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Shemara Wikramanayake

This Month

CBA boss Matt Comyn, Macquarie CEO Shemara Wikramanayke and Wesfarmers CEO Rob Scott.

‘Australia is falling behind’: 55 CEOs demand election action

Top chief executives say the next federal government must make the nation’s crippling regulatory burden and housing supply top priorities.

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  • James Thomson and Anthony Macdonald
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

November

Shemara Wikramanayake has helped oversee incredible growth in infratructure investing.

Is Macquarie’s jewel losing its shine?

Macquarie became a world leader in infrastructure investing, but the growth in this division is slowing as competition rises. It speaks to a bigger debate around the giant.

  • James Thomson
Coles CEO Leah Weckert speaks with columnist Anthony Macdonald at The Australian Financial Review Chanticleer Brunch on Friday.

Weckert and Wikramanayake paint a bigger picture on profits

Big business deserves big scrutiny. But we shouldn’t lose sight of the bigger picture that the Coles and Macquarie bosses are painting on why profits are important. 

  • James Thomson
Shemara Wikramanayake: “We operate in multiple markets, in multiple countries, and are trying to deliver to required standards in every one of them.”

Macquarie boss says accountability matters after ASIC jibe

After being slapped with a record fine for failing to monitor energy futures markets, the bank pledged to identify root causes and hold staff accountable.

  • James Eyers
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Shemara Wikramanayake says deal activity is picking up.

Macquarie’s $11b signal that deals are bouncing back

If Shemara Wikramanayake is feeling the pressure from Macquarie’s sky-high share price, she isn’t showing it. It remains all about the long game. 

  • James Thomson

October

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WiseTech soars; Inside Macquarie’s new HQ; Rockpool’s saviour?

Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.

Macquarie’s new headquarters at 1 Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

Inside Macquarie’s new HQ, where the queen takes centre stage

Employees see their boss Shemara Wikramanayake on the way to their desks after entering the building without a security pass – since there are face scanners.

  • Anthony Macdonald

September

Mark Delaney.

Australia’s 10 most powerful business leaders in 2024

The strongest voices for corporate Australia in a year when cost-of-living pressures have ripped through the most vulnerable parts of the economy.

  • James Thomson
Shemara Wikramanayake is a believer in Macquarie’s ground-up approach of generating new ideas.

How Macquarie’s value could triple in a decade

As its shares trade near record levels, investors are trying to figure out where its future growth will come from. A new analysis helps answer that question.

  • James Thomson
Shemara Wikramanayake says Australia has a huge opportunity in south east Asia.

Inside Shemara Wikramanayake’s next big mission

Macquarie has built a powerful business across booming South-East Asia. Now, Shemara Wikramanayake is helping others to break in.

  • Updated
  • James Thomson
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REA mulls $8.5b bid; Vegan chain collapses; Shemara’s next big move

Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.

July

Macquarie has struggled over the last year with offloading energy transition-focused businesses.

Macquarie struggles with sluggish deal activity, flags asset sales

The financial services giant told investors that its investment bank had dragged down earnings – flat on last year – for the three months to June 30.

  • Updated
  • Aaron Weinman
Shemara Wikramanayake is confident in Macquarie’s outlook after a tough year.

Macquarie investors will need patience as deal drought rolls on

Macquarie is well-positioned to win from the big shifts in markets – but the deal drought will delay those gains, despite a spring in the step of some bankers.

  • James Thomson
Anthony Pratt (left) hosted the superannuation roundtable that also included RBA governor Michele Bullock, former prime minister Paul Keating, Macquarie’s Shemara Wikramanyake and financier Michael Milken.

Rock stars happy to discuss fixes, but super isn’t the big problem

Tinkering with super allocations is one thing, but it cannot replace our desire for bolder economic and tax reform. 

  • Anthony Macdonald
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Australia’s highest-paid CEOs include Greg Goodman (Goodman Group), Shemara Wikramanayake (Macquarie), Mike Henry (BHP), and Matt Comyn (CBA).

Who are the highest paid ASX 200 CEOs?

New research shows that ASX 100 CEOs earn on average 50 times more than the average Australian adult.

  • Hannah Wootton

June

CBA’s Mike Vacy-Lyle laid down his plan to beat NAB a year ago. Now he’s taking aim at Macquarie.

CBA has fighting words as it prepares to get one back at Macquarie

Commonwealth Bank’s move to chase $20 billion in real estate agents’ bank accounts seems bitsy, until you realise who it is going after.

  • Anthony Macdonald

Brookfield’s $10b Neoen bid good news for Macquarie: JPMorgan

The tilt at the French utility was just the first example of the renewed appetite for green projects, the investment bank’s analyst Andrew Triggs says.

  • Lucas Baird

May

Macquarie Capital’s Asia Pacific boss Tim Joyce.

Macquarie’s Tim Joyce puts annual conference to good use

There’s nothing like the annual Macquarie Australia conference to drive home the synergies available to the full-service investment bank.

  • Updated
  • Myriam Robin
Macquarie Group CEO Shemara Wikramanayake’s a hard act to beat.

The four key themes dominating Macquarie’s talkfest

Macquarie chief Shemara Wikramanayake is the perfect person to open the biggest investor conference of the year with the last of her issues a sleeper for a lot of us in Australia.

  • Updated
  • Anthony Macdonald

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/shemara-wikramanayake-1mz2