The recent retirement of the Macquarie Group CEO, Shemara Wikramanayake, marks the culmination of a highly successful career. She is leaving the company with shares worth hundreds of millions of dollars after nearly 40 years at the Sydney-based institution. Under her leadership, the “millionaires’ factory” has increased its annual revenue by about 80% and nearly doubled its profit.
Wikramanayake has also overseen and consolidated the group’s transition from a firm specialising in privatised infrastructure to a global merchant bank earning profits from commodity trading, specialist asset finance and wealth management.
