Richest 250 2021: The List spends a day in the life of oldest billionaire Len Ainsworth of Aristocrat fame
There’s work to do for this 97-year-old who heads into the office each weekday. Although he did have to give up skiing recently.
Len Ainsworth laments he had to give up skiing about 18 months ago when, he says, he found himself racing down a hill in Europe without giving much thought to the consequences.
“I got to the bottom and thought: ‘Well I wasn’t doing any thinking about any of that, the skis took over’ and so I guess I’d better wake up to myself,” the 97-year-old billionaire tells The Australian.
Ainsworth, the oldest member, and billionaire, on The List – Australia’s Richest 250, published in The Weekend Australian this Saturday, says he is in good shape for his age.
In an exclusive interview in The List, he reveals the lessons he has learnt over seven colourful decades in the corporate world, including the night infamous Sydney standover man Lenny McPherson tried to blow up his factory with a gelignite bomb.
He says patience and persistence are the key.
“Prepare yourself for a long haul as nobody in the field you choose is about to move over and let you in. On the contrary. Who knows? They may even choose to bomb you.”
He makes it into his Sydney office each day of the working week, driven there in a Porsche Cayenne.
“There will be a cup of tea waiting for me. I then go through my daily calendar with my lovely assistant Sarah to see what is on the agenda for the day,” Ainsworth says.
“I then move through any emails or correspondence that has come in overnight. I sign any cheques for invoices that need payment. I’ve got branch offices here and there and I’ll ring people. I’ll usually stay until three in the afternoon, four or five if necessary. Life is never dull.”
Ainsworth and his family have amassed an estimated $4.01bn fortune, which started with the poker machines manufacturer Aristocrat Leisure he built from his father’s dental supplies business in the 1950s.
The family still maintains a big stake in the now ASX-listed Aristocrat, though after a false cancer diagnosis in 1994 Ainsworth would leave and later form rival Ainsworth Game Technology.
That was later sold in 2016 and Ainsworth says he now puts much of his spare cash into industrial company shares.
In recent years, he has made good money investing in storage facilities. He is building a new facility at Lidcombe in Sydney’s west, so there is always correspondence relating to that and meetings to be had.
Evenings are spent dining with friends or family, and with seven sons Ainsworth has plenty of grandchildren to speak with or have visit.
Ainsworth has a physiotherapist visit him at home a couple of times a week — “They half kill me. They tell me it is good for me,” he jokes — and a home helper to get him prepared for work and assist around the house.
The helper gets another duty, driving Ainsworth to the office in the Porsche Cayenne provided to him by Aristocrat as part of a deal with the company he founded after he left it in 1994.
“I don’t drive it, it goes faster than me,” Ainsworth explains.
“I’ve got it for another two years and then perhaps I’ll downsize.”
The full 2021 edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 is published in The Weekend Australian on Saturday, March 20 and at theaustralian.com.au/topics/richest-250