Sunny D'Souza
COO & Chief Transformation Officer, Advisory and Execution - Sydney
Expertise: Operations, Growth, Technology
About
WHO AM I
I’m a COO, Chief Transformation Officer (CTrO), and Consultant. I help CEOs, Founders, Entrepreneurs and Investors to:
• Turn their vision into reality.
• Scale their ventures in an organised way.
• Turn a revenue line into profitability.
• Turn something showing potential into something sustainable.
• Get ready for sale.
• Bring order to chaos.
HOW I WORK WITH ORGANISATIONS
I seek to understand where the organisation needs to get to, and why, including its financial targets, and understand how the organisation currently works. I then redesign the operating model, including processes, then use technology for enablement and automation to achieve the new operating model, and processes, at scale. I bring to any role the Consulting Toolkit of structured problem solving, C-Suite Leadership experience, and a commercial track record in Sales, Marketing and Operations. I am highly mobile for where the need for material and sustainable change, is high.
DELIVERY IMPACT
Across multiple roles as a COO, and multiple roles as a CTrO, I have achieved the following:
- As both COO and CTrO, my body of work in People, Process, Technology and Data change, helped high growth Business Services company Employsure scale profitably and efficiently from around 250 staff in 2015 when I arrived, to around 1100 and $37.5M pa in EBIT, on my departure in 2021.
- I have had full performance and cost responsibility for a 450 staff, $40 Million operating cost pa, 2 country (AU and NZ), 5 site, 4 time zone, multi service line operation (Onboarding, Call Centre, Field Services, Law Firm, Customer Experience Teams), and have substantially improved it in Service Delivery quality, Staff Engagement and Cost.
- I have grown a revenue line from $360K to $12 million pa, in 18 months, using sophisticated Customer Segmentation of a back book, Sales process design, Pipeline management, and building out the Sales Team.
- I have led the turnaround of a substantial Digital Pay-Per-Click Channel ($20M pa spend), reversing a 12-month trend of falling Lead volumes and a doubling of Cost Per Lead, restoring it to its prior performance.
- As its Adviser then CTrO, took struggling Business Services startup Retinue Accounting from a $1.8 Million dollar per Month EBIT loss (and Gross Profit loss) to Gross Profit positive in 5 months, which made it an attractive buy and got it sold, and gave the new owner a clear plan for getting it to EBIT positive in a further 5 months, which they achieved in 2025, by executing on my plan to the letter.
- I have developed staff to Leadership Team and Board level.
- In 2019 I was voted in the top 3 COOs in Australia by CEO Magazine.
- I have led a number of Technology Implementations.
- During periods of slow economic growth or downturn, I have been a member of Teams that have completed substantial Cost Out programs.
- I have degrees in Engineering and General Management, and also a Finance major, and I am Financially literate.
Big wins
- As both COO and CTrO, my body of work in People, Process, Technology and Data change, helped high growth Business Services company Employsure scale profitably and efficiently from around 250 staff in 2015 when I arrived, to around 1100 and $37.5M pa in EBIT, on my departure in 2021.
- I have grown a revenue line from $360K to $12 million pa, in 18 months, using sophisticated Customer Segmentation, Pipeline Management, and Sale Process design.
- As its Adviser then CTrO, took struggling Business Services startup Retinue Accounting from a $1.8 Million dollar per Month EBIT loss (and Gross Profit loss) to Gross Profit positive in 5 months, which made it an attractive buy and got it sold, and gave the new owner a clear plan for getting it to EBIT positive in a further 5 months, which they achieved in 2025, by executing on my plan to the letter.
Skills: Operations, Growth, Sales, Business Development
Additional skills: Leadership, Analysis, Financial Modelling, Customer Segmentation, Operating Model Design, Process Improvement, Change Management, Program Management, Project Management, Workforce Planning, CRM Technology
Works with: Established business, Scaleup, Series B+
Companies I've worked with
- Catholic Care Diocese of Broken Bay
- Retinue Accounting
- belong2 Group
- Employsure
Industries: Non-Profit, Services, Human Services, Professional Services, Legal Services