Street Fighter

Premium streetwear clothier Geedup has partnered with Australian MMA and UFC sensation Tyson Pedro to create a new unisex collection. The two unstoppable forces came together over their shared roots in Western Sydney, which is reflected in the new ‘Proud To Be A Problem’ campaign.

“It’s a term of endearment,” Geedup Founder Jake Paco says. “To be a problem is to go against the grain, to challenge and create competition.”

Paco launched Geedup in 2010 as a way of helping prevent youngsters in Western Sydney falling through society’s cracks. Today, the company is a cult global brand that brings in more than US$13 million annually, and whose collections often sell out within release hour.

Soul Food

From bulimia victim to one of the youngest CEOs in the healthcare space, 26-year-old Bronte Williamson is crafting a legacy.

Her enterprise Nourished Not Deprived – made up of a team of dietitians, occupational therapists, psychologists and speech pathologists – has a no-wait lists policy, designed to help those suffering not just from eating disorders, but a whole range of conditions. So far, it has helped over 1,800 patients in just 12 months, and enjoyed a 300 percent growth rate.

“With an inability to access the funding bodies necessary to receive adequate health care due to my BMI not being deemed ‘low enough’, I attempted to put myself through recovery until I could access services as a young adult,” Williamson tells The CEO Magazine.

“Once I recovered, I made a vow to myself to prevent all situations my family and I were elicited toward from happening to as much of the community as possible.”

A Nutrition and Dietetic honors graduate, Williamson has infused Nourished Not Deprived with her own set of ethics. “I focus on organizational and personal growth of one percent every day, and if I’ve done that, along with holding to my ethics throughout the day, I can sleep peacefully at night knowing I have done my best.”

The CEO Horizon

PwC Australia’s 2024 CEO Survey has revealed some interesting thoughts about the year – and trends – ahead. Top business leaders from Australia and around the world have outlined the changes they expect at home and overseas. Here are some of the key findings:

• • Generative AI is coming: Three in five global CEOs surveyed believe generative AI is set to change the nature of value creation and delivery over the next three years.

• • A need for speed: Australian CEOs weren’t found to be moving fast enough in pursuit of the transformation they know they need.

• • Life support: While 53 percent of global respondents believed their business could stay economically viable for more than a decade simply by maintaining the status quo, a whopping 85 percent of Australian CEOs surveyed shared this view.

• • Same old same old: Australian companies rely on existing products and services for revenue, with only one-quarter of Australian CEOs chalking up more than one-fifth of sales to new products and services – versus 42 percent globally.

Sweet Dreams

Here’s a wake-up call: it’s sleepy at the top. A new survey of professionals in the United Kingdom has found that 77 percent of CEOs believe they get enough sleep each night. Compare this to the 60 percent of owners and 38 percent of individuals without managerial duties, and it becomes clear that the more senior your position, the sounder your night’s sleep will be.

But this isn’t just limited to nights – the results also showed that CEOs nap 39 percent more than managers and 36 percent more than those with no managerial responsibilities.

Not all Heroes Wear Capes

Working from home has become a modern convenience, but it’s come at the expense of workplace team building. To bring back this bonding agent, children’s charity Supertee has partnered with a league of corporate superheroes including AMP, Salesforce, Adobe and HBF to provide custom-designed medical garments disguised as superhero costumes to sick children in Australian hospitals.

“Our packing events with corporates are really special events because we bring employees together with the common goal of helping sick kids,” Supertee CEO Jason Sotiris says.

The events, organized by Supertee, often feature top executives on hand to deliver Supertee kits and heartfelt messages of support to patients’ families.

“I’ve never had such positive feedback as what I’ve received from the four teams who’ve taken part in the packing events,” AMP Foundation Engagement Manager Sonja Mole says. “We’re bringing teams back together, in person, which is what’s been missing for almost four years.”