INTHEBLACK February 2023 - Magazine - Page 60
MEMBER PROFILE
A DRIVE
FOR SUCCESS
Singapore-based Joe Bisco CPA, managing director at State Street,
has a drive that serves him both on the track and in his career.
Story Katie Langmore
Joe Bisco CPA is set to run a
half marathon around the ancient
temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Even for someone who clears his
head with a run after a long day
of meetings, tackling 21 km in the
Cambodian heat is no mean feat.
Bisco’s drive to succeed on the
track and in his career have taken
him from public accountant to
business analyst and management
consultant to strategic leader, and
from Australia to Hong Kong and
now Singapore, with assignments
in Mainland China and Japan.
Bisco says he did not exactly plan
the pathway, but he has firmly been at
the wheel, advocating for himself and
each next step, as he identifies it.
“When I left school, I was not clear
what path I wanted, but I knew that
having a strong finance background is
foundational to most roles within the
business world,” he says.
Bisco did his undergraduate degree
in accounting on the Sunshine Coast
– where his British parents had moved
when he was aged 15 – and took a
postgraduate role in public accounting
60 INTHEBLACK February 2023
with Poole Group. While there,
he recognised that the accounting
industry was due for an overhaul,
with most clients and firms still using
outdated technology and manually
driven processes.
“Xero had recently launched,
and I worked closely with the firm
to become early adopters of the
platform. I partnered very closely
with our clients and the firm to
integrate the platform, positioning
myself as a specialist in the automated
technology,” says Bisco.
“I didn’t know how to use the
platform when we first launched the
concept, but it was clear that this
technology was the future of the
industry, so I wanted to align myself
to it. At the start, there was a lot of
learning and upskilling involved, but
this experience early in my career gave
me strong foundations to build on.
“Learning from experience, advising
clients and implementing technology,
my role shifted away from public
accounting to more of an advisory and
tech consulting role. That’s what led
me into management consulting.”
After two years with the firm, during
which Bisco also undertook his CPA
qualification, he moved to Deloitte
and then on to EY, doing similar work
in management consulting – helping
large global finance organisations to
optimise their systems and processes.
He worked as a management
consultant for EY for three years,
during which time the organisation
moved him to Hong Kong. From
there, Bisco was offered a role with
State Street, a global provider of
financial services to institutional
investors, where he is now managing
director, head of strategy and
business management for the
Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
He describes his current role as split
into two responsibilities – corporate
strategy and business management.
“Essentially, I work directly for the
APAC CEO, and my role is to support
him in those two areas to grow the
business in the region,” he explains.
“My team partners closely with our
country and business heads to drive
our strategy and execute on highprofile strategic initiatives.”
