The philanthropic legacy of the late Hugh Green is living on, with his foundation giving what is thought to be New Zealand’s largest private donation to charity to help set up a new medical facility.
Earlier this year, The Hugh Green Foundation donated $7.1 million to create a world-class biomedical research hub in Wellington.
The funds will go towards the Malaghan Institute’s immunology research across cancer, asthma and allergy, gut health, brain health and infectious diseases. It is hoped the centre will put New Zealand on the global map for such work.
Other similar initiatives include the Hugh Green Biobank, based at the University of Auckland - a world-leading facility dedicated to identifying new treatments for brain disorders by studying human brain cells derived from autopsy and neurosurgical brain tissue donors.
Such projects are a hallmark of Hugh Green Foundation’s long and charitable history. The trust was borne out of its founder and namesake who set it up in 1998, with the aim of improving the health and wealth of local communities. The foundation was inspired by Green’s own experiences of poverty during his childhood in Ireland.
Green started his company in the 1950s, after immigrating to New Zealand, and set about digging trenches and laying cable for the then Post and Telegraph Department.
The Hugh Green Group is a now family-owned group of companies focused on residential subdivision and commercial development projects.
Its interests have spanned engineering, earthworks, property development and leasing. The group has also been involved in some of New Zealand's most significant projects, including the Marsden Point Refinery and the New Zealand Steel Mill, in Glenbrook.
When he died in 2012, aged 80, a bitter public stoush broke out between his daughter Maryanne and her siblings over control of the company and fortune.
Green decided late in life to hand over the reins of his empire to eldest son John Green, their sister Frances Green and lawyer Mark Fisher.
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2018: $660 million