WiseTech’s Head of International Logistics Product Portfolio, Angela Gadaev, has been named the winner of the prestigious Australian Financial Review Women in Leadership Award for the Tech and Telco category.
The awards highlight the work and achievements of those women poised to enter the upper echelons of Australia’s corporate decision makers. This year more than 1,000 women entered the program, the highest number of entries the Australian Financial Review has received for an award.
The judges said: “Angela’s personal story shows great determination. She has created opportunities for herself, and thrived once she has them.” Read full story (subscriber only) here.
Born in Belarus, just 100km from Chernobyl, Angela felt it was necessary to rebuild a life elsewhere and chose the furthest place she could imagine: Australia.
She loved performing arts, but opted to study her other passions, math and computer science, as they offered a path to something bigger, and helped earn points needed for Australian immigration, granted upon graduation.
Arriving with little money or English during high unemployment, she relied on her tech skills and positive determination to carve out a career. She practiced her English both on the job and on stage in theatre sports.
After short stints as a research assistant at the University of Technology Sydney, and a time at the department of housing, she worked as a network administrator at a large taxi company, and then IT manager at a shipping company where she led their transformation from a paper-based operation to a fully connected, modern infrastructure linking offices nationally. That experience gave her something rare: a deep understanding of both technology and the logistics industry, which she used to advantage.
“I decided to leverage my industry knowledge gained as a tech expert in a logistics company and pivot to be a logistics expert in a tech company. This allowed me to bring unique insights into the problems caused by the fragmented, manual and inefficient nature of the industry,” Angela explains.
“I approached WiseTech and joined in 2005 when it was just a small Australian-based freight forwarding software company. They took a chance on me, as I did on them. I was WiseTech’s first product manager and am proud to have co-authored the solution now known as CargoWise – the leading platform for the logistics industry, globally,” she adds.
Now, more than three decades later, she is the head of the international logistics product portfolio at WiseTech Global; in charge of 14 teams in 13 countries, building software solutions for global logistics and trade.
As WiseTech grew rapidly, from 40 people when she joined to approximately 3,500 team members globally today, Angela says she has had to evolve her leadership style: “I had to trust and empower others, delegate effectively, and accept that mistakes are part of the learning process. But it’s about knowing where it’s safe to let people learn by doing. Importantly, I’ve learned to play to people’s strengths and build teams with complementary skills: introverts and extroverts, deep thinkers and communicators. I see myself as a jazz conductor—every instrument matters, every voice has its moment, and together we create something greater than any one of us could alone.
“I’m honored to receive this award. The tech industry offers great career opportunities, regardless of your background or gender. And using tech to solve business problems is all about being creative. I hope that my journey will inspire others to pursue their dreams in tech too,” says Angela.
John Pritchard, WiseTech's head of product and development, says he is incredibly proud of Angela winning the award: "Angela is the one of the hardest working and most dedicated people I know. She constantly strives to improve our product and identify creative ways of adding value to our customers. She is the perfect ambassador - not just for WiseTech, but also for careers in the tech industry."
- Find out more about Angela’s role at WiseTech, building a product with purpose.
- Know a high-performing Year 12 student ready to shape their career in tech? Applications are now open for our 2026 Earn & Learn program – apply now.