John Wylie AC

“The most powerful thing you can do is not to provide financial resources, but skills, and that’s where you get the greatest leverage, the greatest impact. It’s the most important thing we can do.”

John Wylie AC is an investor and investment banker with more than 25 years’ experience and a profound dedication to philanthropy and community service.

Wylie began his career in the City of London at Hill Samuel & Co, and then Wall Street with First Boston Corporation after earning his Master of Philosophy from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 1983. He returned to Australia in 1991 with First Boston, which eventually became Credit Suisse, with whom he worked as head of investment banking from 1994 to 1999, before becoming chair of Credit Suisse Australia in 2000.

During his time with the company, Wylie led several high-profile transactions including the privatisation of Qantas, the IPO of Telstra, and the $30 billion sell-down by the Kennett Government of the Victorian power industry.

In 2000, Wylie co-founded advisory and investment firm Carnegie, Wylie & Company, which was acquired by Lazard in 2007. Wylie became CEO of Lazard Australia until stepping down in 2014. He founded the alternative asset firm Tanarra Group in 2015, which invests in venture capital, private equity, private credit and selected public companies.

Wylie is also a leading philanthropist, and in 2011 he established the John and Myriam Wylie Foundation, which has to date supported over 50 organisations and causes, including a visiting fellowship program at UQ named in honour of his father, Rodney Wylie OBE.

His community interest has seen him serve in a pro-bono capacity on several boards, including the Melbourne Cricket Ground Trust, on which he served from 1998 to 2013 as chairman. He is president of the Library Board of Victoria and chairman of the Australian Sports Commission.  He was a trustee of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust at Oxford University from 2010 to 2019 and is a former director and honorary treasurer of the Florey Neurosciences Institute.

In 2007, he was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia for his service to the finance sector and wider Australian community.