Sir Tom and Lady Marion Hunter

Europe & UK

Pledged in

2015

We don't want to be the richest guys in the graveyard we want to ‘do good‘ while we are still alive. Why let others have all the fun?"

Pledge letter

27th August 2015

Our Giving Pledge

Growing up in a very small mining town in the West of Scotland I never dreamed I would write a letter like this.

I started out selling sneakers from the back of a van, met Marion who became my top sales person, then my wife, selling to her fellow workers in an Electronics Factory.

Through hard work and a lot of luck we built a pretty big Sports Retail business.

I found myself at 37 years old with a very large cheque in the bank but nothing to do.

My real education was about to begin.

Thanks to the help of my wife Marion, my dad Campbell and the magnificent Vartan Gregorian The Hunter Foundation began to take shape.

Marion and I came to the conclusion we would not burden our 3 kids with great wealth. We would encourage them to find their passion and support them.

We then decided that as a family we didn’t need any more personal wealth.

I also decided that I want to keep making money through our Private Equity West Coast Capital but the profits would flow to The Hunter Foundation.

We don’t want to be the richest guys in the graveyard we want to “do good” while we are still alive. Why let others have all the fun?

For those who are thinking about this. All I would say is seeing a project we have helped, work is a bigger sense of achievement than any business deal I have ever done.

It simply is an honour and a privilege.

Good luck.

Giving Pledge
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