Adam Garone is co-founder of Movember – the month-long fundraising event held every November where men grow a moustache (a ‘mo’), raising awareness and money for men’s health along the way.

Movember has grown from a group of 30 mates, who wanted to bring the mo back into fashion and also raise money for a good cause, into a world-wide phenomenon. In 2007, some 96,000 ‘Mo Bro’s’ across Australia joined the campaign, raising $14 million dollars for health charities, the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue – the national depression initiative.

“We want to fundamentally change the way men think, talk and act about their health”, explains Adam. “The mo is a conversation starter; a vehicle for men to talk about their health. We get lots of emails from guys saying that they were suffering from depression and by growing a mo they were able to speak about it.” It’s a clever campaign which has struck a chord, not only in Australia, but also in New Zealand, the UK, Canada, Spain and other countries around the world.​

Last year Movember launched internationally into New Zealand. It raised over $850,000 for the New Zealand Prostate Council- the highest amount ever raised for the organisation by $835,000. Thrilled with the results, Adam and his team spent the best part of 2007 gearing up for international launches in the US, UK and Spain.

“We never anticipated it would have such a following in Australia, let alone globally”, says Adam, who is now based in the US as Movember’s North America Operations Director.

Adam began his career in the Australian Army before completing his Master of Marketing at MBS. After graduating, he spent seven years in the e-commerce industry, managing product development and online marketing for Vodafone and other Australian companies.

Though the original idea for Movember was sparked by a conversation among a group of friends who decided to ‘bring the mo back to its former glory’, Adam – a health and fitness buff – also recognised a gap in the market for men’s health. “While there are a lot of events for women’s health there was previously none for men’s.”
Furthermore, Australian charities hadn’t traditionally used the internet to raise money, which is where Adam’s online expertise came into play: Movember’s registration and sponsorship is all managed online, making it easy for Mo Bros to sign-up, and equally simple for sponsors to support the campaign.

Movember culminates in end-of-month parties where Mo Bros and Mo Sisters (women who encourage their friends and partners to support the cause) celebrate the end of the campaign and crown the Man of Movember.