Welcome to the 14th episode in our special series with the
Australian Government and their Centre for Australia–India
Relations (CAIR), spotlighting the growing Australia–India
relationship across technology, business, media, culture and
sport.
Other guests in this series include BHP's CFO Vandita Pant, Bank
of America's Head of Capital Commitments Gautam Chari, Austrade's
GM for South Asia Mukund Narayanamurti, Renowned Music
Composer Tushar Apte, Australia's High Commissioner to India
Philip Green, MUFG's CEO Vivek Bhatia, Australia's Secretary of
Foreign Affairs Peter Varghese, NAB's EGM Sweta Mehra, Deputy
Secretary of Australia's Home Affairs Brendan Dowling, Orica's
CEO Sanjeev Gandhi, Sports Journalist Bharat Sundaresan, Cricket
Legend Lisa Sthalekar and CAIR's CEO, Ryan Neelam, reflecting the
breadth of Indian-Australian leaders at the most senior levels.
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This episode is supported by Xero, helping businesses use AI with
more control through JAX, its in-platform AI finance partner. Get
90% off your plan for your first 6 months at
xero.com/highflyers.
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian
Government, Google, KPMG,, Allens, Macquarie Capital, Xero, JP
Morgan and more.
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Amit Singh is Managing Partner of Mandala, a global economics,
data and policy research firm. He has advised three Australian
Prime Ministers, served as Uber’s Global Head of Economic Policy
in San Francisco, and more. Today, he leads Mandala and serves on
several prominent government and public-policy boards.
In this conversation with Vidit, Amit shares his journey from
growing up amid political instability in Fiji and moving to
Australia as a teenager, to running a $20 million organisation
with 200 employees at just 21 — before going on to work at the
highest levels of Australian government.
He reflects on going from Freehills to Kevin Rudd’s office in the
space of two days, subsequently working for Julia Gillard and
briefly Anthony Albanese, and the experience of technically
losing his job five times during his political career. Amit also
shares the equal-pay decision he is proudest of, which delivered
a 23–45% pay increase for 150,000 predominantly female care
workers.
Amit also explains why he left government for technology, what
moving to San Francisco and working at Uber taught him about
ambition and taking risks, and how those experiences ultimately
led to building Mandala as a globally focused economics and
policy firm.
They also explore Amit’s Fijian-Indian identity, why he believes
the Australia–India economic relationship remains underdone
despite decades of intent, the opportunity across technology, AI
and services, and why changing Australians’ understanding of
modern India could unlock a much deeper relationship.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
______
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian
Government, Google, KPMG,, Allens, Macquarie Capital, Xero, JP
Morgan and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit
Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
This episode is supported by Xero, helping businesses use AI with
more control through JAX, its in-platform AI finance partner. Get
90% off your plan for your first 6 months at
xero.com/highflyers.
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Who is Amit Singh
01:28 From selling limes in Fiji to building
Mandala
03:43 Growing up Fijian-Indian amid political
instability
04:31 His parents’ sacrifice — and the values
they passed down
08:11 Navigating identity after moving to
Australia
11:42 Finishing high school at 16 — by
accident
13:12 Running a $20M organisation at 21
16:13 Law, Freehills & an unexpected career
path
17:52 From lawyer to Kevin Rudd’s office in two
days
21:51 What working closely with Prime Ministers
taught him
23:21 The decision that changed pay for 150,000
workers
26:10 Leaving government for Uber and Silicon
Valley
28:57 From playing it safe to “shoot your
shot”
31:38 The hardest parts of Amit’s career
33:36 What Uber taught him about managing
exceptional people
35:22 Building Mandala
37:22 Why Australia–India remains
underdone
42:13 Why no one is truly self-made
43:24 Rapid fire
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The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the
world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance,
government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the
global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27
countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in
Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of
Australia), Keith Rabois (Managing Director, Khosla Ventures),
Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci
(CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David
Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Kevin Hartz (Partner, A*; Founder,
Eventbrite), Shiv Rao (CEO, Abridge), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon),
Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable),
David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of
Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO,
Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina
Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments,
Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster
(Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird),
Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO,
Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator,
Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign
Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus),
Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus),
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica)
and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to
India).
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