“You should join the navy, son, because you’re too dumb to do anything else,” 15-year-old Warren Reynolds was told at his high school exit interview. The principal could not have been more wrong.
Though his grades were average, Warren was highly talented and he had boundless energy. Undiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, school to him was the slow lane, whereas an exciting and challenging “real world” was outside, and awaited.
“Wok”, as he was known, would comprehensively disprove that early assessment and, through his achievements in life, give strength to the adage that it is the go-getters in business who make the world go around. By 22, he was a State sales manager. His breakthrough moment came after working in Melbourne for Wilkinson Sword. He quit following a motivational speech from legendary Richmond coach Tom Hafey, who told attendees to get out of paid work and make money for themselves.
Warren went into his own business at 26 and was on the way to making his first million. By his mid-30s, he was director and part-owner of a leading recruitment company, Morgan & Banks, and known as a highly effective headhunter serving WA’s booming company scene.
Long-time friend and solicitor Steve Pynt described Warren as the best marketing person he ever met: “Given he left school early, he had an amazing ability to read and understand finances. He had a great business mind and was very entrepreneurial, but he was streetwise, too.”
In late 1999 Warren floated a public company on the stock exchange, Recruiters Australia Ltd, before buying it back in 2001. He sold it off again in 2005 to the national group Chandler & McLeod.
Now in his 50s and free to find new challenges, he stepped out of the corporate world and into small business, buying a half share in a solitary roadside coffee kiosk called Muzz Buzz, which he built over the next decade into a popular chain of more than 60 franchised drive-through outlets.
His abilities and his will to win were not confined to the work arena. In his youth, he was a formidable boxer and basketballer. A trained musician, he made his mark on the Perth entertainment scene playing keyboard with the popular band Peaches And Cream, earning more in a night than his father made in a week.
During his frantic career years, he found time to excel also as an equestrian showjumper, a black belt martial arts exponent and a champion aerobatic pilot, owning his own aeroplanes and hangar. His life was never short of adventure — crossing the Nullarbor three times on a motorbike pushing 200km/h, disarming a knife attacker inhis West Perth office and getting caught in a shootout in South Africa.
In the 1980s, Warren teamed with aviation figure Bill Meeke to investigate and help expose John Friedrich, the conman who corrupted the National Safety Council.
Warren James Reynolds was born in Kalgoorlie on November 26, 1951, the third of four children to Eileen (nee Woods) and Albert Reynolds, a railway guard. His heritage was mainly Irish, of which he was immensely proud.
In 1956 the family moved to Bassendean, where they lived a humble, working-class life. Warren was particularly close to younger brother Neil and always had his back, rescuing Neil from many a fight and boyish strife.
Said Neil: “Warren and I often laughed there were only two types of people at CJ (Cyril Jackson High) — the tough and the dead — and Warren, in his own way, was very tough. And nothing, I mean nothing, was beyond his capabilities. He lived his life to the max!”
Like his father, Warren was very clever with his hands and could fix or make anything with unusual skill and craft, including model aeroplanes.
At 14, he joined the Air Training Corps achieving cadet officer rank and earning status as a top marksman at the Swanbourne military rifle range. Flying became his greatest love, attaining gold in 2002 as the Australasian aerobatics champion.
Warren had two daughters from a first marriage and in 2010 wed Joyce Thoroughgood, an engineering “draftie” he met on a flight to Melbourne. “After I agreed to go out with him, he picked me up on his Mean Streak motorbike and then flew us upside down in his vintage plane,” Joyce said. “How was that for a first date?”
As well as his infectious enthusiasm for life, Warren is remembered equally for his caring nature and compassion for people.
As well as his infectious enthusiasm for life, Warren is remembered equally for his caring nature and compassion for people. Stronger even than his business acumen were his people skills. He mentored constantly, helping people find direction and improvement in their lives.
He sponsored numerous charities, helped hands-on with fundraisers and donated gifts as prizes for community raffles, including joy rides in his 1946 de Havilland plane.
Warren was a poster boy for small business — passionate about letting self-starters get on with the job and to succeed, and endlessly critical of self-serving politicians and bureaucrats who got in the way.
He wanted only to win, but wanted to take everyone with him. He saw it as everyone’s right to enjoy their rewardsfor success, which he most certainly did.
Warren Reynolds passed away suddenly on June 20. He is survived by Joyce, daughters Bryony and Shauna, and six grandchildren.
Warren had a cheeky and irreverent side. He was dropped from a business school’s guest speaker list after he told students the most successful marketing organisation ever was the Catholic Church — it had sold heaven and hell for more than 2000 years without ever proving the existence of either. Being a huge Monty Python fan, at his packed funeral they sang his favourite song: Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life.
Warren James Reynolds
Businessman
Born: Kalgoorlie, 1951
Died: Perth, aged 74
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