One of Australia’s richest women pledges to give away her £9.2 billion fortune
One of Australia's richest women has reportedly made a pledge to give away all of her £9.2 billion wealth because she has grand schemes to eliminate extreme poverty.
Melanie Perkins, 35, co founder and CEO of graphic design platform Canva, said "who needs all that money?" as she and her co-founder/husband Cliff Obrecht made the amazing choice.
Perkins, who started out selling spray-on tattoos at fairs, currently owns 30% of the company, which is valued at around £30 billion.
The businesswoman has signed up to Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge, planning to give away her wealth during her lifetime through charitable donations and other endeavours.
In a pledge letter, Melanie wrote: “We have this wildly optimistic belief that there is enough money, goodwill, and good intentions in the world to solve most of the world's problems,
“We feel like it's not just a massive opportunity, but an important responsibility, and we want to spend our lifetime working towards that.
“Who needs all that money? Personally?”
On their pledge, Obrecht told The Australian: “Mel and I are committed to giving away all our money to make the world a better place.
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“I think with running such a large company with such a significant valuation now, it's an obligation on us to use that to be a force for good and make the world a better place, rather than just hoard s**t."
“We live pretty modestly, and we don't really see the need to just accrue wealth.
“The priority for the company is education, because we really feel educating underprivileged people gives them the opportunity to break the cycle.”
Perkins and Obrecht met whilst studying at the University of Western Australia and started out selling spray tattoos at local fairs. They founded Canva in 2013 after having the initial idea in 2005.
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