Terry Snow


Terry Snow is an Australian businessman, accountant, entrepreneur, and philanthropist based in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory.

Background

The Snow family have a long history with Canberra and district. Terry Snow is the grandson of Canberra’s first general store owner.
Snow attended Canberra Grammar School; and he has subsequently supported the school through a number of philanthropic gifts.

Career

Commercial development

Snow is Executive Chairman of the Capital Airport Group, the company which owns the lease for the land which contains Canberra Airport, Brindabella Business Park, Snow's Capital Airport Group acquired the 99-lease from the Australian Government, paying $40 million in 1998. Fairbairn Business Park, formerly a Royal Australian Air Force base, as well as the Majura Business Park and the Majura Park Shopping Centre. Snow has been responsible for a $250-million development of a new terminal for Canberra Airport including an “extravagant” international terminal which won an interior design award and welcomed the first two international air carriers to Canberra; Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways, in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Snow developed Brindabella Business Park. One of these landmark buildings is 8 Brindabella Circuit, which was awarded 5 stars under the Green Star rating system of the Green Building Council of Australia – the first and highest rating ever awarded in Australia at the time. Snow's attempt to develop land around the Canberra Airport was described by Patrick Troy as controversial. Specific criticisms include that it removes jobs from Civic, diminishes Canberra's town centre, and causes unnecessary congestion on roads originally designed exclusively for airport traffic. The development of Brindabella Business Park has attracted international corporates including KPMG, Deloitte and Raytheon as well as the Department of Home Affairs and has been recognised as an emerging aerotropolis that has helped to grow the Canberra workforce.
Snow’s nearby Majura Park Shopping Centre attracted international retailers Costco, Aldi and Ikea, with nationwide retailers Bunnings Warehouse, Woolworths and Dan Murphy's.
Capital Property Group is also building Constitution Place, a site adjacent to the Canberra Theatre and the ACT Legislative Assembly in Civic, which will house a five-storey government office building and a 12-level commercial building that aims to be Canberra’s first WELL-rated building in Canberra with a hotel and dining spaces.
In 2017, he opened Willinga Park, an award-winning,, equine facility in Bawley Point. Willinga Park was developed to include an equestrian centre with three Olympic-sized dressage arenas, showjumping fields and a campdrafting arena. In 2018, Snow sponsored the largest campdrafting purse in Australian history at the World Championship Gold Buckle Campdraft centre. Pete Comiskey, a Queensland campdrafting rider, won the $100,000 purse after only four rounds lasting four minutes. Willinga Park also includes native gardens and a sculpture walk. It has been referred to “Jurassic Park with horses.” In June 2018, it was announced that Sculpture on the Clyde, an outdoor art exhibition usually held on the Clyde River in would be moved to Willinga Park to avoid being cancelled after the Eurobodalla Shire Council and event organisers were unable to come to an agreement on event logistics, insurance and security. During the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, Willinga Park and its well constructed and defended fire breaks was credited as providing a needed fire break that saved Bawley Point from destructive fires.

Residential development

Snow is also the owner of Capital Property Group which is responsible for the development of, a master-planned community in the Molonglo Valley and the first Australian suburb to have a minimum requirement for solar power generation on every home and the first suburb in Australia to commit to the Homes for Homes initiative which donates 0.1 per cent of the sale price of all properties to projects that address the shortage of social and affordable housing in the ACT.

Philanthropy

Snow established the Snow Foundation in 1991 along with his brother, George. Now valued at over A$40 million, it donates to regional charities and organisations helping needy people. Snow has predicted the Snow Foundation endowment will “be over $100 million and that will let us do three times what we're doing now" in the next 10–15 years.
In 2013, Snow was ranked by Forbes Asia as Australia's 39th richest person, with a net worth of 755 million. By 2019, his wealth was estimated by Forbes Asia at billion.
In 2005 he published the "Living City" proposal for the redevelopment of Canberra. This caused some controversy, especially after the proposal's rebuff by the ACT Government and combined with his provocative assertion that Canberra is a "dead-set boring" city that had been "going backwards since self-government".
In 2017, the Australian National Portrait Gallery commissioned Snow's portrait in recognition of the contribution he has made to the growth of Canberra and his work as a philanthropist. In a media interview, Snow said he was proud to call Canberra home: "I was born in Canberra, that's quite something for someone who is 74. I love the place; it's been a big part of my life, a very happy life. I had a wonderful time growing up in Canberra, raising a family here, developing a business career. Some people say Canberra is an economic backwater but I've proven that wrong. It's a great little city."
The Snow family is a strong supporter of, and has provided in-kind contributors to, the Marriage Equality lobby group Australians for Equality. Snow's son, Tom, is the executive Co-Chair, with Tiernan Brady as the Director of Australians for Equality.
Snow holds a commercial pilot license for fixed wing aircraft and rotary wing aircraft and has a command instrument rating.
Through a gift of 8 million in 2013 to Canberra Grammar School, he endowed The Snow Centre for Education in the Asian Century to focus on the advancement of Asian Studies at primary and secondary school levels. The centre was established in 2015 and aims to provide “world-class facilities for the study of Asian languages, history and culture.” Canberra Grammar School also offers The Terry Snow Scholarship for Global Studies for a student who demonstrates excellent academic potential and a commitment to a global outlook who wishes to take the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. In October 2019 Snow donated 20 million to Canberra Grammar School with the plan to rebuild the school's breezeway and to pave a way for students' extended and enriched education. The gift was reported as the largest philanthropic gift to an Australian school.

Honours and awards

Snow was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2006 Australia Day Honours for service to the building and construction industry, particularly the redevelopment of the Canberra International Airport precinct, and to the community through support for a range of charitable organisations.
Snow has a large equestrian property, Willinga, near Bawley Point in New South Wales. In December 2019 and January 2020, massive fires swept through the area and Snow's "intricate fire plan credited as part of the reason the nearby coastal town of Bawley Point escaped annihilation in the firestorm that swept through the region" .

Family

Snow is married to Ginette, and they have four children: Georgina, Stephen, Tom, Scarlet. Stephen Byron, Snow's stepson, is managing director of Canberra Airport Corporation.
Snow is often seen with his blue heeler dog, Chilli, which attends meetings with him at his airport offices.