There’s No Moment Like the Present
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Gary Lubner
This story is part of the Architects of Impact series, highlighting stories of innovation that demonstrate how our Community is mobilizing to ensure a world that works for all people and the planet.
For Gary Lubner, the time to act is now.
The retired CEO of Belron—parent company of Autoglass and Safelite—spent decades running a global business spanning nearly 40 countries. Today, he’s applying the same strategic mindset to an entirely different challenge: giving it all away. His sustainable business mindset and personal background have naturally led him to give back to others.
Gary has pledged to donate his entire fortune within his lifetime, having already committed 90 percent of his wealth. “I enjoy giving, and I like being around to see it,” he says. “Why wait until after I’m gone to let trustees I don’t know give away my wealth?”
From Global Business to Global Responsibility
Gary is a big-picture thinker with deep personal roots in social impact. The grandchild of refugees and a former anti-apartheid advocate from South Africa, he built his career and life in the UK while holding fast to the belief that success means responsibility. “I grew up in a family who believed that when you’re successful, you have to give back,” he says.
Throughout his career—from corporate leadership to philanthropy—he’s kept expanding his definition of what it means to pay it forward. During his 22-year tenure as CEO at Belron, he championed company-wide fundraisers for African charities.
After leaving the multi-billion-dollar company, his scope has only grown. “When I stepped down from business,” Gary says, “I wanted to continue giving back—but this time, it’s all about my purpose in life.” In 2023, he launched This Day Foundation, which supports under-resourced communities around the world. He’s tackling the systems that shape lives themselves, working on policy in the UK, education reform in South Africa, and leadership development everywhere in between.
Working at the Ecosystem Level
To make the greatest impact for the greatest number of people, he believes, you have to work at the ecosystem level. For example, supporting an education ecosystem could include improving school quality and access, training teachers, improving funding mechanisms, and advocating for legislation.
The focus of much of his work is on ensuring opportunity, especially for young people. His foundation, This Day, gives children, leaders, and communities access to the same chances he had, regardless of where they’re born or the color of their skin.
In South Africa, for instance, This Day is addressing early childhood development, where roughly one million children under five have little access to quality care or education. “If they don’t get it, their chances of being successful later in life are almost zero,” he says. “Our goal is to reach one million kids.”
That goal is built around his ecosystem-level thinking. Starting with training for early childhood practitioners, This Day supports each step of the education system. They have created registration systems so practitioners can receive government funding, and are working directly with policymakers to fix bureaucratic bottlenecks. “We’re looking to support NGOs directly, but also to build capacity inside government,” Gary says. “Sometimes that means funding individuals to work within ministries and help design better policy.”
It’s not flashy work, but it’s essential. “It’s not sexy to fund systems,” he says, “but if you want charities to be effective, they need capability and infrastructure. We fund capacity and leadership as much as we fund projects.”
Leadership as the Lever for Change
Leadership development, he says, is the golden thread that runs through everything he does. “After 40 years in business, I’ve realized that leadership is almost always the answer,” Gary says. “So in philanthropy, whenever we look at an organization, we look at its leadership—are they capable and ready for what’s ahead? We’ll fund the leadership as much as the project itself.”
Through This Day, he supports coaching and mentoring for nonprofit and public-sector leaders, as well as programs like the Obama Leadership Foundation and CLORE, which train changemakers across Africa and Europe. “I was lucky enough to host President Obama at my home a few weeks ago,” he says. “He met with community organizers and leaders here in the UK. We use our convening power to bring people together who can drive change.”
Why Collaboration Is Not Optional
Convening power is something Gary values deeply, both in his own work and as part of Forward Global’s Community. “In my business career, collaboration was everything,” he says. “We were very clear about finding what worked best and sharing it. Philanthropy should be the same. Collaboration isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity.”
That collaborative, entrepreneurial spirit shows up in This Day’s daily operations, where Gary and his team work with local governments, nonprofits, and community groups to test and adapt new ideas. “We run 100-day sprints,” he says. “We’ll try something, look at the results, and adjust. A lot of what we do is experimentation. And sometimes things don’t work—and that’s okay. The point is to fall in love with the problem, not the solution.”
The foundation is only a few years old, but its impact already spans continents—from building early childhood systems in South Africa to helping shape social justice and migration policy in the UK. He’s candid that some of this work is hard and messy, especially his political giving. “If you want systems change, you have to do it with government,” he says. “Philanthropists can’t do it alone.”
He’s not deterred. After a lifetime leading one of the world’s largest service companies, Gary has shifted from fixing broken glass to fixing broken systems.
And he’s doing it his way—boldly, collaboratively, and right now. That urgency is reflected in the very name of his foundation. “We want to get on and do it today—this day,” Gary says. “Not someday.”
