Zig Inge receives Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his services to retirement village industry and philanthropy

One of the pioneers of the modern retirement village, Zig Inge, was honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List with an Order of Australia. He arrived in Australia from Latvia in 1949 when he was 23 years old. Between the early 1970’s and 2007 he built 19 villages with over 3,000 ILU’s before he sold to RVG, a Macquarie Bank/FKP investment consortium, for approximately $680M. He is credited with conceiving the DMF concept to allow ageing Australians to in effect pay for the village community facilities after they leave the village, rather than up front. Now aged 86, he is still working and with his son Peter he recently bought back from RVG his Camberwell village (Prospect Hill). In addition to the retirement villages sector, he actively supports Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience.