Mike Cannon-Brookes

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 SchoolinSydney,^[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]

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]

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.

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]

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.

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 suburbsinCentennial 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]

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]

In 2016, his net worth was estimated by Forbes on the list of Australia's 50 Richest peopleasUS$1.69 billion;^[39]byBRW Rich 200asA$2.00 billion;^[40] and by the Sunday Times Rich Listas£906 million.^[41] As of May 2023^[update], 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]

• List of NRL club owners

• Mike Cannon-BrookesonX