CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 18 September 2026

Government Grants

“If a technology needs government grants to be viable, then it’s not a plausible technology,” he says.” Grant Reynolds, CEO, PolarBlue [large Australian energy technology company]

Attracting Foreign Capital

"We need to get up off our butts." Shemara Wikramanayake, CEO, Macquarie Group Ltd

AI Risks

"I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong." Dario Amodei, CEO, Anthropic

Refineries

"When we look at the entire energy system, today, we would tell you that the supply shock and the pinch point really is around refining." Neil Hansen, CFO, Exxon Mobil Corp.

Labour Markets & Hiring Staff

"Growth is very, very hard to come by for most companies if they're not building data centres or in the AI area." Gary Burnison, CEO, Korn Ferry Inc.

Taxis & Payments

“It surprised me that the industry hasn’t kept up with what customers expect. Passengers getting into a taxi and a driver pulling out a third terminal to charge a passenger for a trip, I just don’t think that’s acceptable in the current day and age. If you walked into Woolies or Coles and you went to pay and someone pulled out a terminal from under the desk, would you question that? Wouldn’t that be a bit odd?" Damien Sheehan, CEO, 13cabs and Silver Service

AI Models

“We use the best model for the job, frontier intelligence where it matters, less expensive models where it doesn't." Jeff Hoffmeister, CFO, Shopify Inc.

Global Retailers

"So overall, again, consumers are resilient, granted discerning. But when you get the right product at the right price, they show up, and it converts." Richard Dickson, CEO, Gap Inc.

UK Economy

"Our base case outlook for the U.K. economy is one of stability with resilient fundamentals. At the same time, we see clear opportunities for the U.K. to move to a higher growth trajectory than is forecast today." Charlie Nunn, CEO, Lloyds Banking Group plc

Banks

"The typical banks that would have been there for us previously are not. It is prudent for us to ensure that we have got a bit of extra cash on our balance sheet, just from a risk management perspective." Rob Bishop, CEO, New Hope Corporation Ltd‍

Chinese Economy

"China has fared better through this whole Middle East conflict than most would have anticipated.” Jeffrey Tate, CFO, Dow. Inc.

Copper

"As we look forward, we see a world that's becoming more copper intensive with electrification...the fundamentals of copper, in my view, have not been this strong in some time." Kathleen Quirk, CEO, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. [one of the world’s largest copper producers]

Private Credit, Options & Asset Allocation

"Private credit is now a core strategic allocation in most institutional investor portfolios. But if you look at the percentage of their portfolio allocated, today it's about 4% — compared with 10% to 15% for things like private equity and real estate." Michael Arougheti, CEO, Ares Management Corp.

“This is another distinction that I just want to highlight is we have lots of people taking ownership of their own financial future. We have lots of people who are increasingly sophisticated and actually do understand options.” Craig Donohue, CEO, CBOE Global Markets Inc.

Domestic Exports

"When there were differentiated tariffs put on exports to the US, Australia had a relatively lower level of tariffs than other places, making Australian exports more competitive and attractive." Saul Cannon, Chief Executive, Port of Melbourne‍