Biography

Oliver Bladek is an Operating Partner with Wellizen, a wellness innovation company creating health, beauty, and lifestyle solutions that help people live better, longer. He works across the brand portfolio, most recently leading the turnaround of Napoleon Perdis as CEO, revitalising one of Australia’s most iconic beauty brands to return it to profitable growth.

Before joining Wellizen, Oliver spent 15 years with McKinsey & Company in Toronto and Sydney, advising clients in over 25 countries on strategy, culture, and transformation. He has delivered more than A$4 billion in CFO-validated cash-flow improvement. He has also held senior executive roles, including Deputy CEO at the National Disability Insurance Agency and COO of an ASX-listed fintech.

Oliver holds an MBA with High Distinction from the Harvard Business School, where he was recognised as a Baker Scholar (top 5%), and dual degrees in Biology and Business from the University of Calgary.  Most importantly, his world revolves around his wife Samantha, his two daughters (who run the show), and a perpetually 'nearly finished' home renovation.

What is the best thing about your job?
The impact I can have through people. Whether with the Founders across the brands we own and serve, our front-line store staff who delight customers each visit, or our team who are all deeply committed to create innovative products for our customers. 

What is the most challenging project/problem you have worked on either as an external consultant or an internal strategist?
I found my work as a Deputy CEO within the National Disability Insurance Agency to be the most rewarding and challenging – how can you balance improving participant outcomes with ensuring financial sustainability of a $50 billion government program serving 500,000+ Australians with a lifelong, permanent disability?

Service delivery in government you serve everyone – that’s the discipline. Your influence is bounded by politics and legislation, so you learn to pick your spots, develop a broad coalition, and most importantly, keep moving forward.

What advice would you give someone transitioning from a consulting firm to a role in industry?

Be (super) humble – there’s far more context than what you see. Don’t take yourself so seriously
Be curious – understand what drives people, what assumptions they hold, and how that shapes individual and collective outcomes
Be helpful – taking care of others will help give them the chance to take care of you. Relationships are just as important as the answer.

Who has influenced your career the most and why?

Early on in my career, a mentor framed learning to be a manager is like a trade apprenticeship – your goal is to keep learning skills and ‘tools’ from every situation. 

I’ve been influenced by many: Philipp V who taught me formatting writing and numbers for insight. Jon G who was deeply thoughtful about how to influence in high-stakes meetings. Mike B who role modelled how to be ‘optimistically paranoid’ about delivering work. Martin H on warm hands, clear head, kind heart. And I could go on and on.

I suppose the original mentor (whose name escapes me) might have been the most influential of all.

What is the favourite piece of advice you have received and from whom?

I have affinity for the story of the British Cycling Team in the 2000s, where the performance director Dave Braislford focused on ‘the aggregation of marginal gains’, aka getting 1% better everyday. On everything. 1% better bike seats. 1% better fabrics. 1% better nutrition. 1% better pillows. And so on.  

While strategy is about defining and making big moves with high conviction and foresight, I find it’s compelling to galvanise a team around consistent, persistent improvement.  Better every week in eCommerce sales.  Better every day in reducing processing times. Easier every day in how we work with our distribution partners. 

Please describe the most impactful leader you've worked under and what specific traits made them exceptional.

Leaders like Helen Nugent, Martin Hoffman, Jimmy Wilson, Andy Penn, and Simon Moutter share one trait: they make clarity look effortless. They reach the essence quickly, communicate impact plainly, and align teams to act. They listen deeply and are very considered. And when they have high conviction, they are focused on what matters. 

Measured, reflective, decisive - a craft I’m still refining.

Can you share an example of your best hiring decision and what qualities or indicators made that person stand out during your selection process?
Whether it’s a C-level leader or an entry-level hire, I look for curiosity, a growth mindset, impatience to improve, humility to be wrong, and resilience to persist. I ask myself what I could learn from them. And, of course, they need to pass the Pittsburgh airport test.

As a child, what did you want to be when you were older?
Originally I wanted to be a doctor, just like my mother, who was a GP in Canada. When working in her clinic, I saw how helpful she could be – sick patient comes in, comes out more hopeful with a diagnosis and plan.  

While I didn’t get into medical school, management is all about being helpful – at scale – to delight customers through an aligned and inspired front-line.

Who is your personal or business hero/heroine, and what quality do you most admire in them?
I remember meeting Jamie Dimon at b-school in 2008 when he was CEO of JPMorgan. 17 years later he’s still in the role, with the same energy, having grown the share price 7x since taking the role. 

He told us (back then) about carrying an index card in his pocket with his priorities, to then engage his team and ‘cross off the questions’ as he goes. He uses this to get deep into the weeds and understand the detail on things that matter, like the daily review of major credit exposures during the GFC. 

Few (any) financial leaders were in the CEO seat during the last GFC 17 years ago – he probably has a good sense of what could happen in what seems to be the frothy financial/tech bubble we currently live in.

Who would you like to sit next to you at a dinner party, and why?
My Babcia (grandmother). She’s 97, still living in her own home in Calgary by herself, and I don’t get to see her as often as I would like. She emigrated from Poland to Canada in 1946 after WWII, and while her body has slowed, her mind and memory remains as sharp as always.

What is your favourite quote or motto?

“whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re probably right”.