Flinders University will honour the life of prominent South Australian businessman Allen Bolaffi with a Memorial Fund that will support both innovative business ideas and health research.

A director of Arrowcrest and Medvet, Mr Bolaffi headed the State’s Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce for 20 years. Until his death in June 2014 after a sudden illness, he was also patron to the Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men’s Health.

The announcement coincides with a memorial lunch hosted by the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce today in Mr Bolaffi’s memory (Thursday, August 21). Flinders Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Barber said that Mr Bolaffi’s extraordinary range of business and community activities warranted distinctive recognition.

“As well as his business, charity and community roles, Allen was an enthusiastic advocate and backer of entrepreneurial businesses and start-up companies, and in this role served on the advisory committee of the University’s New Venture Institute,” Professor Barber said.

“A significant and dynamic figure in the life of the State and the University, Allen was especially committed to realising the possibilities of the future, and his family and the University believe the Memorial Fund is an effective way to sustain his vision.”

The Fund will initially focus on two themes:

• Supporting innovative and entrepreneurial new business creation through Flinders University’s New Venture Institute

• Supporting research students working in health sciences related to men’s health or infectious viral diseases
  

Donors can support themes specifically or donate to the Memorial Fund in an untied way. Financial assistance from the Fund will be allocated on an annual basis from an invested capital base that will provide a perpetual income stream.

The Fund will be administered through the University’s Karmel Foundation, and donations to the fund, through Flinders University, will be tax-deductible

If you would like to commemorate Allen’s life with a donation to the Memorial Fund you can make a gift here or contact Ms Emily Drewniak at Flinders on (08) 8201 7571.