Who are Australia’s youngest billionaires and what are they worth? And more importantly…how did they make their money?
Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins and mining tycoon Gina Rinehart’s daughter Ginia are Australia’s youngest billionaires. That’s according to new research by City Index, which took to Forbes to establish the number of billionaires across the globe, broken down by age, sector and wealth, to determine the youngest billionaires in each country.
Highlights from the research:
- Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins is Australia’s youngest billionaire, aged 36 and worth $3.6 billion (A$5.59 billion) .
- Mining mogul Gina Rinehart’s four children all occupy the top ten, aged from 36-47.
- Atlassian co-founder, Mike Cannon-Brookes, has the highest net worth of the top ten youngest Australian billionaires, worth $11.3 billion (A$11.5 billion).
- Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar are the only billionaires in the top ten with links to publicly-traded companies.
- The software sector produces the most billionaires under the age of 45, with 50% of the top ten working in this sector.
- 60% of Australia’s top 10 youngest billionaires are male, and also 60% are self-made.
- 53 is the average age of a female Australian billionaire, younger than the average Australian male billionaire’s age (70).
- $4.98 billion (A$7.6 billion) is the average net worth of a female Australian billionaire, more than male Australian billionaires, worth $3.96 billion (A$6.1 billion).
Australia’s Top 10 Youngest Billionaires:
|
# |
Name |
Gender |
Current Wealth Ranking (From Forbes’ Billionaires Index) |
Source |
USD Net Worth ($B) |
Age |
|
1 |
Melanie Perkins |
F |
836 |
Software |
$3.60 |
36 |
|
2 |
Ginia Rinehart |
F |
1545 |
Mining |
$2.00 |
36 |
|
3 |
Cliff Obrecht |
M |
836 |
Software |
$3.60 |
37 |
|
4 |
Hope Welker |
F |
1557 |
Mining |
$2.00 |
37 |
|
5 |
Mike Cannon-Brookes |
M |
151 |
Software |
$11.60 |
43 |
|
6 |
Scott Farquhar |
M |
167 |
Software |
$11.30 |
43 |
|
7 |
Cameron Adams |
M |
1676 |
Software |
$1.80 |
43 |
|
8 |
Bianca Rinehart |
F |
1557 |
Mining |
$2.00 |
46 |
|
9 |
John Hancock |
M |
1532 |
Mining |
$2.00 |
47 |
|
10 |
Nigel Austin |
M |
2068 |
Retail |
$1.40 |
52 |
Melanie Perkins is Australia’s youngest billionaire
City Index can reveal that Melanie Perkins is Australia’s youngest billionaire, aged 36 years old. CEO of content creation platform, Canva, Perkins is worth $3.2 billion and is the 836th richest billionaire in the world, according to Forbes.
Perkins co-founded Canva in 2013 with husband Cliff Obrecht (aged 37) and Cameron Adams (aged 43) which was surprisingly met with investor skepticism due to its Sydney location1. Canva is a widely popular platform, attracting 60 million users a month to its platform, with companies such as Intel and Zoom paying for it. With this, the company’s popularity has led to some estimates of its worth being as much as $40 billion (A$62 billion) as of September 2021. Both Perkins and Obrecht own an 18% stake in Canva but have pledged to transfer more than 80% of their stake to the Canva Foundation for charitable causes.
As well as being the youngest billionaire, Perkins is also one of the six self-made billionaires in the top 10, along with Cliff Obrecht, Mike Cannon-Brookes, Scott Farquhar, Cameron Adams and Nigel Austin.
Gina Rinehart’s children occupy the top ten
Four of mining mogul Gina Rinehart’s children occupy Australia’s top ten youngest billionaires. They all have inherited $2 billion (A$3.1 billion) from being beneficiaries of a trust that owns a quarter stake in Gina’s mining company, Hancock Prospecting. They are the only non-self-made billionaires in the top 10.
Her daughter, Ginia, is the youngest (aged 36), followed by Hope Welker (37), Bianca Rinehart (46) and their brother, John Hancock (47). As well as being a beneficiary, Hancock is also a senior adviser at Lind Partners LLC and runs his own private investment fund.2 The family have been involved in a long-running court battle around royalties, which may affect their overall wealth.
Atlassian CEOs are the fifth-youngest billionaires
Aged 43, Atlassian CEO and co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar are joint fifth-youngest Australian billionaires. Ranked #151 on Forbes’ Rich List, Cannon-Brookes is the richest in the top ten, with a net worth of $11.6 billion (A$18 billion) ($300 million more than Farquhar). Atlassian is also publicly traded, having listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 2015.4
Cannon-Brookes’ wealth also comes from his 11.3% stake in Australia’s largest energy generator, AGL Energy,5 which he invested in last year. AGL Energy is also publicly listed, having held its IPO on the ASX stock exchange in 20066. He also has a stake in NBA’s Utah Jazz, owned by Ryan Smith.7 Plus, he recently acquired the Sun Cable development, which plans to deliver 1.8 gigawatts of solar energy from Australia to Singapore.8, 9
Ranked 16 places below in Forbes’ Rich List at #167, Farquhar also co-founded the fundraising company Pledge 1% in 2014, which urges companies to donate at least 1% of equity, employee time or products to charity.
Female Australian billionaires are on average, younger and richer than males
The average age of female billionaires in Australia is 53, compared to 70 for males. In addition to this, female billionaires have an average net worth of $4.98bn (A$7.73bn) – $1.02bn (A$1.58bn) more than the average net worth of males, despite there being over four times as many male billionaires in the country (38 male compared to 9 female).
