Your Future in Sales & Marketing

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Recorded on 28 August 2026. References and observations reflect the context at the time of recording. In this episode of Your Future in Sales and Marketing, we're joined by Jodie Lynch, Head of Marketing ANZ at Bayer's consumer health division, to explore leading outside your expertise, building a career around purpose and how AI is reshaping marketing.

Jodie built her career across Church & Dwight, Schwarzkopf and Henkel before making the boldest move of her career: stepping into Head of Supply Chain at Henkel for around four years, including through COVID, despite having no background in the function. She later returned to marketing, leading a major brand transformation at Blackmores, before joining Bayer two and a half years ago. She now leads the entire ANZ marketing function, sitting on the senior leadership team, and has spent the past year rolling out a new agile working model that puts the consumer at the centre of how her teams operate.

In this episode, we explore:

- How to lead a team when you have zero expertise in what they do.
- Why the scariest move of her career became one of the most defining.
- What non-linear career moves can teach you that a straight climb can't.
- Where AI genuinely helps marketers, and where human judgement still wins.

Jodie's story is a powerful example of what happens when curiosity meets courage, and why the career move that scares you most might be the one that changes how you lead for good.

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On our first episode of Brand Manager and Beyond, a special mini series from [axr], host Ben Carnegie puts one question to four senior marketers: what actually makes a great brand manager? 

Seb Brandt, Serge Costi, Nick Cook and Florence Paoli, each bring a different angle, from knowing the numbers to backing your own opinion in the room, to staying genuinely curious about people and culture.

It's a short, sharp look at what separates a good brand manager from a great one, straight from four people who've done the job at the highest level. 

More questions, same guests, coming soon.

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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 taking the top job at the AFGC in 2024.

Colm, Mike and Andrew talk through the deliberate risks behind each career move, including one that looked like a step backwards at the time, what it took to earn trust in a new industry during his first six months as CEO, and why he judges his own leadership by effort rather than outcome. Colm also shares his read on the opportunities and pressures facing FMCG manufacturing in Australia, and the workforce agenda now shaping the AFGC's next chapter.

Worth a listen whether you're building a career in FMCG or in sales and marketing, and especially if you're weighing up whether your next move needs to look like a promotion to actually be the right one.

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A podcast special: two [axr] podcasts, one conversation. Andrew Cannock (Your Future in Sales and Marketing) and Dave Goldbach (From Go to CFO) sit down together with Chris Tucker, Sales Director, and Piyush Mittal, Finance Director at SC Johnson, to unpack what a genuine partnership between sales and finance looks like inside an FMCG business.

Chris and Piyush trace very different paths to the top of their functions. Chris rose through a linear sales career at PepsiCo before moving into SC Johnson's Australian sales leadership, including a global customer marketing stint in the US. Piyush has spent 23 years at SC Johnson, moving from commercial finance in India, to supply chain in Malaysia, to finance leadership in Australia. Both land on the same lesson: breadth across functions, markets and cultures builds better decision-makers.

The conversation moves into SC Johnson itself, a 140-year-old, fifth-generation family business behind brands including Glade, Raid, Ziploc, Drano, Windex and Sun Bum, and what it means to make long-term calls, on sustainability, on investment, without the pressure of quarterly reporting. Chris and Piyush are candid about where sales and finance pull in different directions, and what keeps that tension productive rather than destructive: shared visibility of the full P&L, finance in the room from the start of a proposal rather than at sign-off, and a habit of weighing 'the cost of doing nothing' alongside any ROI case.

They close with the advice they'd give their younger selves: get broad experience early and surround yourself with people you can learn from.

If this conversation has you thinking about your own next move, in sales, finance or leadership, get in touch with the team at [axr] Recruitment & Search.

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In this episode of Your Future in Sales and Marketing, host Andrew Cannock sits down with Sheri Juchau, Director of Category and Trade Marketing at Ferrero, about a career built on curiosity rather than a fixed plan.

Sheri takes us from a marketing degree she didn't know existed until university open day, through the Unilever graduate scheme, a posting in London, a formative stretch at Arnott's, and a bold move from PepsiCo into a smaller, faster-moving distributor, Stuart Alexander. She's since spent several years at Ferrero, where she leads a growing team across category, shopper and trade marketing.

Along the way, Sheri talks about imposter syndrome, the moment a mentor convinced her to take a role she didn't think she was ready for, and why she believes breadth of experience, not a narrow specialism, is what makes a career (and a CV) stronger. She also shares her view on where category management is headed as AI reshapes the analyst's toolkit, and why she still believes the best results come from 'human plus machine', not one replacing the other.

Whether you're plotting your next move or building out your team, this is a conversation about backing yourself, staying curious, and knowing you don't need to see the whole path before taking the next step.

If this episode has you thinking about your next move, or your team's, get in touch.

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On this episode of Your Future in Sales and Marketing, Andrew sits down with Kylie Gleeson, Global Group Executive & CEO - Consumer and Retail at Quantium, who has built her career across some of the most demanding commercial environments in the world, from graduate rotations at Coca-Cola and Nestlé, to strategy consulting at Kantar, to leading commercial teams across Asia, Africa and the Middle East at FrieslandCampina, to the sharp end of AI and advanced analytics at dunnhumby and now Quantium.

Kylie knows what the top job looks like and what it takes to get there. 

In this conversation she talks about why curiosity has overtaken academic pedigree as the trait that separates the people accelerating fastest inside AI-driven organisations. 

Why 3 and 5 year strategies are losing their usefulness. 

What CEOs who are actually getting ROI from AI are doing differently from those who aren't. 

And why the competitive threat to your career isn't AI — it's the person next to you who's using it better.

There's also a sharper conversation in here about leadership: what authentic leadership actually means across cultures and contexts, how to build commercial acumen early, and the leadership lesson that took the longest to earn.

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What actually separates a sales director from a chief commercial officer? For Tanya Pitchforth, it's courage, clarity and humanity, not just hitting budget. 

Tanya is Chief Commercial Officer at McPherson's, the ASX-listed company behind Lady Jayne, Manicare, Swisspers and Dr. LeWinn's, and spent over a decade at Danone building new growth spaces across Paris and Amsterdam before that.

In this episode of Your Future in Sales and Marketing, Tanya talks to Mike Dickson about:

• Why she chases a trajectory, not a destination, and what that's meant for her career choices
• Building a career like a spider web instead of a ladder, and why the pivot is often smarter than the promotion
• What actually separates a sales director from a chief commercial officer
• Leading teams across Europe versus Australia, and the gender diversity gap she thinks Australia still hasn't closed
• Turning down her own dream role in Paris to come home to Australia, and what that transition really cost
• What to do when a career move doesn't go to plan, and why the next step doesn't always have to be up

Sharp, specific and genuinely useful for anyone weighing up their next career move, lateral, sideways, or nowhere near where they expected.

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In this episode of Your Future in Sales and Marketing, Ben Carnegie is joined by Nick Cook, General Manager of Marketing at Mad Mex, for a deep dive into a career shaped by agency creativity, automotive scale, and fast-moving QSR execution.

Nick shares how his early days across multiple agencies - including Euro RSCG (now Havas), DDB, and Saatchi & Saatchi helped him develop a strong foundation in creative craft and brand thinking. While agency life built his appreciation for execution, it was his move client-side to Hyundai that gave him exposure to complex, global marketing environments, including dealer networks, cultural differences in Korean HQ structures, and the early evolution of EV adoption and performance branding.

The conversation then shifts to his current role at Mad Mex, where he leads a broad generalist marketing function spanning product development, pricing, digital, and communications. Nick unpacks what it means to operate in a founder-led, franchise-driven QSR business where speed, clarity, and influence are essential.

He also shares standout campaign stories, including collaborations with Liquid Death and Smith’s Chips, as well as product innovation work like the launch of “Baja Fries” - a deliberately bold move designed to reinforce Mad Mex’s edgy, flavour-first positioning.

Throughout the episode, Nick reflects on leadership lessons from the Marketing Academy, the importance of vulnerability in team culture, and why great marketing leaders must focus on both strategy and the bravery of execution.

A must-listen for marketers navigating agency-to-client transitions, or anyone working in fast-paced, competitive brand environments.

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In this episode of Future in Sales & Marketing, Ben Carnegie is joined by Serge Costi, General Manager of Marketing at Noumi, the company behind leading dairy and plant-based beverage brands including Milk Lab.

Serge shares his journey through some of the world’s most influential FMCG organisations, from early career experiences at George Weston Foods to nearly a decade at Diageo, where he worked across iconic brands such as Bundaberg Rum and Smirnoff in both domestic and global roles. He reflects on what it takes to build world-class brands, scale across international markets, and adapt strategy across vastly different cultural and consumer landscapes.

The conversation explores key career-defining moments, including Serge’s move into global headquarters in New York, and how exposure to emerging markets shaped his thinking on localisation, brand building, and growth strategy. He also discusses major innovation work at Lion, including category-shaping developments in non-alcoholic and gluten-free beer, and the importance of combining consumer insight with bold execution.

Now at Noumi, Serge leads marketing across a diverse portfolio spanning Australia and international markets, overseeing brands like Milk Lab, which has scaled into 24 countries and become a category leader in café channels globally. He breaks down how Milk Lab was built from a niche performance solution for baristas into a globally scalable brand, and why focusing on solving real industry problems has been central to its success.

The episode also covers leadership development through the Marketing Academy, the value of self-awareness in leadership, and Serge’s work as an executive coach, where he sees common challenges across industries including prioritisation, performance conversations, and career progression.

Finally, Serge shares practical advice for marketers looking to broaden their experience across FMCG channels, emphasising the importance of working across retail, food service, and international markets to build a well-rounded commercial skillset.

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In this episode, Andrew sits down with Ben Gibson, General Manager at Mark Anthony Brands Australia, to unpack a career that’s anything but linear.

Ben shares how he went from a traditional accounting start to partnering with sales teams, stepping backwards into field sales to accelerate his growth, and eventually leading national accounts before diving into the entrepreneurial world with VOC Beverages and launching his own seltzer brand.

They explore the power of breadth over hierarchy, why taking risks and side steps can fast-track your career, and how hands-on experience across finance, sales, supply chain, and brand building prepared Ben to launch and lead a scaling business in Australia.

Ben also takes us behind the scenes of building Mark Anthony Brands locally — from setting up the foundations (licenses, teams, systems) to now driving growth, innovation, and long-term market ambition in the RTD category.

If you’re looking to move into leadership, start your own thing, or break out of a “cookie-cutter” career path, this episode is packed with practical insights on how to get there.