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Fall for your cause, collaborate and give, give, give
For Gary Lubner, striving for fairness has been a constant non-negotiable since his youth in South Africa. As a teenager he was conscripted into the police force, an experience that awoke in him a strong desire to make a difference. “Having lived this idyllic life of privilege, I saw first-hand the horrors of apartheid; what living with it actually meant for the vast majority of South Africans. For me, that was a defining moment. I decided that I was not going to go along with the system and play their rules. I was going to fight.”
Roll on a few years, and, as CEO of Belron, parent company to brands like Autoglass and Safelite, and one of world’s leaders in vehicle glass repair and replacement, Lubner’s 23-year tenure more than proved his mettle as a commercial leader. He grew Belron from a market valuation of €2 million to more than €21 billion in 2026. Today, they employ over 30,000 people and serve millions of customers globally. “We operate in 40 countries and replace a piece of glass every two seconds somewhere in the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
But that pull towards fairness meant that philanthropy has never been far from his mind. “At Belron, financial performance was never the purpose,” says Lubner. “Our focus was our people: our customers, employees and communities. Wherever you operate, you are operating in a community, and you need to give back to that community. As CEO, my theory was that if you do that, the financial performance will follow.”
To this end, for 25 years Belron has hosted the annual Spirit of Belron Challenge, a triathlon-style event that aims to raise as much money as possible for their charity partner, Afrika Tikkun. The organisation, which helps transform the lives of children and young people in some of the poorest parts of South Africa, was founded in 1994 by the late Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris and Lubner’s uncle, South African philanthropist and industrialist, Bertie Lubner.
After 20 years as CEO, Belron brought in private equity investors. Over a few short years, Lubner, in his words, “became obscenely wealthy”. It wasn’t something he could square easily with his commitment to the concept of fairness. “It was a wealth that, in truth, I felt uncomfortable with. Of course, I had worked hard, and had grown a big business, but I just felt that it was unfair. I couldn’t justify why I should be worth this amount of money when many, many millions of people around the world have worked as hard as I have but just haven't had the breaks.”
He spoke to his three children and together they agreed “it was time to give back, but to give back properly.” Lubner set up This Day, a foundation so named to reflect his sense of urgency to give away 95% of his money. “We want to give it today. Our plan is to spend down. In fact, we have already started. In three years, we have given away £130 million to a number of charities.”
Where did he want to send the capital? “That was fairly easy”, says Lubner. “My story started in South Africa. I feel an absolute obligation to give back to the country that gave me so much, even if some of it was given unfairly. It's a country that needs desperate help. 60 or 70% of our work is in South Africa, where we're involved in trying to change a generation.”
So, what are Gary’s golden rules for giving? “Number one: fall in love with the problem, not the solution. Many businesspeople come to philanthropy thinking that they know all the answers because they run a big organisation and know how to manage people. They don’t know all the answers. They should focus first on the challenge at hand and leave the solutions to other people. The second one is: collaborate. Philanthropists have so much to learn from each other. Don’t reinvent the wheel; if you’re passionate about a project, you won’t be the only one trying to solve it. And finally, it is a simple one: give more.”
Gary Lubner was in conversation with Partner, Hamish Sinclair at the Stonehage Fleming Philanthropy Conference, May 13th 2026.
