Brian Duffy is Atlassian’s Chief Revenue Officer and is responsible for the sales and success teams. He brings over 20 years of extensive experience. Previously, Brian spent 18 years at SAP, where he served as President of Cloud. In that role, he launched, built, and scaled the strategic initiative ‘RISE with SAP’ to help customers transition to the cloud. Through agility, focus, and innovative migration practices, he grew RISE from an initiative into a multi-billion dollar business within two years.
Following his time at SAP, Brian became the CEO of SoftwareOne, where he positioned the company for its next phase of growth and strengthened relationships with customers and partners.
Brian has gained significant international experience from his time living and working in the United States, Europe, China, and Japan. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in International Law from University College Dublin, Ireland, and a Master’s Degree in International Business and Trade Law from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. Brian maintains his license to practice law and is admitted to practice in New York State.
Brian kindly shares his perspectives on transformational leadership below with our Global Technology and Software Managing Partner, Tim Chamberlain.
What does good leadership mean to you?
To me, good leadership means guiding and inspiring others toward a common goal while fostering a positive and inclusive environment. It involves clear communication, empathy, and integrity. A good leader not only sets a vision but also listens to team members, values their contributions, and encourages their development. Ultimately, effective leadership builds trust and motivates individuals to work collaboratively, driving success for both the team and the organization.
How did you get to where you are today? Did you take a strategic, planned approach to your career or has it been more opportunistic?
I began studying law, so my journey hasn’t been a straightforward one. I firmly believe in seizing opportunities as they arise. For instance, after working at SAP for many years and managing the European business, I felt that my time there was coming to an end. However, when the company needed someone to lead the transition to the cloud, a new opportunity presented itself.
What are your three key priorities in the next 12 months?
1 – Continuing to build an engagement model around our customers to make them truly successful.
2 – Scaling our teams to operate more efficiently and take out some red tape.
3 – Instilling fun into our team. I don’t show up to have a bad day. I show up to have a great day and while it can be hard sometimes, I want us to have fun together.
What is the best way to switch off in your free time?
Going out to eat with family and friends. I love Asian fusion food and experiencing new cuisines with my family. Similarly, we love traveling together and experiencing new cultures. Day-to-day, I spend time cycling to destress and set myself up for a productive day!
AI and digital landscapes are ever evolving. What skills or areas are you currently focusing on to ensure your organisation remains at the forefront?
Integrating AI into some of our workstreams to make processes more efficient. For example, we have started to use one of our internal agents to create customer briefing sheets. This reduces a ton of time for the field. I am encouraging people to embrace AI and use it to become familiar with it. Even starting small like using the “Slack recap” is a good way to start.
In what ways has AI already transformed your industry, and what changes do you anticipate will be most disruptive in the next 18-24 months?
There are literally entire SDR teams made of AI team members (not at Atlassian but across the tech scene), so I think it’s been pretty disruptive already. However, I think we will continue to see opportunities to use it to streamline some efficiencies that we have become used to.
How do you integrate diversity and inclusion strategies into your leadership approach, and what impact do you believe this has on your organisation’s culture and performance?
Starting small, I try to make space for everyone to have a voice in my own team so that we can hear from all different points of view.
Two areas I believe help: recruiting process and mentorship programs. I believe when we are recruiting that we should be looking at a pool of diverse candidates. No team should be made up of one of the same. It’s proven that we do better work when we have different walks of life coming together. And, when it comes to mentoring, I think we see incredible growth when we inspire and support those that feel in a minority.
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