One of my strongest beliefs is that money, used properly, has the power to do good. It can enable and empower those who are less fortunate by providing them with food, clean water, shelter, and education.
Money should be used to do good in the world. To provide these basic needs and rights to people who truly need them. It shouldn’t be used and manipulated to make the rich richer. This was the realisation of this week’s guest, David Ward.
David Ward is the Technical Director of Australian Philanthropic Services. Before moving to the philanthropy sector, David worked in banking for nearly 20 years. In that time, he held senior positions at ANZ, including Chief Economist (New Zealand) and General Manager, Investor Relations. Notably, he spent four years as Managing Director of ANZ Trustees, which administered over 200 charitable trusts.
David has been a director of APS from the outset and is its technical resource. He is a director of several Private Ancillary Funds and is Chairman of the Australian Philanthropic Services Foundation, APS’s Public Ancillary Fund.
But what made David switch careers from banking to philanthropic services? Although he says there were a raft of factors that contributed to the change, David recalled one moment in particular that he always comes back to.
When David was running a team at ANZ, a very competent team member with a lot of potential resigned. This was a bit of a shock to David, because she had just won Associate Of The Year and had a great career in banking ahead of her.
When David asked her why she was resigning she said, “Honestly, I am helping people who have already got a lot of money, make even more money.” She wanted to be involved in how that money could be used to help the people who actually needed it.
This made David reflect on his own story and career, which led him to Australian Philanthropic Services, which in turn led him to be a guest on a podcast called It’s Never About Money.
To hear the full conversation with David Ward, listen to episode 55 of It’s Never About Money.
