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About Kym

Kym Illman is an Australian entrepreneur, F1 Photographer, YouTuber, Journalist

Born in Adelaide

Kym is the son of a former state cricketer and a small business owner. Kym credits his parents with instilling in him the qualities of persistence, intensity and curiosity. This and his passion for finding the often overlooked opportunity have helped him develop into the trailblazing entrepreneur he is today.

Early Years

In his early years Kym travelled around Australia with roles as a mobile DJ, radio announcer in Darwin and audio engineer at Channel Nine. In 1988 he struck out on his own and founded audio advertising company Messages On Hold.

Messages On Hold

Kym’s dedication to customer service and his famous ambush marketing tactics turned Messages On Hold into an international success. With offices in Australia and Singapore it now services clients in 18 countries.

In 2014 Kym released his book The Future IS Customer Service.

www.messagesonhold.com.au

Canity

In 2015, drawing from his decades of customer service experience, Kym founded Canity, an online customer service training platform. Kym channelled his knowledge into engaging, animated micro-learning videos, to provide time-poor business owners with a flexible, affordable way to train their staff.

Today Kym divides his time between his position as Managing Director of The Message Group and his many passions, in particular photography.

Africa On Safari

In 2015 Kym and his wife Tonya released African wildlife photography book, Africa On Safari; a German-language edition was later published by National Geographic.

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Kym Rally Driver

In 2005, Kym merged his passion for marketing with his love of motorsports when he competed in and won the Targa West rally in the modern challenge category.

He went on to compete or register his Mitsubishi EVO 9 in several rally and racing events over the years, including the Bathurst 12 hour and the world renowned & difficult Targa Tasmania.

F1 Photographer

2017 Beginning

In 2017, Kym turned his attention to Formula 1 photography after attending the final race of 2016 as a Red Bull Racing corporate guest. He applied for FIA media accreditation explaining he would take a different approach to covering the sport, focusing more on the people than the racing. The FIA obviously liked what they heard as they approved his accreditation and Kym quickly fell in love with the sport.

Social Media

Kym’s innovative approach of focusing on the goings-on behind the scenes and posting images and stories minutes after he had shot them, has seen his social media audience boom.

Kym is a prolific full-time F1 content creator. He posts long form content to his YouTube channel, live photos and updates from the track to his Instagram page and short F1 insights on his Tiktok page. Boasting more than 650,000 followers across these 3 channels, it’s safe to say Kym has made a name for himself within the sport.

Kym’s images are available for personal and editorial use at www.prostarpics.com.

To purchase any of Kym's prints, wall art, photo books and merchandise visit Kym’s store.

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