Barry Plant has created and filled its first dedicated Head of Commercial and Finance role, moving away from the fractional finance leadership model it had relied on previously.
Akshay Sharma, who spent more than a decade at Australia Post before holding a senior finance role at AMES Australasia, stepped into the position to bring what CEO Lisa Pennell described as franchising expertise rather than real estate experience.
“We specifically went looking for someone who was highly experienced in franchising, rather than real estate, to help our business owners be more successful,” Lisa said.
Akshay is already working alongside Barry Plant’s growth team, applying a more rigorous commercial framework to evaluate prospective franchise opportunities.
The focus, he said, is on ensuring growth is deliberate rather than expansionist for its own sake.
“We’re not just focused on planting flags. We want people to join us who genuinely align with our cultural values, can deliver strong commercial outcomes and are in it with us for the long haul,” Akshay said.
“Those conversations allow us to assess whether the opportunity is the right fit for both parties. We want anyone joining the network to have a clear understanding of the level of investment involved and the time required to build a sustainable, successful business.”
Lisa said the role would give the network dedicated leadership to identify growth opportunities across both the broader network and individual offices through benchmarking and closer collaboration with directors.
“Akshay brings a wealth of experience and commercial expertise, and he is going to be instrumental in the continued success and growth of the Barry Plant network,” she said.
Akshay’s career began with a full-time internship at Australia Post during his final year of university, where he completed a Bachelor of Business majoring in Accounting.
He rose from junior analyst to managing a half-billion-dollar consumer products portfolio as a finance business partner, before leading commercial project management on the modernisation of the organisation’s 30-year-old point-of-sale platform. He completed his Chartered Accounting qualification during that time.
He then moved to AMES Australasia, where a smaller organisational structure gave him closer access to the CFO and leadership team.
“In a smaller organisation, you have to wear a lot of different hats at the same time,” Akshay said. “You have the ability to influence and drive change in a way you often can’t within a very large organisation.”
Real estate was not an industry Akshay had previously considered, but after meeting Lisa and the leadership team, the fit became clear.
“I really gravitated towards the culture and leadership within the business. I don’t think that’s something you find everywhere in the real estate industry,” he said.
“Where I see the greatest opportunity is in bringing a commercial lens to the business, offering an external perspective to both the organisation and the industry, and applying a fresh set of eyes from outside the real estate world to add real value.”
For agents and franchise owners within the Barry Plant network, the practical implications centre on stronger commercial guidance – from more robust benchmarking of individual office performance to sharper evaluation of new franchise partnerships.
Several months into the role, Akshay said the transition had exceeded expectations, and he remains confident in the property sector’s long-term fundamentals despite broader economic uncertainty.