Engagement | Value Creation.
Operator Expertise
Commercial Execution | Performance Improvement | Sales & Business Development | Operational Excellence | Financial Performance & Cash Flow | Organisational Design & Performance Management | Technology, SaaS & Data | M&A Integration | Change Management.
Industry & Sector Experience
HR, Recruitment & Workforce Services (15+ years)
Technology, SaaS & Digital (15+ years)
Professional & Business Services (15+ years)
Media, Advertising & Consumer Services (10+ years)
Membership & Industry Associations (10+ years)
Healthcare & Health Services (10+ years)
Not-for-Profit & Community Services (10+ years)
Government & Public Sector (10+ years)
Who He's Worked With
Sean has worked with CEOs, founders, private equity investors, business owners, Boards, executives, large enterprises, industry bodies, not-for-profits and government.
His experience spans organisations at different stages of development, from start-ups and growing businesses to large, established organisations managing complex operations, diverse stakeholders and significant commercial responsibilities.
Community & Professional Contribution
Sean has a long-standing commitment to community initiatives, including work connected with social justice, health and sport (martial arts, soccer/soccer refererring, etc).
His early career included leading IT in government before founding and ultimately selling his own IT business, ITBIZ. His career since then has combined commercial leadership, organisational improvement, technology, governance and a practical commitment to helping organisations and people achieve better outcomes.
Testimonials
Read what colleagues, clients and stakeholders say about Sean.
Get In Touch
Whether your organisation needs experienced executive leadership, stronger commercial performance, operational improvement or support navigating growth and change, connect with Sean to discuss the challenge and the outcomes you need to achieve.
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