Tony Wheeler

Last updated

Tony Wheeler Tony Wheeler.jpg
Tony Wheeler

Tony Wheeler AO (born 20 December 1946) [1] is an English-born Australian publishing entrepreneur, businessman and travel writer, co-founder of the Lonely Planet guidebook company with his wife, Maureen Wheeler.

Contents

Wheeler was born in England. His father worked for the British Overseas Airways Corporation as an airport manager, so he grew up in Pakistan, the Bahamas, Canada, the United States and England, never spending as much as two years in the same school. [2]

Wheeler holds an engineering degree from Warwick University and an MBA from London Business School. [3] He was an engineer at the Chrysler corporation.

After travelling across Europe with Maureen Wheeler, they arrived in Melbourne in 1972 and put out their first book, Across Asia on the Cheap in 1973. [4] This would grow into the Lonely Planet empire, a name derived from a misheard Joe Cocker song (the lyric was, in fact, "lovely planet"). [2] They married and had two children, Tashi and Kieran. [2]

In 1980, the publication of a guidebook to India effectively doubled the size of the company. [5]

BBC Worldwide bought 75 percent of their share of the company in 2007 and their remaining 25 percent in February 2011, [6] bringing the couple's net worth to $190 million.[ citation needed ]

His books since Lonely Planet include Bad Lands and Unlikely Destinations. [4]

In the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours List, Tony and Maureen Wheeler were both appointed as Officers of the Order of Australia (AO), each for "distinguished service to business and commerce as a publisher of travel guides, and as a benefactor to a range of Australian arts and aid organisations". [7] When interviewed on ABC TV One Plus One on 20 June 2019 Wheeler said he has a home in England and Melbourne. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lonely Planet</span> Publisher of travel guidebooks

Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Martin (comedian)</span> New Zealand comedian and writer

Anthony Francis Martin is a New Zealand comedian, writer and actor, who has had a successful TV, radio, stand-up and film career in Australia.

Antony John Green is an Australian psephologist and commentator. He is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's chief election analyst.

News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp.

Zygmunt Edward "Ziggy" Switkowski,, is a Polish Australian business executive and nuclear physicist. His most public role was as the chief executive officer of Australia's largest telecommunications company Telstra from 1999 to 2004. During his tenure, he oversaw the privatisation of the then government-owned corporation through a series of public tranche sales. Later positions were chairman of both NBN Co and Suncorp, a director of Healthscope, Oil Search and Tabcorp and the Chancellor of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Athol Guy</span> Australian musician and politician

Athol George Guy is an Australian musician and former politician who was a member of the Australian folk-pop music group the Seekers, for whom he played double bass and sang. He is recognisable by his black-framed "Buddy Holly" style glasses and, during live performances, often acted as the group's compère.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Potger</span> Australian singer, songwriter, and musician

Keith Leon Potger is an Australian musician. He is a founding member of the Australian folk-pop group the Seekers. He was born in Ceylon and is of Burgher descent. In 1969, Potger and his business partner David Joseph co-founded the contemporary English pop group the New Seekers. Potger also records and performs as a solo artist.

Ahmed Fahour is a Lebanese Australian businessman. He is the managing director (MD) and CEO of Latitude Financial Services, and was formerly MD and CEO of Australia Post, and CEO Australia of the National Australia Bank (NAB).

Michael Francis Lynch is an Australian arts administrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon McKeon</span> Australian lawyer, businessman, philanthropist, and sportsman

Simon Vincent McKeon is an Australian lawyer, businessman, philanthropist, and sportsman. He has been chancellor of Monash University, and non-executive director of Rio Tinto, Spotless Group, and National Australia Bank. He is retained by Macquarie Bank Melbourne as a consultant and is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD). On 25 January 2011 he was named the 2011 Australian of the Year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Bishop</span> Australian virologist (1933–2022)

Ruth Frances Bishop was an Australian virologist, who was a leading member of the team that discovered the human rotavirus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maureen Wheeler</span> Northern Irish-Australian publishing entrepreneur

Maureen Wheeler is a Northern Irish and Australian businesswoman, who co-founded the travel publisher Lonely Planet with her husband, Tony Wheeler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wheeler Centre</span> Australian literary, publishing centre founded 2010

The Wheeler Centre, originally Centre of Books, Writing and Ideas, is a literary and publishing centre founded as part of Melbourne's bid to be a Unesco Creative City of Literature, which designation it earned in 2008. It is named after its patrons, Tony and Maureen Wheeler, founders of the Lonely Planet travel guides.

Ronald Brown Manners, is an Australian businessman. He is the founder and formerly the chairman of Croesus Mining, at one point Australia's third largest gold producer. He is currently the executive chairman of Mannwest Group and founder and chairman of the Mannkal Economic Education Foundation, an Australian free-market think tank. Manners was one of the founders of the Workers Party, subsequently known as the Progress Party, and is a co-founder of ANDEV, a lobby group chaired by co-founder Gina Rinehart. Manners' contribution to the mining industry earned him induction into the Australian Mining Hall of Fame in 2011. Manners was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the 2020 Australia Day Honours for "distinguished service to the minerals and mining sectors, and to youth through philanthropic support for educational initiatives," and in 2021 was nominated for the 2021 WA Senior Australian of the Year Award.

Aspiring Adventures is a small-group adventure travel company with operations in South America, New Zealand, Australia, Myanmar and Vanuatu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Cameron</span> New Zealand-Australian businesswoman

Jan Cameron is a New Zealand-Australian businesswoman and formerly Australia's fourth-richest woman. She made her fortune as the founder of the Kathmandu clothing and outdoor equipment company. She currently lives in Bicheno, Tasmania. She runs various companies and business interests, which together span Britain, New Zealand and Australia. She is a philanthropist and supporter of animal welfare.

Norman Ross Adler is an Australian business executive, was the managing director of Santos Limited from 1986 to 2000. He also chaired the board of Austrade (2001–2006).

Text Publishing is an independent Australian publisher of fiction and non-fiction, based in Melbourne, Victoria.

Ian Ross Harper AO FASSA FAICD is an Australian economist, economics professor and current dean of the Melbourne Business School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoff Crowther</span> British travel writer (1944–2021)

Geoff Crowther was a British travel writer who wrote for BIT and Lonely Planet.

References

  1. ↑ "Happy Birthday Tony Wheeler, 65". The Times . 20 December 2011. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 Friend, Tad (18 April 2005). "The Parachute Artist". The New Yorker .
  3. ↑ "Story". Lonelyplanet.com. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  4. 1 2 Potts, Mary Anne. "Lonely at the Top: Maureen and Tony Wheeler". National Geographic . Archived from the original on 26 April 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  5. ↑ Khoo, Valerie (6 April 2011). "Turn Your Business into a Global Empire – Advice from Lonely Planet's Tony Wheeler". The Sydney Morning Herald .
  6. ↑ Sweney, Mark (18 February 2011). "BBC to buy out Lonely Planet". The Guardian .
  7. ↑ "The Queen's Birthday 2014 Honours List" (PDF). Gg.gov.au. 8 June 2014. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  8. ↑ One Plus One: Tony Wheeler, abc.net.au. 20 June 2019. Retrieved 19 September 2021.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.