Neil Balnaves was a former television executive who was best known for establishing and running the Southern Star production company (which later became Endemol Shine Australia). It introduced shows like Blue Heelers, Water Rats, McLeod’s Daughters, Bananas in Pajamas, and Big Brother to Australian audiences, influencing our viewing habits. Balnaves drowned in a boat accident. He was 77 years old. Mr Balnaves is thought to have been on vacation with his wife, Diane, in Tahiti at the time of the accident. Come down to learn everything there is to know about Neil Balnaves net worth, wealth, wife, family, house, daughter, wiki, and much more:
Neil Balnaves net worth at the time of his death may surprise you. He has worked in the media industry for 60 years, most recently as Executive Chairman of the Southern Star Group, which he founded in 1988. He has achieved considerable fame and money as a result of his talent and hard work. Neil Balnaves has a net worth of $90 million dollars. Balnaves had a successful television career, running the Southern Star production company and creating popular programmes such as Big Brother, Bananas in Pajamas, Water Rats, and McLeod’s Daughters.
Neil Balnaves After a career shaped by on-screen achievements, Neil moved on to become the chair of the Ardent Leisure Group (2003-2016). Balnaves retired in 2016 as a result of the Gold Coast Dreamworld theme park accident, in which four people were killed when a ride malfunctioned. It was originally held by the Group. Neil Balnaves owned the Gold Coast Home, a huge mansion on the Gold Coast. In 2019, he sold it to a Chinese buyer for $4 million.
Neil Balnaves established The Balnaves Foundation in 2006. Balnaves stated that the Foundation represented a new generation of Australian philanthropists, stating on their website, ‘Philanthropy should not be buried in a cupboard or kept under the table – it has to be much more prominent.’
I’ve taken the view, as have others like me, that we’re so far behind the rest of the OECD countries, particularly the UK and the US, per capita, that we’ve got to raise the profile and put the example out there.’
More than fifteen years later, the Foundation has committed more than $40 million to this purpose, with $20 million of that going to the arts.
According to the website, the Foundation distributes more than $3 million each year. The Foundation also supports Indigenous and health research at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, the Black Dog Institute, and the Indigenous Law Center at the University of New South Wales.
Philanthropic passions
Balnaves generously shared his commercial expertise, not just in the arts but also in the academic and medical fields. He was the Chancellor of Charles Darwin University from 2016 to 2018, as well as a former Director and Trustee Member of Bond University, where he received an Honorary Doctorate in 2009, and a former member of the Advisory Council and Dean’s Circle at the University of New South Wales Faculty of Medicine, where he received an Honorary Doctorate in 2010.
Balnaves was a Director of the Sydney Orthopedic Research Institute, a member of the Sydney Theater Company’s Chairman’s Circle, and a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors at the time of his death. For his contributions to business and philanthropy, Neil was named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2010.
On May 5, 1944, he was born in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. At the time of his death, he was 77 years old. He was quite secretive in his personal life because he did not reveal any information about his parents or siblings. Neil Balnaves does not have a Wikipedia page. On the other hand, there is a lot of information on him on the internet. His nationality was Australian.
He suffered polio as a child, an incident that influenced his future support for medical research. He worked for publisher Paul Hamlyn as a young man, and his influence loomed large over the rest of his career.
“I had no academic qualifications, just a natural curiosity and native intelligence,” he told this masthead in 2010. “Mentoring makes a big difference.”
As a producer, he has worked on films such as Return to Eden (1986), Shark’s Paradise (1986), and The Last Frontier (1986). From 2016 to 2018, Neil was also the Chancellor of Charles Darwin University. He was also a former Director and Trustee of Bond University, where he received an Honorary Doctorate in 2009.
Diane Balnaves is Neil Balnaves wife. Balnaves’ wife, Diane Balnaves, whom he married in 1971, survives him. Diane attended Adelaide’s Seymour College before working as a social worker. After becoming a bookseller in 1970, she married Neil Balnaves in 1971. Diane volunteers in the Mosman community and continues to give back to the community. For more than six years, Neil, along with his wife Diane and son Hamish, supported the Ensemble with the most generous financial assistance, allowing them to progress to where they are now.
The couple has persevered through every storm and difficulty that life has thrown their way, and their love has remained strong and loving. He also appears to be a trustworthy and devoted person, with no extramarital affairs, gossip, or scandal in his personal life. The couple has three children: a son named Hamish, and two girls named Alexandra and Victoria. Alexandra, their eldest child, died in 2019 after a long illness. His entire wealth passed to his wife Diane and their children.
Neil Balnaves, a well-known producer, died in a boat accident in Haiti. He was 77 years old at the time of his death. When the incident occurred, he was on vacation aboard the Oneworld mega-motor boat off the shore of the Polynesian island. In 2002, the millionaire suffered a similar accident on the Gold Coast, which changed his life forever. In his initial accident, he shattered around 40 bones, putting him on life support alongside family friends.
Australian entertainment mogul Neil Balnaves – who brought Big Brother and Bananas in Pyjamas to TV screens – dies at age 77 after tragic boating accident in Tahiti https://t.co/kNxhDS6MVX pic.twitter.com/AU97KruWqw
— Tande (@tanndde) February 21, 2022
Tributes are flowing from the arts community. Mark Kilmurry, Artistic Director of the Ensemble Theater, said in a statement: “Neil Balnaves, through the Balnaves Foundation, was not only a major sponsor of Ensemble Theater but he became a great friend and supporter.”
“A believer in the importance and impact of the arts as an essential element of communities,” the CEO of Creative Partnerships Australia, Fiona Menzies, wrote on Twitter. “His philanthropy was generous and committed.”
Journalist and arts writer Ashleigh Wilson described Balnaves as a “tireless, visionary, inspiring advocate for the arts in Australia”.
“He believed in the transformational possibilities of culture and the power of storytelling. He’ll be greatly missed,” Wilson wrote.