Sharing the luck

The citation that accompanies Ian Pagent’s Order of Australia is a masterpiece of understatement. ‘For significant service to the community through not-for-profit organisations’ is essentially accurate, but barely scratches the surface of what the businessman and his family have managed to achieve to date in helping others. Through a staggering number of philanthropic endeavours targeting everything from medical research to homelessness, education for those in need to helping at-risk youth, Pagent has made a tangible and lasting difference to the lives of countless people.

Both through the Pagent family’s own foundation and his involvement with numerous other not-for-profit bodies including the Audi Foundation, Ian Pagent has worked away from the limelight to try and share what he calls his own ‘tremendous good luck’ with others.

The recognition in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours is a tricky one for Pagent to deal with, given his preference for avoiding attention and accolades and preferring to just ‘get on with it’.

“We’re lucky to be able to give,” he says simply. “But giving is not something to be proud of, it’s somewhere between a privilege and a duty.”

That Pagent and his family found themselves in a position to assist so many not-for-profit organisations and causes though, has not been a matter of luck, but one of hard work in building a successful business with the ASX listed Autosports Group at its core.

From humble beginnings in the automotive industry in 1969, Pagent has gone on to build one of the most successful automotive groups in the country as well as developing numerous other business interests to create that ‘tremendous good luck’ he refers to.

“For every not-for-profit you do have to have a ‘for profit’ something lurking in the background,” says Pagent.

“And it is our business and the wonderful management, staff and customers we have around us who support us and allow us to, not, be generous, but to perform our duty,” he says.

That ‘duty’ sees Pagent and his family target specific areas of need, focusing on hospitals, education, homelessness and medical research.

“Someone once said to me, ‘you want to catch people before they fall off the cliff and then you want to catch the ones who have fallen off’,” he says of the broad array of areas covered.

That approach has manifested itself in numerous ways. Providing bursaries for over 20 years to allow children access to schools and educational outcomes that would otherwise have been denied them. Then there is the Pagent’s deep and long-running association with St Vincent’s Hospital and their sponsorship, amongst other things, of its heart and lung clinic, recognised as the country’s premier centre for cardiovascular and thoracic care and research. Likewise the Mater Hospital is key to Pagent’s mission, where care for mothers and babies forms an integral part of the focus, from financing operating theatres to upgrading anti-natal suites.

Pagent was also instrumental in the creation of the Audi Foundation, not only coming up with the initial idea, but also donating the $30,000 seed money – the prize he received when one of his Audi dealerships won Dealer of the Year in 2008. But it would take some time before the Audi Foundation as we know it was fully established, with Pagent quietly pushing through the associated red tape. The initial Board in 2011 was made up of then Audi Australia MD, Uwe Hagen, Olympic ski jumper and Audi Ambassador Alisa Camplin and Pagent himself, but that too would change with the final makeup and launch of the Foundation, with Pagent the one constant throughout.

The Audi Foundation has now raised more than eight million dollars and continues to go from strength to strength, and while Ian Pagent stepped back from the board last year, his son Nick is now a board member.

“Ian has been instrumental in helping to build the Audi Foundation, as well as working tirelessly on so many other charitable endeavours,” says Jeff Mannering, Chairman of the Audi Foundation and Director of Audi Australia.

“And while he’s not one to seek recognition for his works, being named a member of the Order of Australia is a fitting acknowledgement of the work he has done and continues to do.”

Indeed Pagent does not like to be in the public space and is far more comfortable talking about the achievements of his family than himself. He obviously derives enormous pride in the fact that son Nick is now CEO of Autosports, while daughter Amanda is Chair of the Pagent Family Charitable Foundation. His other daughter, Jessica Shirvington, is an accomplished author and runs the family’s hospitality business, while his other son Chris, Is a senior partner at leading law firm Corrs – and he is quick to point out that his wife Maryanne, is instrumental in everything.

Brought back to discussing the matter at hand, the recognition in the King’s Birthday Honours he says ‘falls somewhere between sinful pride and embarrassment’.

“Of course I’m very proud of it, but I also think of all the other people who haven’t been recognised,” Pagent says. “And I understand that I didn’t do all this. I just happened to be around when it was done.”