Adam MacDougall started his Man Shake empire after the NRL and has made a staggering fortune
After retiring from rugby league, Adam MacDougall started his Man Shake company with wife Belinda. They’re now worth $635m | See who else made their Richest 250 list debut
Former rugby league star Adam MacDougall rockets into the ranks of The List - Australia’s Richest 250 this year, thanks to the huge success of his Man Shake business.
Pacific Equity Partners made a $400m investment in MacDougall’s business in 2022, and his overall fortune on this year’s edition of The List, published today by the Australian, is $635m.
MacDougall earned economics and business degrees by studying while playing for NRL club Newcastle Knights, and also represented Australia and played State of Origin for NSW.
But his career off the field has been even more spectacular.
After retiring from rugby league in 2011, MacDougall started nutrition company Cranky Health with wife Belinda.
Its flagship product is the Man Shake meal replacement, and MacDougall has also written books about exercising and nutrition, and also has property investments and other assets.
There are 25 new names on The List - Australia’s Richest 250, including cryptocurrency gambling billionaires, the little-known female owners of iconic boot makers Blundstone and the owner of one of Australia’s biggest steel companies.
There are also technology entrepreneurs, a reclusive crypto exchange owner, a young mining magnate and the family patriarch behind the Ray White real estate business.
One of the youngest new names is Luke Mader, the 43-year-old founder of Perth mining services business Mader Group.
The ASX-listed company is one of the hottest mining stocks and has performed spectacularly for investors since listing in late 2019.
Mader holds more than 50 per cent of his company’s stock.
Nicola Forrest is the highest-placed new name, in joint second position with husband Andrew Forrest, due to the confirmation of their separation.
The two are both billionaires and have, on paper, equally split almost all their vast Fortescue share wealth.
They also have equal ownership of the private Tattarang business empire that spans cattle holdings, brands like RM Williams. Their combined wealth is $37.17bn.
The new names are headlined by 35-year-old Melbourne entrepreneur Adrian Portelli, the founder and owner of promotions business LMCT+.
In an interview for the 2024 edition of The List, Portelli says he remembers being called “a dreamer” by his mother when he was penniless and working from his bedroom in his 20s.
“My parents were over it. My mum was telling me to get a job. I said, ‘Trust me, it’s going to happen. I’m going to be a millionaire one day.’
Also on The List for the first time are Blundstone owners, Hobart sisters Helen Dickinson and Anne Routley, 83 and 77 respectively.
They are the daughters of the late Harold Cuthbertson, who took over the family’s Blundstone business in 1953 and ran it successfully for 51 years.
They arrive on The List with an estimated joint fortune of $686m after the lodging of Blundstone Australia’s financial accounts with the corporate regulator shows just how big the boot-making company is now.
Blundstone Australia made a $US32m ($50m) net profit from $US139m ($214m) revenue last year, Blundstone’s 2023 financial report revealed.
According to the financial report, the sisters have shared in $US47m ($72m) in dividends over the past two years.
Sydneysider Brian White, the man behind the famous Ray White real estate brand, also debuts this year, after financial accounts for his business were lodged with the corporate regulator for the first time.
White and his family’s fortune is estimated at $660m. The family also owns mortgage aggregator Loan Market Group, which had $1.bn revenue in 2023.
Another new name is Sydneysider Peter Smaller, who owns one of the biggest privately held steel groups in the country, comprising 26 companies that supply, process and distribute steel products.
Documents lodged with the corporate regulator show Southern Steel Group made a $113 million net profit from $1.85 billion revenue in 2023. The business traces its history back to 1947, when Southern Steel Supplies was established in Wollongong.
The Smaller family bought a 50 per cent share in 1986 then 100 per cent six years later as it expanded by acquiring companies like Surdex Steel. Southern Steel has bought more than a dozen firms in the past 15 years and now has more than 1300 employees.
Smaller is joined on the Richest 250 by Estonian-based crypto gambling entrepreneur turned investor Tim Heath, the founder of global online gaming business Sportsbet.io who also manages a $1bn investment portfolio.
In an interview for The List, Heath details his investment strategy of targeting fast-growing startups rather than large established companies.
“I’d prefer to get into something that is worth $10 million now. I can drive it to $150 to $200 million, which is 20 times [the return]. That absolute return on investment, that is what excites me,” Heath says.
Other new names include lithium mining billionaire entrepreneur Nick Wakim, who debuts with an estimated $1.1bn fortune and Sam Gance, who joins Chemist Warehouse co-founding brother Jack on The List with combined $3.26bn wealth.
The 2024 edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 is published today online and inside The Australian.
More Coverage
