The REAL Rich List

So you’ve read BRW’s annual rich list and you know whose bank account is the fattest. But do you know who has the most joy in their life, or who has made the biggest difference to the community? Who has inspired those around them and who lives their life richly in every way – financially, spiritually, socially and intellectually? We hope you’ll be inspired by SW’s Real Rich List.

1. Deborra-Lee Furness

Well known as the partner to Hollywood heartthrob, Hugh Jackman, Deborra-Lee Furness is a great success in her own right. A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, Furness has forged a very successful acting career. Her most recent performance was in the critically acclaimed film Jindabyne. Furness is also a partner in the production company Seed Productions, which launched in August 2006 and focuses on creating Australian films for the international market.
Mother to two beautiful adopted children Oscar and Ava, Furness is an advocate for international adoption in Australia and is pushing the Australian Government to support intercountry adoption.
Furness is also a parton of the Lighthouse Foundation whose mission is to reduce youth homelessness.

For more information on the Lighthouse Foundation visit www.lighthousefoundation.org.au/

2. Gill Hicks

There’s a peace and dignity about Gill Hicks that places her firmly near the top of our Real Rich List. As a survivor of the 2005 London Bombings, Hicks, an Australian, lost both her legs in the blast. As her fiancé Joe said, she may now only have half her body, but she’s twice the woman she ever was. As a passionate campaigner for forgiveness and reconciliation, she bears no malice to those responsible for the bombings. Hicks says she is grateful for her survival and now appreciates life as a whole, a different life than the one she expected, however one that is richly fulfilling. She has appeared before 45 million viewers on The Oprah Show to tell her story as a Peace Direct Ambassador.

More info: www.peacedirect.org and www.theforgivnessproject.com

3. Katie Page

You won’t find entrepreneur Katie Page courting the media’s favour: quite the opposite in fact. As CEO of retail giant Harvey Norman, Page is too busy driving an empire that now has global reach that includes stores in Slovenia, Singapore, Ireland and Italy. “If you put it all together and you were realistic and you said who's the boss, you'd have to say she is," said Page’s husband Gerry Harvey, the company’s executive chairman. Harvey praised his wife for pushing the company’s offshore expansion into lucrative markets and for her business smarts.
Of course there’s more to the famously private Page than a high-profile marriage and corporate responsibilities. When she’s not exploding the myth of the glass ceiling, footy-mad Page is a member of the NRL Executive Board.

More info: www.harveynorman.com.au

4. Melinda Gates

It would be so easy for Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft founder and gazillionaire Bill Gates, to sit back and enjoy the pampered lifestyle of one of the richest women in the world. But in 2000 Melinda realised a long-held dream when she and Bill donated a record US$33 billion towards the establishment of their own charitable foundation. She has been instrumental in shaping the direction of the charity and ensuring the funds reach the people and causes most in need. Based in Seattle, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already made a huge impact around the world with mass funding for health projects in Africa and computer literacy programs across the globe. The Gates touch has extended to Australia too, with $1.25 million donated to expand computer and internet services in Northern Territory indigenous communities. Now that’s spending in style.

More info: www.gatesfoundation.org

5. Mariska Hargitay

There are many reasons why US actress and former SW covergirl Mariska Hargitay is a prime candidate for the Real Rich List. There’s her Emmy-winning role as Detective Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and her role model status as a gutsy strong woman who found love, marriage and motherhood in her forties. Then there’s her Hollywood pedigree as the daughter of tragic screen legend Jayne Mansfield and actor Mickey Hargitay. We also respect Mariska enormously for founding the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2002 to help survivors of sexual abuse heal their minds, bodies and spirits and reclaim their lives. She says playing the role of Detective Benson opened her eyes to the epidemic of sexual assault. “I felt a great responsibility to these brave women to let them know that they had been heard and that they could have hope,” she says. “When women are abused and assaulted, it is like the doors to their souls slam shut. The goal of Joyful Heart is to let the light, and the life, back in--to banish the darkness and let the healing begin."

More info: www.mariska.com and www.joyfulheartfoundation.org

6. Mahalia Barnes

Daughter of Jimmy Barnes, Australian icon and rock singer, perhaps it was in her genes that Mahalia would reach great heights and live a rich life. Starting her musical career as a child in the pop group The Tin Lids with her siblings, Mahalia became a respected backup singer performing with esteemed musicians such as Jade MacRae, The Hands and more famously her own dad. Mahalia’s upcoming release of her first solo studio album demonstrates the soul flavour she has become known for. To top off Mahalia’s success, she has just finished a national tour supporting Lionel Ritchie, having also worked with the revered James Morrison and the Roots. Watch this space – we’ll be hearing a lot more from Mahalia in the future.

For more information on Mahalia, or to preview her debut solo album, visit www.myspace.com/mahaliabarnes

7. Geraldine Cox

This feisty Australian woman is proof that dreams don’t always turn out the way we planned. Desperate for a baby of her own, Cox was heartbroken to discover she was unable to produce children. Working with the Department of Foreign Affairs she was posted to Phnom Penh and there met thousands of orphaned children who were happy to take every bit of love and affection she could muster. Today Geraldine heads up the Sunrise Children’s Villages, providing a loving home for many of Cambodia’s orphans. Her autobiography Home is Where the Heart Is will inspire, entertain and amuse with her tales of a life lived authentically.

For more information visit www.sunrisechildrensvillage.org.