Justin Benson

"I like being fluid, constantly learning and trying new things.”

From the age of about 10, all Justin Benson wanted to do was fly. His career goals were very clear – he wanted to be a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force.

But life has a habit of throwing a few curveballs and despite his determination and commitment – Justin even belonged to the Air Force Cadets outside of school – his career took a very different direction.

“I always wanted to be an Air Force pilot and when Top Gun came out that only cemented the idea further in my mind! When I didn’t achieve that, I was a little lost but I paused, refreshed and started again,” says Justin.

Justin joined Yarra Valley Grammar in Year 10. He was on a waiting list for a few years and so remembers feeling relieved to finally make it through the school gates.

In the classroom, his strengths were numbers and he routinely achieved good results in Maths, Physics and Chemistry. He was also keen on sports.

“I got involved in sports and very quickly came to understand that the standards in Yarra were far in excess of what I’d been used to previously at high school! I needed to step up a fair whack to be competitive,” he says.

“I was very inspired by the guys in Year 10 – by their drive to achieve and their work ethic.”

Justin left Yarra and earned a place at the University of Melbourne but two years in to his studies, he decided to pause and reset.

“I was a little lost and felt that I was at uni at that point simply because I’d got the marks to be there,” he says.

After working, travelling and having time to think about what came next, Justin went to Swinburne University and studied Business, majoring in Accounting and Business Law.

Opportunities to work with major accounting firms followed, including with KPMG and then a ten-year stint as a chartered accountant in the UK.
Justin is currently CFO for an expanding business, Next Technik. He says one of the key lessons he’s learned in his working life so far is the importance of staying open-minded to opportunities and change.

“In the UK I was a contractor which gives you more choice but nothing is secure and I realised it’s OK not to be secure all the time,” he says.

“My road has taken me in my own direction and I’ve made my own choices.”