Life of Brian Sherman was rich indeed

Art collector and philanthropist Brian Sherman, who founded EquitiLink Group and made Australian business history in the 1980s, has died at the age of 79.

Businessman, entrepreneur, philanthropist, financial wizard and animal campaigner are just some of the titles ascribed to the indomitable Brian Sherman who has finally succumbed to Parkinson’s disease after a long battle, aged 79.

Art collector and philanthropist Brian Sherman, who founded fund management firm EquitiLink and made Australian business history in the 1980s with a record float on the American Stock Exchange, has died after a long illness. He was 79.

Sherman, who had been battling Parkinson’s disease for more than a decade, died last week at his Sydney home surrounded by his close family and was buried at a private service on Tuesday.

Gene Sherman, who met and married Brian in South Africa in 1968, said her husband’s life became smaller as he grew increasingly ill, but that he remained engaged and curious until the very end.

“His death was not a shock to us because it had been such a gradual decline over many years, but he occupied such an immense place in our lives and he lived such a rich life,” Ms Sherman said.

Born into a small Jewish community outside Johannesburg, Sherman migrated to Australia in the late 1970s with his wife and two children before establishing himself as one of the country’s most successful businessmen and art connoisseurs.

At the age of 38, Sherman left Westpac Bank and joined his cousin Laurence Freedman to found their own funds management business, EquitiLink Group, with an initial $5000 investment.

Less than two decades later the business duo had built its funds to $5.5bn.

By the end of the 1980s, Sherman had made his mark on Sydney’s business and cultural life, masterminding the finances behind the 2000 Olympics and rescuing the troubled Ten Network, taking it from receivership to ­record profits.

“I’m an entrepreneur and a risk-taker by nature,” he told The Australian in a 2018 interview. “I’ve always wanted to have a go. I’ve always been a self-starter, I like being part of the build-up.”

Raised the son of a shopkeeper in a tiny mining town, Sherman’s father went to South Africa in 1910 aged nine as part of the diaspora of more than 40,000 Lithuanian and Russian Jews who were drawn to the newly discovered goldfields in the East Rand.

In his 2018 memoir, The Lives of Brian, Sherman wrote that he remained constantly aware of the “dark undertow” of anti-Semitism and the shadow cast by the Holocaust throughout his life.

Reflecting on the fraught racial landscape of apartheid South Africa, Sherman wrote: “We (Jews) are deemed ‘white’ only by the sheerest of margins”.

Gene and Brian Sherman left South Africa in the late 1970s to travel to Australia.

Following the success of his business career, Sherman later turned to philanthropy, amassing an enormous art collection with his wife and launching the not-for-profit project, Voiceless, that protects animals.

“This passion comes from my heart and my gut,” Sherman told The Australian. “Saving one animal is like saving a billion. My religion is compassion. We must never lose sight of our humanity.”

But in the early 2010s, Sherman began to notice his left leg had weakened and he was gradually grounded by the onset of ­Parkinson’s disease.

Earlier this year, Sherman published a second memoir, Walking Through Honey, which detailed his long physical and mental decline with the disease.

In 2004, he was awarded the Order of Australia for his services to the community and his philanthropy in the arts, medical science, animal rights and the Jewish community.

Sherman is survived by his wife and two children, Emile and Ondine.