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Helena Carr

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Helena Carr
Carr in 1997
Born
Anne Helena John

(1946-09-00)September 1946
Taiping, Perak, Malayan Union
Died25 October 2023(2023-10-25) (aged 77)
Vienna, Austria
NationalityAustralian
EducationBachelor of Economics
Alma materUniversity of Sydney
OccupationBusinesswoman
Spouse
​
(m. 1973)​

Helena Carr (born Anne Helena John; September 1946 – 25 October 2023) was an Australian businesswoman and the wife of former premier of New South Wales, former senator and former foreign minister Bob Carr.

Early life

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Anne Helena John was born in Perak, Malaysia,[1] the youngest of six children of an Indian father and a Chinese mother.[2] In 1965, she came to Sydney to study at Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta.[3] As economics was one of her strongest subjects, she majored in it at the University of Sydney where she was a resident at Sancta Sophia College.[4]

Carr joined Leigh Mardon, a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Amatil, in 1976, first as a market research officer and then as a product manager. She left in 1981 to join Amatil before returning to Leigh Mardon, as a business development manager and then a division manager,[5] where she was responsible for a staff of 1,000.[3]

Marriage and politics

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In 1972, she met Bob Carr on a vacation in Tahiti and the two were married on 24 February 1973.[6]

Bob Carr became federal president of Young Labor shortly after. Helena Carr started a successful business career and by the 1980s, she was the managing director of Leigh Mardon.[7] In 1992, Carr and Max Turner partnered with politician Eddie Obeid to offer A$16 million for Offset Alpine. She later pulled out of the deal, leading Obeid to partner instead with Rene Rivkin and Graham Richardson for a successful, $15 million offer.[8]

Carr and Max Turner later bought Merritt Madden Printing and Advanced Graphics, a commercial printer producing prospectuses, annual reports, and trade magazines. In October 2004, she and Turner sold the business to the New Zealand company Blue Star Print Group.[7]

In October 2023, Helena Carr died from a brain aneurysm while in Vienna, Austria, aged 77.[9][10] Her funeral was held at St Mary's Cathedral on 14 November.[11]

References

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  1. ^ Neville Dcruz, Bernama (2 March 2012). "New Aussie foreign minister's wife is from Perak". Malaysiakini.com. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
  2. ^ "Carr defends overseas trips with wife". ABC News. 25 October 2012.
  3. ^ a b "Major supporting act". The Sydney Morning Herald. 30 July 2005. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  4. ^ Lawson, Valerie (28 July 2005). "Exit follows cue from retiring leading lady". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  5. ^ "People". The Age. 17 September 1984. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  6. ^ "Major supporting act". The Sydney Morning Herald. 30 July 2005.
  7. ^ a b Mitchell, Alex (24 October 2004). "Wife's deal sparks speculation over Carr's future". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  8. ^ McClymont, Kate (29 July 2014). "Eddie Obeid's 'likely' $1m share of Offset Alpine payout". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  9. ^ "Former NSW premier and foreign minister Bob Carr's wife Helena dies overseas". ABC News. 28 October 2023.
  10. ^ "Former NSW premier Bob Carr announces shock loss of wife Helen Carr". ABC News (Australia). 28 October 2023.
  11. ^ Hornery, Andrew (14 November 2023). "'Final message to my little friend': Bob Carr farewells wife Helena". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 14 November 2023.

Further reading

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  • Dodkin, Helena (2003). Bob Carr: The Reluctant Leader. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. ISBN 0-86840-757-7. OCLC 52686920.
  • Who's Who in Australia 2005. North Melbourne: Crown Content. p. 379.
  • West, Andrew; Morris, Rachel (2003). Bob Carr: A Self-Made Made Man. Sydney: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780732277505. OCLC 54786113.
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