Macquarie Group's promotion of Shemara Wikramanayake to chief executive — a rare example of a female running an investment bank — owes much to her steady hand during the global financial crisis.
The bank shifted its focus from investment banking — the company had a record for risky bets that earned it the nickname “The Millionaire’s Factory” — to its steadier asset management division at the height of the crisis in 2009. That put the spotlight on the division’s leader, Wikramanayake, who had only been in that job for less than a year.
