Vale to Property Council’s inaugural National President, Jack Ritch
Jack Ritch started his career in accounting and human resources, but he discovered his purpose when he started a demanding career in property.
The former National President and National Honorary Life Member of the Property Council recently passed away, leaving behind an enduring legacy.
It was in 1970 when Ritch began his property career at AMP, just when the group was getting into property in a much bigger way, looking to acquire, develop, manage, and expand the group’s portfolio.
“That was my first taste of property and I loved it,” he told Property Australia in 2015.
“And that was about the first time in my career that I started to see, in a focused way, something that I’d like to do.
“I enjoyed working with and trying to help people, but HR and property were terribly different areas…it was quite a contrast, but both proved to be areas that I enjoyed and AMP gave me great opportunities there.”
The early days
The first child of Doris and Eddie Ritch, Jack Howard Ritch was born on December 11, 1941, during World War II in Glasgow.
He moved with his family to Sydney when he was ten, moving into an apartment at Bondi Beach’s Campbell Parade.
He attended Bondi Beach public school, before being qualified for the selective Sydney Boys High.
He began working at AMP in 1958, right after passing his leaving certificate exams and in the evenings, he attended Sydney University to study Economics.
When he was named Director of Property at AMP, his greatest desire was realised.
It started an illustrious 50 years in the property sector.
An enduring legacy
Playing a major role in the rise of AMP, his insight, expertise, experience, and perseverance was well respected across the industry.
Ritch first joined AMP in 1958, filling various roles before his first property role in 1970. He would later become the Investment manager for South Australia in 1976 before heading the groups’ Human Resources department in 1980.
In 1987 Ritch became the Director of Property before a few years later becoming the National President of the Property Council. In 1995 he also took on the role of Director APAC (Melbourne and Launceston airports) before becoming Managing Director and Chairman of AMP Capital Investors before the turn of the millennium.
He would then retiree in 2004 while also becoming a non-executive chairman at AMP. The following year he became Chairman for Domain Principal Group aged care and then Chairman of the Galileo Japan trust in 2006. In 2009 he once again became the Chairman for APAC (Melbourne and Launceston airports).
Ritch was also a devoted supporter and active board member of charitable organisations throughout his life.
These organisations included the Joseph Varga School, which serves children with autism spectrum disorder, Birthright Australia, which assists single-parent families, and Keshet Eilon, a music school in northern Israel.
When asked about the one regret he had in his professional career, it was that he didn’t getting into the property industry earlier.
“I regret not realising earlier that property was going to be a passion and a place I’d make my career,” he said.
“So I was, in a sense, denied the opportunity of learning from the grassroots. I found that difficult for a few years in the middle of my career.”
When it comes to one of his career highlights, Ritch pointed out the collapse of Mainline, one of Australia’s most notable builders, in 1974 as a challenging opportunity trying to protect AMP from the downsides of its exposures.
“I had a role reporting to the head of property, spending all my time looking at the number of exposures we had,” he said.
“That gave me an opportunity to learn across a lot of different assets [and to realise] that you learn more in the bad times than you do in the good times.”
He had three boys with Diana de Berg, whom he married in 1965.
Diana Ritch, their three sons and daughters-in-law, David and Julie, Antony and Lara, and Simon and Zoe, as well as their seven grandchildren, survive Jack Ritch.