Great Barrier Reef Foundation chairman and businessman John Schubert always considered himself an environmentalist, but it was only when he snorkelled on the Great Barrier Reef for the first time in 2003 that he was truly won over by one of the natural wonders of the world.

Surrounded by a school of colourful fish above Bait Reef in the Whitsundays, Schubert – the former chairman of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and former director of BHP Billiton and Qantas – pledged to help save the Great Barrier Reef which has been under attack from climate change.