The Aussie Tech Billionaire Who Bet Big Against Coal

Wearing blue jeans and a black pair of R.M. Williams boots, with his signature unkempt beard and ponytail, Mike Cannon-Brookes looks more like an Aussie wheat farmer than a tech billionaire who’s just done 28 media interviews in 24 hours. It’s a whirlwind that’s made him Australia’s most-talked-about person for the day while ensuring his message is delivered: He wasn’t backing down from his months-long fight to force AGL, Australia’s biggest power company and largest carbon polluter, to fast-track ridding itself of coal.

Partnering with Brookfield Asset Management, the co-CEO and co-founder of software giant Atlassian had tried and failed, twice, to buy AGL for almost $6 billion with the intention of shutting down its coal plants 15 years ahead of schedule and moving the company to more quickly embrace renewable energy sources. Along the way, he publicly shamed the board and took aim at the coal-friendly government, branding its support for AGL’s board “fables and lies.”

Published in Forbes.