Sarah Thom

Sarah is Chief Financial Officer of Cochlear Limited, a global leader in implantable hearing solutions, developing and manufacturing electronic hearing devices to deliver on a mission to help more people hear and be heard. In this role, Sarah is the architect of the overall financial strategy for Cochlear to deliver on its mission and goals, and serves as the company’s financial steward. She also leads key initiatives to support the organisation’s strategic objectives, and has accountability for group risk and government affairs. Prior to Cochlear, Sarah was a Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), co-lead of BCG’s health care business in Australia and New Zealand, and Executive Sponsor for BCG’s local Women@BCG program. In her decade+ with BCG, she advised clients including health care payers and providers, biomed and medtech businesses, State and Commonwealth government agencies, energy businesses, infrastructure developers and operators, major resource companies, and financial services businesses. She has deep experience defining and delivering large-scale reform and innovation across complex organisations and ecosystems. Sarah has particular expertise in strategy development, strategic program design and delivery, digital transformation, major transactions and investment decisions, and operating model and org design. Sarah holds a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Chicago, and a B.S. in physics from the University of Michigan. Prior to joining BCG, she was a research scientist awarded a US National Science Foundation Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California supporting her work on cosmology and galaxy evolution.