Shemara Wikramanayake is Australia’s highest-paid chief executive

The Sri Lanka-born Shemara Wikramanayake has topped the ranking of this year’s highest-paid chief executives in Australia.

The boss of the investment bank Macquarie Group earned 15.97 million dollars in the 12 months to June, says The Australian Financial Review’s annual list.

Compiled by OpenDirector, the pay survey revealed the country’s 50 highest-paid chief executives earned an average of 6.18 million USD last financial year.

Paul Perreault, chief executive of the biotechnology company CSL, ranked the second-highest earner, with a reported pay of 13.87 million USD.

Brad Banducci, chief executive of Woolworths, received a pay increase of 37 per cent compared to the previous year, taking home 8.38 million USD.