Rebecca McGrath, Mike Roche tapped for Macquarie board

Michael RoddanNational correspondent

Jan 19, 2021 – 12.32pm

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Macquarie Group has appointed OZ Minerals chairman Rebecca McGrath and veteran mergers and acquisitions banker Mike Roche as independent directors to the company's board and the board of its subsidiary Macquarie Bank.

Macquarie chairman Peter Warne announced the appointments – which will bump the female representation on the company's 11-member board to 45 per cent – to the market on Tuesday.

Former Insurance Australia Group boss Michael Hawker resigned from the Macquarie board in September last year as he joined the board of Westpac.

“We are delighted to welcome Rebecca and Mike, two experienced and highly skilled directors,” Mr Warne said. “The Macquarie boards will benefit greatly from their industry knowledge in the energy and corporate finance sectors, as well as their diverse perspectives as we continue to evolve the balance of our director group.”

Ms McGrath is a stalwart of the oil sector, previously holding the chief financial officer post at BP's local arm, and is currently a non-executive director of Goodman Group, Investa Property Group and chairman of Scania Australia. She was also previously a director of CSR Ltd and Incitec Pivot Ltd.

Mr Roche has spent more than three decades in corporate financial advice, including a 10-year stint as head of mergers and acquisitions at Deutsche Bank, where he played a key role in complex energy and airport transactions – an area in which Macquarie has strategic interest.

The boosting of female representation on Macquarie's board is a reversal of a trend under Mr Warne's earlier chairmanship, where female non-executive directors on the Macquarie board dropped from 37.5 per cent in 2016 to 30 per cent in 2019.

Macquarie chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake took over from Nicholas Moore in 2018.

Macquarie's board hosts a number of Australia's top business brains, including former Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens, former RBA board member Jillian Broadbent, Woolworths chairman Gordon Cairns, former Westpac banker Phil Coffey, KPMG audit veteran Michael Coleman, former McKinsey partner Diane Grady, and King & Wood Mallesons partner Nicola Wakefield Evans.

Late last year, Macquarie revealed its interim earnings fell 32 per cent to $985 million in the six months ended September 30, from $1.46 billion in the year-earlier period. Compared with the previous six months, it was a fall of 23 per cent.

Macquarie Group in December also intensified its position in the US active management sector by buying New York-listed Waddell & Reed Financial – turning the company into a top-25 US mutual fund manager.

About 60 per cent of Macquarie's income comes from offshore.

Michael Roddan is a Walkley Award-winning national correspondent based in Sydney. He is a former business and economics reporter for The Australian. Connect with Michael on Twitter. Email Michael at m.roddan@afr.com