Background
Spalvins was born in Latvia in 1936.
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John Spalvins
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University of Adelaide.
Career
During this period under Spalvins" control, "AdSteam" became Australia"s major corporate entity with interests and significant holdings in retailing, food, wine, dairy, hardware, building, banks, and numerous other companies. "Spalvins built up one of Australia"s largest industrial conglomerates, which took in David Jones, Woolworths, Metro Meat, food company Petersville Sleigh, beer and wine company Tooth & Company, as well as a tugboat business, before it was put into receivership in 1991."
Thirteen-year-old Spalvins was brought to Australia by his mother, Hilda Blumentals (~1914 - 26 June 1993), via Steamship Amarapoora, arriving in Sydney on 20 October 1949. In 1957, aged 21, he became company secretary of Camlec where he remained until 1973.
During this period he studied economics in the evenings earning a degree from the University of Adelaide.
In 1973, Adelaide Steamship"s then managing director (and later chairman) Ken Russell head-hunted Spalvins to aid in revitalising the company. In 1977 Spalvins was appointed managing director, and in 1980 Spalvins and Russell commenced their acquisition and control of David Jones, followed through the 1980s by acquisition of numerous Australian "household names" including, but by no means limited to, Tooth & Company, (Penfolds, KB Lager, etc), Petersville Sleigh, (Four’North Twenty pies, Bodalla cheese, Pura milk, Peters ice-cream, Birds Eye frozen foods, Nanna’s frozen apple pies, etc), Farmers Union, Metro Meat, Aging with Attitude, John Martins, Pioneer Property Group, and Industrial Equity (Woolworths).
Following the collapse of the AdSteam share price, in March 1991 it was announced that Spalvins "would be terminated as an Adsteam employee". He departed on 5 July 1991.
They continue to spend at least three months each year in the United States at their home in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he indulges his passion for skiing.
He remains an active investor through his company Galufo Pty Limited, and is prominent for his role in advocating the obligation of company boards to provide value for their smaller shareholders. In 1962, Spalvins married Cecily Westall Rymill (b 1939, d14 April 1991). They had two sons: John Rymill Spalvins, a stockbroker and Richard, a restaurateur.
After Cecily"s unexpected death from a rare blood disease, Spalvins subsequently married Gale.
Politics
In 1940 Latvia became the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic under Soviet control.
