A cutting edge
partnership
2019 Boss of the Year Benjamin Lee
and his EA, Angela Lightbody talk
about their experience forging a
modern EA role with our editor
Ben, you are quite young to have such a high position
in the corporate world. How did you manage to climb
the ladder so quickly?
Ben: I started as a call centre agent in the telecommunications
industry. I remember looking into a meeting room window
and seeing the then executive site manager giving a briefing
to some of the team leaders and I just knew at that point in
time that I wanted to be an executive leader.
I worked pretty hard, and managed to get myself a team
leader position within 12 months of being there. Then I
moved into a company called Excelior and I did quite a lot
of project managing there, which got me a gig at General
Electric.
Then, from GE someone told me there was an operations
manager job going at Gold Coast Cabs. Having a bit of
22 Chief of Staff | Issue 1 2020
an IT background, I was convinced the taxi industry in
Queensland was ill prepared for what was about to happen
to them. But most of the time, where there’s adversity
there’s opportunity—and I felt I had the right skills to help
the organisation meet that challenge.
So, I jumped in as an operations manager here at Gold
Coast Cabs, and after about a year-and-a-half the chief
executive left the business and the board of directors asked
me to step in. Which I said yes to and now I’ve spent the last
four years here as the head of Gold Coast Cabs.
Angela, how long have Ben and yourself been working
together and how did this partnership come about?
Angela: I’ve been with Gold Coast Cabs for nearly three
years. That was starting with Ben when he first took over as