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Why Gurner gave up alcohol – and what he learnt

The property developer and wellness entrepreneur has rarely had a drink for 18 months. He doesn’t like what he sees from people who are imbibing.

  • Sally Patten and Martin Peralta
MinRes founder Chris Ellison will still be at the company into 2026.

Drumstick Awards: The five biggest corporate stuff-ups of 2024

From miners to retailers to tech giants, corporate Australia put its foot in it again this year.

  • James Thomson
Sophie Jackman is likely to expand her team when the new sustainability reporting standards are introduced.

How accountants will help save the planet

The once humble accountant will be key to supporting the transition to net zero.

  • Sally Patten
CEO of the Central Coast Marriners, Alyssar Narey.

This woman made history when she took over her local A-League club

Alyssar Narey, one of just two women to run a football club in Australia, lays bare the reality of the family juggle, women in sport and the one thing she can’t survive without.

  • Zoe Samios
Macquarie’s Shemara Wikramanayake has topped the AFR’s CEO pay ranks for the fourth year running.

Australia’s 50 highest-paid CEOs in 2024 revealed

Macquarie Group’s Shemara Wikramanayake is Australia’s best-paid CEO for the fourth year in a row.

  • Patrick Durkin
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This Month

Justine Rowe says Telstra employees take pride in working for a company that prioritises social investment.

Canva, Cotton On and Atlassian among the top 20 corporate givers

The amount of funds donated by the top 50 corporate philanthropists has jumped to $1.7 billion.

  • Sally Patten

November

IAG CEO Nick Hawkins.

How IAG boss Nick Hawkins weathered the perfect storm

In the past four years, the CEO of the $20b insurance giant has battled both cyclonic conditions and swirling regulators and politicians.

  • James Eyers
Dr Katie Spearritt, chief executive of Diversity Partners.

Why the backlash from men is threatening gender targets

Mining behemoth Rio Tinto is not the only company to discover pockets of male employees who resent the push for greater diversity.

  • Sally Patten
Chris Lucas at Grill Americano at 112 Flinders Lane. He says he only drinks two coffees a day.

How Chris Lucas came to know the secrets of the rich and powerful

One of Melbourne’s top restaurateurs, Chris Lucas, is expanding across the country, but he is keeping old-fashioned values at the heart of his operations.

  • Patrick Durkin
VFMC CEO Kate Galvin.

How a jibe from this CEO’s teenage daughter triggered a career rethink

Kate Galvin, the chief executive of the $92 billion Victorian Funds Management Corporation, hadn’t applied for a new job in 23 years and, without realising it, needed a push.

  • Patrick Durkin
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Sandra McNeil (left), Janet Menzies (middle) and Kate Gooden in Sydney.

How these top female Amazon execs are conquering Australia

Women are running three of company’s big growth areas in Australia – the retail juggernaut’s turnover is estimated to reach $6.5 billion this year.

  • Sally Patten
The rising cost-of-living burden has left more Australian unhappy.

Social cohesion hits record lows, support for immigration slumps

The cost of living, high interest rates, the growing wealth gap and concern over migration all contributed to Australians feeling more anxious about life.

  • Patrick Durkin
Grant Wilckens presides over G’Day Group, a holiday parks company that owns $2 billion of property and is the largest provider of regional accommodation in the country.

This former investment banker now runs a $2b caravan park business

Grant Wilckens spent his early career raising capital for clients. Now he’s the CEO of the holiday parks company he founded, G’Day Group.

  • Sally Patten
Nick Mann, regional CEO of Australia, Asia and New Zealand and rotating group CEO of Swisse’s parent company H&H Group, at Swisse’s office in Collingwood, Melbourne.

Why this Swisse CEO fasts for 19 hours a day

Nick Mann, regional CEO of the parent company that owns Swisse, has stepped up into the role of global group CEO just as the wellness industry is booming.

  • Euan Black
Coles Group chief executive Leah Weckert told the Chanticleer brunch the top job was “something I had always aspired to”.

If you want the top job, say so: Coles CEO

Leah Weckert has some refreshingly honest career advice for aspiring executives, particularly women.

  • Patrick Durkin

This top fundie names the best business leaders she has met

WaveStone director Catherine Allfrey has worked in equity markets for 30 years. Over breakfast, she reveals the top thinkers who have impressed her most.

  • Sally Patten

Why retail was the Bunnings MD’s third career choice, and why he stayed

Michael Schneider found doing the thing he was passionate about helped make his career much more worthwhile than seeing it as a job with a fortnightly pay.

  • Sally Patten and Lap Phan
VRC CEO Kylie Rogers

How Victoria Racing Club’s new boss plans to turn around its fortunes

Kylie Rogers was used to managing people with different priorities and agendas as one of the AFL’s top commercial executives. Now she has an even bigger challenge.

  • Zoe Samios and Patrick Durkin

October

Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters spent months with an executive coach to train him to co-lead the world’s biggest entertainment company.

Netflix’s co-CEO says it’s ‘impossible’ to run the $500b giant alone

Greg Peters once wanted to be an astronaut – now he’s leading a company worth more than Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery combined.

  • Sam Buckingham-Jones
BHP chairman Ken MacKenzie in 2022. He is expected to announce his resignation next year.

Inside the contest to succeed Ken MacKenzie at the top of BHP

It has been one of the most coveted prizes in corporate life. The next chairman of the Big Australian will have profound influence on the entire market.

  • Patrick Durkin
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BHP and ANZ director Christine O’Reilly; Macquarie Group director Rebecca McGrath and AUB chair and CBA director Peter Harmer.

2024’s most powerful and influential directors revealed

As AGM season gathers pace, the BOSS index of the country’s most powerful and influential directors reveals a new cohort rising through the ranks.

  • Patrick Durkin
A conversation with a career coach helped Canva’s Charlotte Anderson realise she wanted to create a new role for herself.

How execs create their own jobs

BOSS talks to three executives who came up with their own titles or convinced an employer to create a new position for them.

  • Euan Black

How to have a job you love, save the world and earn up to $800k

This week BOSS speaks to four executives who are helping to save the planet. All have a high level of job satisfaction, and all earn decent money. It appears it is possible to have it all. 

  • Sally Patten
Jaqui Lane, Founder of The Book Adviser.

This year’s worst corporate jargon, and the woman trying to fight it

Ducks in a row, reinventing the wheel, putting a pin in it, circling back, low-hanging fruit and thinking outside the box are among this year’s most hated buzz phrases.

  • Patrick Durkin
South Africa’s first fully representative democratic elections in 1994 were a pivotal moment in Biopak CEO Gary Smith’s career.

Why Nelson Mandela’s election was a turning point for this CEO

A contract to provide the computers for South Africa’s first all-race democratic elections in 1994 was a pivotal moment in the career of BioPak CEO Gary Smith.

  • Euan Black, Sally Patten and Lap Phan

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/boss