Allan Myers

Last updated

Allan Myers
AC , KC
Born (1947-10-17) 17 October 1947 (age 76)
Hamilton, Victoria, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Alma mater
Occupation(s)Lawyer, academic, landowner, businessman, philanthropist
Spouse Maria Myers AC
Children3
Parent(s)John and Betty Myers
Awards

Allan James Myers AC , KC (born 17 October 1947) is an Australian barrister, academic, businessman, landowner and philanthropist, and the previous Chancellor of the University of Melbourne. [1]

Contents

Biography

Early life

Allan Myers was born in 1947 in Hamilton, Victoria. [2] [3] [4] He was raised in Dunkeld, Victoria, where his father, John Norman Myers, worked as a butcher following his service as a stoker in the Royal Australian Navy Reserve during World War II. [2] [3] [4] He has five siblings. [3] He graduated from the University of Melbourne, where he received a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws, and resided at Newman College. [5] He was editor of the Melbourne University Law Review from 1967 to 1969. He received the Supreme Court Prize in 1969. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford. [5] [2]

He became a lawyer in 1971. [2] He taught as a tutor at the Melbourne Law School. He later taught at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in Toronto, Canada, from 1972 to 1974. [2] [3] He returned to the University of Melbourne in 1974, where he taught Security Law and Taxation Law from 1974 to 1988. He served as Assistant Editor of the Australian Taxation Law Review. [2]

He was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1975 and took Silk in 1986. [2] [5] He serves on the advisory council of the Oxford University Law Foundation. [2] He has represented George Pell, Kerry Stokes, Lloyd Williams, Alan Bond, John Elliott, Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart as well as Citibank and BHP. [6] [3] [4]

Business career

He sits on the board of directors of Grupa Żywiec, a Polish brewery in which he is now a small shareholder, alongside investor John Higgins. [3] [4] He serves on the board of directors of Norinvest Holding, a Swiss financial corporation, [4] and owns the Royal Mail Hotel, a restaurant in Dunkeld, and the Dunkeld Pastoral Company, as well as 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) around Dunkeld. [3] [4] He also owns land in the Kimberley and the Tipperary Station near Adelaide River in the Northern Territory, which he purchased from businessman Warren Anderson. [4]

Personal life

Allen Myers is married to Maria Myers AC , [7] [8] and they live in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton. [3] They have two daughters, Clare and Cecilia, and one son, John. [4] Myers is a Roman Catholic and a member of the Order of Malta. [4]

Net worth

Year Financial Review
Rich List 		Forbes
Australia's 50 Richest
Rank Net worth (A$)Rank Net worth (US$)
2014 [8] $700 million
2015
2016
2017 [9] [10] $682 million
2018 [11] 102Increase2.svg$749 million Increase2.svg
2019 [12] 123Decrease2.svg$771 million Increase2.svg
2020 [13] 127Decrease2.svg$791 million Increase2.svg
2021 [14] 131Decrease2.svg$834 million Increase2.svg
2022151Decrease2.svg$883 million Increase2.svg
2023 [15] 166Decrease2.svg$844 million Decrease2.svg
Legend
Icon Description
Steady2.svgHas not changed from the previous year
Increase2.svgHas increased from the previous year
Decrease2.svgHas decreased from the previous year

Philanthropy

He is a former president of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), to which he has made significant contributions. [8] In 2013, he donated A$10 million to his alma mater, the University of Melbourne. [5] Additionally, he served as chairman of its BELIEVE fundraising campaign. [5] He has served on the Boards of Trustees of the Alfred Felton Bequest, the Catholic Education Commission, the Monivae College Foundation, the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, the Ian Potter Foundation, and the Newman College Foundation. [2] [5] He has also donated to the University of Oxford. [5]

He helped found the Grattan Institute, a non-partisan public policy think tank, and serves as its chairman. [2] He was a member of Liberty Victoria, formerly known as the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties. [2]

Myers endowed the Allan Myers Oxford University Scholarships, enabling students at the University of Melbourne to attend the University of Oxford. [16] He received an Honorary Doctor of the University from the Australian Catholic University and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from his alma mater, the University of Melbourne. [1] [5]

Myers served as Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, from 2017 to December 2022. [17] [18] He and Maria Myers are two of the donors to the trust that funds the Peter Steele Poetry Award, a scholarship available to PhD students in the Faculty of Arts at the university. [19] [20]

Honours

Myers was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001 for his philanthropic and business achievements. [21] In 2016 he was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia for "eminent service to the community through philanthropic leadership in support of major visual arts, higher education, medical research and not-for-profit organisations, to the law, and to professional learning programs". [22] His wife, Maria, was appointed a Companion on the same day. [7]

Related Research Articles

Lindsay Edward Fox is an Australian businessman. In 1956, Fox founded the Australian logistics company Linfox, where as of 2015 he serves as non-executive chairman.

Paul Alexander Little is an Australian businessman and philanthropist. Little served as the managing director of Toll Holdings, an Australasian integrated logistics provider from 1985 until 2011 and retired from that position after 26 years service.

Jack Cowin is a Canadian-Australian businessman and entrepreneur with a long-term involvement in franchised fast food chains in Australia and Canada. Cowin brought KFC to Australia, founded and owns Hungry Jack's, which is the Burger King franchise in Australia, and has at various stages controlled the Domino's Pizza franchise in Australia prior to its 2005 listing on the ASX.

Lloyd J. Williams is an Australian property developer and businessperson, with significant interests in thoroughbred horse racing. He holds the record as a thoroughbred owner to have won the Melbourne Cup on the most occasions, his most recent in 2020 with Twilight Payment.

John Gandel is an Australian businessman, property developer and philanthropist. He made his fortune in the development of commercial real estate as well as shopping centres located in Melbourne, Victoria.

Robert Dobson Millner is an Australian corporate executive. He is the chairman of Washington H. Soul Pattinson, Australia's second oldest publicly-listed corporation, and the chairman of New Hope Coal, Brickworks Limited, Choiseul Investments and NBN Television.

Alex Waislitz OAM is an Australian investor.

David Hains was an Australian businessman, engineer, and horse breeder. He was the founder and once CEO of Portland House Group, Australia’s largest private investments management firm and hedge fund. According to Forbes, Hains had at the time of his death a personal net-worth of around $2 billion, making him one of Australia’s richest person.

Lloyd Stanley Perron was an Australian businessman and philanthropist.

Chris Wallin is an Australian geologist and businessman. He is the Managing Director of QCoal Group and Chairman of the QCoal Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shesh Ghale</span> Australian Billionaire

Dr Shesh Ghale is a Nepali Australian businessman, billionaire and the former president of Non Resident Nepali Association (NRNA). Based in Melbourne, Victoria, Ghale is the CEO of Melbourne Institute of Technology (MIT), which he co-founded with his wife, Jamuna Gurung.

Maurice Alter is an Australian billionaire property developer.

Manny Stul is an Australian billionaire, and the CEO of Moose Toys, a company he took over in 2000, with sales subsequently increased by over 7,000%.

Jamuna Gurung is an Australian businesswomen of Nepalese origin, and is executive director and managing director of the Melbourne Institute of Technology, in Victoria, Australia, which she co-founded with her husband, Shesh Ghale.

Salvatore "Sam" Tarascio is an Italian-born Australian billionaire businessman. Tarascio owns a portfolio of commercial and industrial real estate across Melbourne, including a business park, two distribution sites, a large shopping mall and a market. In 1972 Tarascio founded Salta Properties, a privately owned company, after buying swampland and constructing a warehouse for Hoechst. Prior to entering the property market, Tarascio worked in pharmaceutical sales.

Naomi Milgrom is an Australian billionaire businesswoman and philanthropist. Her private company ARJ Group Holdings owns women's clothing retailers Sportsgirl, Sussan and Suzanne Grae.

Leonard Hasting "Len" Ainsworth is an Australian businessman, most widely known for founding Aristocrat Leisure, one of the world's largest gambling-machine companies. He founded the company in 1953, and remained active until 1994; and later founded Ainsworth Gaming Technology, and was an executive director until 2019.

Gretel Lees Packer is an Australian billionaire investor and philanthropist.

Judith Neilson is an Australian businesswoman and philanthropist with a passion for visual arts. Neilson is the co-founder of the White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney. She is a significant shareholder in Platinum Asset Management, a company co-founded by her former husband, Kerr Neilson.

Marcus Besen was a Romanian-born Australian businessman, philanthropist, and Holocaust survivor. He was the managing director of fashion retailer Sussan from 1951 to 1980, and he was involved in various philanthropic activities. In 2015, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia.

References

  1. 1 2 "Chancellor: Mr Allan J Myers AC QC". About us: Leadership. University of Melbourne . Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Allan Myers citation: Honorary Doctor of Laws" (PDF). University of Melbourne. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 April 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2014.[ dead link ]
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "From wig and gown to Driza-Bone, this is Allantown". The Age'. 10 September 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Kitney, Damon (16 April 2011). "Allan Myers: a vintage case of wine, religion and the law". The Australian .
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "BELIEVE campaign". University of Melbourne. Archived from the original on 2 July 2014. Retrieved 3 December 2014.[ dead link ]
  6. ↑ "Melbourne University Press was losing $1.25m a year". Australian Financial Review . 31 January 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  7. 1 2 "Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) entry for Mrs Maria Josephine MYERS". Australian Honours Database. Canberra, Australia: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 26 January 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2020. For eminent service to the community through philanthropic leadership in support of major visual and performing arts, cultural, education, and not-for-profit organisations, and to the advancement of the understanding of Indigenous rock art.
  8. 1 2 3 Strickland, Katrina (July 2014). "Giving It Away: Allan Myers". Australian Financial Review Magazine: The Wealth Issue. p. 32.
  9. ↑ Stensholt, John, ed. (25 May 2017). "Financial Review Rich List 2017". Australian Financial Review . Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  10. ↑ Mayne, Stephen (26 May 2017). "Mayne's take: The top 25 Australian billionaires, as claimed by Fairfax". Crikey . Private Media. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  11. ↑ Stensholt, John, ed. (25 May 2018). "2018 AFR Rich List: Who are Australia's richest people?". Australian Financial Review . Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  12. ↑ Bailey, Michael (30 May 2019). "Australia's 200 richest people revealed". The Australian Financial Review. Nine Publishing. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  13. ↑ Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (30 October 2020). "The full list: Australia's wealthiest 200 revealed" . Australian Financial Review . Nine Publishing. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  14. ↑ Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (27 May 2021). "The 200 richest people in Australia revealed". Australian Financial Review . Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  15. ↑ Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (26 May 2023). "The 200 richest people in Australia revealed". Australian Financial Review . Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  16. ↑ "Allan Myers Oxford University scholarships". Faculty of Law. University of Melbourne. n.d. Archived from the original on 30 June 2014. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  17. ↑ "University of Melbourne appoints next Chancellor". The Melbourne Newsroom. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  18. ↑ Fraser, Thomas (12 December 2022). "University of Melbourne appoints new Chancellor". Newsroom. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  19. ↑ "Peter Steele Poetry Award". Scholarships. 8 May 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  20. ↑ "University of Melbourne launches Peter Steele poetry fund". Jesuits Australia. 29 January 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  21. ↑ "Centenary Medal entry for Mr Allan James MYERS". Australian Honours Database. Canberra, Australia: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 1 January 2001. Retrieved 14 November 2020. For service to philanthropy and business
  22. ↑ "Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) entry for Mr Allan James MYERS". Australian Honours Database. Canberra, Australia: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 26 January 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2020. For eminent service to the community through philanthropic leadership in support of major visual arts, higher education, medical research and not-for-profit organisations, to the law, and to professional learning programs.
Academic offices
Preceded by Chancellor of the University of Melbourne
2017–2022		Succeeded by
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.