30 Amazing Things About Anthony Pratt That Everyone Should Know

8 April 2019, 10:00 am EDT By Ruby Karnick

Anthony Pratt, the Executive Chairman of Visy Industries and Pratt Industries in America, is world renowned for his contributions towards various philanthropic causes through the Pratt Foundation. For over the past decade, he has been constantly ranked among the most influential people as well as the richest people in Australia lists by several magazines. Here are some facts about the Australian billionaire:

Pratt is the Global Chairman of Pratt/Visy Industries and a member of the United States Center’s Council of Advisors. He is also a member of Australian-American Leadership Dialogue, to strengthen ties between two countries.
Visy Industries employs more than 9500 people in Australia and the United States, with total sales exceeding $ 5 billion. Today, Visy’s operational footprint extends from Sydney to Singapore, from Shanghai to San Francisco, with more than 180 facilities worldwide.
He was born Anthony Joseph Pratt, on April 11, 1960, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.He is the eldest of three children to Jeanne, a philanthropist and Richard Pratt, a business magnet and former president of Carlton Football Club.
His parents are Polish-Jewish,who immigrated to Australia from Poland in 1938 seeking safe refuge from Nazis. They changed their surname from Przecicki to Pratt.
On January 17, 2019, he posted a video of himself doing a celebratory dance on‘Twitter’ with the caption reading ‘just picked up a big box customer.’ He is not afraid to have a laugh at himself on the social network with his profile picture highlights his orange hair in front of a pile of pumpkins.
Billionaire Pratt is the richest person in Australia, topping the 2018 Financial Review Rich List with record personal wealth of $12.9 billion. It is the second consecutive year atop the list for Pratt.
Pratt graduated from Monash University, Melbourne, with a Bachelors of Economics with Honors in 1983. After graduation he joined a management consulting firm of McKinsey & Co.
In 1982, he joined the Visy Industries as joint General Manger. The Visy Industries was founded by his grandfather in 1948 and after his death in 1969, his father Richard Pratt, served as its Chairman.
In 1988, he became its Deputy Chairman and with their sight on the huge American market, in 1991, he moved to United States to spearhead the family’s business expansion into America.
He built Pratt Industries USA into a billion dollar company in fifteen years’ time. Through Greenfield initiatives and by acquisition of several corrugated manufacturing companies, Pratt Company grew 15 fold in sales and earnings. From US$100 million in 1991 it grew to US$3 billion in 2016.

In 2007, Pratt made a commitment at President Clinton’s Global Initiative in New York City to invest US$1 billion in clean energy and recycling infrastructure over the next 10 years. He fulfilled his pledge five years early and was honored with Corporate Social Responsibility Award by Foreign Policy Association.
It is the only major paper container board company that is 100 percent recycled. About half of all the paper New Yorkers recycle is shipped here and recycled through the Pratt mill. The paper gets turned into thousands of pizza boxes every day.
In 2013, then New-York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented Pratt with a proclamation declaring September 17, 2013, Pratt Industries Day.
The Pratt industries are a key player in creating a greater, greener, more sustainable city. The mill opened to save nearly 90 million trees and helped keep about 400 million truckload of paper from being dumped in area landfills.
Pratt industries grew from being 46th largest corrugated box producer in the United States, to the fifth largest in 2016 and Pratt was awarded the RISI North America Packaging CEO of the Year Award.
In 2016, he opened a 100 percent recycled paper mill near Chicago, adding about US$1 billion to his wealth. It was officially opened by then-Governor Mike Pence.
In March 2017, Pratt Industries officially opened its newest corrugated box factory with a US$ 60 million investment in Beloit, Wisconsin.The Governor Scott Walker, hailed the company for creating ‘good paying jobs here and across the United States.’
In May 2017, President Donald Trump gave standing ovation to Pratt, after he made an announcement at the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea event in New York, pledging US$2 billion in investment in the United States in next 10 years, creating an additional 5000 high paying jobs.
In August 2017, Pratt made announcement of AU$2 billion investment in Visy Australia to create 5,000 Australian jobs. It was announced in the presence of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the opening of Visy’s $1.1 billion pulp and paper mill at Tumut mill in southern New South Wales
In the same year 2017, he pledged to give AU$1 billion to charity before he dies. Based on Pratt’s giving history, organizations set to benefit from his future largesse include Royal Children’s Hospital, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and the Prince’s Trust Australia.

Pratt is firmly committed to environmental causes, and he and his company have been honored by environmental leaders such as former Vice President Al Gore, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Ted Turner, the Climate Group and Global Green for spreading the world that recycling is an important weapon against climate change.
Pratt also sits on the National Board of the Mohammad Ali Museum and Education Center in Louisville, Kentucky, and is active in numerous charity organizations throughout U.S. and Australia. In 1998 he arranged for Ali to visit Australia for the Australian Football League grand finale.
Many people predicted Donald Trump was going to win the 2016 election, but few people like Pratt was able to prove his prediction. He dropped $100,000 on a Trump’s victory with the TAB, netting himself a cool $450,000 payout after the election.
In April 2009, Pratt returned to Australia to assume the added responsibility of Global Executive Chairman of Visy Industries, in addition to him continuing in his long-time position as Chairman of Pratt Industries USA. Under his leadership the company expanded its Asian presence and participation by over a $100 million a year.
In October 2016, he was the founding sponsors of The Wall Street Journal’s inaugural U.S. based Global Food Forum. He urged the food industry leaders to create millions of new jobs under the slogan ‘Export Food, Not Jobs.’
In September 2013, Pratt was elected an executive member of the Australian-Japan Business Cooperation Committee, a group dedicated for more than 50 years to strengthening ties between the two countries. A month later he was part of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s delegation on official visit to Indonesia.
In 2013, Pratt was awarded an honorary PhD by Monash University, for an outstanding career of achievement and service to philanthropy, business and commerce.
In 2016 the Australian Taxation Office revealed that in 2013-14, despite earning more than $2.5 billion in revenue, the holding company Pratt Consolidated Holdings had paid no tax. In response Pratt said ‘All I can say is that we abide by all the laws, as any good ethical company does.’
He has been married three times, most recently to Claudine Revere, who bore a son in 2009 and the couple named him Leon after Pratt’s grandfather. In June 1997, he married Alison Hope Giske, a daughter of Blanche Giske of New York.
Pratt is a family trustee of the Pratt Foundation, which was established in 1978 by his late parents, Richard and Jeanne Pratt, donating US$15 million per year. He also serves on the board of trustees of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation.