Fractional Expert Melbourne, Victoria

Joshua - Chief Operations Officer and Chief Revenue Officer - Growth & Transformation Expert

At Maestro, we know there’s more to life than work. In fact, it’s the experiences, relationships and pursuits we have outside of work that can often give us an edge in what we do each day. We host an interview series called “Meet the Maestro” where we interview our Maestros and get an insight to who they really are and what makes them tick - beyond the CV.

Joshua fixes, transforms, and grows companies; often all at once. He helps leadership teams cut through the noise, whether that’s driving growth, turning around operations, integrating acquisitions or building teams that actually perform. With 20+ years leading PE-backed, private, and listed businesses, he combines commercial rigour with operational expertise, moving seamlessly from high-level strategy to hands-on execution. Joshua’s superpower is translating across functions: he can sit with a CFO talking numbers, then walk down the hall and have an equally real conversation with an engineering team. He focuses on the work that actually moves things forward, not just fills up a schedule.

1. Tell us about a career highlight to date…

Integrating four separate technology businesses into one and if you've never done an M&A integration, just imagine trying to merge four different families into one household. Different habits, different cultures, different ways of doing absolutely everything.

What really stays with me isn't the success around the numbers it's the moment when people who started as strangers from different companies started backing each other. That's a legacy.

2. Talk us through an unusual career choice you've made along the way…

Leaving financial services for management consulting, did raised a few eyebrows across my network. I was in a good position in financial services and on a well-trodden path.

But I've always trusted the instinct that says go where it's interesting, challenging and growth is possible, not where it's safe. A new industry felt important in a way that excited me. Comfort has never been a great enough reason for me to stay somewhere.

3. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I was a passionate sportsman and played in underage national and state cricket team. Looking back, I always wanted to build or lead something and while it wasn’t cricket it was the foundation of my career.

4. What are your passions outside of work and how do you make time for them?

I love to cook, so much so that, while I was at University I did my sous chef qualification in a hatted restaurant. This led me to my passion for wine by working at several vineyards doing vintages, while completing my  Sommelier certificate. There is nothing more I enjoy then making a meal and selecting the wines for families and friends in our home.

5. If you could instantly master any skill or hobby, what would it be and why?

The ability to fully switch off. The skill of genuinely being in the room, not half-thinking about the next problem, not mentally drafting an email during dinner, not carrying the weight of work into personal moments that deserve better than that. My partner would probably agree that's the one I need most!

6. What's a personal value or belief that guides the way you live your life?

Do the right thing, not the easy option.

I've walked away from deals, roles, and situations that looked great on the surface because they didn't align with how I believe you should operate. Trust and integrity aren't words I put on a slide; they're the actual filter.

I've never once woken up and regretted being straight with someone or holding a line I believed in. That's the test I keep coming back to.

7. What's a challenge you've overcome outside of work that shaped you?

Untangling my self-worth from my job title. That one took longer than I'd like to admit.

For years I was very much what I did rather than who I was. Your identity gets wrapped up in the role, the company, the title and then something shifts or a chapter ends and suddenly you're doing a lot of quiet work to figure out who you actually are underneath all of that.

I'm genuinely grateful I did that work. It's made me a better leader, a better partner, and honestly just someone who's a lot less reactive when things don't go to plan.

8. What do you think your job will look like in 10 years time?

The mechanics of my job will look completely different  AI will handle so much of what currently eats executive hours. But the fundamentally human stuff becomes more important, not less.

Reading a room. Building trust with a team going through something hard. Knowing when the numbers are telling you one thing, but the people are telling you another. That doesn't get automated. The leaders who figure that out early will have a real edge.

9. If you could travel anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would you go and what would you do?

The Basque Country. Tomorrow if you're offering!

I'd land in San Sebastián, find the nearest pintxos bar, and just completely lose track of time. There's something about the Basque Country that appears to be genuinely unrushed. No itinerary, no deliverables, no outcomes. Just my partner and I working our way along a bar with a glass of Txakoli, eating things you can't pronounce, and having long conversations with strangers.

10. What does success look like to you?

Leaving the workplaces I join in a better place than when I started.

Not just the numbers - though the numbers matter - but the human impact. The person who got their first real shot because I backed them. The team that came out the other side of something hard and knew they'd done it together. That's what I'd want people to remember, and that will how I measure success.

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