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Tim Thomas: Inaugural CEO, Centre for Australia-India Relations
Overview
Published 3rd September, 2025.
Tim Thomas is the recent CEO of the Centre for Australia-India Relations, the federal body set up by the Australian Government to deepen ties between the two nations across business, technology, education, sport, and culture. With a career spanning senior roles at AXA, Prudential, and KPMG, and lived experience building businesses across India, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia, he brings a unique cross-sector and cross-cultural global perspective.
It’s time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy.
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Hosted by Vidit Agarwal, Founder of Curiosity Center and The High Flyers Podcast.
It’s now time to explore your curiosity.
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Tim Thomas opens up in this rare, in-depth conversation:
▪️ Childhood in Melbourne as the son of Indian migrants, faith and identity shaped in Thomastown
▪️ Early career in law and finance before moving into insurance and strategy roles across Asia
▪️ Built AXA’s businesses in India from scratch, navigating culture, chaos, and opportunity
▪️ Senior leadership in Singapore and Malaysia, balancing corporate growth with family life abroad
▪️ Returned to Australia with KPMG, leading global strategy and expanding India-focused work
▪️ Appointed inaugural CEO of the Centre for Australia–India Relations in 2023, shaping its early vision and impact
▪️ Now launching new ventures — SAGE growth equity fund, Australia Essence with Steve Waugh, Futures Advisory, and Her Village Foundation with his daughter
This is a different side of Tim you may not have heard before.
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About us
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Product at Google), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Stevie Case (Chief Revenue Officer, Vanta), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Jean-Michel Lemieux (CTO, Shopify + Atlassian), Sweta Mehra (EGM, NAB; ex CMO, ANZ), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Sam Sicilia (Chief Investment Officer, Hostplus), Craig Tiley (CEO, Tennis Australia), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Niki Scevak (Co-Founder, Blackbird Ventures), Mike Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Peter Varghese (Secretary/Chief, Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Matteo Franceschetti (CEO, Eight Sleep) and more.
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