Tim and Miles Cederman-Haysom, 1997 Old Boys and identical twins, are building formidable careers in the tech world. Until recently, the pair worked together at the world's leading survey platform SurveyMonkey, based at the home of high-tech corporations and startups, Silicon Valley in San Francisco.
Their success can be traced back to their time at BGS, where both said the School prepared them well for life after graduation. "Going to BGS had a huge impact on my life," Miles said. "One thing that stands out to me now is how well I got along with and got support from the teachers, they were genuinely concerned with how students did and ensured they got all the help they needed. BGS completely changed how I approached learning and study and helped me develop routines and techniques that I still use today when learning something new."
Tim remembers his time at BGS as a transformative period in his life. "The support of the teachers really helped in that time, but most of all I felt BGS prepared me for life after school in both the academic rigor it instilled in me ahead of university and also the network I made there."
While they have many similarities, including a strong competitive drive, they bring different skills to their jobs. Miles recently moved from being a software engineer who helped build the SurveyMonkey platform, to now heading up engineering efforts in Portland. Tim has worked at a variety of tech companies, including SurveyMonkey and TripAdvisor. He recently started his own company, Paperflip, which is still in its early stages.
Tim said he was drawn to Silicon Valley because it was exciting to be a part of the rapid changes in both mobile and web development. "Almost every company today needs to be a software company in some form to do business more effectively and efficiently and the ones that leverage technology are by far the most successful," he said. "I'm most excited by the continuing democratisation of technology. I look forward to seeing more startups coming out of Brisbane, hopefully from BGS Old Boys in particular, in the near future."
Miles said it was incredible following firsthand the start of many global companies and remembers catching his first Uber five years ago. "It's exciting to be a part of and fascinating to see how anyone can make a difference," he said. "There is a large startup community in Australia and many BGS Old Boys over here, with huge opportunities to be part of the revolution that is happening right now."
(Photo caption, verbatim: "Left to right: Miles' wife Emilie with their daughter Genevieve, Tim's wife Trudy and their son Henry, Miles with his daughter Liza, Tim with his son James.")
Source: Grammar News Winter 2017. Read the original edition