SSE Case Studies: Miles Archibald, University of New England

Miles Archibald has literally and figuratively travelled a long way, encouraged in part by his experience at the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship.

Growing up in the town of Guyra (population less than 2,000), he’s spending the second half of 2018 at Yonsei University in Seoul and starts a graduate position at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney in 2019.

Among the first cohort of those to take The Navigator unit held at SSE in 2017, the University of New England (UNE) student says that experience set him on the path that he’s on today.

“You don’t have to be starting a new business to have an entrepreneurial way of thinking – it’s about being open-minded and adaptable in every situation you are in – and now I use that all the time.” 

At SSE, Miles enjoyed meeting like-minded students who came from all across NSW and loved meeting startup founders down alleyways as part of the Massive Ecosystem Scavenger Hunt.

When he returned to UNE, with the support of SSE’s Activator program and fellow Navigator student Rosie Dawson who was an SSE intern, Miles founded UNE’s Venture Student Society.

The majority of students at UNE learn off campus so the society, supported by the university’s SMART Region Incubator, promotes opportunities for a broad range of current and future entrepreneurs.

Now his sister Ali, also a UNE business student, has taken over as the society’s president and was inspired to join the second intake of The Navigator at SSE.

Meanwhile, Miles is expanding his horizons with a QBE Insurance internship in Hong Kong and then an exchange place for the semester at Yonsei University, with the support of a Commonwealth-funded New Colombo Plan Scholarship.

Miles hopes that once he starts his role at Commonwealth Bank next year, he’ll nurture his entrepreneurial passion and one day launch his own venture.