Tim Reed

“The Yarra community inspired me to see possibilities that I hadn’t considered”

Yarra Old Grammarian, Tim Reed, studied Commerce at the University of Melbourne before ‘stumbling’ upon a career with strategy consulting firms. His working life has taken him from Melbourne to Sydney, London, Silicon Valley and back home again.

Tim joined Yarra in Year 10 when his family moved to Melbourne from country Victoria. He completed his VCE years at the school and although VCE seems a long time ago now for Tim, he still feels lucky to have attended Yarra.

When he completed his degree, Tim wasn’t sure what would come next until he discovered the world of strategy consulting.

“The promise of working on different strategic projects for a range of businesses really appealed to me. I’ve listened to my gut instinct and been happy to take my own path – I’d encourage others to do likewise”.

Tim was involved with projects including the merger between Qantas and Australian Airlines and helping Fosters sell their UK pub estates. Tim went onto study an MBA at Harvard Business School and enjoyed debating decisions and gaining exposure to some of the best business minds.

From there he went to Silicon Valley, knocked on doors and joined a small start-up business. The world wide web was in its infancy and Tim spent eight years in the US. After marrying, Tim returned to Sydney in 2003 to work with MYOB, a business management software company. Tim has been CEO for the past nine years and has a team of 1,200 working across Australia and New Zealand.

“Every day I feel extremely fortunate for my life. There have been challenging times but I have support and the determination and drive to get through”.