Macquarie任命Greg Ward接替Wikramanayake出任CEO

Macquarie names banking head to succeed Wikramanayake as CEO
Macquarie has appointed its banking head as its new chief executive after Shemara Wikramanayake announced her retirement after eight years in the role.
Greg Ward, 58, who leads the banking and financial services division of Macquarie, will take over as head of the Australian asset management and trading business in November.
He joined the company in 1996 and spent 14 years as group chief financial officer before leading Macquarie’s banking division, whose Australian retail operations have been transformed into a growth driver in recent years.
Wikramanayake was Macquarie’s first female chief executive. Her tenure was notable for the dramatic growth of Macquarie’s commodities trading business, which drove record profits due to the volatility of energy markets, and a push into renewable energy and digital infrastructure investments.
Her role is one of the most coveted and best paid in Australian business, with Wikramanayake earning A$26.5mn last year.
Wikramanayake’s retirement had been expected and investors had considered Ward a potential frontrunner to succeed her following the departures of Alex Harvey, the chief financial officer, last year and Nick O’Kane, head of its commodities business, in 2024.
Michael Silverton, head of Macquarie Capital, and Ben Way, head of its asset management arm, were also seen as potential candidates.
Glenn Stevens, chair of Macquarie, said: “Shemara has steered Macquarie through expansion into new markets, the dislocation of the Covid pandemic, and significantly enhanced recognition of our brand and the value we bring to global clients and communities.”
The company holds its annual meeting in Sydney on Thursday. That follows a rocky meeting last year when more than a quarter of investors rejected the company’s pay policies for executives after a series of regulatory fines over poor compliance and governance across its operations.
This year, Macquarie will be under pressure to defend its appointment of KPMG as its new auditor after the Big Four consultant has been caught up in an ethics scandal.