LOWY, FRANK

LOWY, FRANK (1930– ), Australian businessman. Born in Czechoslovakia, Lowy survived the Holocaust in Hungary before fighting for the Israeli army in the War of Independence. In 1952 he migrated to Sydney, Australia, where, with fellow Jewish migrant and long-time business partner John Saunders, he opened a delicatessen in a Sydney suburb. In 1959 Lowy and Saunders opened one of Australia's first suburban shopping centers, Westfield Plaza in Blacktown, Sydney. Westfield Holdings Ltd. grew into one of the most important retailers in Australia, developing a string of shopping centers around the country. By the 1990s Lowy had become one of the richest men in Australia, and in 2004 was credited with a fortune of $4.2 billion (about US $4 billion), ranked jointly as the second largest private fortune in that year's Australian "rich list." In 2001 he bought out nine shopping malls in the United States   and also owned six shopping centers in Great Britain. Worth US $18 billion in 2004, the Westfield Group, as it was known, was the largest shopping center owner in the world. Lowy was also chairman of the Australian Soccer Association. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: BRW (Business Review Weekly, Melbourne) "Rich 200" (May 20–26, 2004), 114; R. Ostrow, The New Boy Network: Taking Over Corporate Australia (1987), 65–67; W.D. Rubinstein, Australia II, 361. (William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)