Q&A with Sarah Bailey: Group Executive Director and AU CEO

We’re proud to spotlight, our Group Executive Director & CEO Australia, who has been named a finalist for both Executive of the Year and Female Defence Leader of the Year at the 2025 Australian Defence Industry Awards.

1. What does this dual recognition reflect about your journey, and the evolution of PentenAmio as a business? 

These nominations are deeply meaningful — not just personally, but in what they signal about the journey the company has been on pre-merger. Over the past few years, we’ve transitioned from an ambitious Australian startup to a global force in secure communications and AI-enabled defence technologies. 
 
For me, this recognition affirms the belief that leadership is about enabling transformation. I’ve worked to scale not just systems and strategy, but also culture, purpose, and resilience. It’s incredibly rewarding to see that work acknowledged across both business impact and sector leadership. 

2. What were the key leadership principles that helped you guide two companies into one united mission? 

At the heart of the Penten-Amiosec merger was a shared commitment to purpose: protecting the most sensitive information of those who protect us. To bring our companies together across borders, I focused on clear communication, transparency, and aligning stakeholders around a long-term strategic vision. 
 
Navigating different valuation models, regulatory environments, investor expectations, and cultural differences required both precision and flexibility. Creating the conditions for integration, scale, and innovation to thrive was central to my leadership approach, and that foundation is what now defines PentenAmio. 

3. How did your ‘responsible innovation’ model evolve, and how does it impact future-focused work at PentenAmio? 

Traditional governance often focuses on minimising risk. But in a high-growth tech environment, avoiding risk can mean missing opportunity. That’s why I developed a hybrid model I call responsible innovation, one that empowers our teams to take calculated risks while maintaining the governance standards expected in national security. 
 
We’ve embedded this mindset across the business. It values intellectual capital as highly as financial capital, decentralises R&D, and supports decision-making through measures like our vitality index, which tracks revenue from new innovation. It enables us to move quickly without compromising integrity. 

4. What makes applied AI in national security so urgent and so transformative? 

AI is becoming one of the most powerful enablers in defence. It gives us the ability to act at speed, with accuracy, and to protect lives in new ways. That became real for us through TrapRadio — our AI-powered electronic decoy that creates believable radio behaviour to shield the location of friendly forces. 
 
We also expanded Training.ai, which helps cyber teams rehearse missions in highly realistic digital environments. These aren’t concepts. They’re deployed, they’re in demand, and they’re evolving. That’s what excites me: delivering real outcomes, not just potential. 

5. How did you preserve Penten’s sense of purpose while scaling ten-fold and expanding globally? 

When a company grows from a 30-person startup to approximately 300 people across two countries, it’s easy to lose what made you unique. The challenge isn’t just scale, it’s staying anchored in purpose. 
 
We invested early in systems that would support our growth — performance reporting, pricing frameworks, flexible workforce policies, governance maturity, and clear values. We also built a culture of internal literacy and people-first leadership, so growth never came at the expense of clarity or culture. As we became PentenAmio, our purpose didn’t fade. It was further solidified. 

6. Why do you think people-first policy is now a competitive advantage in the defence tech space? 

Because people are our edge. In a sector facing skills shortages and long clearance times, talent attraction and retention are critical to delivering for our customers. That’s why we’ve been deliberate about building policies that reflect the real needs of our people. 
 
This includes unlimited family violence leave, paid super on extended parental leave, school-term flexibility, and gender-balanced hiring. These are more than benefits. They’re signals about who we are and what we value, and they’ve helped position us as a top-tier employer in the industry. 

7. How has your background in psychology and finance shaped your leadership style and the conversations you’re willing to have? 

It gives me a different lens. I don’t come from a defence or engineering background like many of my peers. My grounding is in systems, behaviour, and finance, and that allows me to approach challenges from multiple angles. 
 
It’s helped me ask different questions, challenge assumptions, and lead important conversations — whether about innovation, inclusion, or strategy. That diversity of thought is what keeps organisations adaptive and forward-looking. I see it as a strength, not a departure from the norm. 

8. What advice would you give to executives raising investment in classified or regulated environments? 

Be prepared, be selective, and be clear. In our sector, raising capital isn’t just about numbers. It’s about trust. When I led our capital raise with Five V Capital, we had to demonstrate financial discipline, product clarity, and security maturity — all while respecting classified boundaries. 
 
My advice is to build the internal scaffolding first. Ensure your systems, strategies, and messaging can stand up to scrutiny. Then choose investors who align with your mission. Capital is important, but so is keeping your strategic integrity intact. 

9. What’s the one leadership challenge from 2024 that changed you the most and what did you learn from it? 

The Penten-Amiosec merger stands out. I invested more than 750 hours into the process while continuing to lead Penten as CFO and Board member. It tested my ability to lead through complexity; including dual government engagement and approval, a broad stakeholder environment and transaction structuring complexity.  This required a clear communication of direction and set of objectives, and also manage a large group of internal and external stakeholders at a significant level of transactional detail 
 
What I learned is that resilience isn’t just about staying the course. It’s about focus, trust, progress and knowing when to ask for help. It was a defining moment in my leadership — one that deepened my capability and sharpened my sense of purpose. 

10. What legacy do you hope to leave for PentenAmio and the next generation of leaders? 

I hope to leave a culture where innovation is embraced, people feel seen, and values drive decision-making. For PentenAmio, I want us to continue shaping sovereign, trusted technologies that protect lives and strengthen alliances. 
 
For future leaders, especially women entering this space, I hope to show that there’s more than one way to lead and more than one background that belongs here. If I’ve helped create more room at the table, that’s a legacy I’d be proud of.