Susan and David Rockefeller Jr’s shared passion for ocean conservation brings them to Sydney
Susan and David Rockefeller Jr’s shared passion for ocean conservation takes them around the world in the name of philanthropy.
It’s funny, the things that lead to you falling in love. Susan Rockefeller could never have imagined that her three years living with the Inuit in Alaska as a young environmental studies graduate would ultimately result in her meeting David Rockefeller Jr. Similarly, David never dreamt his love for sailing and the oceans would take him to Alaska, and an encounter with Susan in 2000 that would alter the course of his life. At the time both were married to other people. But given they were both independently determined to promote and protect the fragile environment of America’s northernmost state, it seemed only a matter of time.
Today this influential global couple spend much of their time travelling in the name of both ocean conservation and their shared belief in the transformative power of art. But the story behind how they got here has some unpredictable twists and turns.
To the average Australian, the name “Rockefeller” evokes various things: the family responsible for America’s first oil tycoon and first billionaire (industrialist John D); the family behind landmark New York buildings the World Trade Center, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and of course, the Rockefeller Center (no longer in family hands). Their philanthropy stretches all the way back to John D, whose donations totalled more than $US500 million in his lifetime; while more recently the sale of the Peggy and David Rockefeller Collection (David’s parents) at Christie’s raised a record $US835.1 million, all donated. Today, the family is remarkable for many things, not least the relative harmony they have managed to maintain alongside the substantial wealth – estimated at $US8.4 billion in 2020, according to Forbes – despite there being more than 250 members of the extended Rockefeller family.
It is impossible to know what to expect ahead of meeting fourth-generation member David Rockefeller Jr and his wife Susan, in Sydney and indeed Australia for the first time together to visit various local conservation projects and arts organisations but most importantly to catch up with their “adopted son”, Ryan Gollan. The young Chinese-Australian businessman co-founded the Sydney-based The Sapphire Project in 2021 to raise funds and awareness for organisations protecting and preserving Australian waters after witnessing the impact of the work David and Susan have done in the decade since the three became friends.
A few hours in their company quickly reveals a couple who is humble, interesting and interested, a couple determined to use their wealth to achieve positive impact in the environmental space, ocean conservation in particular. They eschew private planes for commercial flights, for example, figuring the money is better spent through targeted philanthropy; while every day of their Australian trip involves meetings with scientists, environmentalists, entrepreneurs and artists. Their itinerary takes them from the Taronga Conservation Society, and its pioneering coral IVF program, to the Art Gallery of NSW and Tasmania’s MONA, Lizard Island’s research station, and Sea Forest’s Australian red seaweed farm outside Hobart.
“When Susan and David travel it’s not a holiday, they go to meet scientists, organisations, people who are passionate in their field, so they can learn,” says Gollan. “The Rockefeller family is seventh generation now and the whole family mantra, how they conduct themselves, is acknowledging they have these resources along with responsibility, and want to live up to the family name. They really deliver that.”
Both Susan and David were brought up in families that respected and cared for the environment and the arts. David’s grandfather was a conservationist who in the early 20th century co-founded the national parks movement (David Jr was citizen chair of the National Parks Foundation for many years), while his own parents were sailors who cared deeply for the ocean. In addition to various directorships related to the Rockefeller company and foundation, he and Susan are trustee and vice-chair respectively of the Asian Cultural Council, which fosters cultural exchanges between artists in Asia and the US, while David is a life trustee of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. His own love of sailing led him to establish the charity Sailors for the Sea in 2004, which would ultimately join forces with the global ocean conservation organisation Oceana, of which he is now a director alongside Susan.
Susan, the daughter of an anthropology lecturer mother and businessman father who supported The Wilderness Society, spent her summers at Long Island where she developed a love of the ocean. Her mother’s speciality in Indigenous American culture inspired her to work for three years in community gardens and fisheries alongside the Inuit in Alaska. This time provoked her groundbreaking 1992 book Green at Work, which explored environmental literacy as a competitive advantage in the workplace and inspired her to become a filmmaker to combine storytelling and visuals to make an impact about environmental education. Her many films and documentaries, including Food For Thought, Food For Life and Mission of Mermaids have aired on HBO, PBS and the Discovery Channel. “If you’ve got a good story to tell you can help get above the junk that’s out there and reach the hearts and minds of people,” she says.
Susan and David were introduced in 2000 in New York as the filmmaker and narrator respectively of a documentary David was making for the Alaska Conservation Foundation. “During the process of making the film I realised I was connecting to a person who shared a lot of my values and also, frankly, didn’t care a whit what my background was but was only interested in whether I was putting the right words beneath her film and saying them with conviction. So that was great,” David says.
It was during a panel on philanthropy in Beijing that Susan met Gollan and the trio have been firm friends ever since, regularly travelling Asia and the US together while Susan and David mentor Gollan on impact and thought leadership.
In 2021 Gollan joined forces with hotelier Hayley Baillie and Ian Thorpe, among others, to found The Sapphire Project, a not-for-profit supported by ongoing presenting partner Tiffany & Co. It is a shock to learn less than two per cent of Australian donations support the environment, with only a fraction of that going to the ocean, so the $2.3 million raised through their annual dinners since the project began is very welcome. Susan is The Sapphire Project’s honorary chair and advises the committee given her experience co-hosting with David the annual Oceana New York Gala, which brings together leaders in philanthropy, business and entertainment to support its mission of restoring the health and abundance of the ocean. While the Oceana gala has an impressive roster of A-listers who attend each year – think Leonardo DiCaprio, 42nd US president Bill Clinton and actor/producer Reese Witherspoon – Susan is adamant credibility, not cachet, is the priority.
“We will not have a celebrity come to give them reputational currency, they have to either have gone before congress or done something in terms of activism that moves the needle for Oceana,” Susan says, noting DiCaprio’s donation of $US6 million to Global Fishing Watch, new technology to help halt illegal fishing. His donation preceded a $US60 million TED Audacious grant. David adds: “And they become friends, too. It’s not just dipping in and out. [Actors] Ted Danson and Sam Waterston are on the board and also good friends.” So far Oceana has donated more than $US15 million and protected more than 6.4 million square kilometres of ocean.
Susan is impressed by what she sees in the Australian team behind The Sapphire Project. “Each is more inspiring than the other, all working voluntarily to make this place more vital and the coral reefs more resilient,” she says. “It’s very exciting we can share common practices and our love for the ocean, because we cannot do it alone. It’s a global common, the oceans connect us all.”
The story is from the February issue of WISH.
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