The Australain
Written by Jane Schulze
Printed Firday 26 January 2007, page 22
Business success enabled former Hoyts chief executive Peter Ivany to give back to the community, and that work has now been recognised with an Australia Day honour.
Mr Ivany, who took Hoyts from a small business with 40 cinemas to one with more than 2000 in 12 countries, has been named a Member of the Order of Australia "for services to the community through a range of fundraising, Jewish, arts and sporting organisations, to medical research and public health and to business education".
Hoyts was sold to James Packer's private company Consolidated Press Holdings for $1.3 billion in 1999, after which Mr Ivany decided to spend half his time on non-profit activities.
The son of an Auschwitz survivor, Mr Ivany said he wanted to help the country that had provided him with so much. "For our family to come here as refugees and to be able to do what I have in one generation is really pleasing, so I wanted to spend half of my time after Hoyts doing not-for-profit thing," he said.
Mr Ivany retains business interests through his Ivany Investment Group (IIG), but he also chairs the Australian TV, Radio and Film School, is the appeal chairman of the Jewish Cmmunal Appeal, chairs the Sydney Australian Football Foundation and chairs the advisory council of the Sydney Film Festival.
He is also a member of the President's Council at the Art Gallery of NSW, a board member of the Museum of Cotemporary Art in Sydney and is an adjunct professor at Sydney's Universtiy of Technology. "For me it's not about the mone but about building things and making a difference and that for me has always been an important part of why I work," Mr Ivany said.
Through IIG, Mr Ivany invests in films, has interests in Imax theatres, the Base backpacking hostel group and boutique investment bank Momentum Pacific.