Andrew Grimwade is the son of Frederick Sheppard Grimwade, great-grandson of Frederick Sheppard Grimwade, and great-great-grandson of Edward Grimwade of Grimwade & Ridley & Company, London. As pioneers of the pharmaceutical industry in Victoria, the Grimwade family established the glass industry, the sulphuric acid and super phosphate industries, and later the industrial gases industry. Following various mergers, purchases, and spin-offs, the firms founded or co-founded by Frederick Sheppard Grimwade became Felton Grimwade & Bickford, Drug Houses of Australia Ltd and Australian Consolidated Industries Ltd. Andrew Grimwade's father, Frederick Sheppard Grimwade, died when Andrew was 19. Andrew Grimwade's brother, the Honourable Frederick Sheppard Grimwade, served for many years as President of the Legislative Council of Victoria.
Business career
Grimwade was trained as a chemical engineer and as a scientist. His early business career was in Sydney where he was appointed to the board of Commonwealth Industrial Gases. Aged in his mid-thirties, he was the youngest director of the National Australia Bank, Chief Executive of CARBA and a director of the National Mutual Life Association. He also ran a small merchant banking company that underwrote the flotation of public companies. Since 1959, Grimwade has been Principal of the Green Valley Cattle Company, and in 1996 helped form Certified Australian Angus Beef Ltd, of which he became Deputy chairman and was involved in building it into Australia's leading branded beef program.
Philanthropist
In 1968, Grimwade donated 26 km² of coastal land with a 27-kilometre ocean frontage on the Coorong in South Australia to the State Government for the new Coorong National Park. This represents about 5.6% of the park's total area, but over 15% of the coastline. Grimwade has been involved as a patron and executive with many charitable organisations, including:
Chairman of the Felton Bequests Committee, a foundation created in 1904 by his great-grandfather's business partner, Alfred Felton, and primarily dedicated to purchasing art work for the National Gallery of Victoria.
President, trustee, and life member of the National Gallery of Victoria.
Victorian Government Board of Review into Parliamentary Salaries
Chairman of the Australian Government Committee on Official Establishments
Founding Chairman of the Australian Government Official Establishments Trust.
Appointed WEHI Laureate
Jetcorp Trial
In 1992, Grimwade was charged with fraud and conspiracy for his involvement in a false prospectus issued for an entity called Jetcorp Australia Unit Trust. The trial became the longest running criminal trial in Victoria history. After a first jury had sat for seven months, Grimwade's wife died and he was granted a new trial. The second jury sat for over nine months, during which time the judge and some jurors were absent at various times for medical reasons. The length of the trial was exacerbated by the defence strategy of continually challenging Crown statements, with the result that the Crown was required to strictly prove each and every bit of evidence irrespective of whether it was in dispute or germane to the defence. This strategy ultimately succeeded. Grimwade was found guilty on nineteen counts of fraud and conspiracy, but the verdict was overturned on appeal, the appellate judge ruling that the case had become so convoluted that it had become impossible for the jury to render a proper verdict.
Publications
Grimwade, Andrew, Involvement: The Portraits of Clifton Pugh & Mark Strizic ISBN B0000CPM7D Grimwade, Andrew, Great Philanthropists on Trial Grimwade, Andrew, Storied Windows – Casting Light on the Arts, Science & Life in Australia 1959–2011: An Anthology of Speeches, Poems and Reflections .
