Anthony Pratt

Pratt is the heir to Richard Pratt, the former chair of Visy Industries and Leon Pratt, who co-founded the company in 1945.

Pratt and his family's net worth was assessed at A$24.3 billion in 2023 by 2023 Australian Financial Review Rich List.

Pratt was born in Melbourne, Victoria to Richard Pratt (né Przecicki) and Jeanne Pratt, both Polish-Jewish immigrants.

His siblings are Heloise Waislitz and Fiona Geminder.

Pratt grew up in the inner Melbourne suburb of Kew.

He was interviewed by The Australian Jewish News on the occasion of his bar mitzvah, which reported his pledge to donate the proceeds towards the construction of a nachala (estate) in his name in Kerem Maharal, Israel.

Pratt attended Mount Scopus Memorial College in Burwood.

Anthony Joseph Pratt (born 11 April 1960), an Australian businessman and billionaire, is the executive chairman of Visy Industries (Pratt Industries USA in the US), the world's largest privately owned packaging and paper company.

He was part of the Young Leadership Division of the United Israel Appeal in the 1980s, serving as co-chair of its fundraising committee.

He graduated from Monash University, Melbourne, with a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) in 1982.

Pratt joined McKinsey & Co, a management consulting firm, in 1982 before joining his family's company Visy Industries, initially as joint general manager of the board, before becoming deputy chairman in 1988.

Three years later, he moved to the United States to lead the company's US expansion.

Over the next 15 years, Pratt Industries grew 15-fold in sales and earnings, through greenfield initiatives and the acquisition of several corrugated manufacturing companies that now form the heart of Pratt Industries.

Company revenues grew from US$100 million in 1991 to US$3 billion in 2016.

Following his father's death in 2009, Pratt returned to Australia, to take over as executive chairman of Visy, a role his father Richard Pratt, had held for 30 years.

In 2013, then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented Pratt with a proclamation declaring 17 September 2013, Pratt Industries Day.

In 2016, Pratt opened a 100% recycled paper mill near Chicago, adding about US$1 billion to his wealth.

It was officially opened by then-Governor Mike Pence.

In October 2016, Pratt was the founding sponsor of The Wall Street Journal inaugural U.S.-based Global Food Forum.

In his opening remarks, Pratt called on food industry leaders to start a national conversation about how to double the size of the American food industry to US$1.8 trillion and thereby create millions of new jobs under the slogan "Export Food, Not Jobs".

In March 2017, Pratt opened his 68th factory, a box-making plant, with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in Beloit.

On 4 May 2017, Pratt pledged to invest $2 billion to create 5,000 high-paying manufacturing jobs over 10 years mainly in the Midwest.

In August 2017, Pratt made a further investment pledge of A$2 billion in Visy Australia to create 5,000 Australian manufacturing jobs.

In 2017, Pratt launched the Superfund Roundtable in partnership with the Australian Financial Review.

The annual event attracts some of the nation's leading business executives and financiers and is aimed at increasing superfund lending to Australian businesses to drive economic growth and create jobs.

The Australian treasurer Jim Chalmers was the guest speaker at the most recent roundtable in August 2022.

Since taking over the company, Pratt has taken a strong interest in sustainable agriculture, food security, and water issues, stating that his motivation is 70% of his Australian customers are in the food and beverage sector.

At subsequent Global Food Forum dinners during 2017 in Los Angeles and Chicago, Pratt continued to advocate for increased U.S. food exports.

Pratt Industries is now the 18th largest privately owned manufacturing company in the United States.

And in his native Australia, Pratt attended the national Jobs and Skills Summit.

In 2020, Pratt completed one of the biggest Australian manufacturing deals ever - buying the Australian assets of Owens Illinois for $1 billion to become Australia's largest glass bottle manufacturer.

Then in February 2021, Pratt pledged to invest an additional $2 billion to increase the recycled content of Australian glass bottles from 30% to 70% and to build more clean energy plants as part of the goal to halve landfills and double the recycled content of manufactured products.

In July 2021, one year after the Owens Illinois acquisition, Pratt announced his largest-ever deal in America – a new $500 million paper mill in Henderson, Kentucky.

Upon completion it will mean Pratt has built 6 of the last 8 paper mills in the USA - all 100% recycled.

Pratt's two companies now employ 17,000 in America and Australia.

In September, 2021, The Jerusalem Post named him 35th on its list of the world's 50 Most Influential Jews of 2021.

In November 2021, Pratt and Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf opened Pratt's new $150 million state-of-the-art box factory in Carlisle.

Pratt also welcomed two other US governors to his factories in the fall of 2022.

In September, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards visited Pratt's 100% recycled paper mill in Shreveport.

A few weeks later, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly officially opened his new $200m corrugated box factory in Wichita.