Building a franchising empire, family business and cultural diversity

Sara Pantaleo is a businesswoman who has always loved working and mentoring people.

Migrating to Melbourne from Italy with her family as a teenager, Sara went on to work with mainframe systems in IT operations at NAB. In 1996 she joined La Porchetta as Distribution and Administration Manager – taking a major shift from the corporate environment into family business. Appointed as CEO in 2005 and to the board in 2010, after her brother was tragically killed in a road accident, Sara was instrumental in driving La Porchetta’s growth to become the largest, licensed, a-la-carte restaurant franchise in Australasia.

Her passion for franchising as a business model has been reflected in service on the boards of the Franchise Council of Australia and Family Business Australia - the peak body for a sector that accounts for almost half a million businesses and 50% of the Australian workforce.

Sara is an inaugural member of WOB’s Cultural Diversity Committee and in this podcast she talks to Claire about growing up in Italy, making the move from the corporate world into running a hugely-successful family business and dealing with systemic gender and cultural discrimination along the way.

Find out more

Sara Pantelao

Claire Braund (host)

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