Carlo De-Fazio - 8 years @ GTAL

Carlo De-Fazio will celebrate 8 years at Grant Thornton next week, I wanted to pen a few words of appreciation and a bit about Carlo from my perspective. I actually met Carlo before I started, the COO at the time had basically said “come in and check out the budget Andrew, and agree it is feasible before I offer you the job”. So a meeting was set up, I came into the Rialto pretty calm as, to be honest, I already had a really good boss and team so if it did not work out I was sorted, I was looking for more work somewhere complex, little did I know.

I walked around the corner into a glass room with this bloke sitting there, face red, obviously stressed, paper everywhere, spreadsheets, he was sweating, looked unfit, unhappy. Here I was supposed to just run numbers, I can’t remember what I said exactly, I just asked what the revenue was for the firm, which I think we googled in the end and then worked out the Gartner benchmark and a low ball possible estimate if we ran lean. I asked Carlo some questions and he tried to answer, shuffling papers, getting more stressed as it was a mess. To me, Carlo seemed nice and that he really cared, I told him not to stress and that we can work it out, I asked him about some vendors and I knew a few and hoped we can hit the number albeit it was aggressive, I don’t think Carlo was so sure. That was it, we spoke for a while, if you know me you know I am not that great with those situations, trying but not too great. I rang Laura and said I can hit the numbers and she was like ok you are on the hook are you sure you want an offer, it was hard and scary as I was safe and really loved my current job, but something inside made me think it was the right opportunity. (actually, I had a universe sign of Malcolm Baron running Bridge Road in a GT onesie that sealed the deal) but that as they say is for another day.

Personally, I will never ever participate in an office move with Carlo, my monitor cables are never just right no matter how hard I try!!

Fast forward a few weeks and I started, we had to make some tough calls and start to work, every step of the way Carlo tried his absolute best, even when he did not agree he still tried, did what I asked, and this built a two-way trust. He was a bit old school but I knew he was a good bloke. We chipped away at the budget and the team, we made some outlandish calls, Malcolm Baron as a Manager (Unbelievably great call) and a heap of other calls, most found here. https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/opportunities-loyalty-trust-andrew-pritchett/ , to our surprise we hit our numbers, even better than the target. This begun my working relationship with Carlo, we have had our ups and downs both professionally and personally, professionally struggling with some calls we had to make and disagreeing with how to do something, Carlo always let me have my say and demonstrated respect but he also made calls and stuck with them, pushed to make it happen. Our approach to people is different, but together when I explain my view, Carlo adapts and respects, sometimes even admits I was right (not always). personally, I will never ever participate in an office move with Carlo, my monitor cables are never just right no matter how hard I try, but I can tell you people have massive respect for the detail Carlo delivers, it is outstanding the way he handles builders, movers, desks well anything to do with moves and building, IT-related or not. In Carlo’s tenure at GT he has been involved in so much stuff, finding the right people, stakeholder management, budgets, 6 or 7 office developments and moves (saving our firm millions of dollars), procurement, laptops, phones, printers, phone systems, could systems, backup, storage, security audits, software, servers, leadership, presenting in fact he won the firms individual Performance Inspiring Award a couple of years back, which is absolute recognition for all of his efforts in making Grant Thornton better. Carlo has an absolute desire to do things excellently, not perfect but excellent, people want to help him and he pushes bloody hard. Detail focused, meticulous actually and no one can underestimate the impact of Carlo directly holding our vendors accountable. Moving into CoVid multiple people have told me how Carlo is simultaneously struggling with so much remote management, (he has a team of 15 or so), but also how good he is doing, putting in the hours, changing approach, and try hard to listen and adapt.

Personally, I have loved seeing Carlo grow, he has become so much more caring to people, demonstrating empathy and he has become a real leader, giving space and letting people take a risk, he still might let you know when something goes wrong, but it is light years from where he was. He is bloody fit, far from the bloke I first met about budgets, he started training with me and became one of the fittest, fastest and strongest blokes I know, winning fitness competitions and becoming a role model for others including his family. Whenever I personally have needed support he has always been there, both for emotional support and to get shit done. If Carlo tells me we need to do something, I have full trust and faith he is trying hard to do the best he can and I work out how to support, the foundation of trust and respect. It is not just me, he is absolutely generous with his people from fixing lawnmowers to mounting TVs and any other practical advice, which is a lot and he gives it generously.

I have so many stories about Carlo, from interviews, vendors, people talking smack about him to me, and long runs on the beach for New Years'. One that jumps out at me, is the time I took him for lunch about year 3 to thank him for something he had done, I rarely do work lunches, we went to his favorite place, not that I knew was his old bosses favorite place, his old boss was there that perhaps did not recognize how good Carlo was, maybe took him for granted, I can’t say. He was having lunch with my mate, Carlo looked uncomfortable, I asked what was going on and he told me that was his old boss, to be fair I don’t think his old boss recognized him, Carlo was 30kg+ lighter and looked like a different bloke. I went over to the table and introduced myself, my mate sensing I was up to something smiled, I then went onto explain how good Carlo had been to GT, after only a few minutes of being honest about DeFazio, I came back to our table. The guy looked a bit rattled, but I noticed Carlo looked a bit upset, what I found out was that Carlo was not upset but rather really grateful for my kind words and that he said he can’t believe I did it and was really emotional, we finished our lunch, but I felt, wow Carlo does not realize how much he contributes and how those around him really appreciate him, what a world when a top performer can feel like that. It is actually unbelievable upon reflection how good Carlo has been for Grant Thornton, the other week, he shot me an SMS that he needed to chat, I had seen a Head of IT role at his old company and I just assumed they would tap him on the shoulder and hire him, stealing him, like shooting fish in the barrel, however, he was just checking in on me as I had been a bit quiet, I told him I thought he was quitting, we laughed. Would have been a smart move by them in my opinion.

I am truly grateful to have Carlo in my team and life, he is a good friend, father, and 2iC would be pretty shit without him. I have not a bad word for him with the exception of the time he dropped me at the 10km mark at Red Bull Wings of Life, not that I hold a grudge. Hopefully, we get a few more years of work and a lot more of mateship. Honestly, I dread the day he leaves the team, we would be stuffed in so many ways. Happy anniversary bro.