Anthony Woodward was a computer geek at school who learned to code from reading magazines. Now, he’s the CEO of Logicalis Australia which is a global technology service provider delivering next-generation digital managed services through its 7000+ ‘Architects of Change’ around the world.
Speaking on the latest series of Game Changers, Anthony describes how sustainability, gender parity, diversity and inclusion are the values he not only lives by, but which drive him in business.
When he was 12 years old, Anthony Woodward’s father brought home a Sinclair ZX81 computer. They hooked it up to a black and white TV and so began Anthony’s life-long journey in the tech space.
“It really was the start of the journey for me. There is a picture of me sitting at this handmade desk, with a Sinclair ZX81, it had one kilobyte of memory. In those days, what you had to do to get software was either to buy them on a cartridge, or get a computer magazine, and at the back of that computer magazine were games that different people had written in and provided. You had to type the whole thing to make it into basic programming language. So that’s what taught me to program. And it was that experience of building programs, making them work and troubleshooting them that really got me into computers,” said Anthony.
“Then a little bit later, at high school, a few of us got together and managed to get hold of the single apple computer. We kind of ditched science class to make a software program that was science related.”
What sealed the tech trajectory for this self-confessed computer geek was the experience of a year-long traineeship after university in a research lab at Mitsubishi Electric in Japan in 1990. At that time, Japan was the beating heart of tech innovation. For Anthony, the learnings would imprint on him for life.
“I think the thing that a lot of people miss about the way innovation works in Japan is the curious and the inquisitive mind. Really asking the question of why is it this way? Why do we do it this way? Is there another way and really thinking quite outside the box? And that’s really stayed with me,” Anthony said.
Post Japan, with an entrepreneurial fire in his belly, Anthony worked for a small software company that was developing digital mapping for customers like the Royal Australian Navy. He went on to start up an ISP called Zip in 1995, which merged with another ISP to form Zip World. It was sold in 1999 to Pacific Internet, a NASDAC listed ISP from Singapore. Ultimately, that was sold to Telstra.
After Zip World, Anthony started Bulletproof in 2000, a managed service provider which he built to employ over 200 people, make $50m in revenues, list publicly, and then sell to a competitor in 2018.
With his appointment as Logicalis CEO Australia, Anthony says he’s focused on the company’s culture and making strides in improving the gender pay gap. Another key motivation is helping clients in their digital transformation and empowering them to innovate by building, managing and enabling technology platforms for that.
“Logicalis is quite unlike a lot of global corporate organisations in that it hasn’t got a central strategy that everybody must now follow blindly. Instead, it is quite an entrepreneurial organisation across the globe. It has been built through acquiring lots of businesses around the world. So, a lot of the leaders have an entrepreneurial spirit. And there’s a fair bit of autonomy that’s given to those regional leaders in how they execute on the global strategy. That’s what really attracted me to the role when it was put in front of me,” explains Anthony.
“In Australia, we have a vision, that we are the partner of choice for our customers, for our people and for the planet. And that is really a reason to get out of bed every day. Some of the great projects that we’ve worked with our customers to deliver, they have changed communities, they’ve changed outcomes for people in everyday life. It’s not esoteric, it’s really very practical.”
Logicalis has positioned itself to become a champion of sustainability globally. Rather than just supporting their customers to achieve sustainable outcomes, Logicalis aims to become carbon neutral by 2025 with net zero emissions into the future.
When talking about inclusion and diversity, its Australian CEO is especially passionate.
As a father to an eight-year daughter, inclusivity and diversity is personal.
“I would always want her and every child to have all the options open to them, and not feel excluded. And that’s really what drives my passion for that diversity and inclusion,” Anthony asserted.
“One of the problems of the IT industry is its representation across various diverse cultures and obviously gender. As an industry, we have about 20% representation (of women). So, from my perspective, that’s leaving 30% of the population out of the picture.”
He says women need to feel safe and included if the gender gap is to be bridged, which requires good workplace governance.
“We need to make sure that those pieces and those structures, and that governance is in place. That comes down to behaviours and some of them are learned behaviours that we need to unlearn and approach things in a different way. Once that happens, and once women experience an inclusive workplace where they feel safe, then we want them to be advocates not just for our business but for the industry. That’s how we change the numbers,” said Anthony.
Another area where Anthony Woodward walks his talk is in his commitment to help eradicate homelessness.
Over the last 13 years, he’s raised $65,000 to help prevent homelessness, by taking part in the Vinnies CEO Sleepout.
“It’s pretty tough on the ground at six degrees overnight and lying on the concrete in a sleeping bag. I wonder, what would that be like if you had to do that every night,” Anthony said.
“Once you don’t have a home, it’s impossible to get any government support, because you can’t get it without an address. And so then how do you come back from that? Vinnies is a really important part of the glue that helps this part of our community get itself back onto its feet. It’s very much aimed at helping people reverse the trend that their luck is taking them in, so that they can avoid homelessness in the first place.”
Next year will mark the 20-year anniversary of the Vinnies CEO Sleepout which, so far, has raised 90 million dollars for the homeless. For, Anthony, his small but consistent contribution is something he’s proud of and intends to keep doing as long as there is need.
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