Atlassian co-chief executive to step down

Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar has announced he is to step down as co-chief executive.

Co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes will become solo chief executive when Farquhar leaves at the end of August. Farquhar will remain a board member and will become a special adviser to the collaboration tools software company.

In a 25 April message to Atlassian employees, Farquhar said he was looking forward to “spending some time with my young family, improving the world via philanthropy with Skip Foundation and Pledge 1% (a philanthropic organisation he established), investing with Skip Capital, as well as mentoring other tech CEOs”.

That suggests Farquhar is likely to substantially increase his involvement in the wider Australian tech sector – companies he has mentored to date include SafetyCulture and CultureAmp – as well as stepping up his philanthropic activity.

Skip Capital – which is currently led on a day-to-day basis by Farquhar’s wife Kim Jackson – manages the family’s private funds.  Skip invests in early-stage venture capital and infrastructure. Jackson has a background in infrastructure having been an investment manager with Hastings Fund Management for more than 13 years.

Skip’s venture investments include Canva, Airwallex, Morse Micro and Mr Yum. The firm’s infrastructure investments include distributed renewable energy business Solar Bay and data centres company Stack Infrastructure.

In his message, Farquhar reminisced that he and Cannon-Brookes started Atlassian fresh out of university.

“We got to work on the heels of the dot com bust and, unbeknownst to us, we were kickstarting the Australian tech industry,” he said.

“We started what is now known as ‘product led growth’ by selling business software online and with no salespeople, and 23 years later, we continue to innovate by leading the world as the largest company committed to remote work with Team Anywhere.”

Farquhar said that while there was never a perfect time to make the change, he took comfort in his decision knowing that Atlassian was well-placed for the future.

“We have a world-class cloud platform and the best team we’ve ever had,” he said. New products were gaining real traction and AI was providing new and exciting opportunities, he added.

Farquhar concluded by thanking Cannon-Brookes in working with him to build Atlassian.

Image: Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar.