Lowy stepping down as Scentre chair
SHOPPING centre magnate Frank Lowy has announced he will retire as chairman of Scentre Group in May next year.
SHOPPING centre magnate Frank Lowy has announced he will retire as chairman of Scentre Group in May next year.
Lowy, 85, said he considered it was the right time to announce his retirement from the Group, and thanked his fellow directors for their support over many years and acknowledged the contribution of thousands of staff to the success of the company.
“It has been a privilege to have led Westfield in Australia since it was established in 1960 and Scentre Group which continues the legacy of the Westfield brand,” he said.
“It is never easy to leave a role like this, but I do so in the knowledge that Scentre is in an extremely strong position and that its future is full of opportunity for further growth and success.
“The transition to new leadership has been carefully planned and I have the utmost confidence that Brian Schwartz as the incoming chairman, and CEO Peter Allen, will make the most of those opportunities.”
Lowy will continue in his role as chairman of Westfield Corporation.
Author Jill Margo, who earlier this year released the second volume of the billionaire’s biography, Frank Lowy: A Second Life, told The AJN Lowy shows no sign of slowing down.
“When a man has built his empire, made his fortune, what does he do next? Nothing in his being wants to retire and he’s got this tremendous expertise and experience, so he builds for himself a second life,” she said.
Noting that the activities of his second life are not for commercial gain, Margo said: “Even though he continues to grow Westfield and continues his philanthropy, his second life are matters of the heart, matters of intellectual pursuit.”
Meanwhile, Margo was honoured by the National Press Club last week in its Excellence in Health Journalism Awards, taking out the ageing category for her article about former premier of NSW Nick Greiner’s breast cancer diagnosis.
Margo, health editor of The Australian Financial Review, said Greiner coming out frankly and openly in public to say he had a male mastectomy was “bold and brave”, and had a strong effect on the public.
“When a celebrity personality discloses something like that, it has quite a bit of impact and it can be educational for the public,” she said. “It reminds people that men also have breast cancer. Most men are really surprised to hear that.”
Margo added that she supports the idea of modifying the pink ribbon, which universally symbolises breast cancer in women, saying it “blankets out men”.
“If were we to put a small dot of blue on the pink ribbon that would awaken in men the awareness that they too can get this disease,” she said.
“That’s important because you have to be aware of early symptoms in order to act on them and gain the benefits of early detection and treatment.”
EVAN ZLATKIS
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