Marshall White property doyen John Bongiorno has horse racing running through his veins
Real estate supremo John Bongiorno’s dream of winning two Melbourne Cups has had a setback but that hasn’t dented his passion for the sport of kings.
John Bongiorno’s first-floor corner office at the suave headquarters of Melbourne luxury real estate agency Marshall White has sweeping views over the High St retail precinct towards the city’s CBD.
In the right hand corner of his desk a gleaming gold trophy takes pride of place – a replica of the 2013 Melbourne Cup won by the Gai Waterhouse-trained Fiorente, of which Bongiorno was a part owner.
On the adjacent shelf are a bunch of other trophies to mark his horse’s triumphs in the Caulfield and Mooney Valley Cups, plus several other group one races.
The 2021 Mooney Valley Cup was won by celebrated mare Lunar Flare, who this year was set to be Bongiorno’s 12th runner of the past decade in the Melbourne Cup, until tragedy struck a fortnight before the big race.
On the evening of October 27, she broke down with a career-ending injury and was retired after running an unlucky fourth in the 2023 Mooney Valley Cup.
Bongiorno’s other horse initially listed for this year’s Melbourne Cup, named Knights Order, a former Sydney and Brisbane Cup winner, had a poor performance in the Moonee Valley Cup and will now race in a lesser event at Flemington on Cup Day.
“It is absolutely devastating not to have a runner in Australia’s greatest race,” he says. But it won’t dent his passion for the sport.
Real estate is his greatest love but horse racing runs a close second, a legacy of his father’s work for years running a local SP bookmaking operation on the side of his florist and fruiterer business.
“I’ve always gone into syndicates. In real estate a lot of our business is about networking, so you get invited into these things where you meet some amazing people from all different walks of life,” says Bongiorno, who is widely known by the first name of Jack.
Grant Griffiths, the late part-owner of online company Sportsbet, was one of his closest friends. Griffiths passed away in July after a battle with cancer.
The funeral service at Rippon Lea Estate, where Bongiorno was one of only three among the more than 1000 people that attended who gave a speech, was one of the saddest days of his life.
“He was one of my best mates. We were also in business together,” he says.
“He lived down at Main Ridge (on the Mornington Peninsula). We used to go skiing together every March.”
But Bongiorno’s passion for horses has also carried into another important part of his life: philanthropy.
One of the charities he supports is a group called Rehab4rehab run by Alisha Griffiths, which helps vulnerable young people to overcome mental health struggles through Equine Assisted Therapy (EAT) with retired racehorses. It is based at Main Ridge.
“I’ve seen examples of people that have been scarred or have had traumatic upbringings or whatever who won’t come out of their shells and all of a sudden you put them with a horse, and there are certain connections,” he says.
Bongiorno has now supplied a number of retired racehorses to the charity. A plaque on his office wall highlights one in playful scenes with children, which was renamed “Crackerjack”.
“We try to find a good home for the horses and Alisha is taking them on board,” he says.
Bongiorno is also a long-time supporter of KOALA Kids, a program of the Children’s Cancer Centre Foundation that makes a difference to the lives of children and young people with cancer, and their families.
He also supports other charities such as Very Special Kids, the Motor Neurone Disease Association and the Australian Prostate Centre.
“When you get involved in these sort of things, you can see some of the great work that these groups do,” he says.
“I’ve had a lucky life. I keep reminding the people that work at Marshall White that we are privileged to be working where we work and to do what we do. So we’ve got to give back.”
A lasting legacy
Bongiorno grew up on Wellington St, Flemington – a stone’s throw from Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse – in a two-bedroom house he says was “the size of a postage stamp”.
After years of getting up at 3am and coming home at 7pm to support his family, being a workaholic eventually caught up with his father when he was diagnosed with lymphoma.
He died at the age of 56 in 1982 when Bongiorno, his youngest son, was 20.
“Growing up, I was always the worry of my father’s life. So when I lost him, it was always my intention to make him proud and not let him down,” he says.
“So from that point I was always driven. One of the things that he instilled in me was a good work ethic.”
His mother, an Irish Catholic raised in inner-city Fitzroy, was a Collingwood supporter, which rubbed off on her youngest son who has supported the Pies – the 2023 AFL premiers – since his youth.
Bongiorno attended Xavier College where he made lifelong friends and, although he never played football, he has maintained a heavy involvement with the Old Xaverian Football Club for decades.
He was recently made a life member for his work for the club.
His mother died at the age of 63 after a battle with liver disease when Bongiorno was 32. She never lived to see her beloved Magpies’ first premiership in 32 years in 1990.
“T
hat’s the big thing that I’ve realised is that life is precious, and you can’t take anything for granted. Adversity is going to hit everybody, it is just a question of when,” he says.
“You’ve got to make the most of every day and I truly think I have tried to live my life to the fullest.”
After studying economics and accounting at La Trobe University, where he admits he was “bored senseless”, his best friend from school, James Connell, suggested they go into real estate.
In 1989 they joined Hill and Parkinson in Lower Templestowe, selling blocks of land and homes before progressing through a company called Bongiorno Real Estate, then owned by the wealth advisory firm known as the Bongiorno Group founded by John Bongiorno’s cousin, Tony.
John Bongiorno and Connell then established their own company in 1991 called Connell Bongiorno and two years later in 1993 bought Marshall White.
John describes Tony Bongiorno, as a “second father.” They shared a love of racing.
Tragically Tony passed away in early October after an accident while cycling for charity; a stick became caught in his front wheel and his bike fractured, flinging him headfirst into the pavement.
“He suffered catastrophic brain injuries and was on life support for a weekend. I was with his family when we turned off the life support, we were that close,” John says.
“Just about every day we’d text each other on racing, about what horses were running and what we were going to back because we used to pair together.”
Tony passed away at the Alfred Hospital, the same hospital John was flown to last January when he broke his neck in an accident while body surfing on the Mornington Peninsula.
“They took me to the trauma centre and I’ve got to say there’s no greater hospital in Australia,” John says.
But in true John Bongiorno style, he was back at work in the office with a neck brace three days later. He wore it for six months.
He says the secret of the success of his 33-year-old partnership with Connell is that they are “yin and yang”.
“We are just totally different, which is why it works. He is the sensible, smart one of us and I just like to get on with the job and have a go,” he says.
In other words, Bongiorno is the public face of the firm and Connell is the power behind the scenes.
They disagree frequently, but always resolve their differences through open communication and find a balance. Both adopt the same approach to the 40 partners in the firm.
Connell also focuses on the Marshall White Foundation, which supports charities helping the homeless and supporting mental health.
Perhaps curiously, in 2012 Bongiorno wrote the children’s book, “Santa and His Brother Down Under” that continues to be a great seller every Christmas, inspired by a family trip to the US one Christmas.
“I just wanted to leave a legacy for my kids,” he says of his decision to become a children’s author. He and wife Anne have four children: Tom, Harry, Sam and Millie.
All the profits from the sale of the books are donated to the KOALA Kids Foundation. But the book also has a purpose in the business.
“I go around to all the offices of Marshall White each December and ask our people how many books they are going to buy. It is just something that is a value-add commodity that people can give to their clients, friends, schools or charities,” he says.
Harry now has a work connection to Marshall White, employed by Marshall White Finance, a firm owned by finance group Blue Rock that delivers professional services to small-to-medium enterprises.
“I’m trying to get him into the selling side of the firm and hopefully it will happen one day,” his father says.
“But he just loves finance.”
Future’s in good hands
Asked about disruption and the opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence (AI) in the real estate industry, Bongiorno admits he finds the future scary.
He worries that big corporations are already seeking to use AI to put buyers and sellers together, leaving the real estate agent as a “glorified door opener”.
But he finds it hard to see a world where the humanity is completely removed from the biggest purchase most people make in a lifetime.
“It is an emotive thing when buying and selling a house. So having that go-between, somebody that negotiates, I think is probably where the role will lie in good real estate agency,” he says.
He says Marshall White does not have ambitions to expand beyond the exclusive suburbs of its home city and will continue to focus on the goal of “trying to make people better”.
Those who regularly deal with the firm remark about its team ethos, employing a group of high-quality people who together produce results.
One of its most famous products is Stonnington director Marcus Chiminello, who had the highest sales average of any agent in Melbourne over the past year, including the record-breaking $80m sale of an unfinished mansion in Toorak to cryptocurrency casino co-founder Edward Craven.
“He’s one of the greatest estate agents now in Australia, not just Victoria, and I tell a lot of our young people that he won the rising star award at Marshall White 18 years ago. You now look at where he’s risen to through hard work, dedication and discipline,” Bongiorno says.
At the age of 61, the co-founder isn’t even vaguely thinking of retirement.
“I’m energetic and I’d love to keep going until I start dribbling down my tie or all the rest of the team want to get rid of me,” he quips.
He runs what he calls “godfather” sessions for younger staff every Thursday morning at the Moby cafe on High St, near his office.
There he gives them what he terms “life lessons”.
He most admires the listeners and the doers from not only those sessions, but in life.
“There are a lot of people that give you lip service, or come to a training session but don’t bring something to write notes on. They think they’re going to retain everything,” he says.
“What I really enjoy seeing is people that genuinely take your advice, implement it and succeed.”
More Coverage
