Macquarie names Greg Ward to succeed Wikramanayake as chief executive

Macquarie Group has appointed Greg Ward, the head of its banking division, to succeed Shemara Wikramanayake as chief executive. Wikramanayake has led the Sydney-based group through a period of substantial international expansion, building out its asset management and infrastructure investing arms into some of the largest in the world. Her successor's promotion from within signals a preference for continuity over an outside hire at a firm that has built its reputation on deep internal expertise and a distinctive, decentralised operating culture.

Macquarie sits at an unusual intersection of relevance for the luxury and wealth world. Its asset management arm is a major owner of infrastructure and real assets globally, and its private wealth division counts high-net-worth individuals and family offices among its client base across Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Americas. A change at the top of a group this size inevitably reverberates through the private banking and family office relationships that increasingly intersect with luxury clientele, from real estate financing to art-backed lending.

Ward's elevation from the banking business, rather than from asset management, the division that has driven much of Macquarie's recent growth, suggests the board wanted a leader grounded in the group's more traditional lending and markets operations as it faces a period of tighter capital discipline globally. What to watch is whether Ward maintains the aggressive overseas expansion that defined the Wikramanayake era or recalibrates toward consolidation, and how quickly he moves to put his own stamp on succession below him.

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