The lives of Brian : entrepreneur, philanthropist, animal activist / Brian Sherman, with A. M. Jonson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sherman, Brian, 1943-2022, author.

Jonson, A. M., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Capitalists and financiers--Australia--Biography.

Capitalists and financiers.

Philanthropists--Australia--Biography.

Philanthropists.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 322 pages, 28 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Carlton, Victoria : Melbourne University Press, 2018.

Summary:

1943: shopkeeper's son Brian Sherman is born into a tight-knit Jewish community in a small South African mining outpost. The Holocaust is raging in Europe and the Apartheid regime is at its height. In 1976, with only $5, 000 to his name, he moves to Australia with his young family to start a new life.Nothing can prepare Brian for his meteoric rise or for the life-changing tests he will face. At his kitchen table he starts a fund management business with his friend Laurence Freedman. In 1986, they float a novel investment fund on the American Stock Exchange and raise over a billion Australian dollars. More billions follow, and opportunity flows.Brian goes on to direct the finances of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and together with Laurence, acquires an interest in Network TEN, taking it from receivership to record profits. He chairs the Australian Museum Trust and brings in a heist of priceless specimens. He and gallerist wife Gene become leading philanthropists in the arts, medical science and Jewish affairs while Brian mentors his son, Emile, now an Oscar-winning film producer. Prompted by daughter Ondine, he has an epiphany on animal suffering, and, with her, devotes himself tirelessly to ending factory farming.Triumphant highs are interwoven with profound lows. His beloved twin grandsons are born with a rare and devastating genetic disorder. Brian and his son-in-law, Dror, go all out in search of a cure.Facing his own health challenges, and a lifelong accumulation of unexplored grief, Brian will be tested to the limits of his being.

Contents:

Intro

Title

Copyright

Contents

Abbreviations

Prologue

Part I: Childhood

1. October 1943

2. Brakpan

3. Home, family, community

4. Childhood

5. Bar mitzvah to boarding school

6. The mosquito, the cram school and the army

Part II: Youth and its aftermath

7. University life

8. Auditing hell and the call of the kibbutz

9. Gene

10. A sudden death, a long goodbye

Part III: Best of times, worst of times

11. Escape, interrupted

12. Children

13. Immigrants

14. Smooth sailing

15. Stormy weather

Part IV: Scaling Everest

16. The germ of an idea

17. From little things . . .

18. Next stop USA

19. The long road up

20. FAX conquers the USA

21. The crash

22. A new beginning

23. A step forward, a step back

24. Home fires burning

25. Flesh of my flesh

26. The call of the Rings

27. Battle stations

28. Freewheeling

29. Roots

30. Letting go

31. The end of a story

Part V: After EquitiLink

32. The turn

33. The museum and the factory farm

34. A major glitch

35. A bust and a boon

36. Goodnight from the museum

37. The little pig

38. Voiceless

39. Many ways to make a difference

Part VI: The greatest test

40. The twins

41. The diagnosis

42. Chasing a cure, part 1

43. Chasing a cure, part 2

44. Journeys' end

45. The jar of honey

46. Bat mitzvah

Further reading

Acknowledgements

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes index.

ISBN:

9780522873412

0522873413

OCLC:

1043914339