Atlassian's conscious uncoupling
Scott Farquhar's announcement that's he's stepping down as co-CEO of Atlassian comes at a pivotal juncture for Australia's biggest technology company.
“My ultimate legacy would be to retire from Atlassian one day and see it going on to bigger and better things in 20, 40, or 50 years after me!”
Those words, spoken by Scott Farquhar during an interview with Thought Economics late last year, were more of a hint than anyone realised. This morning Farquhar announced that, after 23 years, he will be stepping down as co-CEO.
Despite the surprise announcement, the news has seen leading VCs, founders and even Industry Minister Ed Husic praise his many accomplishments. The fact that Farquhar has been co-CEO of a tech company for 23 years alone makes him an outlier. But for many Australian founders, Atlassian helped prove local startups can indeed become a global tech giant.
So what does the breakup of one of the most successful work marriages mean for the company? Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes assured investors and analysts on Friday’s Q3 earnings call that the pair regularly rotated responsibilities (including bin night duties at their first office), promising Cannon-Brookes will at no point be out of his depth single-parenting the company. It’s the business world’s equivalent of a healthy 'conscious uncoupling'.
