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Chuck Feeney: “giving while living” |
US/IRELAND. The remarkable life of DFS Group Co-Founder Charles (Chuck) Feeney was the subject of a special documentary on Irish television last night. ‘The Secret Billionaire’ included a rare interview with Feeney himself, as well as ex-DFS colleagues such as Alan Parker and Bob Matousek, plus Feeney’s family.
Feeney is one of the great figures in the travel retail industry. Together with Robert (Bob) Miller he founded Duty Free Shoppers (now DFS Group), creating a retail empire that has dominated the sector for the past 40 years.
A quiet, deeply private individual, he avoided media coverage zealously throughout his years at DFS, which ended when he sold his share to French luxury giant LVMH in 1996.
It was shortly afterwards, in a landmark interview with The New York Times he revealed that he was the unknown figurehead behind a secret offshore foundation that ranked among the top five philanthropic organisations in the world. Unknown to almost everyone, including his partner Bob Miller. Feeney had in 1982 secretly and irrevocably transferred his entire 38.75% interest in DFS to a number of foundations known as The Atlantic Philanthropies, based in Bermuda.
That story was revealed in a 2007 book called “˜The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune’, written by Conor O’Clery. O’Clery was Executive Producer on last night’s show on Irish channel RTE.
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Chuck Feeney (left) with another great travel retail pioneer, Dr Brendan O’Regan, founder of the world’s first airport duty free shop in Shannon, Ireland |
The documentary traced Feeney’s rise from sandwich salesman in New Jersey to billionaire businessman – and his ongoing drive to give away all of his wealth. Atlantic Philanthropies will pay down the remaining US$3 billion to a variety of causes by 2016, Feeney said. The foundation is involved in seven countries, including Ireland, where Feeney has played a major role in funding education projects, and where he has also used his influence to help the Northern Ireland peace process.
Feeney, 78, said he was speaking out now to encourage other wealthy businesspeople to join him in “giving while living”. He said: “Wealth brings responsibilities. People have to determine themselves whether they feel an obligation to use some of their wealth to improve life for their fellow human beings rather than create problems for future generations. And you can never run out of people you can help. ”
The programme focused on the rise of DFS, which Feeney and Miller created to sell liquor to American GI’s stationed in France in the last 1950s. The business really took off after the company won the concession to operate duty free at Honolulu International Airport, a move that coincided with a boom in Japanese travel to Hawaii.
Feeney said: “We were selling Johnnie Walker Scotch for US$7, but it was US$35 in Japan. We did the same with perfumes, and with other products. The savings were so great that the Japanese just snapped them up.”
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Feeney: “There is an obligation for the “˜haves’ to reach out.” |
Long-time DFS colleague Bob Matousek added: “We were doing US$10 million a year [in sales] at the airport, but we were turning over US$1 million a day at the downtown shop in Honolulu.”
Alan Parker, along with Feeney a shareholder in DFS for many years, paid tribute to Feeney’s drive and ambition. “He had the foresight, he was the visionary,” said Parker of Feeney’s role in the rise of DFS.
By 1980, Feeney said, he had become uncomfortable with the amount of money he had earned – and decided he would give it away.
“I’ve always empathised with people who have a tougher life, or who don’t have enough to eat” he said. “Also, I hate the idea of waste. I’d be very unhappy with myself if I wasted money on anything, and that includes living.” Famously, Feeney owns neither a house nor a car, and wears a US$15 watch.
“It comes down to a realisation that wealth doesn’t add much to your life,” he noted. “There is an obligation for the “˜haves’ to reach out. Of course it’s up to wealthy people to decide how they spend the money they have earned, but they should try ‘giving while living’. They might like it.”
MORE STORIES ON CHUCK FEENEY
“˜The Billionaire Who Wasn’t’ – The Chuck Feeney story to be revealed in new book – 27/08/07
Chuck Feeney – the “silent giver”
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