Article
Jan Cameron: Hero
MATTHEW DENHOLM, Australian
SHE is one of Australia’s wealthiest women, but Kathmandu retail chain founder Jan Cameron has no taste for jets, luxury yachts or private villas in Tuscany. The 57-year-old appears more at ease in rural Tasmania tending to her chooks, which have been rescued from a battery-hen farm, or rattling over dirt roads in a flat-bed ute. Her lack of enthusiasm for the excessive trappings of her massive wealth is more than remarkable – it’s proving a boon for her adopted home. Already known as a philanthropist, Cameron is quietly making corporate history by donating every cent of the profits from her latest Tasmanian business venture to charitable causes.
All Tasmanians know the budget retail chain Chickenfeed, purchased by Cameron along with other companies in the Australian Discount Retail group in March. Almost all would shop at one of its 29 stores, whether they admit it or not. What Tasmanians have not known is that 100 per cent of the profit from those stores – $8million to $9m a year – is being donated to charities.