Imelda Joan Roche (born ) and her last husband, Bill Roche (2022), is an Australian entrepreneur and property investor who established
Nutrimetics International (Australia) Pty Limited in 1968.
Biography
The couple met in a supermarket in 1956 and started in business selling lamps door-to-door.
In 1968 the couple bought the Australian franchise to Nutrimetics, starting with $6,000 of stock. In 1991, they acquired the worldwide interests of Nutrimetics International. The Nutrimetics Group was sold in 1997 to the
Sara Lee Corporation. At the time of sale the company had a turnover of A$250 million a year.
Bill and Imelda Roche expanded into property development and investment. They started their real estate investments with the purchase of a Sydney warehouse in the late 1950s. They subsequently owned residential land subdivisions, rural properties and office complexes.
Imelda Roche was Acting
Chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
of
Bond University
Bond University is Australia's first private not-for-profit university and is located in Robina, a suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland. Since its founding on 15 May 1989, Bond University has primarily been a teaching-focused higher ed ...
from 5 August 1999 to 25 November 1999, and served as Chancellor from 25 November 1999 to 30 May 2003. In 1995, Imelda Roche was appointed an
Officer of the Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...
for her distinguished service too business and commerce, to women's affairs, and to the community.
The Roche Group owns several Hunter Valley landmarks, including the award-winning Hunter Valley Gardens, the live concert venue Roche Estate and Harrigan's Irish Pub. In 2020 there was controversy around a Roche Group housing development planned at
West Wallsend. For almost ten years, activists were fighting to protect an Aboriginal women's site situated on land slated for development. Despite both the NSW Government and the Australian Government recognising the site's significance via legislation, the Roche Group appeared to push ahead with plans that could see the Butterfly Cave women's cultural site desecrated or damaged.
Bill Roche passed away on 30 June 2022, aged 87 years.
Roche and her late husband have four children.
Net worth
The
net worth
Net worth is the value of all the non-financial and financial assets owned by an individual or institution minus the value of all its outstanding liabilities. Since financial assets minus outstanding liabilities equal net financial assets, net ...
of Bill and Imelda Roche was estimated at 1.42
billion in the 2019 Rich List of the
''Australian Financial Review''. Following the 2022 death of Bill Roche, the net worth of Imelda Roche was reassessed at 1.57 bn in the 2023 Rich List.
Gallery
Klarfeld Expressions of Love Centerpiece of Hunter Valley Gardens Pokolbin NSW.jpg, Imelda Roche life size bronze sculpture with her grandchildren as centrepiece of rose garden in Hunter Valley Gardens by Linda Klarfeld
Klarfeld William Roche AO Founder of Hunter Valley Gardens.jpg, Life-size bronze statue of William Roche outside Hunter Valley Gardens by sculptor Linda Klarfeld
References
Living people
Australian businesspeople
Bond University chancellors
Year of birth missing (living people)
Australian billionaires
Roche, Imelda
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