Disruptive Leadership and the In-house Legal Function in the Digital Age
Stephen Scheeler learned quickly, when he joined the Facebook team as Australia/New Zealand CEO in 2012, that times were changing, and if he didn’t change the way he managed, he would be left behind with nothing more than a “soz for that” and sad face emoji. After a steep learning curve on how to add relevant value in a millennial driven, virally explosive business, Stephen became the first “old” Facebook executive to survive and thrive. Over the five-years that followed, Stephen was a key member of the steering executive team through the unprecedented rise in customers, profits and the development of many mass-consumer-based cyber-businesses that became part of the Facebook empire.
Stephen Scheeler is the former Facebook CEO (Australia/NZ), where he worked with Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and Facebook’s Silicon Valley leaders. His tenure at Facebook spanned new entrance to multi-tech-brand domination in the Australia and New Zealand business – including Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus – to becoming one of the most successful Facebook markets in the world.
Stephen is a seasoned business leader, with a career spanning over 25 years across consumer products, retail, ecommerce, automotive, financial services, media and technology. He has served in senior executive roles at global leaders Westfield and Inchcape, and at Australian consumer products giant, Lion.
Today – as founder of global advisory The Digital CEO, Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, and Executive-in-Residence at Asia-Pacific’s leading business school, the Australian Graduate School of Management – he partners with CEOs and boards of some of the world’s leading companies to help them build world-beating strategies, capabilities, culture and leadership. He has advised the leaders of Qantas, NAB, Westpac, Macquarie Bank, IAG, Suncorp, Telstra, Wesfarmers, AMP, CUB, Brambles, Google, Seven West Media, MCN, QBE, JB Hi-Fi, Bunnings, Mirvac and the Australian Government.
He is an inspiring personality on the highest-profile stages, and is a member of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Knowledge Nation 100, top innovation leaders in Australia. As a speaker, Stephen has a unique ability to excite audiences on the power of technology, the future of business and the new paradigm of 21st-century leadership.
Stephen now advises leaders in big-business, start-ups and government on how to lead in a world that is incapable of slowing down.
He will be speaking at the 25th In-House Legal National Conference on the topic ‘Disruptive Leadership and the In-house Legal Function in the Digital Age’. In this session, Stephen will share from his experience, what you need to know to transform your personal working style to keep pace and future-proof your career. He’ll tackle the “big” challenge before in-house legal leaders: how to balance the growing need to mitigate risk with the increasing demand for rapid turn-around. You will leave this session with tips on how to feel the fear of change and do it anyway, without selling out your professional integrity in the process.
