Malcolm Turnbull joins MYOB’s new owner

Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has joined KKR, the investment firm that recently acquired accounting software firm MYOB.

Turnbull, 64, was announced as a new Senior Adviser to KKR on Friday.

KKR’s canned statement says it hired Turnbull as his “… significant background in the private and public sectors” means he has “unique experience and holds a distinct point of view regarding how KKR can help address the problems our changing world presents.”

Turnbull’s tech investment history may also benefit the firm: he famously scored big on early Australian ISP OzEmail, established Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) to give Australia some positive disruption and steered the NBN to a multi-technology mix.

If KKR chooses to tap Turnbull’s tech nous, it could be directed at some of its other prominent technology investments such as BMC which it acquired in 2018 and Cherwell (which announced a new partner program in April 2019). KKR helped Cylance reach the stage at which BlackBerry scooped it up for US$1.4bn in November 2018.

KKR is also behind Laser Clinics Australia’s push to expand its hair-raising business into Asia, a region KKR recently flagged as “critical”, in part because “Asia's tech-savvy millennials are driving rapid growth across a range of segments, including new retail, fin-tech and electric vehicles, among others.”