How these twins left poverty to become business leaders

Growing up in a public housing estate in Redcliffe, Brisbane, Mark Ryan remembers his mum kept a zip lock bag filled with $2 coins. A single parent, Patricia would siphon off the gold coins from her wallet to act as the family’s savings account. 

For Mark and his twin brother, Andrew, the stash of coins was used to cover the cost of their first season of organised cricket when they were 13. 

“The fees were something minuscule like $28 per sign-on and $2 per week, but that was kind of the financial situation we were in. Mum had enough to cover week-to-week and no more,” Mark Ryan tells The Australian Financial Review. 

Mark, who is the manager of strategic communications at Queensland Rail, thinks of that season of cricket as a turning point in his life. Sport led to an early career as a journalist and eventually took him to Britain, where he played semi-professional cricket and worked in television production with British Sky Broadcasting. 

“You wind back life and think about these turning points. If we hadn’t been able to join up that season, who knows how things could have worked out?” he says. 

Another turning point was receiving a scholarship from educational charity The Smith Family, which allowed him to embark on a law and journalism degree in 1998 at the Queensland University of Technology. 

It also allowed his brother Andrew to study law and psychology at the University of Queensland, paving the way for a career in international sport. Having previously worked for the International Olympic Committee, Andrew is now managing director of FIBA Media in Switzerland, which produces and promotes the biggest international basketball events. 

The pair were some of the first students to receive a Learning for Life tertiary scholarship from The Smith Family, which celebrates its centenary this week. Starting with the Ryans, the Financial Review, the charity partner of The Smith Family, will over the summer months profile former students who have found success in the business and non-profit world. 

The Smith Family’s chief executive, Doug Taylor, says the charity supports more than 58,000 students across primary, secondary and tertiary education. 

“We’re immensely proud of our former students who are helping to make our nation a better place in so many different areas – including in executive roles like the Ryans, and also as chefs, musicians, teachers, artists, mechanics and medical professionals,” Taylor says. 

“Whatever our students’ passion, we’re focused on equipping them with the tools they need to succeed, and we know this support makes all the difference to young people’s futures.” 

Mark Ryan says the Learning for Life scholarship “made an enormous difference” by covering the costs associated with university, including public transport, student union fees and textbooks. 

“The Smith Family scholarships provided our family with a level of financial security. That wasn’t something we’d experienced. Knowing we had that financial support for the day-to-day expenses of studying at university allowed us some breathing space and lifted some of the burden off mum.” 

It wasn’t until the pair arrived at university that the difference between their upbringing and that of their peers became apparent. 

“The biggest difference was when, a couple of years into uni, it became a regular thing for a few of us to go out and have a coffee after a lecture. I don’t think I would have seen my mum buy a cup of coffee in her life ... it wasn’t something that we spent money on,” Mark says. 

“It was one of those small things in life when you get the sense people do things differently when they have money.” 

Mark is chairman of Return Serve, a not-for-profit organisation that uses sport to bring people together regardless of their background, to form good habits and create social cohesion. 

He is also an advocate for having people who understand social inequality and know what it’s like to live in a world of disadvantage on boards and in governance roles. 

“The challenges people from low socio-economic areas face compared to people in a more secure financial position can be markedly different,” he says. 

“It’s difficult to bring that perspective to the table in high-level conversations unless you have some personal experience in communities where disadvantage is the norm, and decision-making should be about bringing multiple perspectives to the table.” 

With four sons between them (“no twins, thank goodness”) who have all inherited their parents’ love of sport, the Ryans’ weekends are spent ferrying their children from junior cricket to swimming and athletics. 

“Creating greater educational opportunities for young people is arguably the most important improvement we can make to break the intergenerational poverty cycle,” Mark says. 

This article originally appeared on The Australian Financial Review.