This month’s guest speaker was Alex Rich, one of the mountains more recent residents.
Aptly named, he has indeed had a rich and very varied life.
Alex was born in Malta to a Royal Air Force family and grew up across the UK in circumstances that ranged from deeply loving to financially precarious.
His father, an RAF serviceman who later became an entrepreneur, and his mother, whose quiet strength held the family together, instilled in him resilience, independence, and an early understanding that life does not offer guarantees.
By his mid-teens, Alex had left home, experienced homelessness, and narrowly avoided a path that could have ended very badly.
Through a combination of luck, kindness from strangers, and ultimately personal responsibility, he chose to change direction.
By 19, he had built and sold his first business; by his twenties, life brought further extremes: wealth gained and lost, a long battle with gambling addiction, serious physical injury, the near loss of a newborn child to meningitis, divorce, the death of close family members, and later permanent disability following medical complications.
Each chapter required rebuilding – financially, emotionally, and spiritually.
After migrating to Australia with his – family, Alex founded multiple technology companies including Desygner, and more recently ventures in AI, brand governance, and digital trust.
Today, he lives on Tamborine Mountain, remains actively involved in building technology businesses, and focuses equally on family, health, and service,
Alex’s interest in Buddhism developed not as a religion, but as a practical philosophy – one that helped him understand suffering, attachment, impermanence, and compassion, particularly during periods when ambition alone was no longer enough to carry him forward.
Any retired or semi retired guys out there looking for some mental stimulation, friendship fellowship and fun who would like to join our club, give me a call on 0418 876 191 for more information.
