Mr Martin Hosking
Mr Martin Hosking was born in Canberra as the city was starting to develop stature as Australia’s capital. After graduating high school, he took a gap year cycling around Europe and briefly lived in London. Cycling remains a great passion. Mr Hosking went on to The University of Melbourne to study history with a particular focus on cultural history. He became involved in the drama scene around the university and his Honour’s thesis was a history of the Australian Performing Group, the birthplace of a generation of Australian directors and performers.
After graduation, Mr Hosking joined the Department of Foreign Affairs serving as an Australian diplomat in Cairo and Damascus. While in Cairo he met his wife, Loreto, an Australian veterinarian on holiday, and they married in Damascus. He travelled widely across the Middle East and Europe during this time before returning to Canberra where he served in the Department, becoming familiar with the machinery of government.
After completing a Master of Business Administration at the Melbourne Business School, Mr Hosking worked at McKinsey serving clients with a focus on growth and technology. He was well placed to ride the internet wave and in 1996 was part of the founding team at LookSmart, one of Australia’s most successful early technology companies listing on the NASDAQ. This led him to a career in early-stage companies, most notably, Aconex, which he chaired before it was acquired by Oracle. He then co-founded Redbubble, now Articore (ASX:ATG), a global art-and-design marketplace.
Mr Hosking has retained an intense interest in both the arts and the university sector. He lectured in entrepreneurial finance at Melbourne Business School, and he sits on the advisory boards at the Monash Centre for Consciousness Research and Contemplative Studies and the Contemplative Studies Centre at The University of Melbourne. Both centres were funded through his family’s Three Springs Foundation. The Foundation has also provided funding in his wife’s area of passion, horse welfare, via the Equine Lameness and Imaging Centre at The University of Melbourne. His career has also come full circle as he has recently been appointed Chair of the Melbourne Theatre Company.
Mr Hosking lives in the Dandenong Ranges on a horse-and-cattle property which also serves as home for his extensive collection of contemporary Australian art. He is a very avid meditator with a deep interest in perennial wisdom in all forms. He and his wife have a passion for Africa and continue to support a major project in the Mukuru slums in Nairobi, providing vital health care, education, and work opportunities for the slum residents.