This Month
This former tennis champ is chasing unicorns and dancing pantless
Dylan Alcott has a dizzying list of achievements from 15 tennis Grand Slams to being Australian of the Year. Now, he’s chasing start-ups and performing with Jason Donovan.
- Updated
- Gus McCubbing
Why AGL chairman Patricia McKenzie couldn’t get a job in a law firm
She almost didn’t take up legal studies in the first place, but didn’t expect to find job hunting so difficult.
- Sally Patten
How to make money being Paul Keating
Thank god for writing royalties, says Jonathan Biggins, who reckons politics is stuck on repeat and the new puritanism is hard to poke fun at.
- Emma Connors
March
Meet Australia’s version of James Bond’s Q
After a stellar career as an academic researcher, Professor Tanya Monro now heads Canberra’s top-secret Defence Science and Technology Group.
- Julie Hare
CBA’s business bank boss explains why ‘saffers’ can be good CEOs
Mike Vacy-Lyle says his South African upbringing has instilled a can-do attitude and the confidence to take on any competition.
- James Eyers
- Opinion
- Opinion
‘Asian countries feel their time has come’: why the West must adapt
The best-selling historian Peter Frankopan says that the rise of Asia and rising global temperatures will force the West to rethink its future and its history.
- Kevin Chinnery
Meet Wei Li, the maths nerd who became BlackRock’s chief strategist
Wei Li’s rise from Shenzhen maths nerd to the upper echelons of the asset manager by 35 relied on an unusual strategy: making sure she was replaceable.
- Hans van Leeuwen
AFL inclusion boss says Paul Keating was wrong on the Voice
Eight years into her role, and still recovering from the amputation of her lower right leg last year, Tanya Hosch keeps pushing on in a job where there is no finish line.
- Simon Evans
February
Peter Bol doesn’t want revenge for false drug test. He wants to win
“I figured out, the angrier that I got, the more destruction it did to me,” Bol says. “So I found I just let it go.”
- Euan Black
Why CFMEU boss Zach Smith thinks it’s OK to break the law sometimes
The union’s national construction division secretary, Zach Smith, hasn’t been in the role long but is already making a splash in Canberra’s corridors of power.
- Ronald Mizen
My father dissed your queen in front of your PM
The youngest daughter of former Indonesian president Gus Dur was in the room where it happened.
- Emma Connors
How this boss makes her staff earn a four-day week
After surviving a major cyber hack, Medibank’s head of people is spearheading a move to become the first ASX-listed company to trial a four-day work week.
- Patrick Durkin
January
How Rob Curtain became real estate agent to Melbourne’s wealthy
Rob Curtain didn’t have the best start in real estate - he bought his wife a house as an engagement present, then lost it 12 months later.
- Michael Bleby
Why Tom Snow is giving away $100m
The philanthropist wanted his marriage to be recognised. He won. Now he’s changing medical science
- Julie Hare
Craig Tiley’s plan to save tennis from the Saudis
The CEO marking 10 years at Tennis Australia is targeting a record crowd of a million people this year and a billion dollars in revenue within five years.
- Patrick Durkin
The woman ready to name and shame equal-pay laggards
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s new powers will make business accountable over pay disparity, says Mary Wooldridge.
- Samantha Hutchinson
December 2023
The 10 best read Lunches with the AFR for 2023
From fitness influencer Kayla Itsines to an Estonian billionaire. From a pub king to a top surgeon. These are our best-read lunches of 2023.
- Staff writers
My parents thought I was studying. Confessions of a Bollywood star
A high achieving “proud north-westie” from Melbourne, Pallavi Sharda went to Mumbai alone to see if she could make it as a performer.
- Tanveer Ahmed
This retail Rich Lister ‘wasn’t good enough to be a waiter’
The avid sailor and head of the Winning retail group rates his chances in the Sydney to Hobart race.
- Kylar Loussikian
This billionaire started his company to avoid paying bank fees
Kristo Käärmann found a cheap way to send British pounds to his native Estonia. His solution now has 16 million global users.
- James Eyers
