Two 36-year-old women have been revealed as Australia’s youngest billionaires for 2023.
Taking out the top spot is Melanie Perkins, the co-founder of tech darling Canva, which she co-founded with her husband Cliff Obrecht, 37, back in 2013.
Today, she is worth a staggering $A5.59 billion and is the 836th richest billionaire in the world, according to Forbes.
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s daughter Ginia, also 36, took out second place with a $A3.1 billion fortune.
That’s according to new research by City Index, which pored over Forbes data to establish the number of billionaires across the globe, broken down by age, sector and wealth, to determine the youngest billionaires in each country.
Melanie Perkins
Born in Perth in 1987 to an Australian-born teacher and a Malaysian engineer, Ms Perkins’ entrepreneurial spirit emerged early, with the keen figure skater founding her first business at age 14 selling handmade scarfs.
She went on to study communications, psychology and commerce at the University of Western Australia, but dropped out at age 19 to launch her first business with Obrecht, Fusion Books – which allowed students to design their own yearbooks – in 2007.
During her time at uni, Perkins also stumbled upon the inspiration behind Canva while tutoring students learning graphic design, who she noticed routinely struggled to pick up the basics.
She was convinced there was a business opportunity to simplify the design process, and in 2013 she, Obrecht and business partner Cameron Adams, now 43, founded the content creation platform from her mother’s Perth loungeroom.
Canva now attracts 60 million users a month, and was estimated to be worth a whopping $A62 billion as of September 2021.
The notoriously private couple tied the knot on Rottnest Island in 2021 and welcomed their first child in early 2022, with Perkins telling The Australian earlier this year that becoming a mum had been “really fun”.
Both have an 18 per cent stake in Canva but have signed Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge, vowing to give away more than 80 per cent of their wealth to the Canva Foundation for charitable causes.
Ms Perkins previously told the publication the pair were not interested in acquiring vast fortunes, claiming “the billions upon billions of dollars is more than anyone needs in their entire lifetime by a long shot”.
Meanwhile, Mr Obrecht famously said he did not want to raise “incredibly wealthy little children that are little snots”.
“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 shit,” he said in another interview.
Perkins is one of six self-made billionaires in the top 10, along with her husband and business partner, Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar and Nigel Austin, the founder and 90 per cent majority owner of the Cotton On Group.
Ginia Rinehart
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s four children all scored spots on the top 10, including John Hancock (47), Bianca Rinehart (46), Hope Welker (37) and Ginia Rinehart, who, at 36, took out second place.
Each sibling has inherited $A3.1 billion as beneficiaries of a trust that owns a quarter stake in the family’s mining company, Hancock Prospecting. They are the only non-self-made billionaires in the top 10.
However, the family has been involved in a long-running court battle around royalties, which may affect their overall wealth.
Gina Rinehart’s eldest two children are battling for a share of the iron ore wealth she inherited from her father, the late Lang Hancock.
The civil trial revolves around the distribution of mining royalties from six iron ore tenements in the Pilbara, known as Hope Downs, with John and Bianca claiming they’re entitled to a slice of those royalties.
– with NCA NewsWire
Originally published as Melanie Perkins and Ginia Rinehart revealed as Australia’s youngest billionaires at age 36
