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Frank Lowy

Frank Lowy AC (born 22 October, 1930 in Fiľakovo (Hungarian: Fülek), Slovakia) is an Australian businessman and the second richest person in Australia. He is known for his co-founding and continuing involvement with The Westfield Group, a retail giant that owns dozens of shopping centres in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Great Britain.

Lowy is Jewish and although born in Czechoslovakia, he lived in Budapest, Hungary during World War II. He made his way to France in 1946, where he left on the ship Yagur but was caught en route to Palestine by the British and deported to the detention camp in Cyprus. After a few months, Lowy was allowed into Palestine and was brought to the detention camp in Atlit. Eventually he joined the Hagana and then the Golani Brigade, fighting during the War of Independence in the Galilee and in Gaza. In 1952 Lowy left Israel and joined his family, who had left Europe for Australia and started a business delivering small goods. In 1953, he met fellow Hungarian immigrant John Saunders (born Jenö Schwarcz). The pair became business partners, eventually creating Westfield (Saunders left the company in 1987). Business Review Weekly measures Lowy's wealth at A$6.3 billion, making him Australia's richest person, taking over from Andrew Forrest. In May 2001, Westfield paid $US127 million for a 99-year lease on the retail area beneath the New York World Trade Center. In September 2003 it received $US17.3 million as a party in the insurance claim following the terrorist attack on the twin towers. On February 18, 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that Westfield, "the largest owner of shopping centres in California and the world", had agreed to acquire 15 stores from Federated Department Stores, all but three in southern California.

In 2003 Frank Lowy set up the Lowy Institute for International Policy, an international policy think tank devoted to foreign affairs. This has led to Lowy being awarded the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship in 2005 by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Lowy has become involved with the newly created Football Federation Australia, which has replaced the now defunct Soccer Australia. Many observers credit him and John O'Neill, a former rugby union executive, with resurrecting football (soccer) in Australia. A well structured A-League is now in place, and the country has become a member of the Asian Football Confederation. In September 2008 he was announced as a part of the FIFA board.

Lowy was a board member of the Reserve Bank of Australia and has been awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia.

In May 2007 it was reported that Lowy faced Israeli police investigation over a corruption scandal involving Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, however, all charges were dropped.

On October 2, 2007, Lowy received the Henni Friedlander Award for the Common Good at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, United States.

In 2008, Frank Lowy and related interests were mentioned in documents stolen from the LGT Bank of Lichtenstein by a former employee. This is now subject to a US Senate probe and an ATO audit. Frank Lowy maintains he hasn't done anything wrong and both cases are progressing.