Mike Cannon-Brookes is an Australian billionaire businessman born on November 17, 1979. He co-founded the software company Atlassian and now serves as its sole chief executive officer.
Cannon-Brookes has also become one of Australia’s most prominent climate investors.
Who is Mike Cannon-Brookes?
Mike Cannon-Brookes is an Australian billionaire and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Atlassian. He built the software company from a university dorm idea into a Nasdaq-listed enterprise now valued in the tens of billions.
Cannon-Brookes and his university classmate Scott Farquhar started Atlassian in 2002 shortly after graduating. They funded the company using credit cards rather than outside investors.
Their original goal was simple. Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar wanted to match a typical corporate graduate salary of A$48,000 without working for someone else.
Early Life of Mike Cannon-Brookes
Michael Cannon-Brookes was born on November 17, 1979, in New Haven, Connecticut, in the United States.
He is the son of a British global banking executive, also named Mike, and his wife Helen, and he is the youngest of three children with two older sisters.
His family moved often during his childhood. Cannon-Brookes relocated to Taiwan at six months old, then to Hong Kong at age three, before later attending boarding school in England.
He eventually settled in Australia, where he attended Cranbrook School in Sydney. Cannon-Brookes then enrolled at the University of New South Wales, where he later met Scott Farquhar, his future Atlassian co-founder.
Mike Cannon-Brookes Age
Mike Cannon-Brookes is 46 years old as of 2026, born on November 17, 1979. His zodiac sign is Scorpio.
He co-founded Atlassian at just 22 years old, shortly after finishing university. That early start helped him become one of Australia’s first technology billionaires by his mid-thirties.
Mike Cannon-Brookes Ethnicity and Nationality
Mike Cannon-Brookes holds Australian nationality, though he was born in the United States. His father was a British banking executive, giving him British heritage on his father’s side.
He spent his early childhood moving between Taiwan, Hong Kong, and England before his family settled in Australia. Cannon-Brookes has lived and built his career in Sydney since his school years there.
Mike Cannon-Brookes Education
Mike Cannon-Brookes attended Cranbrook School in Sydney before enrolling at the University of New South Wales. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in information systems on a UNSW co-op scholarship.
He later returned to his alma mater in a different role. Cannon-Brookes now serves as an adjunct professor at UNSW’s School of Computer Science and Engineering, helping foster the university’s startup culture.
Before founding Atlassian, he co-founded an internet bookmark management tool called The Bookmark Box with university classmate Niki Scevak.
That earlier venture sold to Blink.com in 2000, giving Cannon-Brookes his first taste of running a startup.
Mike Cannon-Brookes Career
Mike Cannon-Brookes built Atlassian from a bootstrapped startup into one of Australia’s largest technology exports. His career now spans software, venture capital, and renewable energy investment.
Early Career
Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar founded Atlassian in 2002, funding the company with credit cards after graduating from the University of New South Wales.
Their first major product was Jira, a bug tracking and project management tool that became the company’s foundation.
The pair avoided hiring a traditional sales team. Instead, they invested their money into building a strong product and selling it directly through the Atlassian website at an affordable price.
They opened a New York office in 2005 to serve their growing client base. Later that year, they moved the U.S. office to San Francisco, giving the company access to a larger pool of technical talent.
Founding and Major Business Growth
Atlassian secured its first outside funding in 2010, a $60 million round from venture firm Accel. In 2014, the company redomiciled to the United Kingdom ahead of its initial public offering.
Atlassian debuted on the Nasdaq in December 2015 with a market capitalization of $4.37 billion. The listing made Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar Australia’s first technology startup billionaires.
The company later redomiciled again, moving to the United States in 2022. Cannon-Brookes still owns approximately 20 percent of Atlassian, including super-voting shares that give him significant control over company decisions.
Current Ventures
Scott Farquhar stepped down as co-CEO in 2024, and Cannon-Brookes has served as Atlassian’s sole chief executive since September of that year.
Under his leadership, the company has pushed hard into artificial intelligence products, including its Rovo platform.
In 2026, Atlassian’s stock came under pressure amid a broader software sector slump tied to AI competition fears.
In March 2026, Cannon-Brookes announced the company would cut 1,600 jobs, roughly 10 percent of its workforce, to fund further investment in AI and enterprise sales.
Despite the volatility, Atlassian’s cloud revenue continued growing. The company reported first quarter fiscal year 2026 cloud revenue of $998 million, up 26 percent year over year, with more than 3.5 million monthly active users of its AI tools.
Mike Cannon-Brookes Companies and Investments
Mike Cannon-Brookes started Grok Ventures in 2016 as his family investment office. He uses Grok Ventures to back green energy projects and other private investments across Australia.
He is also the chairman of Blackbird Ventures, an Australian venture capital firm. Beyond software, Cannon-Brookes bought a one-third share of Blackcourt League Investments in November 2021, which owns 75 percent of the South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league team.
In December 2020, he purchased a minority stake in the NBA’s Utah Jazz alongside Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith. His investment portfolio also includes major stakes in Australian energy projects, including Sun Cable and AGL Energy.
Mike Cannon-Brookes Business Achievements
Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar became Australia’s first tech startup billionaires following Atlassian’s 2015 Nasdaq debut. The company has since grown into a Forbes Global 2000 business with products including Jira, Confluence, and Trello.
In 2022, Cannon-Brookes became the largest shareholder of AGL Energy, Australia’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, in a move to accelerate the company’s shift away from coal. He won a board fight there in November 2022, securing seats for his chosen directors.
He also took control of the Sun Cable solar and battery project in May 2023. Grok Ventures outbid rival investors, including former partner Andrew Forrest, to acquire the company after it entered administration.
Mike Cannon-Brookes Awards and Recognition
Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar were recognized as Ernst & Young’s 2006 Australian Entrepreneur of the Year. That honor made Cannon-Brookes one of the youngest people to receive the award at the time.
He is a member of The Forum of Young Global Leaders through the World Economic Forum. In 2023, Time magazine named him to its Time100 Climate list, recognizing his role in climate finance.
Mike Cannon-Brookes Philanthropy
Mike Cannon-Brookes has committed significant personal wealth to climate causes. In October 2021, he pledged to donate and invest $1.5 billion in climate projects by 2030, supporting the COP26 goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
He formed a climate fund called Boundless Earth in 2022 to expand that mission. Cannon-Brookes has also donated to groups including Beyond Zero Emissions, the Climate Council, and Rewiring Australia.
His philanthropic work extends into direct activism as well. Cannon-Brookes has publicly challenged Australian energy policy, including his high-profile 2017 Twitter exchange with Elon Musk that led to the construction of what was then the world’s largest lithium-ion battery in South Australia.
Mike Cannon-Brookes Wife
Mike Cannon-Brookes married Annie Todd, an American fashion designer, in 2010. The couple met at a Qantas airport lounge while flying from Sydney to San Francisco.
They lived together in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and later purchased Fairwater, Australia’s most expensive house, for approximately A$100 million in 2018. Cannon-Brookes and Todd have four children together.
The couple separated in July 2023 after 13 years of marriage. Cannon-Brookes has kept details of the separation and asset division largely private since the announcement.
Mike Cannon-Brookes Net Worth
Mike Cannon-Brookes’ estimated net worth is $7.4 billion as of 2026. His wealth comes almost entirely from his approximately 20 percent ownership stake in Atlassian, along with his investments through Grok Ventures.
His fortune has fluctuated sharply with Atlassian’s share price in recent years. Cannon-Brookes reached a peak net worth of roughly $15.3 billion in 2022 before software sector declines and his 2023 separation from Annie Todd reduced his individually reported wealth.
Atlassian shares fell further in early 2026 amid concerns over competition from artificial intelligence tools. Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar together lost an estimated $7.2 billion in value during that stretch, according to Bloomberg.
Mike Cannon-Brookes Social Media
Mike Cannon-Brookes maintains a professional presence primarily through LinkedIn, where he shares updates on Atlassian’s product direction and company events. His account can be found under his full name, Mike Cannon-Brookes, on the platform.
He has also used social media in the past to engage directly with public figures on energy policy. His 2017 Twitter exchange with Elon Musk over battery storage remains one of his most widely cited social media moments.
The Bottom Line
Mike Cannon-Brookes co-founded Atlassian in 2002 with Scott Farquhar, building the company from a credit-card-funded startup into a Nasdaq-listed business that made them Australia’s first tech billionaires in 2015.
He has served as Atlassian’s sole CEO since September 2024, guiding the company through a major AI-driven product push.
Born in Connecticut and raised across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and England before settling in Sydney, Cannon-Brookes has become one of Australia’s most outspoken advocates for renewable energy. He pledged $1.5 billion to climate initiatives in 2021 and later took control of the Sun Cable solar project.
He continues to lead Atlassian through a turbulent stretch for software stocks in 2026, including a 1,600-position workforce reduction announced in March. Cannon-Brookes remains one of Australia’s wealthiest individuals despite recent volatility in his fortune.
We hope you enjoyed reading about Mike Cannon-Brookes. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!