Graham Tuckwell … ordinary. Photo: Katherine Griffiths
HIS name is on several international rich lists, and he commands a business empire worth $30 billion, but Graham Tuckwell says he is an ordinary suburban boy who grew up in Canberra.
If you've never heard his name, it's partly because he is notoriously private, refusing to discuss his wealth or family life publicly.
Or perhaps, it's because his particular brand of business was to pioneer electronically traded funds and exchange traded commodities - a complex way of buying and selling securities for commodities such as gold through the stock exchange. Hardly Telstra shares for retail investors.
Yet, Mr Tuckwell, and his wife Louise, have ensured future fame among university students after donating $50 million to the Australian National University for an antipodean version of the Rhodes Scholarship.
Twenty-five Tuckwell scholars from across Australia will be chosen annually to study at the university. Each will receive $100,000 for five years of undergraduate study, with a focus on citizenship programs.
The endowment dwarfs other individual acts of generosity by Australian donors, most recently the $20 million donated last year by the engineering tycoon John Grill to the University of Sydney.
However, the Irish American Chuck Feeney, who founded the Atlantic Philanthropies after building a fortune through the Duty Free Shoppers Group, has donated about $500 million to Australian universities, mostly for medical research, and contingent on matching government funds.
The vice-chancellor of ANU, Ian Young, said that when he included a strong focus on encouraging philanthropy in his 2011 strategic plan, he never expected such largesse. ''You live in hope but you can never bet on it,'' he said.
Mr Tuckwell said he wanted to encourage Australia's most promising undergraduates to stretch themselves beyond just getting a degree. He wanted to avoid ''hot-housed kids'' and to support those who were bright, engaged and ''ready to work hard'' - and who might not have had an advantaged upbringing.
''I suppose I could have bought a yacht, and then sat on it,'' said Mr Tuckwell, who graduated from the ANU in 1978 with a bachelor of economics and in 1981 with a bachelor of laws.
''Or I could have spent it on fancy holidays, and alienated myself from my friends - or bought half a dozen houses. But then how could I sit in church every Sunday?''
Mr Tuckwell plans to return to Canberra each year to mentor the scholarship fellows.
He says the big difference between him and the British mining magnate and De Beers diamond founder Cecil Rhodes is that he is young enough to engage with his scholars and influence the sorts of programs they undertake. ''Leaving your money in a will means there is not much influence.''
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