Alan Bond has died in Perth. He was 77.
In a statement his family said “his body finally gave out after heroic efforts” from medical staff at Fiona Stanley hospital, where he was in an induced coma following open heart surgery at another hospital earlier this week.
A hospital spokesperson said: “We’re not going to talk about Mr Bond’s medical care except to say that all efforts were made.”
Bond, backed Australia’s successful America’s Cup campaign in 1983 and was later jailed for four years over a billion-dollar corporate fraud operation, was one of the nation’s best-known business figures. In recent years he had been involved in mining companies and spent his time between Perth and London.
“He really did experience the highs and lows of life. But to us he was just dad,” his son John said outside the hospital statement today.
Speaking about how the family stayed in contact despite Bond and his wife Eileen divorcing in 1992, John added: “Mum and dad never broke their connection even though he could be very infuriating to her.”
“We only half joked to our friends that you had to have a five year business plan when you met him,” John said.
Eileen flew from London this week to be with him after the heart surgery complications, telling the media before she flew out that the operation “had not gone too well and we are all hoping and praying”.
In the lead up to his passing Bond split his time between Perth and London.
Bond was born in 1938 and grew up in London’s Hammersmith district. Along with his parents and older sister Geraldine, he emigrated to Australia in 1950 at the age of 12.
He began his career as a signwriter and in 1959, at the age of 21, formed what would become the Bond Corporation.
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