GOLD STANDARD
Monica Saunders-Weinberg is one of the wealthiest women in Australia, but also one of the most private. This year, she chose to step out in public for the greater good, as committee chair of Sydney’s famous Gold Dinner. By Jessica Montague.
Monica Saunders-Weinberg, the woman behind this year’s successful Gold Dinner.
YOU COULDN’T SAY that Monica Saunders-Weinberg had a typical childhood. As the youngest daughter of John Saunders, who co-founded Westfield with Frank Lowy in 1958, and his second wife Klara, her upbringing was more business matters than Barbies. “He was 56 when he had me, so we weren’t going to the park and playing on the swings,” she says with a smile. “Saturdays were spent going through shopping centres and checking the bathrooms.”
But Saunders-Weinberg wasn’t what you’d call a typical heiress with a lack of substance, either. As she tells Vogue, her father arrived in Australia as a survivor of Nazi concentration camps – he had $20 in his pocket and a Hungarian/English dictionary with the word ‘impossible’ scribbled out. Together with Lowy (who also survived World War II), the pair built a shopping centre empire starting in Sydney’s Blacktown and a vast fortune to match. Or, as Saunders-Weinberg fondly recalls: “He became a world-scale baller.”
Although John Saunders died in 1997, when Saunders-Weinberg was just 19, he and his wife made sure to instil not just business acumen in their youngest daughter but the virtues of giving back, too. “My father’s philanthropy was about healing, because he was a Holocaust survivor and he had a lot of damage,” she explains. “He was so passionate and loving about business and philanthropy, so that was our connection and our love. When people talk about legacy, sure, there’s building things, but then there’s the legacy of his heart and keeping that alive.”
Despite still being in her teens, Saunders-Weinberg was made a director of the family company, Terrace Tower Group, upon her father’s death. She learnt quickly and keenly and has honoured her lineage by running the philanthropic arm, the Saunders Family Foundation. Her husband, Richard Weinberg, now works as managing director at Terrace (together they have three boys: Brooklyn, 12; Ashton, 10; and Hudson, 8), and Saunders-Weinberg serves as joint deputy chairman with her elder half-sister Betty Klimenko, with whom she supports a range of charitable causes, albeit always under the radar.
But that all changed last year with news Saunders-Weinberg had taken up the mantle of committee chair for Sydney’s famous Gold Dinner. Held annually, the lavish invitation-only fundraiser is not just a major fixture of Sydney’s social calendar, but is renowned for its charitable pulling power. Since its inception in 1997, the Gold Dinner has raised close to $30 million for the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation.
Speaking of her decision to take such a public role for the first time at age 40, Saunders-Weinberg tells Vogue: “I’ve been to these events from the beginning and have always been a huge supporter. I love the foundation and the cause, it speaks for itself, but one of the drivers for me was that all these events have become, I wouldn’t say robotic, but they’ve lost the essence of what we’re there for. They need to have heart and soul.”
As the new committee chair, she made it her mission to bring that back – and set her sights on raising a lofty $3 million in the process. One of her first moves was to refresh the committee with a host of new faces and also include men, which hadn’t been done before. High-profile names such as Karl Stefanovic, Julie Bishop, chef Guillaume Brahimi, stockbroker Phil Schofield and even her husband Richard were brought in to offer their expertise. But still there was no question who was leading the pack.
“I am a control freak by nature and a perfectionist, so I actually loved being in that seat,” says Saunders-Weinberg. “I was able to do the role I envisaged and brought not just a new set of fresh faces but ideas, too.
“Basically, I tried to keep it a bit more streamlined this year, because there’s nothing worse than doing a reply-all email where there are 14 people trying to have their say. I ran things quite businesslike and gave everybody a lane and they had to stick to that lane – it was intense.”
Her straight-down-the-middle approach paid off. This year’s Gold Dinner, held in May and attended by more than 500 of Sydney’s who’s who, raised $3.2 million for the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation to fund critical care at Sydney Children’s Hospital and Westmead.
Instead of serving up frivolous entertainment to dazzle guests, Saunders-Weinberg pared back the room so it was warmer and cosier, and brought the soul back into proceedings with some personal touches. Each attendee was given a set of gold dice (“As a reminder that life is a roll of the dice”), and she had the room on the verge of tears thanks to a keynote that, it could almost be said, Saunders-Weinberg had been preparing for her whole life.
“My speech was definitely layered,” she reflects. “It had a huge focus on gratitude, not just the usual: ‘Yeah, yeah, we need to be thankful’, but about returning kindness and also understanding that being of service to others is actually what connects humanity. It’s the most joyful part.
“I also spoke about the vulnerability of children in our community and the fact that all of us, everyone in the room, came from different ethnicities, backgrounds, religions and tax brackets, but connected on the night. The whole point of the speech was that, yes, we can write a cheque individually, but the true impact comes from us doing things together.”
Despite the financial success of this year’s Gold Dinner (and many saying Saunders-Weinberg effectively relaunched the event), she says it’s still “up for debate” whether she’ll return next year.
What’s not under a cloud of doubt is the fact she’ll continue her philanthropic efforts across the board. Saunders-Weinberg says she takes a “monkey see, monkey do” approach and encouraged all committee members with kids to invite them to see what they’d collectively achieved before this year’s Gold Dinner got underway. Her eldest, Brooklyn, stayed on through the evening as a volunteer, working in the cloakroom and floating from table to table ensuring guests were okay.
“I’m very grateful because my boys have extremely big hearts naturally and they’re very compassionate children. At this age I don’t want to force things down them: I’d rather show them through joyful eyes.
“It’s such a huge responsibility,” she says of inheriting wealth. “[My father’s] success wasn’t handed to him, so it’s my job to take care of that and hand it over to the next generation. I want to make sure that I do good in the world. If I can symbolise leadership or motivate others, I’m happy for people to use my name or profile. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
“Being of service to others is actually what connects humanity. It’s the most joyful part”