Only one film can win the “Oscar” from a strong list of best movies. However, the judges couldn’t split the joint recipients of The Australian Financial Review’s Business Person of the Year award, which recognises the leaders, builders, pioneers and disrupters who have left a mark on the business landscape in the past 12 months. This year’s shared award goes to the entrepreneurial founders from humble backgrounds whose companies have been at the centre of two of the biggest deals in Australian capital market in 2024.

AirTrunk founder Robin Khuda’s dream to get in front of the digital wave by establishing a network of hyperscale data centres to power the cloud in Asia was initially met with doubters and closed doors. In September, artificial intelligence turbocharged the data storage boom, Khuda sold AirTrunk to the world’s biggest private equity fund, Blackstone, for $24 billion and announced ambitious plans to expand into the giant markets of Korea and India.