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The quiet power of our female billionaires · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Friday, March twenty seven, twenty twenty six. Low paid
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: workers could be getting a pay rise. The Albaneze government
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  Speaker 1: has backed to bump of at least three point seven
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  Speaker 1: percent for workers on award wages, but business says that's
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  Speaker 1: too high. Fifty leaders of fuel per customer. That's the
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  Speaker 1: cap on petrol stations in some cities. As the fuel
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  Speaker 1: crisis spreads beyond the regions, those stories alive right now
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  Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot au.
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  Speaker 2: Our richest men.
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  Speaker 1: Are loud and proud with their opinions about government policy
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  Speaker 1: and everything else. But why when we have record numbers
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  Speaker 1: of female billionaires, aren't the women as prominent today? I'm
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  Speaker 1: joined by John Stenzelt, editor of the Australians annual the
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  Speaker 1: List Australia's Riches to fifty. Johnsy in just a moment
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  Speaker 1: to introduce some of the seriously rich ladies.
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  Speaker 2: Keeping it on the down low.
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  Speaker 1: John stenzelv is the editor of the List Australia's Riches
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  Speaker 1: to fifty and one of the people who popped out
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  Speaker 1: to me from the list this year.
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  Speaker 2: Is Georgia Kontos.
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  Speaker 1: I know about her because if you're ever caught in
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  Speaker 1: traffic in Sydney, you'll be stuck next to a bas
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  Speaker 1: with a giant billboard with two very gorgeous young ladies
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  Speaker 1: wearing skin tight outfits.
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  Speaker 2: That's where she's made her money. Who is Georgia Contos?
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  Speaker 3: Now I'm a little bit disappointed clearly you're not wearing
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  Speaker 3: your White Fox.
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  Speaker 4: Footy because that's how all the cool kids, teenagers, mostly
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  Speaker 4: teenagers I think of the world rolling these days. So yeah,
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  Speaker 4: White Foxes this incredible retail success story which has only
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  Speaker 4: really emerged in the last few years, and in fact
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  Speaker 4: they actually haven't got around to launching many financial documents
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  Speaker 4: with ASIK recently. Georgia and Daniel who's her husband, who
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  Speaker 4: own and run this company. But they've made a lot
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  Speaker 4: of money, and they've made so much money and they
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  Speaker 4: actually end up on the top taxpayers list now, which
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  Speaker 4: is while we know how successful they've been, they've made
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  Speaker 4: enough money to shell out at just just a mere
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  Speaker 4: one hundred and fifty million dollars on their for Clues
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  Speaker 4: compound in Sydney. So that's the real retail and I
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  Speaker 4: think female entrepreneurial success Story of the list this year.
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  Speaker 1: I'm just looking at the White Fox website now and
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  Speaker 1: I could see myself spending quite a lot of money
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  Speaker 1: here if I was twenty two and extremely hot. John
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  Speaker 1: There's like, you know, the Urban Drift Mini dressed gray
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  Speaker 1: stripe for seventy nine ninety five and then never Over
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  Speaker 1: Mini dress Rose Python for seventy nine to ninety five.
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  Speaker 1: They're not expensive clothes, and they're also you know, without
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  Speaker 1: putting any shade on White Fox, they're the kind of
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  Speaker 1: dresses that I see in the suburban mall shop windows.
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  Speaker 1: There's nothing particularly different or original about White Fox.
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  Speaker 2: Why is it so successful?
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  Speaker 4: They have targeted social media and getting influencers to promote
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  Speaker 4: their gear, so you know them themselves have hundreds of
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  Speaker 4: thousands of Instagram followers, so it's probably that influencer generation
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  Speaker 4: thing that we're right in the middle of. And you know,
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  Speaker 4: I'm wearing this, so here's this link to click on
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  Speaker 4: it to buy it now. So that's I think it's
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  Speaker 4: been very successful in that right. I love, love, love
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  Speaker 4: love Waite Fark hit Park Wait Fark, White Fox. I
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  Speaker 4: love White Fox, White Fox routine. I am absolutely obsessed
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  Speaker 4: the quality of this top of you guys. So it
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  Speaker 4: is capturing a moment where you're melding probably a little
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  Speaker 4: bit of AI, but particularly you know, social media with retail,
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  Speaker 4: we've been quick to market with being on trend. I
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  Speaker 4: guess the question from Mainstem they've been very successful for
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  Speaker 4: a few years, so how can they keep that going?
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  Speaker 3: And what will they do with this company? Does it
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  Speaker 3: float on the stock exchange? Sometimes?
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  Speaker 4: Do they just make their money and you know, build
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  Speaker 4: some fantastic properties in Sydney.
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  Speaker 3: They're very, very very sequative. They don't really talk to
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  Speaker 3: the media much at all.
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  Speaker 4: They claim that they got burn a few years ago
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  Speaker 4: when there's issues with the delivery of their stock and
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  Speaker 4: a few other things like that. So they're really just
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  Speaker 4: there's an element of mystery around them too. I suppose
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  Speaker 4: that does make it exciting and cool to people.
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  Speaker 1: Unlike a lot of the billionaires who you speak to
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  Speaker 1: as well, they don't seem to want to be in
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  Speaker 1: the public policy debate. Like they're not out in the
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  Speaker 1: news right now talking about the diesel shortage and what
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  Speaker 1: it's doing to their kind of supply chains.
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  Speaker 4: Are they they're not letting the charge. They're probably passing
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  Speaker 4: on that cost to the consumers. Claire, And let's see
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  Speaker 4: if the consumers keep spending, and so far it's SEMs
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  Speaker 4: that they are because you're right there, advertising is quite ubiquitous.
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  Speaker 4: If we keep saying white fox, white, fox, white fox.
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  Speaker 4: If that's going to pop up on all your on
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  Speaker 4: your phone and Google ads on your computer.
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  Speaker 3: Now, so sorry about that.
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  Speaker 2: I'll definitely be in that hoodie next time we speak.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, it's extremely successful.
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  Speaker 1: Now Australia's richest person is a woman, Gina reyan Hart,
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  Speaker 1: at forty one point sixty six billion dollars. That's how
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  Speaker 1: you valued her fortune in this year's edition of The Least.
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  Speaker 1: Who else is there right up in that top eschelon
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  Speaker 1: of Australia's billionaires, who's female.
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  Speaker 3: You've got Nikola Forest as well. You've got Melanie Perkins.
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  Speaker 4: So Melanie Perkins, who co founder of Canvas, there's a
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  Speaker 4: joint entry with her husband, Cliff Obrak. Now Cliff's actually
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  Speaker 4: the one that tends to spend more time talking to
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  Speaker 4: the media. Came out this week and talked said that
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  Speaker 4: the Canvas valuation is intact at about sixty billion dollars,
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  Speaker 4: which is pretty good for a private company. Right, but
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  Speaker 4: whereas look, I don't want to be mean to Cliff,
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  Speaker 4: but Melanie's seen as the brains, is the operation as
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  Speaker 4: the real truth sort of technology you were in there,
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  Speaker 4: and it remains to be seen what happens with Canva?
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  Speaker 4: Does that float on the stock exchange this year? Nicola Forrest,
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  Speaker 4: she's got fifty million more shares than Andrew Forrest, her
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  Speaker 4: husband that she's separated from, and he's the boss and
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  Speaker 4: founder of Fortescue. But there's a cliff separation there, so
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  Speaker 4: she's come out of with a few more shares, so
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  Speaker 4: she's worth about seventeen billion dollars. So you've got, along
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  Speaker 4: with Gina through out of the top ten females. That's
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  Speaker 4: at least something that we're saying to get moving in
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  Speaker 4: that female entrepreneurial space.
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  Speaker 1: There's a lot of widows and daughters of very wealthy
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  Speaker 1: people on this list. Of course, that is the way
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  Speaker 1: some of these very rich women have acquired their fortunes.
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  Speaker 1: And then there are entrepreneurs who've made the money themselves.
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  Speaker 1: Joe Horgan at two point one three billion dollars, the
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  Speaker 1: founder of Mecca. She's an intriguing person too, isn't she John,
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  Speaker 1: And again she's not really involved in the public conversation
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  Speaker 1: in a way that say Harry Triggerbaw for the Pratt family.
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  Speaker 4: Are very measured in whatever she says publicly, quite controlled
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  Speaker 4: in that matter. Mecha's opened up this huge story in
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  Speaker 4: Melbourne last year in Burke Street. There was a lot
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  Speaker 4: of publicity around that, but it was quite sort of
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  Speaker 4: controlled and measured publicity about what's happening there rather than the.
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  Speaker 3: Look, let's face it, there was a secretive sort of.
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  Speaker 4: Accounts that hadn't been connected to the business that were
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  Speaker 4: finally disclosed to Aseik last year that showed that the
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: Meca Empire is actually a lot bigger than what we thought.
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  Speaker 4: So it's extremely successful. So on the one hand, there
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  Speaker 4: is a public persona in that she's a mega founder.
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  Speaker 4: Mecha is extremely successful. It seems to be in every
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  Speaker 4: shopping mall and a lot of corners of prime real
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  Speaker 4: estate around But you're right, what's the real Joe Horben
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  Speaker 4: story of what's happening behind the scenes. Not a lot
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  Speaker 4: it's spoken about, so you know, still an element of
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  Speaker 4: mystery around her too.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up the Elon Musk confidante who's also one of
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  Speaker 1: the country's most powerful figures in sport.
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  Speaker 4: Who he is an absolutic.
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  Speaker 1: Neutramtics is a brand that was really famous a household
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  Speaker 1: name in Australia in the nineteen eighties.
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  Speaker 2: He's an.
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  Speaker 1: Naturally beautiful skin here, naturally beautiful cow and that was
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  Speaker 1: a brainchild of Imelda Roche and her late husband Bill.
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  Speaker 1: What happened to Neutramtics? How are they still so wealthy?
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  Speaker 3: Well, she's ends up selling it.
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  Speaker 4: It's now almost thirty years since she sold it to
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  Speaker 4: Sarah Lee and I made a lot of money out
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  Speaker 4: of it. So yeah, late sixties as I bought that
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  Speaker 4: idea to Australia, just it was incredibly successful business in
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  Speaker 4: a lot of people going a daughter door knocking and
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  Speaker 4: selling the.
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  Speaker 3: Goods and the Roach family.
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  Speaker 4: Then I guess, like a lot of people on the list,
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  Speaker 4: parlayed that fortune into property other sort of businesses around
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  Speaker 4: that investment. So there's a lot of property that the
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  Speaker 4: family owns, particularly around Hunter Valley Regional, New South Wales,
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  Speaker 4: Sydney as well. So you make your money in one
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  Speaker 4: industry and really Emmelda was a pioneer in Australia in
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  Speaker 4: that space and now it's sort of been parked in
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  Speaker 4: more passive assets. As you know, time goes on for
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  Speaker 4: the family.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk about Robin Denham. She's close to Elon mask.
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  Speaker 1: She's worth nearly a billion dollars in her own right.
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  Speaker 1: Who is Robin Dean and what's her story?
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  Speaker 4: So Robin is the chair of Tesla, so you would
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  Speaker 4: imagine that in that role you're meant to be keeping
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  Speaker 4: the CEO under control. But with Tesla at c Elon
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  Speaker 4: Musk Show. So look again, Robin is very, very very
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  Speaker 4: reluctant to talk about Elin. In fact, there's it's quite
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  Speaker 4: famous in interviews, so she would not even mention the
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  Speaker 4: E word, right, So yeah, even Tesla gets bally imagined.
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  Speaker 4: There's a little bit of like being in the right
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  Speaker 4: place and getting on the board and becoming the chair
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  Speaker 4: of that company, and obviously with that came a lot
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  Speaker 4: of share grants.
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  Speaker 3: So she gets.
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  Speaker 4: Options to buy shares, you know, the options to buy
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  Speaker 4: those shares at a certain price, often pretty low, and
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  Speaker 4: then she sells it to make money because there's a
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  Speaker 4: big gap between that. So she's made a lot of
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  Speaker 4: money that way. She's got options on more Tesla shares.
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  Speaker 4: She's parlayed that into some investments and tech investments back
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  Speaker 4: here in Australia. She's moved back to Australia after a
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  Speaker 4: long career as an executive in Silicon Valley to where
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  Speaker 4: she would have come across the tesla's of the world then,
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  Speaker 4: So one of her investm actually is she's very passionate
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: and her family's very passionate about basketball. So she's now
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  Speaker 4: the majority owner of the Sydney Kings in the National
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  Speaker 4: Basketball League, the men's team, and the Sydney Flames are
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  Speaker 4: women's and the women's National Basketball League as well, And
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: in fact, the Sydney Kings are one mail up at
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  Speaker 4: the moment in the NBA Finals, And she's one of
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  Speaker 4: the first female owners of the successful of any sports
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  Speaker 4: team here in Australia, not many around the world, And
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  Speaker 4: all of a sudden she's on the cusp of winning
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  Speaker 4: a championship. I think the Kings are a fantastic team
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  Speaker 4: and she's got every chance of carrying off that trophy
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  Speaker 4: here about a week week and a half or so.
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  Speaker 1: Women are still nowhere near the majority of entrants on
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  Speaker 1: the riches two fifty.
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  Speaker 2: What do you see happening? What's the bigger picture?
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  Speaker 1: Here, John, women are now dominating university entrances, they're dominating
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  Speaker 1: school marks, they're rising up the ranks through most businesses
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  Speaker 1: and this is a big focus in boardroom. Why are
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: women not controlling more money in Australia? And do you
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  Speaker 1: see that changing?
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  Speaker 4: It's getting better, it's certainly getting better. I mean it
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  Speaker 4: felt like for a long time that number of females
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  Speaker 4: on the list of thirty eight this year, that number
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  Speaker 4: was stuck around the fifteen to twenty market and a
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  Speaker 4: lot of widows in that regard. But there's definitely a
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  Speaker 4: cohort of entrepreneurs, mostly in the technology space that are
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  Speaker 4: coming through. So I mean, Melanie Perkins is an incredible
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  Speaker 4: example of that. It's almost like she feels like she's
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  Speaker 4: old at now. But I mean that Canvas story is amazing,
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  Speaker 4: and what Gina has done with her mining interests is
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: incredible too. So there's incredible examples just in those two.
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  Speaker 4: But then you've got others that are emerging as technology
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  Speaker 4: leaders as well. I mean, then Katrina Leslie is one
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  Speaker 4: who's been very reluctant to be in the spotlight.
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  Speaker 3: Put her on the list for the first time this year.
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  Speaker 4: Now she's got a company called Swipe Jobs, which is
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  Speaker 4: a combination of using AI to sort of find the
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: best job matches for job seekers, right, and that's pretty
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  Speaker 4: much an American company. So yeah, I mean she's here
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  Speaker 4: in Australia, but all of that and his revenue is
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: derived in America, so she's almost like the modern I
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  Speaker 4: guess that lassion building a company that's gone global from
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  Speaker 4: here in Australia. The one thing I would say, though, Claire,
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  Speaker 4: is that with a lot of these female entrepreneurs we
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  Speaker 4: talk about, there was a common theme, right, they don't
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  Speaker 4: like to talk about what they do publicly, which I
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  Speaker 4: think is a real real shame, whether it's a tall
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  Speaker 4: poppy syndrome or you know, like mena more let's face it,
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  Speaker 4: you know, got bigger egos than women, are more arrogant
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  Speaker 4: about it, They're more comfortable in dealing with the spotlight
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  Speaker 4: or whatever.
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  Speaker 3: I mean.
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  Speaker 4: These are the people that we'd love to see talked
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  Speaker 4: about in everyday business life, but there is a little
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  Speaker 4: bit of reluctance stealf from the Katrinas and the Melodies
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  Speaker 4: of the World and even the Robins and the Genus
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  Speaker 4: to be out and shouting from the rooftops about whatever
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  Speaker 4: their passions are.
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  Speaker 1: John, thank you so much for joining us. I've already
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: put a bunch of stuff in my checkout. I'll get
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: you some tracking acts and and get those sent to you.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks a lot.
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  Speaker 3: You can pull it off, Claire, I'm sure. Thank you.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: John Stenzel is the editor of the list Australia's Richest
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: to fifty. John has unrivaled networks of contacts that he
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: uses to cover exactly what are rich and powerful are
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  Speaker 1: up to all year round. You can find this year's
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: list at Richest two fifty dot com dot au. That's
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Richest two five oh dot com dot Au.