Michael Svagdis

Michael Svagdis has been a CEO for 21 years, leading three successful organisational transformations. Svagdis credits his success as a transformational leader to linear, long-term, big-picture thinking and passion for the details

Svagdis specialises in creating uninhibited, authentic and constructive cultures that foster personal and company-wide growth. He knows the CEO, by definition, must be the driver and facilitator of the ‘transformational conversation’. He leads from the front – creating a coherent basis for conversation through a commitment to an underlying group of principles guiding the organisation’s transformation.

Svagdis grew up in Boston Massachusetts with his parents and seven siblings. He’s worked in the food & beverage industry since he was 12 when he started at his dad’s doughnut shop.

With SSP America for more than ten years, his number one passion is for people. He likes to say, “nothing happens without people” and when people ask him what he does he says, “I’m in the people business”.

His enthusiasm for Boston sports is well known and continues to be a source of annoyance to his team members, who so often do not share his enthusiasm for the Celtics or the Patriots.