James A. Reed (businessman)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James A. Reed is the executive chairman of the Reed group of companies.

Prior to joining Reed in 1994, James worked at the BBC where he produced documentaries and factual programmes. Before that in 1987/1988 James worked for Afghanaid and Help the Aged coordinating relief and development programmes in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. His early career included being assistant to the Chairman of the Body Shop, Gordon Roddick, and working as a media planner/buyer for Saatchi and Saatchi plc.

Reed is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and was formerly a member of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)'s business-led Taskforce on Race Equality and Diversity in the Private Sector. He has spoken at a number of CIPD conferences and seminars, and has twice been the keynote speaker at the CIPD’s annual recruitment conference. James also spoke at the Smith Institute’s launch of “Starting Them Young – Creating a Culture of Enterprise for All” at Number 11 Downing Street. Perhaps appropriately, as reed.co.uk is one of the UK's largest job sites, he spoke about how the Internet has transformed recruitment at the 6th Annual London Connects Conference on 28th June 2006.

Reed graduated from Oxford in 1984 with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and he subsequently gained an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He is married to Nicola and lives in London. He enjoys football, running, horse riding and mountaineering, and has participated in two of Reed’s annual Alpine Leadership Challenges.