Mark Boyes

“A number of teachers here had a profound influence on me”

Over the past 50 years Yarra has inspired students to pursue their passions and interests wherever their path takes them. Since leaving the School, Yarra Old Grammarian, Mark Boyes, has spent time at NASA whilst completing a PhD, excelled in the field of business intelligence and discovered the ancient art of blacksmithing.

He now teaches design thinking and creativity innovation at university. But while at school, Mark never considered himself to be particularly academic.

“Most lunchtimes I hung out in the gym with the weightlifting equipment because it was all about how much you could bench press in those days!” he says.

“I wasn’t great at homework, but I wasn’t bad at Maths and enjoyed Art. I never thought I was that academic but now I think I was better than I gave myself credit for.”

After graduating, Mark began his working life as a freelance photographer - another interest that he discovered at Yarra. But he then moved into the corporate world and ended up in the field of business intelligence and IT.

During his 40s, he returned to study and did a Masters degree and then a PhD that took him to NASA.

“I worked with NASA’s engineering department and their project managers to help them be more creative with their execution of projects. We were looking at how we could add more divergent thinking into a project execution to get a better outcome,” says Mark.

“I was fascinated by the Space Shuttle Program when I was at school and then I got to touch a real-life shuttle in NASA!”

Mark says this experience resonates with the School motto, Levavi Oculos that he still holds dear.

“I lifted my eyes in my later years to look beyond, to take off the blinkers and to challenge my ideas in business and in life,” he says.