The Millionaires’ Factory

Do you know who pockets the money when you pay tolls on the Chicago Skyway? Who’s the major investor in Lagoon Water Solutions in Oklahoma City? Who sold Plano-based Atlantic Aviation for nearly .5 billion in 2021? Who closed a deal for financing a new Goethals Bridge between New York and New Jersey? Would you have thought an Australian banking group was or is pulling the strings behind all these infrastructure projects? The extraordinary and revealing story of the Australian bank that took on the world, and the culture that lies behind its entrepreneurial approach. Macquarie is everywhere. As an investment bank, a commodities player and an international leader in infrastructure fund management, Macquarie has inserted itself into your life somehow, no matter where in the world you’re reading this book. The Millionaires’ Factory lifts the lid on this unique banking success story, from its origins in Australia in 1969 to its presence in 33 markets today. It identifies the big decisions that have allowed the bank to thrive where others have floundered, and the unique Macquarie ability to spot a niche few others can see. It also uncovers the dramas, the turf fights, the scandals and the failures, as well as the supercharged salaries and bonuses that earned them the nickname ‘the millionaires’ factory’. Drawing on their interviews with Macquarie CEOs and senior managers past and present, journalists Joyce Moullakis and Chris Wright explain the culture that drives Macquarie: its unique ‘loose-tight’ approach to risk, its empowerment of individual staff to try new things, and its knack for turning market calamities into opportunities. Markets move and Macquarie has reinvented itself time and again as they do so, but one thing never changes: it’s seldom on the wrong side of a deal.