Gus Balbontin

Gus Balbontin's Biography

The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. Former Executive Director and CTO of Lonely Planet Gus Balbontin is one of them.

He’s an investor, entrepreneur, founder and explorer who has spent two decades helping businesses adjust strategies, products, services, culture and individuals to better deal with rapid and regular changing markets.

Gus led one of the most loved brands in the world through significant disruption. Easier said than done, trust me. Gus remains heavily involved with the startup scene around the world as a founder, investor and advisor. In his spare time, he’s the Entrepreneur in Residence at Victoria University.

Gus will delve deep into the digital transformation of the past two decades, sharing stories of how so many companies mishandled this seismic shift and how today’s business leaders can capitalise on the disruption that’s still occurring today.

Born and bred in wild Patagonia, Gus Balbontin never allowed his small town and humble beginnings get in the way of his big dreams. A healthy disrespect for authority and a severe case of fomo (fear of missing out) landed him in Australia at the young age of 17.

By the age of 22 he had dropped out of uni, hitchhiked South America, set up his first business and landed his dream job at Lonely Planet. Fast forward a few more years and he was leading the company globally, working with companies such as Google X, Nokia and Amazon on the latest technology, creative cultures and high performing teams.

Often thought as futurist, not because he predicts the future, but instead because he helps you focus on what you can control to deal with any future. Still want to talk trends? Sure! He loves as much as the next person trying to imagine a world run by AI, but he warns that getting too distracted with future guesses will only take time away from you and your company to actually do something about the future.

Seeking a change from corporate life, he hung up his boots as the Executive Director and CTO of Lonely Planet and decided to move back to his entrepreneurial roots, becoming an investor, founder and mentor across the start-up ecosystem in Melbourne. He’s the Director at Neu21, which keeps him close to large corporate challenges, and he is a General Partner at Bluescope’s Corporate Venture Fund BluescopeX. He has long term dreams of transforming education through his Unrealistic Foundation.

Gus is a lightning bolt of energy and enthusiasm. He is not your average presenter— a force of nature with a mission to shake up your thinking and spur you into action. With a background that spans continents and industries, Gus brings an unconventional, hands-on approach to a broad range of topics.

Whether you’re looking to inspire your team, challenge outdated thinking, persuade your clients or equip your organisation to thrive in a fast-changing world, Gus’s keynotes and workshops are packed with the insights and rebellious strategies you need.

To enquire about Gus speaking for you contact Helene Greenham directly – helene@platinumspeakers.com.au

Speaking Topics Include

Pull the future towards you

Gus isn’t about vague predictions - he’s about preparing you for whatever the future throws your way. As an “Alternative Futurist,” he’ll guide you through the trends that matter, with a sharp focus on what you can do now rather than later. Gus inspires audiences to start playing with novelty to increase their tolerance to change and pull the future towards us. Waiting for it to happen is a recipe for disaster.

Stop wasting time on speculation and start taking action.

AI through the human lens

Gus Balbontin will help your audience understand AI in simple terms, recognise how much we already use it today and play with some examples on how it can apply to your job, business or industry. He will help you cut through the hype to focus on what the real human impact is.

The battle scars he collected over the years supporting businesses and humans through the digital revolution, perfectly apply in today’s AI context. For example, we overestimated what the internet could do short term and simultaneously underestimated what it was going to do long term. Today you can’t run your business without internet, in future you won’t be able to run your business without AI. You are probably thinking “I haven’t finished with my digital transformation and now I need to worry about AI transformation? Yes! If you are still paying the backlog of digital debt you are about to start piling up AI debt.

AI poses no danger, inaction does. The opportunity is open to those that act.

Cultures of trust and accountability

Gus dives deep into the fabric of team building, exploring how to create a culture of trust, psychological safety and accountability. Learn how to empower individuals to take responsibility and act with autonomy and discover the leadership traits necessary to harness the collective power of your team - even in the most uncertain circumstances and in the most complex distributed virtual offices.

Gus will guide you in understanding how self-awareness and individual behaviour shape the overall performance of your business.

Unlocking agility and adaptability

In the relentless pace of today’s markets, corporate momentum can be your biggest enemy. Gus challenges you to break free from outdated, repetitive processes and embrace a more agile, entrepreneurial mindset. He’ll guide you in creating systems that support both established and emerging business models, transforming your organisation into a nimble force ready to adapt to any change. This keynote is your blueprint for thriving in the face of disruption.

Customer focus and activating innovation

You must solve more customer problems than business problems, if you want to stay relevant. Gus will help you shift your focus from internal struggles to external impact, showing you how to strip innovation down to its core - moving from unsolved to solved problems.

Creativity is scary because people judge it, curiosity is not. Let Gus help you focus your attention and energy to spark the entrepreneurial fuel everyone has inside. Gus brings practical tools to the table, helping you turn lofty ideas into immediate action and engage every member of your team in the innovation process.

Once you see Gus’ simple innovation models you will be surprised how much we over process innovation and try to control it with little return.

Leadership in difficult times

Gus lead a large global restructure and has been involved in many large corporate and small startup shake ups. Leading yourself and others through difficult times is something we can easily take our eyes off.

In a world where our brains are still wired for survival in the wild, leading in the modern business environment requires some serious counterintuitive thinking, specifically through tough times. Gus dives into the evolutionary challenges that make today’s rapid change so hard to handle and helps you accept and engage with practices that will get you and your business through disruption.