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This page examines Doug Moran's character, his
philanthropy, his political influence and the
tragic public family feud which engulfed the
Morans.
Two other pages examine the Moran Nursing Home Empire and Doug Moran’s controversial foray into hospitals. The hospital page describes his grand pipe dream of huge health care villages built around luxury hospitals. This page examines Doug, the man and the bitter family fued which accompanied the implosion of his empire.
We should empathise with Doug Moran and his family because of the tragedy of his life. We can excuse it because of the forces which formed him. What we must not do is disregard this life and not learn the many lessons. These are lessons which Doug would hotly dispute. To a greater or lesser extent many of us have some of these traits. I argue that the context of our lives may or may not favour their expression.
Doug Moran is a self made and self educated man from a poor background. He has been a ruthless businessman and a strong advocate for the private sector. He has displayed supreme self confidence, dogmatism and disregard for the views of others. His belief in himself dominated everything he did.
He has persuaded others into accepting his views and supporting his ventures. He seldom if ever admits to being wrong. He has imposed his views and desires on others - not least his family. Like many others with these characteristics he has been a generous philanthropist with strong likes and dislikes.
It was these characteristics, built on his background which in my view made him an unsuitable person to care for the old and frail. In this instance it was his family and not the residents of his nursing homes who became the victims. I speculate that it may have been his wife Greta, a nurse, whose restraining hand protected the residents.
This site has analysed the thinking and behaviour of many flawed but successful businessmen. We should not see him as an evil man but simply as a person with some inherent predispositions responding to his background and environment as best he knew how- there but for the grace of God go so many of us. His personal tragedy deserves our sympathy and understanding. The reason for writing about it is that the lessons for health and aged care and for all of society are there to be seen and learned from, and not only from Doug Moran.
People seem to be blind to these lessons. Our society is driving our health, aged and other vulnerable systems with polices which foster and reinforce people like this and bring out undesirable characteristics in all of us. Current societal beliefs, expounded so forcefully on our televisions and in our newspapers are unable to confront this challenge.
One can compare and contrast Doug Moran with another poverty to riches story, that of Richard Scrushy, the founder and driving force behind the giant HealthSouth. He too had total belief in himself. If Scrushy is to be believed he was totally unaware that the company he tightly controlled was committing a $4 billion fraud. Fifteen senior staff pleaded guilty and testified to his involvement. He was so persuasive that a jury believed and acquitted him. Could it be that he was so persuasive because he was totally convinced that he could do no wrong? Moran also had this trait.
These web pages have taken a particular interest in and have examined and commented on the sort of people who succeed in the health and aged care marketplace. I have argued that the system selects for less suitable people, and this is one reason why it is so accident prone. Press reports tell us much about Moran.
Moran's character and his decisive views come from his background and his personal success in moving from rags to riches. The accounts in the earlier press reports undoubtedly come from Moran himself. He recognises the influence of this background. Poverty both inspired him and scarred him. His ambition, personality and drive ensured success. Wealth gave him power, legitimacy and influence. The weaknesses and flaws were hidden.
We should not doubt his conviction or his integrity in his views. He is a man with a genuine mission tied into his pursuit of wealth. He recognises the power this gives him and uses it for what he considers is best. The press tell us about Doug Moran and his family but they are telling us what Doug wants us to know.
Doug Moran, like other laissez faire ideologues, is a creature of the Depression. He came from a desperately poor family. His father, a coal miner, was a victim of the great Newcastle lock-out of 1929. He took his wife and five children to the Mary Valley, near Gympie, where he cut railway sleepers part-time. Doug, the eldest, left school at 11 to guide the cross-cut saw.
Jun 1988 Doug's background
"Anyone with a bit of intelligence could see the tragedy of that place," he said, "that complete hole of a place".
At 12, he ran away to Sydney. The neon lights dazzled the ill-educated country boy. He worked as a bellboy at Usher's Hotel, befriended an American tanker captain, and by 14 1/2 was sailing the seas.
He ended up in the UK during the Second World War, and was drafted into the merchant pool. He served on troop and supply ships where he caught up on his education. In the midnight to 4am watch, he read abridged classics, and the lives of the great American entrepreneurs, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Frick and Henry Ford.
At a tender age, he learned that real estate held the key.
Back in Sydney in 1946, he worked on the Warragamba Dam. He was thrown out of a rock buggy, and seriously injured: he lost his eye, and permanently damaged an arm. The accident focused his mind. First he married Greta, a nurse in the hospital, then he started a Kings Cross real estate agency. They bought Woolloomooloo residentials and converted them into flats; they bought and sold mixed businesses to migrants.
Greta wanted to continue nursing. They combined their talents by leasing Sir John Sulman's residence and converted it into a nursing home. They worked seven days a week. They were on their way.
Moran says he made his big money when he sold his old inner-city nursing homes and built new ones on cheaper land in the country.
PATRON OF THE ARTS OR DICTATOR? Sydney Morning Herald June 4, 1988
His first investment, achieved with the help of his wife Greta, was in 1954 when he bought into a 16-bed nursing home in McMahons Point, Sydney. Today the businessmen in his diversified group have a staff of more than 4000.
Apr 1990 The empire grows
DOUGLAS MORAN Business Review Weekly April 6, 1990
Over the years, Doug built more than 60 nursing homes which by 1983, according to BRW magazine, had contributed about $30 million to the net assets of the Moran companies.
Mar 1993 Wealth comes from real estate
A rival nursing home operator said of him, "Doug's a real estate developer who found a niche for putting dead development sites to work."
DOUG MOVES ON Australian Financial Review March 5, 1993
"I really hated going to school with bulls-eyes (patches) on the backside. I was always demanding a turn to wear the best trousers."
Oct 1994 The story behind the empire
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After his hard and humble early years, Moran views his workforce as an extended family. His father Michael was a coal miner who was locked out at Newcastle in 1929 and took his family north, in a T-Model Ford, to grow bananas and pineapples at Brooloo in the Mary Valley near Gympie, Queensland, where they lived in tents for six years.
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He spent the war years with the British merchant marine, where he acquired a philosophy from observing the kindness of British people in the bomb shelters during the blitz of London and Liverpool. "You must have a will to win," he says. "Our philosophy here is -- 'Don't predict the future, make it happen.'"I had saved Pound 250 during the war and I was determined to preserve it." "I was working as a storeman in the Rocks (Sydney) and read about the fortunes that had been made from American real estate by the Vanderbilts and Morgans in the 19th Century. I thought I would have a go myself at Kings Cross, where I could deal with migrants and wouldn't have the expense of a car."
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When Moran's grandmother became frail, he was distressed at the poor standard of facilities for the aged. His savings had increased to about 1000, and he took a 10-year lease on the former home of architect Sir John Sulman at McMahons Point and turned it into his first nursing home, with 16 beds. Moran ran it well, and when FAI founder Larry Adler began investing his taxi-driving earnings in nursing homes, he paid Moran to run them and used the profits to invest in the insurance business. By 1987, Adler was tired of his eight nursing homes and five private hospitals, and sold them to Moran.
The Moran group gained momentum in the early 1980s by selling when other groups were buying.
DOUG MORAN'S FAMILY ELIXIR Business Review Weekly October 10, 1994
Like so many corporate leaders and self made men Moran was a prolific philanthropist and revelled in his public benevolence. The origins of this lie in his past. His decided views and the way he exercises the power of his wealth tell us about the man. His tastes extend from paintings to coin collecting to barbershop singing.
Moran prides himself on humble beginnings. - - - - "My mother and father and the children were camped in a paddock during the Depression with no money, food or work when a man from a nearby house gave us vegetables. He told my father he was a millionaire businessman who enjoyed helping people. I decided there and then that I wanted to emulate him."
Apr 1990 A defining moment
DOUGLAS MORAN Business Review Weekly April 6, 1990
Nearly everyone in Australia knows by now that Doug Moran, one of Australia's 200 richest men and a tireless self-promoter, is the country's most generous patron of traditional art.
Jun 1988 Moran imposes his views
He abhors modern painting so much that he has funded a lucrative prize for conventional portraiture. The competition and prize are costing his family half a million dollars.
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Rod McMahon believed, however, that the concept of the Moran competition, and most of the works, were about 20 years out of date. He told Moran so.He was not the first critic, but the problem for McMahon was that three months earlier he had been appointed director of the gallery where the Moran collection would hang.
The gallery was in Murwillumbah, in the Tweed Shire of northern NSW. Several major galleries had declined the invitation to provide a resting place for the portraits after their Australia-wide tour. But the Tweed Shire Council had joined forces with Moran. He contributed $50,000 towards renovating the Murwillumbah Gallery; the shire has contributed at least $114,000 of ratepayers' money over the past three years to publicise and administer the Moran exhibition.
------------------------------
But five days after his Canberra lunch with Doug Moran, Rod McMahon was sacked."The shire clerk told me I'd said things I shouldn't have."
McMahon, formerly director of the Hogarth Gallery in Sydney, and assistant to Elwyn Lynn, curator of the Power Gallery of Contemporary Art at Sydney University, says the Murwillumbah Gallery belongs to the shire and its people, "but Mr Moran is looking at it as his private gallery, his monument.
"He thinks he is a patron of the arts but he has become a dictator of art style."
Doug Moran says he is "pouring about $1 million into that electorate. The president and shire clerk could see I was terribly unhappy".
He did not believe McMahon would promote the gallery properly and he wondered why he had applied for the job.
------------------------------
Behind Moran's artless manner lies steely determination and a sense of entitlement. Being rich means getting your own way.
PATRON OF THE ARTS OR DICTATOR? Sydney Morning Herald June 4, 1988
Moran is an enthusiastic arts patron. He endowed the Doug Moran Portrait Prize, which is worth $160,000 every two years. He is a keen coin collector, and has what is believed to be the only 1930 Australian proof penny in private hands. Estimated minimum net worth: $180 million.
Apr 1990 Coin collector
DOUGLAS MORAN Business Review Weekly April 6, 1990
Moran is a keen patron of the arts and gives an annual award called In Search of Excellence at Sydney's Royal Easter Show, as well as the Culgong Henry Lawson art prize and other awards. Estimated minimum net worth: $120 million.
May 1991 Wealth
$100 MILLION & MORE : DOUGLAS MORAN Business Review Weekly May 17, 1991
Doug nurtures a deep love of traditional art which is more fully appreciated by a visit to his corporate headquarters. The roof garden features ornamental statues and a fountain, while the offices are enhanced by chandeliers, stained glass panels and portraits - including portraits of Doug-and landscapes by Greta Moran.
Mar 1993 Art tastes
Doug does not keep his appreciation of art compartmentalised - it does not exist in isolation from his business enterprises but almost as an extension of it. For example, his latest art adventure, a plan to help transform Sydney's Mint Museum into a State Portrait Gallery, is directly linked to the Westpac settlement over the Gold Coast hospital.
-------------------------------
He has recently sponsored a $3 million chair of urology at Sydney University, an initiative which followed his recent bout with prostate cancer for which he received treatment at UCLA at a cost of $US5,000 a day.
DOUG MOVES ON Australian Financial Review March 5, 1993
One of the country's best-known art patrons, Moran bought his first work of art in the early 1950s. Greta's watercolors are displayed throughout the Moran properties. In a bank vault, Greta has one of the top collections of Australian coins, including many butchers' and bakers' tokens from the Rum Rebellion era. Shane obtained many of these as an eight-year-old, haggling with dealers over their unsorted piles of rubbish. Some tokens he got for a dollar are now valued at $10,000. The Moran collection includes one of only five proof 1930 pennies, for which Doug paid $100,000 at auction in 1979, and the only privately held 1930 proof halfpenny, which he bought for $30,000 a decade ago. In total, their art collections are valued about $25 million.
Oct 1994 Art collection
DOUG MORAN'S FAMILY ELIXIR Business Review Weekly October 10, 1994
What is less well known is Doug's new-found passion for barbershop singing ("I'm in love with it; I'm just sad I started so late") a hobby he is taking so seriously that he is a competitor in the barbershop national titles in Sydney in September.
May 1997 Barbershop singing
$200 Million And More Business Review Weekly May 26, 1997
Doug Moran's political influence
Moran brooked no opposition, He has been right wing, personable and forceful. He has close political associations and uses them quite openly. He has been a potent force in conservative politics. When policies based on his views which pressed for more payment by residents were met with a public backlash, he lashed out, first at the critics and then at the politicians who bent before the pressure. He lost credibility. It is interesting that DCA and other groups are in 2006 once again pressing for greater payment by residents in nursing homes.
If he likes traditional art, no advice on the judicious dispersement of his $500,000 will sway him off his chosen course. If he wants a private hospital of excellence, no rejections from the NSW and Queensland health departments will deter him. Both departments said private hospitals were under-used and there was no need for extra private beds. Moran went straight to Sir Joh. (Queensland's controversial Premiere)
Jun 1988 Political influence
It means a hostile attitude to notions such as consumer rights for the residents of nursing homes, which is the next stage in the Federal Government's major overhaul of the nursing home industry.
"I'll have patients with Alzheimer's Disease telling me what colour to paint the room," Moran says.
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He cultivates and appoints key politicians and Health Department personnel. John Mason, the former Liberal Party leader, worked for Moran after he left Parliament. Moran has close relations with Queensland Premier Mike Ahern, former Country Party leader Doug Anthony, and former NSW Health Minister Kevin Stewart. He presented Stewart with a portrait in oils at a farewell lunch.
PATRON OF THE ARTS OR DICTATOR? Sydney Morning Herald June 4, 1988
Doug indicates that he was very frustrated over the Mint fiasco. After all, in the past, his plans have mainly gone ahead without impediment and with the help of his friends in politics.
Mar 1993 Political friends get Doug what he wants
-----------------------------
As he told The Sydney Morning Herald in 1990, when a Sydney council had reservations about him building a medical mini-city at Rouse Hill on Sydney's outskirts, Doug said he enlisted the help of at least two State ministers, Mr Wal Murray, Deputy Premier, and Mr Peter Collins, then Minister for Health."We have been down this path before," said Mr Moran. "When we went to Queensland, we went straight to Sir Joh, who was Premier then, and he called in the State's controller-general and ordered him to ring the Gold Coast City Council and get things moving without delay."
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Queensland had beckoned Moran for over a decade. There's a Moran nursing home and retirement village at Caloundra, north of Brisbane, where the group had moved, Doug Moran has said, on the suggestion of Mike Ahern, who was Minister for Primary Industry at the time but later Health Minister then Premier. Ahern's wife Andrea had got together a committee to raise funds for a nursing home and sought Doug's help.Then other political assistance saw Doug Moran into Murwillumbah, in northern NSW.
According to Tweed Shire Council president Max Boyd, it was his late brother Jack Boyd, who held the old Queensland State seat of Byron for 11 years, and Doug Anthony, who held the Federal seat of Richmond, who helped Doug Moran into the area.
First up was the Murwillumbah Nursing Home in 1983, followed by the Mountain View Retirement Village at Murwillumbah in 1988.
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Doug Moran was to buy Mt Nullum land owned by the council on the condition that a re-zoning went through. The land, originally zoned rural had been re-zoned scenic escarpment in 1987-88 according to Mr Boyd. It had to be re-zoned again for tourist and hospital use if Doug was to build.In the end, a State government commission of inquiry, held following agitation from local environment groups, recommended against the re-zoning on the grounds of the land's "conservation values and scenic significance".
----------------------------
His National Portrait Prize had come to Murwillumbah, says Doug Moran, after it was knocked back by both Premier Wran and Premier Bjelke Petersen who wanted him to hand over the money for their governments to administer."I said, 'No you don't.' Then Doug Anthony, (whose Richmond electorate encompassed Murwillumbah), said, 'You've got great support up here in the the Tweed.' And he said with (his wife) Margot, 'We will establish it up here.' Margot has 500 friends of the gallery up there."
DOUG MOVES ON Australian Financial Review March 5, 1993
To help oversee the group's medical services, Moran has hired former coalition health spokesman Bob Woods, who lost the Sydney seat of Lowe at the last election.
May 1993 Employing people with influence
$100 MILLION & MORE Business Review Weekly May 21, 1993
In addition, Doug Moran's public advocacy of the positives of private health has not harmed his cause with the Kennett Government in Victoria, where the group has been given the nod to redevelop, own and operate five nursing homes as part of moves to privatise aged-care facilities.
May 1997 Congruence of Doug's ideas and political ideology
$200 Million And More Business Review Weekly May 26, 1997
NURSING home tycoon Doug Moran yesterday labelled elderly people who complain about nursing home fees as bludgers, silvertails and hoarders.
Oct 1997 The bludgers
The multi-millionaire compared pensioners who object to asset-testing to disgraced businessmen Christopher Skase and Alan Bond.
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He said his advertisements under the slogan "Facing Reality" would describe those objecting to the new nursing home entry bond as "silvertails, next of kin [and] the hoarders of assets". "There are a lot of bludgers in our society and I think that's got to stop because it imposes further costs on to the taxpayers of this nation," he said.His comments have outraged pensioners' groups fighting the introduction of upfront nursing home fees they say will force elderly people to sell the family home.
NSW Combined Pensioners and Superannuants president Nora McGuire said pensioners would be angry about being called bludgers by a man who made millions of dollars from nursing homes.
"Mr Moran is the person who advised the Government to do this. It's turning into a disaster and now he's calling people names."
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Mr Moran, who has boasted of his leading role in helping design the nursing home policy, is a donor to Liberal Party MPs.His intervention came as Prime Minister John Howard conceded he may have to "fine tune" the policy after a heated party room meeting in which 17 MPs demanded changes.
Millionaire nursing home boss calls elderly `bludgers' for complaining about fees. Daily Telegraph October 22, 1997
The National Association of Nursing Homes and Private Hospitals has withdrawn ads run in October, 1997 criticising the opponents of aged care change. Meanwhile the Association's president, Sydney nursing home magnate, Doug Moran, was attacked by the Australian Opposition which claims that he has a conflict of interests because he has a real estate company which can sell the homes of people he admits into his nursing homes.
Oct 1997 Political disputes
Nursing home ads dropped in retreat The West Australian October 24, 1997 (ABIX ABSTRACT)
Take, for example, the 1997 decision by the Federal Government to back away from legislation requiring people entering nursing homes to pay a bond. It had Moran's imprint all over it. Some in the Government were unkind enough to suggest he wrote it. When the Government ran up the white flag, Moran, a beneficiary of the legislation and a major Liberal Party benefactor, did not conceal his anger. He quit the party.
May 2000 Frustration when his policy was dropped
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"I was probably too outspoken at the time and it does you a lot of harm in society when you are outspoken. I resigned from the Liberal Party [and] I had been a very strong supporter." (It is not the first time his political judgment has been lacking. Two Liberals who enjoyed close links with Moran -Senator Bob Woods and backbencher Michael Cobb - both left Parliament under a cloud of allegations involving travel rorts. In particular, using Woods to lobby for the introduction of nursing home bonds lacked political savvy.)
Witness For The Defence Business Review Weekly May 26, 2000
Mr Moran, formerly a major Liberal Party donor, told newspapers on the weekend that the aged care industry was in crisis, minister Bronwyn Bishop should be replaced and he would vote Labor on Saturday because Mr Howard was not listening to industry complaints.
Nov 2001 Criticism of policies
------------------
Mr Moran's criticisms of the Coalition's handling of aged care was made more notable because his Moran Healthcare Group has been a major beneficiary of the federal government's shift towards private operators.
Fed - Welfare group endorses Moran criticisms of aged care. Australian Associated Press November 9, 2001
Doug Moran's stubbornness, ego and views
Moran's character emerges from multiple reports about his views and his actions. He viewed any move which he saw as socialist with suspicion especially when labour was in power. Moran has no friends - true friends might challenge his beliefs.
THE Federal Government is overhauling the nursing home industry - and Doug Moran does not like it. The Government believes there are too many people in nursing homes who do not need intensive care, and plans to put more resources into home care for the aged and into non-profit hostels.
Jun 1988 Views forcefully expressed
It also wants to correct funding inequities between nursing homes and between States. To standardise care, the Government's new system assesses all patients on a scale of dependency. Nursing homes with the most dependent residents will be paid more.
It also proposes to introduce consumer rights for people in nursing homes and retirement villages.
But the industry is unhappy. Doug Moran says hostels won't work because there won't be enough nursing homes to provide intensive care.
"You will have to look after your mother and father at home, and you will be driven demented," he warns.
With our aged population peaking in 2021, the greying of Australia means big money. For the Government it represents a huge cost, for the private entrepreneur a boon.
PATRON OF THE ARTS OR DICTATOR? Sydney Morning Herald June 4, 1988
He is a philanthropist, but on his own terms.
Jun 1988 Control
He believes he is a good man, and he does not want anyone to tell him what to do. He withdrew from the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes' Association of Australia, the main industry body, to set up his own organisation.
He has never bought a share or consulted an art adviser for the same reason. He likes to be in control. The Doug Moran Health Care Group is a privately-owned company.
He says he has no close friends. "Other people seem to have friends running out of their ears. I've had no time."
His wife, Greta, was his first partner. Now his grown-up children are in the business.
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"I'm here most weekends," he says, "Everything I do has to be done on a major scale."
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Thus Moran leaps from H.Septimus Power to Dr Bruce Shepherd, the right-wing president of the NSW branch of the Australian Medical Association. Horse painter and doctor, each epitomise old-fashioned values."I'm a great admirer of Bruce Shepherd," he says. "He is an extremely wealthy man. Very few people know how really wealthy he is."
If you handsomely reward the Shepherds of Australia, then "one day a week, I'm sure they would work for free. The disadvantaged would get the flow-on".
But if "wild-eyed socialists like Dr Blewett", the Federal Health Minister, get their way, our skilled people will go overseas where the big money is.
PATRON OF THE ARTS OR DICTATOR? Sydney Morning Herald June 4, 1988
But Doug is not out for the count. He's merely moved onto the next thing. Doug has resources, charm, toughness, contacts and wealth. - - - - - - .
Mar 1993 At ease with himself
He still appears to be a man at ease with himself and the world.
DOUG MOVES ON Australian Financial Review March 5, 1993
Only a very small minority welcomed the (BRW rich list) list. One of them was Doug Moran, the founder and head of Moran Health Care Group, Australia's largest private nursing-home business. To him, it celebrated initiative, entrepreneurship, hard work, dedication and perseverance. Most of all, it celebrated self-belief, an inner conviction that life would bring success.
May 2000 Belief in himself
In a letter to BRW in 1983, Moran wrote: "... I firmly believe that Australia's prospects for greatness and recognition in the world rest entirely with those in the country who take risks and generate wealth. Such people provide the stimulus for the community to work hard and achieve, with a resultant growth in which all can share and prosper ... Unfortunately, we in Australia too frequently are afraid to take up the challenge [of] business and grasp the opportunities."
Witness For The Defence Business Review Weekly May 26, 2000
The Moran's wealth and life style
Moran's driving energy is reflected in the breadth of his activities at home and in business. He displays his wealth and revels in it. The contrast with his early life is extreme. Much of this information must come from Moran himself.
About three years ago, Moran was forced to listen to some advice. Hard work and long hours were making him a sick man. He was told to relax. He took up camellia growing. Of course, he has become a fanatical camellia grower.
Jun 1988 Moran's home
His Wahroonga home, a stately late Victorian mansion, is set in just under a hectare of camellia gardens.
He has lived there for 30 years. "You can go to the retirement home" he says. "I'll stay here."
Dressed in a maroon cardigan, clashing red shirt, and beige pants, he leads me proudly around the garden. He is short, a barrel of a man, blind in one eye.
Here is a rare fountain, a French bronze figurine on a base from Argentina. Fat goldfish swim below the spray. Near the corner vegetable garden, a statue of Caesar admires another pretty fountain.
In the garage are two Porsches belonging to his sons, and a Mercedes. His Rolls-Royce is indisposed ...
He bought the house from the Sisters of Mercy who used it for retired nuns. He and his wife Greta have raised their seven children here.
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He takes me over every room in the house. It is full of dark mahogany and glittering chandeliers.Thickly distributed over all the walls, is Doug Moran's private art collection.
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"Modern art is the easy way out," says Doug Moran, "colour on the wall but no draftsmanship. You have to get back to old-fashioned values".
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His estimated net worth is between $80 million and $100 million. It includes a swathe of real estate, the Wahroonga home, a Scotland Island "hideaway", the 1930 proof penny worth more than $100,000, and the art.
PATRON OF THE ARTS OR DICTATOR? Sydney Morning Herald June 4, 1988
Today it's another story. Moran drives an indigo Rolls-Royce to Mascot in Sydney to board his Beechcraft King Air turboprop, piloted by his son Shane, to visit his health-care facilities spread through NSW and Queensland. Then back to the Stanley Street office in East Sydney, graced not only with antique furniture, Chinese vases and paintings, but with a fourth-floor terrace full of Roman-style statuary, around which fly his white fantailed pigeons.
Oct 1994 Life style
DOUG MORAN'S FAMILY ELIXIR Business Review Weekly October 10, 1994
Doug drove his family to perform and live out his ideas. While they went in different directions they all became part of the business and he planned carefully for his succession. Note in the material below that son Brendan is hardly mentioned and the one article even claims that there are 6 and not 7 children - the reporters must get their information from Doug or from a PR business.
Moran does not control the national association of nursing home owners and disagrees with it so he forms his own and calls it national. He makes himself chairman and appoints his daughter as CEO.
Moran’s influence is reflected in the Australian Securities Commission allowing his companies to conceal their accounts and not to audit them. He avoids scrutiny, a worrying precedent.
His son Shane, 26, accompanies us on the tour. He is courteous and quietly-spoken, like his father. He is the executive director of the Moran Health Care Group. He has legal and business qualifications and speaks five languages, including Mandarin. He has a pilot's licence. The company has just bought a Beechcraft executive jet. He studied fine arts for four months at the Sorbonne University.
Jun 1988 Shane
He lives in the old world elegance of the Astor Apartments in the city, once home to Barry Humphries. But his father has other ideas: a possible mansion or two for young Shane - "if he's good".
PATRON OF THE ARTS OR DICTATOR? Sydney Morning Herald June 4, 1988
The financial detail of the group and the ultimate holding company, D.J. Moran Nominees, is difficult to obtain, as a deed of cross guarantee granted in May 1992 by the Australian Securities Commisssion releases all the companies in the group from producing individual accounts and having them audited.
Mar 1993 No public accounts -- family structure
D.J. Moran Nominees' shareholders are the nine Moran family members, including Doug's wife Greta, sons Shane, a lawyer, Peter, who runs the real estate arm of the business, Mark and Brendan, and daughters, Linda Conin, Barbara Moran, and Kerry Jones, who is chief executive of the National Association of Nursing Homes and Private Hospitals housed in Moran headquarters, and of which Doug is president.
D.J. Moran Nominees' latest annual return filed with the ASC does not show any details of profit or loss.
Only one of Doug's seven children does not work fulltime for Moran Health Care Group at the moment. He is Mark, who is in Canberra, helping as a volunteer for Federal Shadow Minister for Health, Dr Bob Woods. Mark Moran was out letter-dropping for Woods this week.
Once every two years, the Moran children all become involved in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, a biennial event launched in 1988 with a rich prize.
DOUG MOVES ON Australian Financial Review March 5, 1993
Doug and Greta Moran are Australia's biggest names in private health care, and they have arranged for the day when they will no longer run their empire. The Morans have six children, five of whom have become the talent bank for the business in the next century and for the family's art and political/industrial interests.
Oct 1994 The family
How the Morans have planned for the succession, giving their children innovative and challenging roles, is one story. How the family collided head-on with its financiers, and won hands down, is equally remarkable. Most amazing of all is the Morans' openness about their business affairs. They also disclose that they use a family education trust that will continue to the year 2074, to lock up the assets and prevent their dispersion through the possible divorce of their children or other circumstances.
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When a family builds up an empire, the children often develop non-compatible interests. The Moran children are strong-minded, with talents including law, real estate, arts and languages. However, the family ensured that these specialties meshed with the diverse needs of the group. Shane, 33, is a former first-grade rugby union player. Apart from being a jet pilot and a chartered accountant, he has bachelor and masters degrees in law, and is studying part-time for a PhD in international health care.The Morans encouraged him to set up his own firm of solicitors -- S. Moran & Co --originally created for in-house work but now earning more than half of its fees from other clients, especially doctors.
He has also acquired fluent French at the Sorbonne in Paris, German (from selling antiques in Freiburg), and Spanish, a bit of Italian and Japanese, and fluency in spoken Mandarin. A teacher, originally from Shanghai University in China, gives him a wake-up call every morning for a half-hour chat in Mandarin.
Shane Real estate was Doug Moran's original business and his son Peter, 34, another pilot, is now group property director and runs Moran Real Estate, also in the East Sydney building. Peter has worked as a valuer for the tax office and the NSW valuer-general's office, and is studying for an MBA at Macquarie University.
Kerry Jones (nee Moran), 38, originally moved into music and consulting on performing arts to the NSW Education Department. She has three masters degrees: music, arts and administration. She was recently headhunted by her father to run the National Association of Nursing Homes and Private Hospitals, which he heads and which is run from his office. (She also runs the Australians for Constitutional Monarchy group, one of her father's causes.)
The nursing homes association's glossy magazine National Healthcare is edited by Mark, 25, an arts graduate who generates good advertising income and does marketing for the Moran group.
Barbara Hayman (nee Moran), 31, like her mother, trained as a nurse, and started the Moran Health Care Agency in 1991, as a sideline to child-raising. Linda, 36, is public relations officer for the biennial Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, which has a $100,000 top award. Brendan, 28, has pursued a separate career working in real estate.
The positioning of several offspring in activities alongside the main business contrasts with the central role of Greta Moran who, despite her retiring manner, is the powerhouse in the group's day-to-day administration. She starts her daily walk to work at 7 am and has a breakfast conference with Shane, the chief executive, in a coffee shop at 7.30 before going to the office. The group's old-fashioned logo of a nursing sister wearing a veil is a portrait of Greta when young. Doug Moran refuses all advice to modernise it. (A small nursing home group in Victoria that used an identical logo was successfully sued by the Morans this year.)
DOUG MORAN'S FAMILY ELIXIR Business Review Weekly October 10, 1994
This rosy picture of family success and harmony was shattered and it was Doug and his uncompromising view of life that shattered it. It is clear from the press reports that this was a highly controlled and dysfunctional family. There were allegations and some evidence that Doug was a bully, a womaniser and abused his wife. He was a strict disciplinarian. Failure to perform was not tolerated and there were bitter sibling rivalries. Earlier reports documented Doug’s tendency to blame everyone but himself when he did not get his way. He was never wrong. As things went wrong in the business and with his life Doug turned on his family. It is likely that business failure and family conflicts were interdependent although this is not spelt out in the material.
Brendan was clearly the misfit in this family. He failed at everything he did and was bullied by the family. Doug Moran insisted he "take it like a man". He came to hate them. He married. There was no love lost between his wife’s family and the Moran’s. Brendan committed suicide and the two families blamed one another.
Incredibly Moran commenced legal action against Brendan and his wife to recover money he claimed was a loan and the wife insisted was a gift. This occurred when Brendan resigned from the family business. The case continued against his widow. While the sum may seem large to some, relative to the Moran fortune it was peanut money. The case was withdrawn and the Morans paid the costs. Brendan’s wife then sued the Moran’s dynasty for damages blaming them for driving Brendan to his death. In the bitter and acrimonious trial the family’s dirty laundry was exposed for all to see.
This is certainly the most high profile and painful display of family disunity and dysfunction to have reached the headlines. There are lurid press accounts describing allegations of cruelty by Doug and by his son Peter. Greta was supportive of this. She also supported the decision to sue Brendan.
While their repetition must be painful for the Moran family I cannot illustrate Doug Moran’s character and the way I feel he fits into what I have called sociopathic or closed minded behaviour without exploring it. The people I have described are very successful in health care but are poorly suited to this area and are accident prone. This is because they are supremely self confident and have no insight into anything outside their rigid frames of understanding. In this instance it was the family and not the patients in the nursing homes who were the victims..
I mm not going to reproduce the many lurid allegations or all the evidence - but will use a few extracts which show what the allegations were and illuminate the problems.
Doug initiated the public dispute when he sued Brendan and his wife for what he called a loan and the wife said was a gift. This action was settled.
NURSING home tycoon Doug Moran's personal wealth is estimated at $250 million but that hasn't stopped his company hounding his dead son's wife for almost three years to recoup a $250,000 disputed debt.
Sep 1997 Pursuing a family debt
Tycoon in debt feud. The Australian September 3, 1997
A LONG-running feud between the family of one of Australia's richest men and his son's widow took an unexpected turn yesterday, when a legal battle was withdrawn to prevent the family suffering "further anguish".
Sep 1997 Case withdrawn
You can have the money - millionaire wins case but bows to 'threats' Daily Telegraph September 17, 1997
Bendan’s widow then took action blaming the Morans for her husbands death. Doug clearly considered her a gold digger and resisted. The Moran’s attempted to stop the damages action by Brendan’s widow from being decided by a jury which they claimed would be biased by the publicity. This was rejected.
In what is claimed to be the first case of its kind in Australia, Mr Moran's daughter-in-law, Kristina Moran, is accusing him of mistreating his son, Brendan, until he became overwhelmed by depression.
Aug 1999 Moran sued by daughter in law
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Kristina Moran, 34, is seeking damages for herself and her sons Douglas, 7, and Lachlan, 5.In a statement of claim tendered to the court, she alleged Mr Moran, wife Greta and son Peter drove Brendan to suicide by cutting him off from the family, sacking him from the family business and suing him over a $255,000 loan.
Nursing home king fights jury trial The Australian August 28, 1999
The court heard Doug began a campaign of verbal and written harassment, including withholding details of Brendan's earnings at the company when he was seeking finance from the bank; termination of funding for Brendan's pyschological treatment; an article in the Business Review Weekly where Doug claimed he had six, not seven children; and court proceedings to recover $250,000 given to Brendan and Kristina for a deposit on a house.
Feb 2000 The allegations
Widow Alleges `vicious, Vitriolic' Harassment Sydney Morning Herald February 1, 2000
Brendan was a failure and this is something the Moran's could not accept or empathise with. The allegations sound like the unbelievable ravings or a paranoid psychiatric case. Brendan was particularly paranoid about his brother and his mother. The problem is that many allegations were supported by witnesses and documents.
As Brendan Moran inhaled the carbon monoxide pouring into his car, he penned a suicide note describing the relief he felt to finally escape his family.
Feb 2000 Brendan's bitterness
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In the letter, read to the court by Mr Semmler, Brendan requested that his mother, Greta, and brother, Peter, be banned from his burial service and for the Moran surname to be dropped from his son's names.
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When Brendan's sister, Linda, failed to sell her Hunters Hill home at auction, Doug gave Brendan and Kristina the deposit for Linda's house and organised the mortgage."Brendan's salary was then raised to cover the mortgage payments. The question of it being a loan was never mentioned,'' said Kristina.
Death A Release From Family 'evil' Sydney Morning Herald February 3, 2000
The court heard that when Brendan, one of seven children, resigned from Moran Healthcare Group Pty Ltd on June 30, 1994, he, Kristina and their two young children were stripped of all financial support and benefits.
Feb 2000 Brendan erased
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The next day Doug penned a letter to his son. "My relationship with you is at an end as it is not my wish to become involved with you or your family affairs ever,'' it said.
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"Many of our children have adhered to that early training. Some have not ... we are safe in the knowledge that we have made every effort in supporting you both and which has not been accepted in the manner in which it was offered.''
`Loser' Brendan Was Erased From Moran Dynasty History Sydney Morning Herald February 4, 2000
"Doug Moran began a campaign of vicious and vitriolic harassment, humiliation and coercion of his own son," Mr Semmler said. "He regarded Brendan as irresponsible and ungrateful and he proposed to teach Brendan a lesson, so there was what we would describe as a campaign of verbal and written harassment because Brendan did not perform to his satisfaction."
Feb 2000 Harassment
The tortured life of a rich boy. Adelaide Advertiser February 5, 2000
Brendan Moran couldn't cut it as a real estate agent.
Feb 2000 Brendan a failure
During 1994 he was forced to resign from three real estate agencies after he was repeatedly late to house openings, messed up advertisements and failed to attend inspections.
Moran `a Failure' Outside The Family Firm Sydney Morning Herald February 10, 2000
MONARCHIST Kerry Jones told a Moran Healthcare Group employee to "never mention again" that he saw her brother Brendan Moran being strangled by another brother, a court has heard.
Feb 2000 Peter attacked Brendan
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"I couldn't comprehend the ferocity of Peter's attack on his brother."
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"Brendan was quiet, he was sad, he was withdrawn, he was intellectually beaten. He'd lost a lot of will to keep going," he said.
WITNESS TELLS MORAN CASE OF VIOLENT CLASH BETWEEN SIBLINGS. Adelaide Advertiser February 16, 2000
"There's a settlement for $50,000. This is in the context of a family worth $180 million," Professor Goldney said.
Feb 2000 The size of the debt
"That's one 3600th of their assets. If you extrapolate this ... to the average Australian family you would have the average family going to litigation for a sum of under $100 in terms of the relative worth of that family."
He said most families would ignore a $100 debt.
COURT TOLD OF PAYMENTS Adelaide Advertiser February 23, 2000
THE day Brendan Moran committed suicide, his nursing home tycoon father Doug telephoned to berate Brendan's widow's mother for killing his son, a court heard yesterday.
Mar 2000 Doug blamed Brendan's wife's family
Instead, family friend Marilyn Feenstra picked up the phone. She told the NSW Supreme Court she had "never heard anyone carry on like that before, particularly over a death".
"He started to yell down the phone, saying 'I hope you're satisfied, I hope you're pleased with what you have done. You have killed Brendan'," Ms Feenstra told the court.
Moran 'blamed widow's mother' Courier Mail or The Australian Use March 2000
Mrs Moran said if any of the seven children "did the wrong thing" Doug Moran would "chastise them physically" because he thought that was the best way to handle misbehaviour. "I just think it's pretty normal for a father," she told the Supreme Court. "What, for punishment to be meted out in a physical form?" Mr Semmler asked. "Yes," Mrs Moran replied.
Mar 2000 Moran discipline
Matriarch `ignored son's final plea' Courier Mail March 22, 2000
When a letter from Greta to her husband alleging that he beat her and cheated on her was produced in court the family had had enough and the case was settled. A press report from the Associated Press describes the people involved.
Greta Moran, 68: PLC-educated from `well-connected' family, she met here husband at Sydney's RPA Hospital in 1952 when she nursed him after he lost an eye. Married in 1954, she was matron of first Moran nursing home before the first of seven children was born. Painter and arts aficionado. Said to be power behind the throne and fiercely loyal to husband and family. Company director with `advisory role' in operations.
Mar 2000 The characters in the case
Doug Moran, 76: Patriarch, archetypal self-made magnate. Coalminer's son, left school at 11. Started real estate business, expanded into nursing homes. Big-picture man, with `relentless drive'. Supporter of conservative politics who `sacked' Liberal Party over changes to nursing home legislation. Company interests extend into Asia and Britain, assets said to be approaching $400 million
Brendan Moran: `Black sheep' son, expelled from four high schools. Worked in family's real estate business until he `resigned' from the firm (and $170,000 salary package), and the family, in 1994. Estranged from wife, depressed, and was being sued by family company for alleged debts when, in February 1995 at the age of 29, he gassed himself.
Peter Moran, 40: Group property director in charge of Moran Real Estate, and Brendan's boss. Father of one, stepfather of two. Co-defendant with mother and father, he is alleged to have `taunted, humiliated and assaulted' his brother, including once allegedly `almost strangling him with a tie'.
Moran civil trial settled out of court Australian Associated Press March 28, 2000
For nearly 40 days, the jury, plus hordes of curious court watchers and journalists heard allegations of physical violence, mental abuse, financial control, family betrayal, deceit and sexual affairs which plagued the Moran dynasty.
Apr 2000 The Morans settle the case
Six days before the settlement, in the kind of 11th-hour flourish usually seen only in episodes of Perry Mason, Kristina’s lawyers produced a letter which shattered the illusion of Doug and Greta’s happy marriage.
"Your achievements have been only reasonably lucky and the character that you have been showing publicly is a sham.
There was more about Doug’s extra-marital affairs, his cruelty and the charade of his public image.
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But within days, the Morans’ lawyers were offering Brendan’s widow a settlement.
What They Said The West Australian April 1, 2000
Doug Moran - a man without doubts
The following article by Nicholas Way from the Business Review Weekly describes some of the characteristics which I have indicated so often characterise the successful health and aged care businessman - characteristics which include supreme self confidence, adherence to a pattern of thought which ties the strands of life together, blindness to evidence and common sense, an absence of personal insight, and the use of intelligence to rationalise and justify rather than reflect. Self belief may bring success in business but it can be a threat not only to family as is illustrated here but to vulnerable people who are owed a duty of care. Financial success is all the confirmation they need and nothing will make them change. They succeed where those who have doubts about what they are required to do to succeed fail.
Doug Moran has not been deterred by scandal - self-belief has overcome everything
May 2000 Self belief
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A man who truly believes in himself is never deterred.Those qualities are one side of Moran. In the New South Wales Supreme Court earlier this year, a judge, jury and breathless media heard of another: an authoritarian father who dominated the lives of his seven children, to the extent that it was alleged that one of his sons, Brendan, was driven to suicide; and of infidelity, and physical abuse of Greta, his wife and business partner of nearly half a century. The court also heard of a family where the brutal bullying of Brendan by his elder brother Peter was considered acceptable behavior.
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Throughout the hearing, there was one overriding question: why did the family go to court? Why not settle in a solicitor's office, in private, far from the public gaze? Why risk public humiliation when you have the money to settle out of court? The answer is simple, and it comes from Doug Moran. "It was a case of blackmail," he says. "This woman had been to a couple of other lawyers who had knocked the case back. We're not going to be blackmailed. We're a strong family. We discussed this and said, 'Well, let her bloody well take us to court and we will see that it is all spelt out'."It is an astonishing comment. It shows that Moran was prepared to risk public humiliation rather than concede that Kristina's allegations had any merit. To him, an out-of-court settlement must have seemed like an admission of guilt. And he is adamant that neither he nor his wife is guilty. In saying this, he reveals the same self-belief, the inner conviction of always being right, that drives people to build business empires.
In private life, however, this degree of self-belief can be destructive. Whatever the circumstances that brought the Moran family to court, the suicide at the root of it should give cause for deep reflection. In public, at least, Moran seems incapable of such reflection.
What is amazing is how, to his staff, friends, business and political associates, and to the public, that self-belief is still on display. "I believe I treated my son justly before he committed suicide, which his wife didn't," he says. "I mean ... we had to go through it all. But it's your own belief that keeps you firing."
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Moran says, with no hint of self-doubt, that the trial has had no detrimental effect on the business, or his personal and professional relationships with his staff, or even his family. "The letters I have received from prominent cabinet ministers saying they don't believe half the stuff that's been published, they know me from way back, know Greta, know Shane [his son and chief executive of Moran Health Care Group], know the family. No, that won't affect us."Moran's only concession to the hurt and suffering the legal fight has caused "is the pain Greta is enduring. I don't have trouble after the case to focus on work. The only problem is it nearly destroyed my wife. I'm pretty resilient in that manner. I can accept the flak."
The accusations of wife-beating and infidelity are dismissed out of hand. "There were accusations I was a wife-beater, that I was running around [with other women], but I have been so busy for the past 45 years building a business that I have not had time to breathe." Moran believes others will dismiss these accusations, if only because of the stoicism with which the Morans endured the court case, day after day, week after week.
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True, but it still does not answer the question: why go to court? Ultimately, Doug Moran must take responsibility for that decision. No one who has dealt with the family, at any level has any doubts that he calls the shots.
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(In regard to his political dealings and writing government policy) Self-belief again. The policy is good for the Moran group, and the country. Just ask Moran. He is aware of the perception of self-interest, particularly in an industry where much of the income derives from government coffers, and the public image is tarnished (notably since the recent events at the Riverside nursing home in Melbourne, where patients were bathed in a kerosene solution).But Moran dismisses it. "Sure [the accusations of personal interest] put us on the back foot. The first thing people say is that he's greedy ... he's making money out of this. But in any business you must make a profit to be able to grow."
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History, business, politics, family - Moran slips between them, connecting the different threads, with barely a pause. To him, they are all interconnected, with him at the apex. In this environment, where family, business and politics blur together (his daughter Kerry Jones was a key figure in Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy), there is no need for questions. Just follow.
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Privately, Moran must be hurt, bitter and angry over how the issue of his son's suicide and the subsequent court case was played out in full public gaze. Art sponsorship, endowment of a urology chair and foundation at the University of Sydney, the renovation of the Victorian mansion Swifts at Sydney's Darling Point, and running first-class nursing homes all counted for naught when the media caught a sniff of scandal. But Moran will never admit his anger or bitterness. Self-belief will ensure that.
Witness For The Defence Business Review Weekly May 26, 2000
"One day I may need to go to a nursing home. If it's one of the Morans' I hope they don't treat me as one of the family" - From a letter to a newspaper
Oct 2001 The sad legacy
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If you need reminding, Moran v Moran contains details of the saga revealed in the proceedings, which included allegations of a son being hounded to suicide, AVOs, brothers brawling, biting and gouging each other, wife-bashing, extra-marital affairs, brothel visits (Brendan's), shock treatment (his mother's), menacing phone calls and death threats, depressive illness and bankruptcy.
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Now retired and in ill health, Doug and his wife, Greta, continue what must be a stormy marriage and live with details of the family's painful disintegration laundered at the sensational trial when Brendan's wife Kristina bravely sued the couple, alleging their abuse of Brendan led to his suicide.
Inside a family feud Sunday Telegraph October 28, 2001
Shane and Kerry leave the Moran empire
That Brendan was not the only problem in the family and that the public scandal had scarred the family is revealed in other reports. The company was at this time in trouble. It had sold its nursing homes (and leased them back) in order to expend into the United Kingdom and Ireland. That business had failed and entered bankruptcy. Business failure would have been as big a challenge for Moran as family failure and he was a man who did not separate the two. Once again his self belief was challenged.
Moran was selling off many of its homes presumably to resolve these financial problems although this was strenuously denied. He was also aging and ill. One can only speculate that Moran’s frustration and inability to accept failure may have caused him to turn on his children. Both Shane and Kerry were fired. Shane it seems was blamed for the collapse of the international empire. These two severed all ties with the family and commenced law suits claiming wrongful dismissal.
The youngest Mark and the violent Peter remained in the fold. Doug tried to make arrangements for the business to continue without his family’s involvement but the situation was such that those who had accepted company appointments backed out.
Mr Moran signed documents installing his wife Greta in Shane's place as director of 10 branches of the empire, which has this week been rocked by a nasty family feud.
Jan 2002 Conflict with Shane and Kerry
Company documents obtained by The Australian show Mr Moran notified the Australian Securities and Investments Commission on December 3 of Shane's removal from his roles in companies across the family's businesses, including the Moran Health Care Group and an investment firm.
Shane Moran, 40, was also removed as a director of the Tweed Valley Regional Art Gallery Foundation and the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, both public companies.
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Shane has also moved out of the family's Victorian mansion, Swifts, at Darling Point in Sydney's east, where all the family firms are registered.
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This week Doug Moran's daughter Kerry Jones threatened to sue her father, accusing him of unfairly attempting to sack her as executive director of a medical foundation.Mrs Jones claims her father telephoned her in January saying he would attempt to have her removed from the University of Sydney Moran Foundation for Older Australians, which he created to fund research into prostate cancer.
Mrs Jones's private firm has been paid nearly $200,000 over seven months to raise funds for the foundation.
Moran son kicked off 47 boards The Australian January 24, 2002
When Ms Jones threatened to sue her father for wrongful dismissal, he threatened to sue her for defamation.
Mar 2002 Trading law suits
Last month, the former chief executive of the family firm, Shane Moran, served papers on his parents seeking $1.5million for unfair dismissal and loss of profits. This followed his sudden resignation last November.
War veteran to take on Moran The Australian March 18, 2002
He had fallen out with his heir five days earlier, on Wednesday, November 28. Now, after stewing over the weekend, Moran was making the split official.
Apr 2002 Goodbye Shane - family dynasty crumbles
Goodbye, Shane. Have a nice life.
After almost 15 years as director and later chief executive of the $300 million Moran nursing home empire, Shane Moran was out of the family home, out of the Moran offices, and setting up a new venture in February called Pacific Partners.
The frisson of fear which the latest Moran family drama sent through the ranks of Australia's ultra-rich is not because anyone identifies with them. The Moran's legal disputes, portrayed in excruciating detail in lurid newspaper accounts, rivals anything in the daytime soaps.
But something more than headlines about family secrets is at stake here. This isn't about family; it's a morality tale about the family business. It touches the secret fear that haunts Australian corporate dynasties: the Morans are the nightmare of failed succession.
Here was a major corporation, no matter how dysfunctional the family running it appeared to be, with a 15-year succession strategy running right on track. And then, a fortnight before Doug Moran's 77th birthday, it all fell apart. The timing is the uncomfortable bit, because probably the only thing about Doug Moran that corporate patriarchs would identify with is his age.
Twilight Of The Gods Australian Financial Review April 26, 2002
BARELY a fortnight after his appointment as chief executive of the Moran nursing home empire, former NRMA supremo Eric Dodd has decided not to take up the position, agreeing instead to advise the family as an "external consultant".
Aug 2002 New outside CEO backs out
Mr Dodd's recruitment at the end of July was hailed by the Moran Health Care Group as the advent of a new culture of corporate governance in the $330 million company, after chairman Doug Moran declared his intention to shift control away from family members.
Moran chief quits after two weeks The Australian August 15, 2002
The latest in a long list of legal brou-ha-ha involves son and former chief executive Shane, who brought an unfair dismissal case brought against the family company.
May 2003 Empire crumbles
Last year, daughter Kerry Jones severed all ties with the family after losing her job as chief executive at Moran Foundation for Older Australians.
Family values and home truths - Mystery surrounds future of $300m Moran empire. Daily Telegraph May 17, 2003
The increased involvement of the next generation has sometimes gone badly for the octogenarians. Moran fell out with one of his sons, Shane, after a failed international expansion.
May 2006 Business failure the trigger for Shane's fall
Young at heart BRW May 18, 2006
Lawyer Shane Moran's conflict with the family continued as he set out to build his own empire.
And the acerbity hasn't lessened, with a tussle between the Moran family and Shane starting up again. The NSW Supreme Court list for April 20 shows Shane Moran and another pursuing a case against DJ Moran Nominees, the Moran family trust.
May 2007 Still in court
Biometrics seeks clean bill of health under new name Sydney Morning Herald May 21, 2007
He succeeded in gaining control In a controversial play at a problem company, Biometrics. He restructured it and changed its direction renaming it Pulse Health and started buying hospitals.
He established a relationship with past unsuccessful liberal leader John Hewson and together they linked up with an even more controversial figure Ted Stent whose bizarre management at Primelife almost brought that company it to its knees. They have ambitions for a new health care empire including hospitals and retirement villages,
IN ANOTHER twist to the saga of Sydney's Moran family, the former head of the family business, Shane Moran, is spearheading a proposed $100 million tilt at the health and aged care market.
May 2007 Great ambitions
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But before Dr Moran can help fulfil the hopes of the shell company, Biometrics, which is being pressed into service for the healthcare ambitions, members of the old Biometrics board have raised questions about how Dr Moran, 46, has steered the destiny of the one-time security technology company.
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Dr Moran's private company, Shapen Holdings, is the largest single shareholder in the company, and his law firm, S. Moran and Co, is employed as a solicitor to the company.
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This month Biometrics signed on as chairman former opposition leader John Hewson, an old mate from Moran Health Care days and best man at Dr Moran's wedding.
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The plan is ambitious. Dr Landa confirmed that the company aimed to become the third largest listed player in the private health care sector, behind Ramsay Health Care and Healthscope.
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But for the sole link between the two eras, Dr Moran, who was a legal adviser in both, one of those "bodies" has voiced concerns with the way the reins of the company were taken over.
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Angus Pilmer, who was a director of Biometrics between August and September 2005, was not happy about turning over 10 per cent to the company's lawyer.Before being allotted to Dr Moran, the shares had been the subject of fractured legal wrangling, after they were issued in August 2004 at a total price of $300,000 and allotted to a company called Compliance Certification Systems &emdash; two days after it was formed.
The deal was questioned, shareholders revolted, half the board began legal proceedings against the other half, and the shares were frozen in a court injunction.
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After a joust through the courts, the shares were returned to the company in December 2005, and reallocated to Dr Moran. He rejects Mr Pilmer's accusations that he got control of 10 per cent of the company on the cheap, reiterating that it was an independent board that granted him the shares.
Biometrics seeks clean bill of health under new name Sydney Morning Herald May 21, 2007
To read the full text of many of the recent and many other articles describing what happened in 2007 in more detail go to the Aged Care Crisis search web page. <http://www.agedcarecrisis.com/acc/search.asp> Fill in the "Keyword" (eg name). Click on the "news" button and then "Search"
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This page created Sept 2006 by
Michael
Wynne
Last entry Oct 2007
