Warwick Fairfax, the last of the famous family to own the Fairfax media empire, spoke on a Family Voice Australia webinar, organised by NSW State Director, Greg Bondar.

Warwick Fairfax began by describing his life in the US, where he lives in Annapolis, Maryland. “I’ve lived here about, over 30 years, my wife’s American. I have three kids. I’m an elder at my church, Bay Area Community Church, which is a non-denominational evangelical church. I was also on the board for many years until recently of my kids’ school, which is a K through 12 Christian school. So, I guess in summary, I’d say I just have a very blessed life and I’m grateful to have a believing wife, believing kids and go to a great church. So yeah. I just feel truly blessed.

Bondar asked Fairfax about his 2021 book, with a personally relevant title “Crucible Leadership: Embrace your trials to lead a life of Significance.”

“Well, for many years, I didn’t want to write a book, because the whole take of which we get into is so painful. Devastating really that I never had a desire to write a tell-all book the way most people, many people do. I was right. They were wrong.

“Because those books are boring and lame and I’m just never been one to do that. But in 2008, uh, at the church that we go to, the pastor was giving, a message on the life of David, a& righteous man, falsely persecuted.

“And like I’m not a David type. I brought a lot of, most of what happened on myself and m, don’t think of myself certainly back then as Mr. Pelvic speaker. But like if my pastor asked me to give a 10–minute sermon illustration, I’m not going to say no.

“So I gave, uh, just a talk on what happened and you know, it’s a church. So obviously when I felt some lessons, maybe God taught me through it all and weeks and months after people said, well thank you for sharing work. 

“That really helped me. Now, remember this is the east coast of America. Nobody’s heard of Fairfax Media or the Sydney Morning Herald. There weren’t any former media moguls in the audience. It’s like, it’s not like, oh, somebody’s talking about being a cancer survivor or such horrific things where you can say, well, this a horrific, but I’ve been through that too. 

“I couldn’t really get how anybody could relate to my story. But my notion was if I can write about my story in a, in a vulnerable-lessons-learned way and give people hope, then that’s worth the pain of writing the book. And so I definitely felt led by the Lord to, write it clear about my faith, but try to appeal to a broader audience. So yeah, it was that talk in church in 2008, that changed my perspective. And that’s where it began.”

How long did it take to write?

“To get it written was, I don’t know,  5, 6 years or more. Because the challenge was, imagine writing about some of your worst mistakes and most devastating circumstances. After a couple hours a day I was done it, it was really extremely painful. So it took years to write and then, a few more years to get it published. It was quite the Odyssey.”

You have used the word “Crucible”?

“Literally a crucible is like a cauldron that heats molten metal. It might turn into an alloy, but  more broadly a crucible is a severe trial or test and it fundamentally changes your life. The person you were before is no longer.

“And so it could be a financial tragedy  as mine was, it could be a physical, a breakup of a marriage abuse. I mean there’s all sorts  physical ailments, there’s all sorts of crucibles. And so it’s that incredible painful test. 

“And really with the crucible, as I write, you have a choice, sometimes it was because of your own failure or mistakes, sometimes because it was something horrific that was done to you. But either way you have a choice – you can hide under the covers and eventually life will end in the next 30, 40, 50 years. Or you can see that was painful, [but ask] ”How do I get past this?” And in particular, ”how do I use this in service of others?” So it’s really a severe test. You can’t control what happened, but you have a choice of how you, you will react to what happened.

What it was like growing up Warwick Fairfax – the ‘Royal family’ syndrome

“I grew up with really as much money privileged and status as you could have certainly in Sydney. The Fairfax name meant something and it wasn’t just about money. There was just this sense of respect of who the family was, obviously the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne, and The Financial Review. It was a massive company, [with] TV, radio. So it was a combination of yes, a lot of wealth and privilege, but there was also a lot of pressure.

“t was a bit like – it’s gonna sound weird – but growing up in the Royal family. This company had been in my family for 150 years, for generations. As I sometimes say almost like the prodigal son [parable], I was the son that stayed at home. 

“I was the one that worked hard and got good grades, went to Cranbrook, a boys school in Sydney. So, you know, I did everything to make life harder because a lot of times you grew up in, in wealthy backgrounds, you know, drugs, alcohol, you just, you know, throw it with money. I was not that guy. 

“I was the one who took life seriously. And so I just raised expectations of me to have a leading role in the family company in a very close relationship with my dad. So yeah, that was  kind of my growing up.

Faith

“And then from there, um, I went to Oxford, like my dad and some other relatives worked on Wall Street, got my MBA at Harvard Business School. It was all about fulfilling a role that I thought that was my duty to fulfill. And then from a faith perspective we went to, uh, St Marks Anglican Church in Darling Point a beautiful, old stone church. But, we, like may Anglicans, were more Christmas and Easter types. My dad,  had a faith, but was a bit more ecumenical than, I guess my evangelical faith is now.”

Bondar mentions Michael Jensen, the current minister at St Marks, and suggests it is a hard place to be a minister at. Was it hard for Warwick Fairfax to grow up in the eastern suburbs.

“Yeah. I mean I did. And you know, obviously people in, in the us aren’t that familiar, but everybody in Australia has heard of the whole tall poppy syndrome. Cranbrook school – It’s one of the most expensive schools in Sydney. Now maybe the other boys might not been sons and media moguls, but maybe lot lawyers, stockbrokers. They weren’t hurting, but yet, uh, they would just say, ”oh, okay, you think you’re better than us?”

“And I’ve always tried to be humble. I’ve never tried to stick out. 

“And so there was this sense that I was treated differently by others. You know, I was different. It’s not like there’s a whole bunch of old money people in Sydney. ”Yes, there was pressure, but I just, I’ve always felt different. Like nobody’s like me, nobody. Yeah. 

“And, and  you can agree or disagree with a tall poppy syndrome, [be] egalitarian and treating everybody the same. That’s good. But yeah, it didn’t do me any favors growing up in Sydney or Australia. It is a wonderful country, but that tall poppy syndrome, uh, it wasn’t helpful to me, put it that way, I suppose.”

Greg Bondar asks about the Christian background of the Fairfax family.

“We’ll get to my own story, at Oxford where I came to faith. But, one of the most amazing things [is] that the founder of the company, John Fairfax, was as full on for Christ as any business person that you’ll meet.

“He came out to Australia in the late 1830s, but when he was young in his twenties back in England, I mean, he wrote, passages like this, just to give listeners an idea that this wasn’t just Victorian piety. 

‘I do humbly hope that there is one spark to divine grace and love, even in my cold, poor, and cold and hard heart. And as my earnest prayer, that that spark may be fanned into a, a pure flame of unquenchable love to the great and ever blessed Redeemer. This is what I want. 
‘I have been taught to list the praise of my maker while an infant and told repeatedly that nothing but religion could possibly make me happy. That I forever lived and died without Christ, I should be miserable to all eternity. 

‘Humbly, I would bless the decree of God that this desire and thirst after the eternal good, which thou has to bestow may continue. As long as life remains to me.’

“That’s about as full on to Jesus Christ as you can possibly get. So there was that strong commitment, with him and his son and then over the generations, it, it waned a bit, unfortunately, as money-privileged status is not always helpful to one’s faith. But that there was a tremendous heritage that really has meant  so much to me. And his wife, John’s wife, Sarah was also very strong believer. So there was this incredible heritage of faith, that really my family  business was founded upon.”

“It’s a  fascinating story. He was a person of, of great faith. John Fairfax’s son, James Redding Fairfax, also was a strong person of faith. He had a number of kids, and he wrote this letter to his, adult sons. And the nature of the letter really tells you everything you need to know: every parent wants their kids, if they are believers, to be believers in Jesus – and he did too. And so he wrote this to his adult sons.

‘Now that my sons and men are mature years, does it not seem reasonable to suppose that they have given serious thought as to whether they accept the faith of God as their father progresses [in age] and acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Do not my dear sons wait until he is gone.’ And then he finished his plea to his kids with the quote from Acts 16:31 – Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou will be saved and thy house. 

So the fact that he had to write that letter really tells you everything you need to know. And so,  his son, my, grandfather Sir James Oswald Fairfax, I’m sure was a fine person, very moral, but that sense of evangelical faith or fevour, I guess they used to call it in the 1800s, seems to have waned. And so my dad Sir Warwick Fairfax, great man, that he was, was more ecumenical than I am. And sought to look at things from different perspective, [and] weave in maybe thoughts from other religious perspectives. 

“He would think of himself as a Christian and you know, was a very good man, but [not] in the sense of, you know, having a personal saviour and, you know, Jesus Christ that sense of evangelical personal salvation. As the power and the money grew again, they were fine moral people, upstanding members of the community, but there was that shift, uh, from the second generation of James Redding Fairfax to at least many of the descendants since.”

Greg Bondar asks As a boy how did you feel about the media?

“You know, again, a bit like the Royal family. It would be like asking Prince William, ’do you want to do this whole family business thing?’ And he’d say, ’Well, I have no choice. It’s what my, you know, grandmother wants me to do. And my dad.’

“Obviously, you know, Prince Harry has chosen a different calling, but I felt I had no choice. To ask me, ’what do you wanna do in life?’ It’s an irrelevant question. As they say, in the military, you know, duty to a country – it was like, was my duty to the family. Sounds a bit arrogant or hubristic – Duty to the nation.

“It’s like, how could I not do that? It’s my birthright. And so the idea of, do I want to do this? Am I why to do this? Is I would say divinely wide irrelevant. It was my duty. And hence, you know, Oxford, Wall Street, Harvard Business School, was all about a sense of what I had to do. 

“Even after I became a believer, it would never have occurred to me to say, ’well, Lord, should I do this?’ Because it’s like, it [was] just patently obvious. And after I became a believer, you know, realising the founder of the company was such a strong believer. It was like, ’well, I know what God’s will is.’

“Yeah, you have this arrogance, stupidity youthful, naive naivety that I don’t even need to pray about it. It’s clear what’s God’s will is. He was a believer. I’m a believer I’m meant to restore the company to the ideals of the founder. 

“It was so obvious I even had, uh, you know, older men, mentors, who would, who with the best of intentions said, ’we’ve been praying that God would raise up somebody in the heart of the media in Australia for decades, you are an answer to prayer.’ Oh, well, wow. Okay. That’s a pretty heavy deal and very well meaning, but yeah, I felt like I, I had absolutely no choice. It was my duty, so okay. Whether I wanted to or not, I felt like it was my duty and duty being a big thing for me. I just went ahead.”

The takeover bid

Bondar asks: Now let me go to 1987. I believe that’s when your father died. You were whether, you know, catapulted or whatever, you’re now the chairman of the, of the company, the board, your CEO tell us about 1987 and the 2.2, 5 billion bid. Take us through that because I think that’s probably a crucible moment if I, if I’m reading your book correctly.

“Greg, so, yeah, as you mentioned in early 1987, my father died: I was from his third marriage. He would in his late fifties when I was born and he died in his mid to late eighties. 

“I was in my last few months of Harvard business school, um, and the company at the time, John Fairfax Limited was about 50% publicly owned. But the stock exchange believed the company was in play. The share price started rocketing up. 

“They felt like, okay, so Sir Warwick Fairfax has died. A few smaller shareholders sell, the company will go. This is the eighties. You know, the era of Robert Holmes à Court and others – massive  corporate Raiders. So, there was a sense of  some degree of instability in the sense that you had other members of my family,  [who] tried to throw my father out as chairman in 1961, [and] after a painful divorce with his second wife, in 1976 they threw him as chairman unsuccessfully. [Editors note: He resigned as chairman in 1977 after the board terminated his executive authority.]

“I was 15 back in 76. I loved my father deeply. And I felt like that was wrong. Talk about a righteous man, falsely persecuted. At least that was my perspective. As a boy – maybe it’s more complicated. 

“So ever since then, you know, my parents or my dad had a sense that the company was drifting from the vision of the original founder. And, um, it’s kind of worth noting because most,  people listening here would not be aware of this. The original masthead of the Sydney Morning Herald  had [a motto] “[In moderation placing all my glory, while] Tories call me Whig, and Whigs a Tory.” Which in modern language means while liberals call me conservative and conservatives call me liberal. 

“It was always intended to be an independent paper, not a party paper. So there was a sense maybe [it had] drifted from that vision. And, there was a sense by my parents and me that the company wasn’t just being well managed.

“The Herald and Weekly Times, this big media company back then – Rupert, Murdoch gobbled  all of that up. And there was a sense we could have got something, maybe the Brisbane Courier Mail, but you know, we kind of, [were a] dollar late, dollar short, kind of deal. 

“So with all of that in my youthful, uh, crusade mentality, which, you know, very young naive, and I think my motivation was good, but you know, crusade, mentality’s not always a good thing. You gotta be careful what you crusade for. And  so I launched this 2.2, $5 billion takeover. I was 26. Other family members sold out. They didn’t want to be trapped in a company controlled by a 26 year old. The October 87 stockmarket crash led to us having too much debt. By the end of that year, we, we had an unsustainable level of debt.

“I brought in a new executive [who] happened to be a believer, funnily enough, Peter King, a great guy. And he increased operating profits 80%, which I suppose justifies to a degree, the fact that it wasn’t as being well managed. Bbut by late 1990 Australia got the big recession. Newspapers are cyclical and the company had to file for bankruptcy. So pretty much the tale of the story is as soon as I launched that, takeover a bid, it was almost doomed to fail. I mean, everything would’ve had to work, right.

“Whether it was really justified, it was just this whole, ’my father was, you know, thrown out’ at least subconsciously that played a role. It was a sense of strength in the vision of the founder, [and] not being well managed. Here I am at 26 and it wasn’t so much about patrimony. I just wanted to have it be well run, but  just too much of this Crusader, you know, knight in shining armour. It was ’here we go.’

“My book in part talks about all of the poor assumptions and mistakes I made leading up to that takeover. So yeah, that’s the, the short story, believe it or not.”

Conversion at Oxford

Greg Bondar asks tell us what happened at Balliol College, Oxford.

“I had a, a buddy of mine at Balliol College at Oxford and he kept inviting me to this local Anglican church called St Aldates. And so eventually I went and it was different than, you know, churches, I was, familiar with. Itwas an evangelical church. It was a student church. It was led by Michael Green, I guess it was his sort of early eighties. One of the most prominent, theologians on evangelism. You’ll find when John Stott  talks about evangelism, you footnote, Michael Green. So this guy could write a thousand page term [paper] on evangelism as well as a hundred page book on how to come to Jesus.

“The guy was brilliant, but he was a very charismatic, small ”c”  speaker. So they sang choruses. 

“The sermons were incredible. This was,  during my last few months at Oxford. So this is like late March, 1982. And there were going to have a retreat at a place called Lee [Abbey], which is an Anglican retreat on the Devon coast in England for Oxford and Cambridge students.

“So I, I just felt like, look, I need a break from studying for my exams. So I went there in that week at Lee Abbey Devon and it changed my life. I mean, there were other students singing, choruses, sharing testimonies. I never heard people share testimonies before, and  preaching from the gospel. And  so I made the mistake of asking a, a lay leader from St Aldates, ‘do you have a, a modern copy of the Bible?’

“That’s a dead giveaway that maybe I wasn’t with the program. So,  she kind of shared with me a modern copy and basically asked if I knew Jesus as my personal savior. And I said, ’I didn’t, but I knew I needed to with all the pressure that was to come upon me in the future years’. 

“And so I accepted Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour, in late March 82. And my faith in Jesus has been the driving animating force of my life ever since. 

“So it was, it was a turning point in my life. And the interesting thing is despite my father being a bit more ecumenical rather than saying, oh, I’d become some holy roller when I called him, he was actually excited because it’s like, well, this is the tradition of our family. And so this is great. It was just, I don’t know what reaction I was expecting because  he wasn’t quite this evangelical believer that I like to, you know, think his forebears were and I try to be, but yeah. And he was actually pleased. So yeah, that was a fascinating, that probably says something that maybe I didn’t know him as well as I thought I did. 

On making mistakes

Bondar asks Well, Warwick, just, I want to jump back to the $2.25 billion bit for a moment. Look, you’re Harvard educated. You are now wiser. You are now better read. In hindsight, was that a good move at the time Warwick? 

“I mean it was a catastrophic mistake in a lot of ways for the company. Was the company in this dire straits, probably not. Could it have been better managed? Sure. …

“For me personally, it was a huge mistake because  I’m basically - certainly back then - shy and  reflective. I’m not a Rupert Murdoch type. My dad was really, would’ve been a better philosophy professor, he wasn’t a business guy either. And so I’ve got a fair amount of that in me. So I prefer to advise and listen and write and think. I don’t like making a hundred decisions before breakfast. It’s just not my wiring.

“One of the things I write about in my book, you know, I believe are all designed by God for a reason. He doesn’t make mistakes. So I wasn’t designed to head up some big media company. I was ignoring my divine design if you will. So it was a massive mistake. I mean, we’re very comfortable now. Could I have been, I don’t know, few hundreds of millions of billions, more comfortable, maybe.

“Fortunately money never has been that important to me. And you grew up with about as much money and privilege as you could have. I I’ve always realised even before I was a believer that money doesn’t make you happy, you know, in of itself. But yeah, I mean, you know, if I hadn’t done the takeover, uh, life wouldn’t necessarily have been better. I would’ve been still in the, the spotlight, you know, the family frictions, weren’t gonna go away.

“I would’ve been in some gilded prison if you will. So for me personally, the fact that the way I could have gotten out would’ve been the way it happened. I never would’ve left voluntarily. Would’ve been betraying my father and my ancestors. I saw it. So, you know, yes. Would I have done it differently? Probably, but on the other hand, if I’d not done the takeover, I would’ve been trapped. 

“So in some ways [leaving] the company, at least me not being involved, the pain that I went through in a lot of ways was a gift of blessing. You know? So maybe in some ways God said, ’I have, um, other things for you to do in life and despite your mistakes, I’m going to use your mistakes for my purposes.’ And I absolutely believe that God did that, exactly.

On being a servant.

Warwick Fairfax is asked about leadership.

“Especially after coming out of a horrendous crucible,  you know, you’ve got to understand your design. God doesn’t make mistakes. So, if you’re in some company that’s not,  matched with your design,  that is not good. You’ve got to feel a sense of calling. I would say, God-given calling, which should be in line with your design, [when] you feel like what you’re doing is somewhat of a calling.  I talk a lot about living a life for significance, which I define as living a life on purpose, a dedicated to serving others. Believers might look at that as a kingdom calling. So, you know, if you’re in a company or an organisation, you obviously you want to be a servant leader. People write, talk about ’lead like Jesus,’ which meansbeing humble.

“It’s not about me. It’s about a higher calling. I’m just here as a humble servant. So you want to feel like it’s in line with your design. It’s a calling that you feel that God has called you to. And I’d say, you know, back to what I said earlier, every day, you’ve gotta be on your knees, in prayer, reading the Bible. Uh, you know, and it’s gonna sound a bit strange, but when I was writing the book, I just have had this mantra, if you will. I, I would say, as I was praying to the Lord every day, may your words be my words? May my words be your words I wanted, Lord, you speak through me. You tell me what you want me to write. Well, I would say, you know, if you’re heading a company, you should say, Lord Jesus, this is your company.”