Shemara Wikramanayake

Shemara Wikramanayake (born 1962) is an Australian businesswoman. She embarked on a career as a lawyer and then as a banker. In 2018, she became the Managing Director and CEO of Macquarie Group Ltd.

Quotes

• "In our five years in England, we faced financial hardship, so moved homes a few times. I changed schools three times, changed friends and changed continents. This could have been unsettling for a child, but I looked on it as an opportunity,"
• "Possibly from natural resilience, I was able to accept quickly that I could do nothing about our peripatetic circumstances. But I appreciated that I still had choices and things I could control, including my attitude. Being curious and social, I resolved to embrace the frequent changes as an opportunity to learn from different cultures and perspectives,"
• "If anyone had told me as a child that I couldn’t fulfil my various childhood ambitions to be an astronaut, or pilot or James Bond due to my gender or ethnicity, I would have dismissed their views as irrational. This was my form of resilience,"
• Challenges do remain. The economic impacts of 2020 are likely to be felt for some time. Economic downturns exacerbate inequalities of all types. Government finances are inevitably more stretched and we in the private sector will need to step up to support the recovery,"
  • 'I had things I could control, including my attitude': Macquarie CEO, Sally Patten, Nov 26, 2020. FINANCIAL REVIEW, Retrieved: November 23, 2023.
• "I really value privacy. Anonymity is such a luxury and I don't think people appreciate that"
• "I've never spent any time thinking that i would like other person's job. I'm thinking about what we can do as a business, what's next."
  • I HAVE NEVER SOLD A MACQUARIE SHARE IN Y 30 YEARS HERE. Financial Times. Retrieved: 21, November 2023