My CEO Life

MyCEOLife is the blog of Simon Baker, until Auguast 2008, the long time CEO of the REA Group Ltd (realestate.com.au) – an Australian listed public company.

This blog discusses what it is like to be a CEO.  Its a warts and all coverage of the life and times of someone at the top of a business.  It looks at the real life problems faced by the business and discusses the various solutions that could be implemented and, most importantly, the outcomes.

You are probably wondering who is the REA Group Ltd.  The REA Group (or realestate.com.au as it is also known) is a global leader in online real estate marketing.  It owns and operates 22 real estate websites in 10 countries.  These sites are visited by 9m+ people each month and in FY 2008, the business had revenues of $155m and EBITDA of $37m.

Simon joined the business in 2001 when revenues were $4m and the business was loss making.  He was responsible for building a global business with 700 staff in 12 countries.

Since leaving, Simon has established Classified Ad Ventures, a business that focuses on the global online classifieds market. CAV provides a range of consulting services, invests in emerging online classifieds businesses and is developing a range of products and services for use by portal sites and their advertisers.