Michael Cannon-Brookes (born 17 November 1979) is an Australian billionaire, co-founder, and co-CEO of the software company

Atlassian Atlassian Corporation () is an Australian software company that develops products for software developers, project managers and other software development teams. The company is domiciled in Delaware, with global headquarters in Sydney, Austra ...

. Cannon-Brookes often carries the

epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

of ''accidental billionaire'' after he and his business partner Scott Farquhar founded Atlassian with the aim of earning the then-typical graduate starting salary of 48,000 at the big corporations without having to work for someone else.

Early life

Cannon-Brookes was born in November 1979, the son of a global banking executive, also named Mike, and his wife, Helen. He attended

Cranbrook School, Sydney Cranbrook may refer to: People * Earl of Cranbrook, a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom ** Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 1st Earl of Cranbrook (1814–1906), British Conservative politician ** John Stewart Gathorne-Hardy, 2nd Earl of Cranbro ...

, and graduated from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensiv ...

with a degree in information systems on a UNSW Co-op Scholarship.

Career

With Scott Farquhar, Cannon-Brookes is the co-founder and co-CEO of

, a collaboration software company. The pair started the company in 2002, shortly after graduating from university, funding it with credit cards. He is also an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...

at the University of New South Wales' School of Computer Science and Engineering. Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar were recognised as the Australian IT Professional of the Year award in 2004, and Australian 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year. Cannon-Brookes was also honoured by the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

as a Young Global Leader in 2009 and is a member of The Forum of Young Global Leaders. In September 2020, it was revealed that Cannon-Brookes was listed on a

Chinese Government The Government of the People's Republic of China () is an authoritarian political system in the People's Republic of China under the exclusive political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It consists of legislative, executive, m ...

" Overseas Key Individuals Database" of prominent international individuals of interest for China illustrating his prominence in the Australian technological and industry landscape. Cannon-Brookes has been a prolific commentator on public policy in Australia, collaborating with the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Governmen ...

on a number of occasions, as well as publicly offering his assistance to solve energy and technology policy challenges. In December 2020, Cannon-Brookes bought a minority stake in NBA team

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference, Northwest Division (NBA), ...

, along with

Qualtrics Qualtrics is an American experience management company, with co-headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and Provo, Utah, in the United States. The company was founded in 2002 by Scott M. Smith, Ryan Smith, Jared Smith, and Stuart Orgill. Qualtri ...

cofounder Ryan Smith. In March 2022 it was reported that he and

Andrew Forrest John Andrew Henry Forrest (born 18 November 1961), nicknamed Twiggy, is an Australian businessman. He is best known as the former CEO (and current non-executive chairman) of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), and has other interests in the mining i ...

had invested in the SunCable project, to build a solar and battery farm in size at Powell Creek and a power-cable to link it to Singapore (via Indonesia) leaving Australia at Murrumujuk beach. In May 2022 it was reported he was trying to buy Australian power supplier AGL with a view to converting them to green power generation ahead of their published schedule.

Personal life

Cannon-Brookes is married to Annie Todd and they have four children. Cannon-Brookes and Todd lived in Sydney's eastern suburbs in . In 2018 they bought '' Fairwater'', Australia's most expensive house for approximately 100 million, next door to Scott Farquhar's 71 million

Point Piper Point Piper is a small, harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, east of the Sydney CBD, in the local government area known as the Municipality of Woollahra. Point Piper has been historically ...

harbourside mansion, ''Elaine''. Cannon-Brookes also acquired the 1923-built heritage residence ''Verona'', designed by architect

Leslie Wilkinson Leslie Wilkinson , FRAIA, (12 October 1882 – 20 September 1973) was a UK-born Australian architect and academic. He was the founding dean of the faculty of architecture at University of Sydney in 1920. A traditionalist, he is known for his r ...

and located in

Double Bay Double Bay is a harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 4 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district. It is the administrative centre of the local government area of the Municipality of ...

, for 17 million. The house previously belonged to New Zealand philanthropist

Pat Goodman Sir Patrick Ledger Goodman (6 April 1929 – 9 September 2017), known as Pat Goodman or Sir Pat Goodman, was a prominent New Zealand businessman, arts patron and philanthropist. Along with his brother, Peter, he co-founded the Australasian foo ...

. Prior to that, in 2016 Cannon-Brookes bought the 7.05 million ''SeaDragon'' house, built in 1936, also designed by Wilkinson and updated by architect Luigi Rosselli. His Centennial Park home sold for 16.5 million. In 2019 he purchased a house near ''Fairwater'' for 12 million. In July 2022, Annie Cannon-Brookes made a deal to buy

Dunk Island Dunk Island, known as ''Coonanglebah'' in the Warrgamay and Dyirbal languages, is an island within the locality of Dunk in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It lies off the Australian east coast, opposite the town of Missi ...

off

Mission Beach, Queensland Mission Beach is a coastal town and locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Mission Beach had a population of 815 people. Geography Mission Beach is bounded on the east by the Coral Sea. Clu ...

. Reportedly, the transaction was between A$20–25m, with the intent to create a nature reserve and to revitalise the resort.Annie Cannon-Brookes buys Dunk Island with plans to develop
Mark Rigby,

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast '' ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include morning news-talk show '' Good Morning America'', '' ...

, 2022-07-13

Net worth

Alongside his business partner, Farquhar, Cannon-Brookes debuted on the 2007 ''BRW'' Young Rich list of the richest Australians aged under 40; and on the ''

BRW Rich 200 The ''Financial Review Rich List'', formerly known as the ''BRW Rich 200'', is a list of Australia's two hundred wealthiest individuals and families, ranked by personal net worth published annually in ''The Australian Financial Review Magazine ...

'' in 2013. In 2016, his net worth was estimated by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' on the list of Australia's 50 Richest people as 1.69

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: *1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is its only current meaning in English. * 1,000,000,000,000, i. ...

; by ''BRW Rich 200'' as 2.00

; and by the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...

'' Rich List as 906 million. , the ''

Australian Financial Review ''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'') is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New Sou ...

'' estimated his net worth was 27.25 billion. Meanwhile, in the same month, ''Forbes'' estimated his net worth was 13.7 billion.

References

External links