Kerry Stokes AC (b. 1940), businessman and philanthropist, was born John Patrick Alford in Melbourne. Adopted by Matthew and Irene Stokes as an infant, he spent his childhood in impoverished circumstances. He left school at fourteen, eventually ending up in Perth where he got his first regular job: installing television antennas. By the time he was in his twenties he had become involved in property development and construction during the Perth real estate boom of the 1960s. In 1969 he and a business partner invested in the development of GWN, a regional Western Australian television station. Starting in 1979, he began acquiring local television stations in Canberra, Adelaide and Perth, along with radio stations, and in 1996 he secured a nineteen per cent stake in the Seven Network and its free-to-air television stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Since 2006, the Seven Network has formed one arm of Seven West Media, which incorporates West Australian Newspapers and various other online and publishing concerns. His diverse business interests also include property, construction, mining and petroleum exploration. Over 40 years Stokes has built an extraordinary collection of art, maps, rare books and artefacts and donated generously to institutions including the Australian War Memorial and the National Gallery of Australia, of which he was chairman for several years. The Stokes Collection, housed in Perth, is one of the world's finest private museums. As of November 2020, according to the Australian Financial Review, he was Australia's tenth richest individual, with a net worth exceeding $6 billion.
