IT has been a big week of‘giving’ by Australian directors, with former WorleyParsons CEO John Grill giving $20 million to the University of Sydney and revelations that Rams Home Loans founder John Kinghorn has given at least $300 million to charity.
Mr Grill, the long-time CEO and major shareholder of engineering giant WorleyParsons, announced he was giving $20 million to the University of Sydney to fund a school of project management.
When he stepped down from WorleyParsons earlier this month, Mr Grill’s beneficial interest in the company was around $680 million.
Mr Kinghorn made about $650 million from the float of Rams, a mortgage originator that listed in 2007 just before being king hit by the GFC. He has created a foundation seeded with $300 million.
Neither of these examples is from Western Australia, where such activity by past or present listed company directors is less commonplace, at least in public.
There are exceptions, of course.
In 2007, Andrew Forrest made a massive $80 million donation to his charity, Leaping Joey, comprising 1 million Fortescue Metals Group shares and 115 million Poseidon Nickel options.
Through their Australian Children’s Trust, Mr Forrest and his wife, Nicola, have also backed major Aboriginal employment initiatives and they are about to embark on a new anti-slavery campaign called Walk Free.
Brettney Fogarty, the founder and one-time executive chairman of Perth-based engineering and infrastructure company GRD, raised more than $120 million when he sold out of the company in 2007 and 2008. He and his wife, Annie, have established the Fogarty Foundation, which supports a number of causes, notably education.
The foundation has created a scholarship program to fund 10 students at the University of Western Australia. It involves a joint annual investment of nearly $ 1 million by UWA and the Fogarty Foundation, which has provided scholarships and awards to more than 200 recipients in 2012.
However the foundation is not just focused on the top end of the education tree. It also funds programs to assist underprivileged children’s education, even at playgroup level.
The George Jones Family Centre is named after the Gindalbie Metals and Sundance Resources chairman, who donated $3 million towards a new home for the Ear Science Institute in Subiaco.
Jubilee Gold Mines founder Kerry Harmanis is also understood to have established a foundation and been a big donor to various causes.
Charity umbrella group Giving West was established recently to help WA business leaders better understand what philanthropy is all about and how they can redirect their wealth to worthy causes.
Apart from chairman Malcolm McCusker and his wife Tonya, and leading business people John Poynton, Stan Perron and Adrian Fini, Giving West also has a number of high-profile directors and CEOs on its board including Michael Chaney, Michael Smith, Don Voelte and David Flanagan.
Mr McCusker, who is the state’s governor, has been one of the driving forces behind promoting philanthropy, which is generally low key in WA.
• WA Business News will soon launch its Giving Well Guide to assist corporate and individual philanthropists in their endeavours.