麦格理新CEO人选引发战略方向讨论，但核心任命已于7月23日公告

How ‘The Millionaires’ Factory’ might shift under new CEO
In 1985, when the Sydney arm of British merchant bank Hill Samuel split from its parent company, it rechristened itself Macquarie Bank Limited. There have been recent signs that Macquarie — dubbed “The Millionaires’ Factory” down under — might be leaning a little more into that banking heritage.
The modern-day Macquarie derives most of its income stream from its asset management business, its mergers and acquisitions advisory arm and the commodities and trading business that has been the star performer of the show in recent years. Two-thirds of its revenue comes from outside Australia.
The complex empire of rapidly growing non-banking operations saw the company recreate itself in 2007 as a non-operating holding company called Macquarie Group, which has grown into a global empire valued at nearly A$100bn ($70bn).
Yet when Macquarie held its annual meeting in Sydney last month, it revealed that Greg Ward, head of its banking and financial services division, would become Macquarie’s fifth chief executive since 1985 when Shemara Wikramanayake retires in November after eight years in the role.
Macquarie also used the shareholder meeting to introduce William Vereker, who has joined its board after decades in European banking at JPMorgan, UBS, Santander, Schroders, Lehman Brothers and Nomura as well as a short spell as Theresa May’s business envoy.
Ward, a 30-year veteran at Macquarie who used to like racing Porsches, has had his credentials burnished after turning its domestic banking operations into a successful growth story and the driving force for competition in the company’s home market.
Its digital-only deposits — pitched as having “no hoops” or catches to save money — and lending arm have taken chunks out of the country’s Big Four banks, particularly in the giant Australian mortgage market. That success was underlined when HSBC, another bank that was awarded a licence in Australia in the 1980s, recently agreed to sell off its home loan book to Blackstone and said it would wind down its remaining retail banking assets.
The banking market share growth has also created a fast-growing consumer-facing Macquarie business distinct from “The Millionaires’ Factory” operations, which have included its high-profile foray into the British water networks.
And banking has long been part of Macquarie’s story. Its original name reflected the banking licence awarded by the Australian government, which was looking to shake up a complacent market. The name also was a nod to Governor Lachlan Macquarie who established Australia’s first bank. He created the “Holey Dollar” — the first minted coinage in what is now Australia, which also doubles as Macquarie’s logo — by importing Spanish reales and punching a hole in them to make two coins with different values.
Notably, the new chief executive has not been sourced from the globetrotting asset management division — where Wikramanayake was promoted from, nor the investment banking division, which Nicholas Moore, her predecessor as chief executive, ran. Nor did the CEO come from the commodities and trading division that has driven record profit in recent years.
But Macquarie insiders argue that the question should not be where Ward has come from but what he will bring and how he created an internal organic growth story from a unit that was starting to look irrelevant when he took over 13 years ago by building a differentiated product in a competitive market.
And insiders also laugh off the notion raised by some analysts and commentators that Ward’s appointment might represent a retreat to Macquarie’s home market. They point to the 14 years Ward spent as chief financial officer during Macquarie’s rapid expansion into Asia and Europe as proof that it is not retreating into its Australian shell any time soon.
Others noted that the banking and financial services division has been a success but that its 17 per cent net profit growth in the year to March was still a long way off the other divisions, which grew between 27 per cent and 49 per cent.
Ward’s job will now be to define his leadership era by empowering the next generation of leaders willing to bet their careers that they can create the equivalent in markets and banking of lightning in a bottle. Recent growth has been driven by global energy trading platforms, Asian renewable energy projects and a challenger retail bank but the next Macquarie-sized opportunities to keep the holey dollars flowing could come from anywhere.