Macquarie banker who earned more than top Wall Street bosses resigns
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Mr Nick O’Kane, 28-year veteran of the firm, will resign as head of commodities and global markets on Feb 27.
PHOTO: MACQUARIE.COM
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SYDNEY – Macquarie Group’s powerhouse commodities head Nick O’Kane, who famously earned more than Wall Street chiefs such as JPMorgan Chase & Co’s Mr Jamie Dimon and Citigroup’s Ms Jane Fraser, will step down later in February.
The 28-year veteran of the firm will resign as head of commodities and global markets and from the executive committee on Feb 27, to “pursue opportunities outside Macquarie”, the bank said in a statement on Feb 13.
Mr Simon Wright, current global head of the commodities and global markets financial markets division, will replace him and will join the executive committee from April 1. Mr Wright has been with Macquarie for 35 years.
The leadership shuffle came as Macquarie said its profit for the nine months ended Dec 31 was “substantially down” on the previous year.
Mr O’Kane’s division saw earnings fall, primarily due to exceptionally strong results in the previous period, the bank said.
It was those results that drove the 59 per cent pay boost Mr O’Kane received in the year to March 2023.
His remuneration for the period was A$57.6 million (S$50.6 million), according to Macquarie’s annual report released last May.
In contrast, chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake received A$32.8 million.
Mr O’Kane’s pay also topped that of the biggest US bank bosses.
Citigroup awarded Ms Fraser US$24.5 million (S$33 million) for 2022, while JPMorgan kept Mr Dimon’s total compensation at US$34.5 million for that year.
At the time, Macquarie chairman Glenn Stevens defended Mr O’Kane’s salary, noting the bank is competing for talent in a global marketplace.
“This is an exceptional year, so it’s not a surprise that there are some exceptional numbers,” Mr Steven said.
The bank entered the United States natural gas market in 2005 with the acquisition of Cook Inlet Energy Supply, and in 2009 acquired Constellation Energy’s downstream natural gas trading platform.
“Then O’Kane built a matrix of leases over gas and energy transmission networks, making Macquarie the most powerful player in the US market,” according to The Millionaire’s Factory, a history of Macquarie by authors Chris Wright and Joyce Moullakis, released in 2023. BLOOMBERG
