Shemara Wikramanayake, the optimist guiding Macquarie

In her first extended interview as the group’s CEO, Shemara Wikramanayake surveys the landscape and sees opportunity. From our Platinum 70 Magazine out on Friday, August 20.

Shemara Wikramanayake: “We’re like a Darwinian organism in terms of our culture in that we set ourselves up to be nimble and adapt and respond and evolve.” Louie Douvis

Tony BoydContributor

Updated Aug 17, 2021 – 12.52pm, first published at 10.42am

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Macquarie Group’s Shemara Wikramanayake is one of those chief executives who hates the idea of the CEO as a hero. She abhors the concept of the powerful, central maestro with a hand in every aspect of an organisation’s success.

“It’s not me sitting here like Mr Burns in this little office in The Simpsons making all the plans for the nuclear plant,” she says. “It’s 18,000 people being empowered to go and achieve to their greatest potential and then work with their colleagues to deliver even more than the individual can.”