Sir Tom Hunter Philanthropy
Sir Tom Hunter (born Thomas Blane Hunter) started out as the son of a grocer and later on became a Scottish billionaire with an estimated wealth of £1.06 billion. Aside from his enormous reputation as one of Britain’s richest individuals, Sir Tom Hunter is also a notable philanthropist. What is more impressive about his life story is that he has used his immense wealth to serve the common good, believing that “a man who dies rich, dies disgraced”.
Sir Tom is the son of businessman Campbell Hunter, owner of grocer’s shops in the coal mining town of New Cumnock. After the coal mines shut down and the family business closed, Hunter graduated from the Business School of Strathclyde University. After graduation, he considered the difficulty of getting a job and developed an idea of selling trainers and suits. He started out his retail market from the back of van, and then built Sports Division that later on became UK’s biggest retailer, possessing 250 stores and more than 7,000 employees.
His philanthropic enthusiasm, inspired by Andre Carnegie, is built around the realization that “making money was only half of the equation”. To solve the other half, Sir Tom Hunter, together with his wife, continues to engage actively in various philanthropic efforts. As a result, he is the most generous individual in the UK.
To promote his initiatives, Sir Tom Hunter established The Hunter Foundation in 1998. The foundation has supported, and continues to support, numerous entrepreneurial and education initiatives in Scotland and elsewhere.
He has grossed over £1.01 billion in charitable contributions. His many donations and contributions concentrate on organizations addressing poverty, education, and promoting entrepreneurship.
Among them include a donation of £1m to BBC Children in Need Appeal, £7m to Bob Gedof’s Band Aid appeal, a £1m contribution to support the Make Poverty History campaign, £100,000 in the cause-oriented concert Live 8, and a pledge of £1m for tsunami victims in the Indian Ocean. He has advanced entrepreneurship in his native Scotland by funding a £500,000 joint project with the Scottish Executive and a £5m donation to establish the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde. He recently worked with former US President Bill Clinton’s William J. Clinton Foundation, donating £100 million to promote good governance in Africa through the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative.
In recognition of his exemplary philanthropic work in education, he received the Beacon Fellowship Prize in 2003. Sir Tom Hunter received knighthood in 2005 for “services to Philanthropy and to Entrepreneurship in Scotland”.
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