Paul Kenny

"A good school should teach you to take what you’ve learned and to appreciate the adventures that come next."

Only three days after joining Yarra, Paul Kenny found himself being carried out of the school on a stretcher, courtesy of a sudden burst appendix.

It was a memorable start to a memorable time at Yarra for Paul.

“By the time I returned to school a few weeks later, everyone had formed their friendship groups, but Yarra has always been a kind school. So, I made good friends and I also became the spokesperson for Year 7. I think that was because, as the youngest of four siblings, I knew how to fight to be heard!” says Paul.

Paul favoured arts-related subjects and was especially drawn to the world of words and writing. After graduating, he started the first year of a science degree before joining RMIT and studying journalism.

“I couldn’t wait to leave Yarra in the sense that I was confident and hopeful and looking forward to what the rest of the world had to offer. A good school should teach you to leave.”

After completing his degree, Paul went into the book publishing industry where he has remained. It has been a rewarding journey for him and his career has taken him from Australia to the UK and to Hong Kong where he is now based. He is a keen traveller and explorer of the globe.

One of his most intriguing publishing roles provided him with numerous opportunities to see the world and to visit its stranger sights.

As an adjudicator with the Guinness World Records in London, Paul found himself visiting the world’s largest bowl of soup in Saudi Arabia – it held 14,800 litres – and he counted all 9,758 people who took part in the world’s biggest group hug in a small town in the middle of Romania.

“I was on the back of a police motorcycle, riding around and counting each person who’d encircled the medieval city wall. It took a couple of hours,” he recalls.

Now working for a major book publisher and based in Hong Kong, Paul says his ideas around success have changed since he was a teenager at Yarra.
“When I graduated it was the 1980s and ‘greed was good’. While I like the idea that I might have money one day, it’s not particularly important. I think success is more to do with who you love and who you are loved by,” he says.

“I don’t know what is on the horizon and that excites me – it’s that Yarra sense of lifting up your eyes and always looking towards the next thing that comes along.”