Mike Cannon-Brookes

Mike Cannon-Brookes is a computer scientist who met Scott Farquhar while studying at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Cannon-Brookes' founding philosophy was that enterprise software could be sold without a traditional sales force, relying instead on product quality, transparent pricing, and self-service adoption to drive growth. He believed that developers and technical teams preferred to evaluate and purchase software themselves rather than sit through sales presentations, and that this preference created an opportunity for a fundamentally different business model.

Mike Cannon-Brookes has served as Atlassian's co-CEO since the company's founding in 2002, making him one of the longest-serving CEOs in the technology industry. Under his co-leadership with Scott Farquhar, Atlassian has grown from a two-person startup with $10,000 in credit card debt to a $5.2 billion revenue public company serving over 300,000 customers. Cannon-Brookes has been the public face of the company's product-led growth philosophy, frequently speaking about the importance of R&D investment, developer experience, and the 'Atlassian System of Work.' He has also become a prominent figure in Australian technology and climate advocacy, with a personal net worth estimated at $25-30 billion. His 2025 compensation and stock-based awards reflect his substantial equity ownership, and insider trading data shows he sold approximately 505,890 shares for an estimated $75 million in the six months prior to June 2026.