Michael Cannon-Brookes was born on 17 November 1979 in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, but of English descent, and is now known perhaps world-wide as a co-founder and co-CEO of Atlassian, which floated on the NYSE in late 2015 as an Initial Public Offering (IPO) with an immediate rise in valuation estimated to have reached $5.75 billion. Mike has been involved in IT business systems development since 2000.
So just how rich is Mike Cannon-Brookes? Sources estimate that as of late 2015 Mike has a net worth of over $2 billion, based on his share holding in Atlassian, but accumulated during a career in IT business systems development now spanning 15 years.
Mike Cannon-Brookes Net Worth $2 Billion
Although Mike’s family was English, he was born in the US, and moved frequently as his father, Michael Sr.,was an international banker, so he lived in Taiwan and Hong Kong, then went to primary school in England, where he remained until the family decided to live in Sydney – the family had first moved to Australia in 1984, when his father was sent out by Citibank to establish the company in Sydney – Mike says that he bought his first computer with the Frequent Flyer reward points he accumulated. He finished his education at Cranbrook, a private school in Sydney, and subsequently gained a scholarship to the University of New South Wales(UNSW), from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Information Systems in 2001, and during which he formed firstly a friendship with Scott Farquhar, and then a business relationship..
After working briefly for companies associated with IT but without satisfaction, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar co-founded Atlassian in 2002 with a $10,000 credit card advance, based on ideas developed at UNSW, and quickly had Jira, a project management tool, ready for sale. Their company made money from the start, and never needed further investment, until accepting$60 million from Accel in 2010. However, some employees sold their shares – bought at a discount – which have been consolidated by T. Rowe Price and Dragoneer Investment Capital. By this time, Mike’s net worth was several million dollars.
Essentially, Atlassian is an on-line software development company that helps customers manage projects and work flow for IT and then development, offering programs such as Stash, HipChat and Confluence. They grew quickly, selling technology rather than just using it, with offices now world-wide. In 2014 they moved their headquarters to London, and have opened up around the world in 12 cities employing over 1200 people, with services now used by more than 50,000 companies worldwide, including Facebook,, American Airlines, BMW, Cisco, Citigroup, and NASA.
Forbes magazine has estimated that Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar each own around 33% of Atlassian. The revenue from sales explains Mike’s growth of net worth – after just one year it was over $1 million, rising to over $100 million in 2011, and most recently over $320 million in 2014-15. No wonder the IPO was in such great demand, with the shares rising from a valuation of $4.3 to 5.75 billion on the day of release.
Mike has been recognised internationally for his success: in 2004 the ‘Australian IT Professional of the Year’ award, and in 2006 ‘Australian Entrepreneur Of The Year’. He was also honored in 2009 as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum; he is a current member of The Forum of Young Global Leaders.
In his personal life, Mike Cannon-Brookes is married to Annie Todd, and the couple has three children. Through his company, Mike is also a known philanthropist having established the Atlassian Foundation, and Room to Read in Cambodia, among others, based on an agreement with Farquhar of 1% of company equity.
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