Wikipedia

Mike Cannon-Brookes

Michael Cannon-Brookes (born 17 November 1979) is an Australian businessman who is the co-founder and co-CEO of software company Atlassian.

Mike Cannon-Brookes
Cannon-Brookes in 2018
BornMichael Cannon-Brookes
(1979-11-17) 17 November 1979 (age 44)
New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
NationalityAustralian
EducationCranbrook School
Alma materUniversity of New South Wales
OccupationCo-CEO of Atlassian
Employer
Known forCo-founding Atlassian
Board member ofAtlassian
Spouse(s)
Annie Todd
​
​
(m. 2010; sep. 2023)​
Children4
Awards
Websiteatlassian.com

Since 2018, he has been involved in the Australia-Asia Power Link, a huge electricity infrastructure project to be developed in the Northern Territory by Sun Cable in a collaboration with Twiggy Forrest.

Early life and education

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Michael Cannon-Brookes was born on 17 November 1979,[1][2] the son of a global banking executive, also named Mike, and his wife, Helen.[3] He attended Cranbrook School in Sydney,[4] and graduated from the University of New South Wales[5] with a bachelor's degree in information systems on a UNSW co-op scholarship.[6][7]

Career

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Cannon-Brookes co-founded Atlassian, a collaboration software company, of which he is co-CEO, with Scott Farquhar. The pair started the company in 2002, shortly after graduating from university, funding it with credit cards.[8] They have said they founded Atlassian with the aim of earning the then-typical graduate starting salary of A$48,000 at the big corporations without having to work for someone else.[9][10]

Their first major Atlassian product was Jira, an issue- and project-tracking software.[11] They decided to forgo the expense of hiring sales people, and instead spent their time and money on building a good product and selling it at a more affordable price via the Atlassian website.[11] As of 2016, the company still did not have a traditional sales force, investing instead in research and development.[12]

In 2005, they opened an office in New York, where most of their clients were.[11] Later in 2005 they moved the U.S. office to San Francisco,[13] which had a much larger pool of relevant technical talent.[11]

Their first external funding for Atlassian was a US$60 million round from Accel in 2010.[14] In 2014, they redomiciled the company to the UK, in advance of an initial public offering (IPO).[15]

Atlassian made its debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange in December 2015,[16] with a market capitalisation of $4.37 billion.[17] The IPO made Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar Australia's first tech startup billionaires and household names in Australia.[18][19][20]

Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar redomiciled Atlassian to the United States in 2022.[15] In March that year, Cannon-Brookes and billionaire Andrew Forrest invested in the Sun Cable project, to build a solar and battery farm 12,000 hectares (120 km2) in size at Powell Creek, Northern Territory, and a power-cable to link it to Singapore (via Indonesia) leaving Australia at Murrumujuk beach.[21][22] In January 2023, Sun Cable went into administration owing to disagreements between Cannon-Brookes and Forrest, and in May 2023, Cannon-Brookes' company Grok Ventures outbid Forrest and others to buy the liquidated company.[23][22]

Other activities

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Climate activism

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Cannon-Brookes is a major investor in green projects.[24]

In March 2017, following a series of power outages in South Australia, Cannon-Brookes challenged Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Twitter to deliver the Hornsdale Power Reserve Battery - the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery, within 100 days to solve the state’s energy problems.[25][needs update]

In October 2021, Cannon-Brookes pledged to donate and invest $1.5 billion on climate projects by 2030 to reinforce the COP26 goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.[26]

Cannon-Brookes started Grok Ventures in 2016 as a private investing vehicle. In February 2024, it was announced that Grok Ventures had appointed Tan Kueh as CEO, and that the organisation was accepting third party capital to drive a bigger impact on climate change.[27]

Grok Ventures is focused on climate tech, venture and infrastructure, and lighthouse investments.

In March 2022, Cannon-Brookes (through Grok Ventures) and billionaire Andrew Forrest invested in the Sun Cable project, to build a solar and battery farm 12,000 hectares (120 km2) in size at Powell Creek, Northern Territory, and a power-cable to link it to Singapore (via Indonesia) leaving Australia at Murrumujuk beach. In January 2023, Sun Cable went into administration owing to disagreements between Cannon-Brookes and Forrest, and in May 2023, Grok Ventures outbid Forrest and others to buy the liquidated company.

In 2023, Grok Ventures purchased a majority stake in Australian publicly listed energy company AGL, Australia’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, in a move to force the company to de-carbonise more quickly.

Sports

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In December 2020, Cannon-Brookes bought a minority stake in NBA team Utah Jazz, along with Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith.

In November 2021, Cannon-Brookes bought a one-third share of Blackcourt League Investments. Blackcourt owns 75% of the Australian Rugby League team, the South Sydney Rabbitohs.[28][29]

Other

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Cannon-Brookes is an adjunct professor at the University of New South Wales' School of Computer Science and Engineering.[30]

In September 2020, it was revealed that Cannon-Brookes was listed on a Chinese Government "Overseas Key Individuals Database" of prominent international individuals of interest for China.

Personal life

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Cannon-Brookes married American fashion designer Annie Todd in 2010, and they have four children together.[31][32] The couple first met at a Qantas lounge while flying from Sydney to San Francisco.[33] Cannon-Brookes and Todd lived in Sydney's eastern suburbs in Centennial Park.[10] In 2018 they bought Fairwater, Australia's most expensive house for approximately A$100 million, next door to Scott Farquhar's A$71 million Point Piper harbourside mansion, Elaine. Cannon-Brookes also acquired the 1923-built heritage residence Verona, designed by architect Leslie Wilkinson and located in Double Bay, for A$17 million.[34] The house previously belonged to New Zealand philanthropist Pat Goodman. Prior to that, in 2016, Cannon-Brookes had bought the A$7.05 million SeaDragon house, built in 1936, also designed by Wilkinson and updated by architect Luigi Rosselli.[35] His Centennial Park home sold for A$16.5 million.[36] In 2019 he purchased a house near Fairwater for A$12 million.[37] Cannon-Brookes separated from his wife Annie in July 2023.[31]

Recognition

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Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar were recognised as Ernst & Young's 2006 Australian Entrepreneur of the Year.[38] He is a member of The Forum of Young Global Leaders.[6]

Net worth

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In 2016, his net worth was estimated by Forbes on the list of Australia's 50 Richest people as US$1.69 billion;[39] by BRW Rich 200 as A$2.00 billion;[40] and by the Sunday Times Rich List as £906 million.[41] As of May 2023, the Australian Financial Review estimated his net worth was A$19.01 billion.[42] Meanwhile, in 2021, his net worth was assessed at US$13.7 billion by Forbes and at US$11.2 billion by Bloomberg.[43]

Year BRW
Rich 200 		Forbes
Australia's 50 Richest 		Sunday Times
Rich List
Rank Net worth (A$) Rank Net worth (US$) Rank Net worth (£)
2013[44][45] 190   $0.25 billion   n/a not listed
2014[46][47] 35   $1.07 billion   n/a not listed
2015[48][49] 42   $1.14 billion   25   $1.10 billion  
2016[40][39][41] 18   $2.00 billion   14   $1.69 billion   £906 million  
2017[50][51] 17   $2.51 billion   10   $3.40 billion  
2018[52] 12   $5.16 billion   5  
2019[53][54][55] 6   $9.63 billion   5   $6.40 billion  
2020[56] 5   $16.93 billion  
2021[57][43] 3   $20.18 billion   $13.70 billion  
2022 3   $27.80 billion  
2023[42] 6   $19.01 billion  
Legend
Icon Description
  Has not changed from the previous year
  Has increased from the previous year
  Has decreased from the previous year

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Santoreneos, Anastasia (26 November 2020). "He's worth $18.4 billion - but he won't qualify for this rich list anymore". Yahoo! Finance. Archived from the original on 20 January 2021.
  2. ^ "WA's best and brightest young guns top rich list". The West Australian. 26 November 2020. Archived from the original on 23 April 2024.
  3. ^ Gray, Joanne (9 June 2016). "Michael Cannon-Brookes snr: How I raised a son who became Atlassian billionaire". Australian Financial Review. Australia. Archived from the original on 9 June 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  4. ^ Cranbrook School: Elite Sydney institution eyes up major change Archived 6 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine News.com.au
  5. ^ Kahn, Brian (16 April 2024). "A Software Billionaire Is Betting Big on a Wild Climate Fix". Bloomberg News. Shoko Oda, David Stringer, Stephen Stapczynski, and Yue Qiu contributed. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
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