James A. Reed (entrepreneur)
| James Reed | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
James A. Reed 12 April 1963 Woking, Surrey |
| Nationality | British and Maltese |
| Occupation | Chairman of Reed Group |
| Spouse(s) | Nicola Reed (Married) |
| Children | Six |
| Parent(s) | Sir Alec Reed, Adrianne Reed |
| Website | http://www.reed.co.uk |
James A. Reed MA MBA FCIPD (born April 1963 in Woking, Surrey) is the Chairman of the Reed group of companies, which comprises Reed Specialist Recruitment, Reed Learning, Reed in Partnership and Reed Online. He is the son of Sir Alec Reed, who founded the company in 1960.
Reed attended Scaitcliffe prep school and St Paul's. He graduated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1984 with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and subsequently gained an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where his father briefly joined him to study.
At Oxford, Reed was Political Editor of Samizdat, a magazine for political science students. At Harvard he produced a case study and video about slum improvement works in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Titled In The Shadow of The City, the case study was taught at Harvard and other Universities. Reed was also travel editor of Harbus News, the Harvard Business School's student news organisation.
Reed's first job was in a cemetery, levelling graves at a burial site in Old Windsor. In an interview with The Independent newspaper in 2000 Reed said: "I got the job because an elderly lady asked my predecessor what he was doing digging up her husband's grave. He wasn't, but flippantly he said it was because her husband hadn't been paying the rates lately - and he got fired. It was miserable, it was cold, it was horrible and hard - and I didn't last very long at it."
After graduating from Oxford in 1984, Reed sought to work for an entrepreneur. He wrote a speculative job application to Gordon and Anita Roddick of the Body Shop plc. The couple subsequently employed him as assistant to then-chairman Gordon. Reed has described his time at the Body Shop as his transition from University to the world of work. He has cited Anita Roddick as an influence, saying: "If a bottle of jojoba hand lotion wasn't displayed properly on the shelf, she'd pull you up on it. And I really liked that — that combination of real drive and enthusiasm, and getting the details right."
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