BITE BIG: Boss Women Leading Big is the unapologetic podcast for women who lead with guts and grit. Hosted by Amber Bonney, founder of The Edison Agency and feminist force field of brand strategy, it dives into the minds of powerhouse women across business, academia, and culture. From bestselling authors to top CMOs, Season 3 brings fierce conversations, sharp thinking, and raw truths about what it really takes to lead, fight, and thrive in a world that wasn’t built for us.
What does it look like to lead with both head and heart, while turning one of Australasia’s biggest brands into an empathy-led, data-powered machine?
In Episode 18 of BITE BIG, I sat down with Astrud Burgess, Group Chief Marketing Officer at ANZ, to unpack the mindset, mantra and marketing savvy behind her powerhouse leadership.
Astrud’s journey from the retail floor to the C-suite is anything but typical. Starting as a graduate at ANZ, her path has spanned continents, industries, and disciplines, from media and telco in London to transforming customer experience, brand, and data strategy back home. Now, as Group CMO, Astrud is proving that creative instinct and commercial impact are not mutually exclusive.
Her mantra? “Optimise for joy.” A deceptively simple philosophy that drives how she leads, how she works, and how she stays sane in a high-pressure world.