Find Out More About Harry Notaras

Harry's Biography

About Me, Harry The Early Years

Hi, I’m Harry Notaras and welcome to my site.

I was born in the City of Townsville to immigrant parents from the island of Kythira in Greece. As all parents do, the example of the life they lived had a big impact on me.

The tradition of people who are raised in villages where everyone is known to everyone else and where surnames are often shared throughout the village is to give individuals what Greeks call a ‘Paratsoukli’. I have probably misspelt this word but it is a bit like a nick name.

As my father left the island of Kythira when he was still a relatively young man he did not receive a nick name. I have often thought that the name that would have suited him well would be ‘Axios’. This is a fabulous Greek word that is full of power.

Its meaning is a mix of ‘capable’ and ‘worthwhile’. He carved out a life in this great country of ours where he was able to put his prodigious work ethic and nimbleness of mind to great use. I am grateful for the example he has set for me.

To watch him work with his hands whether it was in the kitchens of some of the businesses he owned or as a handyman which he raised to an art form later in life was to watch a master at work.

My mother came to Australia when she was a young girl. She reached third grade in Kythira and started work when she arrived in Australia without the benefit of further education.

Despite this she is able to speak in English and Greek without the hint of an accent in either language. She can correspond in both languages and reads two forms of Greek.

She also has great delight in reciting poems that she learned before she came to Australia over 70 years ago. I always have great delight in listening to them.

I was the first born of the new generation they bought to Australia. I am grateful for the influence that the Greek Culture driven by its Orthodoxy and the Australian way of life with its provision of abundant opportunity has provided me and continues to provide the next generation of which I am lucky enough to be a father.

My Path to Tertiary Education

The path I chose through life had a different tone about it than the ones chosen by my extended family. Particularly, my male cousins.

Whereas they all started there working life via apprenticeships as mechanics. My route was to go to university and take on tertiary study. I had chosen geology but at the last minute my father and an uncle stepped in and blocked this. There was no way they wanted me to live in the bush.

I sometimes wonder how life would have been different if I had been able to stick to that career path.

Instead, I had to make a snap decision as to what degree to enrol in. Someone suggested accounting and at that point I was able to put my foot down and insist that I would not be studying accounting. I came up with economics. A field I thought of as related although I had no clue about it.

When I attended my first lecture I was an hour into it and wondering when the waffle would stop and they would start talking about supply and demand when it suddenly hit me that they were talking about economics. Economics turned out to be a very broad field and one of the loves of my life.

Learning economics at James Cook University of North Queensland enabled me to meet others for whom economics would become eventually lead to fabulous reputations and careers in government, industry and academia.

I came into contact with people who would be mentors and examples for the remainder of my life. The passing of some of them as years have rolled by were nearly like losing family members.

What I cannot overstate is how some of the most casual and offhand remarks that they made about me in the course of my work, study or simply during conversations were so uplifting as to make me aspire do better. This is the impact that having good people around you has.

They encouraged me to keep working on my craft as an economist and eventually led me to pursue study at the University of Cambridge.

I studied there for one year. I should pursued the option to do three. That is another moment in my life, a bit like geology, where I think ‘what if’. Nevertheless, it was a fabulous year.

Among other things, Cambridge was where I learned about the art of essay writing. While I don’t claim to be at it, I understand its importance in being able to frame an argument and make a logical point. It turned me into that most unpopular of things. A rationalist.

It was at this around this period in my life that I worked for Government.

I did a short stint at the Federal Treasury when Paul Keating was the treasurer. I once saw him walk from the old parliament building to the offices of the Department of the Treasury. He was Dapper.

I left the Department of the Treasury when my mentor from the Economics Department at the James Cook University asked me to join a research project he had begun for the Queensland Treasury. This involved macro-econometric modelling of the Queensland Economy so they could use it to make planning and forecasting.

It was after Cambridge that life came closing in. What was I going to do when I get back to Australia. As is often the case, the path of least resistance was the one I fell into. I became a lecturer at the James Cook University of North Queensland.

I eventually made the decision that this is not what I wanted to be and that led to the path I took leading up to now.

Looking into the Future

My desire was to operate in the private sector. The trick was how do you do this when you are an economist and want to move away from government and academic institutions.

You can’t just put up a shingle like an accountant could and start work.

I entered the field of financial planning. Eventually, operating my own small business when I moved to Brisbane with my family in 1997.

There were many things I learned during this period of my life which ended rather abruptly in 2009.

One of the most important is to look at issues from a client perspective rather than a policy perspective. It was challenging and enjoyable at the same time.

This led to the next phase of my professional life which has been business broking. You can find out more about this by visiting my website which is dedicated to matters relating to business broking and business valuation.

That is even more challenging although similarly rewarding. It is something I still do.

An important aspect of the business broking is the Business Valuation work that it has led to. It is one of the benefits of having been a financial planner in that it has made it sensible to look at businesses like another asset that needs to be valued in order to allow an owner to make sensible strategic decisions about it.

The combination of all of these journeys through life is what has inspired me to write about economics in the way that I do.

It is open ended. I write about what I want. I intend it to be able to offer something tangible and useful as it progresses. Hopefully, it helps people and it is something that will take me and others on a journey to better things.

Qualifications

Master of Philosophy (Finance)

Period of Attendance – Graduated 1988

Level Achieved – An MPhil sits somewhere between other Masters Qualifications and more advanced postgraduate research training.

Description – A programme combining advanced study designed for students who wish to extend their knowledge of finance or financial engineering.