Greg Donovan
Greg was born in 1961 and is a long time Warringah resident living in Allambie where he built a home for his family in 1989. He is married to Raylene and has 3 grown children, Laura, Matt and Stephen.
Greg has always enjoyed endurance sports, and after racing motocross in his youth, changed to off road enduro riding, where he rode in the International Six Days Enduro earning a sliver medal, as well as participating in many Australian based enduro competitions.
He has participated in many types of endurance sports including long distance kayaking, running and cycling, with many events completed for fundraising.
Greg ran to keep fit for his motorcycle racing, and developed a passion for running, competing in many short events, with the dream of one day completing a marathon. After many problems in both his knees which were eventually fixed through surgery, he was finally able to run longer distances and completed many marathons with a best time of 2.49. He continues to be a regular marathon and ultra marathon runner, and has no plans of easing off. His favourite saying is “the race is not always to the swift but to those who keep running”
A highlight of his running career came in 2002 when he ran in the New York Marathon and raised over $150,000 for the education of children of his employer Aon, whose parents were killed in the World Trade Centre attacks of 2001.
In 2008 Greg’s son Stephen, who was 14 at the time, was diagnosed with both Type 1 diabetes and Coeliac disease at the same time, which was devastating to Stephen and his family.
Greg dedicated himself to doing something to raise funds to help find a cure for Type 1 diabetes, and with his past experience in running and fundraising, in 2012 he founded the Born to Run Foundation to achieve this goal.
He then put together a 5 person running team, dubbed Team Born to Run, which included himself and his oldest son Matthew. The team tackled the gruelling 4 deserts running series, which involves running 250km across each of 4 of the most forbidding deserts in the world, with the series finishing in Antarctica. The 4 deserts series is rated by Time Magazine alongside Tour de France and Dakar Rally as one of the top 10 most challenging endurance events on the planet. Only 11 people have managed to achieve this feat, and the 5 person Born to Run Team is the first team to complete the 4 desert grand slam, and also contains both the youngest and oldest person to achieve this feat as well as the first father and son, the first couple and first type 1 diabetic. Greg says that by literally going to all ends of the earth to bring awareness and raise funds he hopes he can inspire others to do more to help find a cure for Type 1 diabetes.
Realising the life changing affects of running 250km across deserts Greg has introduced this form of running sport to Australia by establishing the Big Red Run ,an annual week long running event based out of Birdsville in the Simpson Desert, allowing Australians the ability to enjoy this unique experience and raise funds for Type 1 diabetes research, as well as drawing in people from around the world to enjoy the Australian outback. John Williamson will play a concert in the desert on the first night.
The fundraising event will be held each year from July 2013 coinciding with Diabetes awareness week.
Greg has ambitions to build the newly formed Born to Run Foundation to not only continue to raise funds and awareness to help find a cure for Type 1 diabetes, but also provide services to assist people with diabetes improve their lives and deal with their illness through fitness and exercise.
Greg has had a long career in the insurance industry and has held many senior roles with his long term employer Aon. He is currently the Managing Director of Aon GRIP Solutions. In 2007 Greg was the winner of the inaugural Aon Global Innovation challenge, with an innovative business idea, against strong competition from 60,000 employees from 120 countries.
Greg is a qualified accountant and Fellow CPA, as well as holding a Masters Degree in Information Technology Management.