{"id":817901,"date":"2026-07-23T03:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T03:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/817901\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T03:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T03:23:15","slug":"macquarie-group-ceo-shemara-wikramanayake-to-retire-replaced-by-greg-ward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/817901\/","title":{"rendered":"Macquarie Group CEO Shemara Wikramanayake to retire replaced by Greg Ward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Macquarie Group has announced chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake will retire after eight years at the helm.<\/p>\n

Wikramanayake, 64, will depart the $97 billion banking<\/a> giant in November.<\/p>\n

\"AFR<\/p>\n

Shemara Wikramanayake has been in charge of Macquarie since 2018.\u00a0Louise Kennerley<\/p>\n

She will be replaced by Greg Ward, who is head of the bank\u2019s banking and financial services business.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the ASX, Macquarie chairman Glenn Stevens thanked Wikramanayake \u201cfor her significant contributions to Macquarie over an almost 40-year career\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring which she has delivered sustained growth and momentum, steered Macquarie through expansion into new markets and the dislocation of the COVID pandemic, and significantly enhanced recognition of our brand and the value we bring to global clients and communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has done so with incredible strength and grace, and an unwavering commitment to the company and our people and to perpetuating our unique culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Greg<\/p>\n

Ward will take over as chief executive of the banking giant following Wikramanayake\u2019s retirement.\u00a0Kate Geraghty<\/p>\n

The shock announcement came moments before the bank\u2019s annual general meeting, where it reported a $4.8 billion profit for the financial year, up 30 per cent on 2025.<\/p>\n

In the meeting, shareholders were expected to grill the banking giant over its decision to hire KPMG as an auditor, and also raise serious complaints about workplace culture within the investment banking unit.<\/p>\n

The Australian Financial Review<\/a> reported that the 64-year-old received a pay packet of $27.9 million last year, a slight dip from 2024 after Macquarie\u2019s first-ever strike against its pay report last year.<\/p>\n

From 2021 to 2022, Wikramanayake was the highest paid chief executive in Australia after receiving $23.7 million in compensation.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the former lawyer was also named\u00a0Australian Financial Review\u00a0Business Person of the Year for her leadership prowess following the COVID-19<\/a> pandemic.<\/p>\n

During her tenure, Macquarie\u2019s share price rose 117 per cent from December 2018 to Wednesday\u2019s closing price of $254.93.<\/p>\n

Her successor, Greg Ward, has been with the bank for 30 years, including 14 years as its global CFO, where he steered the giant through the global financial crisis.<\/p>\n

Ward was later appointed as the head of banking and financial services in 2013, as Macquarie pushed back into the mortgage market.<\/p>\n

He was selected unanimously for the top job, beating out other candidates including head of asset management Ben Way, chief risk officer Andrew Cassidy and head of investment banking Michael Silverton.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe board looks forward to working with Greg and the whole management team as they write the next chapters in Macquarie\u2019s remarkable story,\u201d Stevens said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Macquarie Group has announced chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake will retire after eight years at the helm. Wikramanayake, 64,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-817901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}