Who was Neil Balnaves? Australian philanthropist and TV executive dies in fatal boating accident 

Neil Balnaves, an Australian television executive and philanthropist, recently died aged 77.

As per ABC News, Balnaves was killed in an accident on the luxury residential yacht, The World, while off the coast of Tahiti. He was vacationing with his wife, Diane, at the time of the incident. According to the Australian Financial Review, the accident took place on February 21.

The philanthropist's death comes two decades after he was involved in another boating mishap, an incident that changed his life. While speaking to Michael Cathcart from ABC Australia in 2013, Balnaves revealed that he ended up being in a "pretty shocking accident" in his late 50s that took him a year to recover.

Apparently, Balnaves' injuries caused him to sell his TV production business and use the proceeds to go into philanthropy as a result of being unable to travel after the first accident.

"What was I going to do with it? There was that quite weird stage where you think a bigger boat would be nice, or a plane would be lovely, or a bigger house. [But] that was pretty false, and then that brought into existence the [Balnaves] Foundation. I really came to the conclusion ... that it was good to give something back to the country that have been good to me."

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Neil Balnaves was named an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2010

Born on May 5, 1944. Neil Balnaves is a native of Adelaide, Australia. His success in the entertainment industry led him to invest in the Balnaves Foundation.

During his tenure, Balnaves was largely responsible for creating Endemol Shine Australia, which produced Australian versions of shows like Big Brother, Bananas in Pyjamas, and Water Rats.

In 1974, Neil Balnaves became Managing Director of Hanna Barbera Pty before becoming MD of Hamlyn Group a few years later. He also led a management buyout of Taft-Hardie and reorganized Southern Star Group.

After Southern Star, he went on to work for Ardent Leisure Group for 13 years from 2003, where theme parks such as Dreamworld on the Gold Coast are run, and built up his foundation. He founded it in 2006 to support the arts, education, and both medical and social injustice research in Australia.

For his role in philanthropy and business, Balnaves was named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2010.

The boating accident that happened in 2002 was the catalyst for Neil Balnaves' career as a private philanthropist.

Throughout its 15-year history, he and his family have distributed over $40 million in grants through his charity.

He is survived by his wife, Diane Balnaves, whom he married in 1971, and two children, Hamish and Victoria. The couple's eldest daughter, Alexandra, died in 2019 after a long illness.