"I read Leon Gettler in The Age when I was an active publisher and after retirement because I consider his knowledge of management, his views on governance and business ethics, globalisation and fundamental leadership to be informed and convincing. Leon is an outstandingly fluent speaker with a wide repertoire of subjects. He made a most favourable impression when he spoke to and answered penetrating questions from the group I tutor in Current Affairs at the Hawthorn Campus of the University of the Third Age - so much so that the participants have asked, nay demanded, that he return next year. I am delighted that he has accepted."
Peter Isaacson
Journalism
Leon Gettler is a senior business journalist, writing for The Age, BRW, CFO and AFR Boss magazine. He is also the finance writer for the green lifestyle focused G Magazine.
He worked at The Age from 1990 to 2008. His journalism awards include the United Nations Media Peace Award (1997) and the Professor John Miller Distinguished Achievement Award.
Leon specializes in writing about management issues which covers a range of areas including strategy, globalization, leadership, entrepreneurship, innovation, executive education, IT, marketing and human resources. He also has a strong interest in regulatory issues, including Sarbanes-Oxley, corporate governance and ethics. Always versatile, he has as part of his beat, covered many areas including manufacturing, beverages, accounting issues, executive pay and banking and financial services. He will regularly fill in when something has to be picked up quickly.
Leon also has a fortnightly column, Just Managing, appearing in The Age. Running for 10 years, the column analyses management matters and broad issues confronting business today, from ethics and public policy to regulatory issues, from organizational dynamics to financial markets to climate change. The column draws a enthusiastic response both here and overseas and has attracted many readers, who normally would not read the business section. He is sought after as a public speaker and guest lecturer.
Apart from writing about business, Leon worked at The Age as the Chief Industrial Reporter (1992-1993) and as an investigative reporter with the Insight Team (1996-97). He joined the The Age business team in 1997. Prior to joining The Age, Leon was the senior state political reporter for the Sun News-Pictorial and before that, he was court reporter and police roundsman for The Truth (1984-1986).
He was co-editor of The Australian Institute of Management's journal Management Today from 2000 to 2003.
Blogs
Leon manages six blogs. One, www.soxfirst.com, is focused mostly on the American business market and has a strong following in the US. It focuses mostly on Sarbanes-Oxley. It also looks at corporate governance, ethics and the broader issues involving the relationship between business and society. As a result, he is frequently approached by US lawyers and journalists to comment on issues. Leon's approach to business coverage is strongly global. Sox First is ranked 41 among the top 100 business blogs on Technorati.
His second blog, Management Line is for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. It focuses on management, workplace and career issues. It is ranked among the top blogs, indeed consistently coming out number one in terms of traffic generation, for Fairfax. The blog also draws a significant amount of traffic from around the world and as such, is frequently cited by bloggers overseas.
His third blog is Business of Green, published by G Magazine and tackles sustainability issues in the corporate world.
Other blogs are Let's Go Economics, Let's Go Environment, and the AMCRC blog.
Author
His first book, An Unpromised Land, (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1993) received a National Book Council Prize. His latest book, Organisations Behaving Badly (John Wiley, 2005) focuses on the forces that lead smart executives into making dumb decisions. It was short-listed for the Blake Dawson Waldron prize for business literature. His next book, with its tentative title Management Land Master Class is to be finished this year and is scheduled to be published in the US in 2009. Leon is now in discussions with the Australian Film Corporation about turning that book into an online game.
Presenter and Podcaster
Leon’s engaging style and humour make him a sought after public speaker and guest lecturer. He brings the same sense of exploration and unique point-of-view
that colour his writing to every presentation.
Leon also does a weekly podcast for RMIT University's College of Business with well known commentator Garry Barker focusing on business issues for the week. The podcast, Talking Business, also interviews business and political leaders and economists. It can be found here.
Music
Leon is also a jazz musician and critic.
