Eva Besen AO (1928–2021), philanthropist and arts benefactor, founded the Besen Family Foundation with her husband Marc Besen AC. Often described as 'retail royalty', they married in Melbourne in 1950. Born in Poland, Eva emigrated to Melbourne with her parents, Sam and Fay Gandel, who established a Collins Street corsetry store called Sussan in 1939. Marc had arrived in Australia from Eastern Europe in 1947 and at the time of his marriage was working as a hosiery supplier. By the end of the 1950s, Marc was in business with Eva's brother John Gandel, with whom he grew Sussan into one of the country's most successful retail enterprises. By 1990, there were 168 Sussan outlets and the fashion chain Suzanne Grae had also been acquired by the company. Sportsgirl was added to the portfolio in 1999 and when the family retail empire was acquired outright in 2003 by the Besens' daughter, Naomi Milgrom, it was estimated to have an annual turnover of over $600 million. Meanwhile, the Sussan Corporation had also branched into property, acquiring interests in shopping centres in Victoria and NSW including Highpoint and Chatswood Chase. In 1979, the Besens bought land near Healesville where they later established the TarraWarra Estate winery. Twenty years later, they instigated the founding of Australia’s first major privately funded public art gallery, the TarraWarra Museum of Art. It opened in its purpose-built, award-winning premises in 2003, with a founding collection of 142 works gifted by the Besens and drawn from the collection of Australian art they had started building in the 1950s. The Besen Family Foundation was established in 1978 and since that time has made many hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to initiatives in the areas of health and wellbeing, education, the Jewish community, and the visual and performing arts. Some of the many organisations to have benefited from Besen Foundation grants include the Jewish Holocaust Centre, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Israeli mental health charity ENOSH. Eva Besen was named an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2004 Queen’s Birthday Honours list. Eva and Marc's four children – Naomi Milgrom, Carol Schwartz, Daniel Besen and Debbie Dadon – continue the family tradition of philanthropic work.
