Solomon Lew

Lew was born in Melbourne to Esther () and Pinkus Lew (originally Lewkowicz), Polish Jews from Częstochowa who immigrated to Australia during the Interwar period. His father was active in Melbourne's Jewish community and was vice-president of a landsmanshaft for Częstochowa Jews. Pinkus Lew established a textiles business in Flinders Lane, but died when his son was 12 years old. Lew was educated at Mount Scopus Memorial College. He established his first business, Voyager Solo, at the age of 18. He studied accounting and commerce at night school. ==Business career==

In 1981, Lew's family office Parfit Investments Pty Ltd made a takeover bid for John Martin's, an Adelaide based department store chain. The following year, another of Lew's firms Specular Investments Pty Ltd made an unsuccessful bid for eyewear retailer OPSM. By 1983 Lew and controlled entities had obtained close to a 10 percent stake in Myer Emporium Ltd. In the same year he proposed a A$50 million takeover bid for the Australian branch of Cadbury Schweppes. Yannon transaction While chairman of Coles Myer, Lew involved Coles Myer in a deal with a private company Yannon Pty Ltd which ultimately lost Coles Myer 18 million. An internal Coles investigation endorsed Lew's claim that he knew nothing of the deal, and a subsequent four-year investigation by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) ended with no charges being pursued. ASIC chairman Alan Cameron, acknowledged during the press conference to announce the outcome of the investigation that: "It is worth saying that the original loss suffered by Coles Myer was about 18 million, and the recovery made by Coles Myer was in excess of 12 million." Lew contributed to this 1996 settlement with Coles-Myer. Cameron also said that it was "clearly true" that Lew was not guilty of any breaches of the law. When asked if he believed Lew was innocent, Cameron replied: "of course." TESNA Lew and Lindsay Fox formed a consortium to acquire Ansett Airlines after it had an administrator appointed. They sought and obtained the exclusive right to negotiate to purchase the airline. They obtained the agreement of various stakeholders in the airline, including trade union members and their representatives. Greg Combet, the secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions said Lew had breached 'repeated commitments'. During this time spent negotiating, the administrators had been persuaded to continue to operate the airline despite heavy losses which reduced the amount ultimately available to creditors, which included employees owed entitlements. Lew and Fox had committed to take on 183 million of these entitlement obligations if they acquired the company. These commitments and their statements that they could and would proceed with the acquisition led the trade unions with members involved in the business to support the bid. The consequence of Lew's withdrawal was much embarrassment for the ACTU, which had strongly supported the Lew-Fox bid. Coles Myer board In September 2002, a resolution to remove Lew from the Board of Coles Myer was successful after Stan Wallis, the chairman of the company, campaigned for Lew's removal. Wallis successfully lobbied major institutional shareholders, including insurance companies, banks and large investment firms to take the rare action of voting against an incumbent director. Prior to the vote, Lew campaigned heavily spending an estimated 10 million campaigning for his re-election focusing mainly on smaller shareholders. He was successful in obtaining millions of proxies but they were ultimately insufficient. Premier Investments, Just Group and Myer deal In March 2008, Lew returned to the public company stage, rejoining the board of the listed company Premier Investments, as its chairman. At the same time, Premier announced a takeover offer for Just Group, one of Australia's largest retailers which owns Just Jeans, Portmans, Dotti, Peter Alexander Sleepwear, Jay Jays, Smiggle and Jacqui E. Analysts criticised the offer for being too low and comprising less than half in cash. In publicly explaining his offer, Lew said Just Group was trading worse than had been disclosed to the investment community. Premier's stationery brand Smiggle was profitable in its first year in the United Kingdom after launching in 2015. The brand was subsequently launched in Hong Kong and Malaysia in 2016. Smiggle's first global flagship store was opened on London's Oxford Street in 2018, along with the first concession outlet in department store Selfridges. Premier Investments owns a 31 per cent stake in Myer. It also holds a 25.5 per cent stake in appliance maker Breville worth $970.5 million. In late October 2024, Premier and Myer announced they had reached a deal for Myer to buy Premier's Apparel Brands division (comprising the fashion brands Just Jeans, Jay Jays, Jacqui E, Portmans and Dotti). As part of the transaction, Myer will issue new shares (worth $863.78 million) to Premier Investments, while Premier will contribute $82 million to the business. Lew will join the Myer board as a non-executive director and the deal would make him Myer's largest shareholder with a personal stake of 26.8 per cent. The deal was completed in January 2025. ==Personal life==

In 2014 Lew separated from Rosie Lew , his wife of forty years. Their three children are active in the Lew's business empire including Peter, who is the chairman of P Lew Investment Group and the owner of the BrandBank Group of Companies. He is married to Ally Lew and has three children; Steven, who married Sarah Nowoweiski in 2003 and filed for divorce in 2011. and Jacqueline, who married Adam Priester in 1999 and filed for divorce in 2011. He was active in the United Israel Appeal from the late 1960s and in the early 1980s founded its Action for Israel division. In 1986, Lew donated $450,000 to the National Gallery of Victoria to fund the acquisition of Glenara, a painting by Eugene von Guerard. In 1999, each of his children were gifted 170 million from the "Lew Custodian Trust". Net worth , Lew's net worth was assessed by the Australian Financial Review as 4.11 billion, published in the 2025 Rich List. In January 2019 his net worth was estimated by Forbes Asia as 1.46 billion as published in the list of Australia's 50 richest people; and Lew was ranked 33rd on ''The Australian's'' Richest 250 List. ==See also==