Revealed: The highest paid ASX-listed CEOs
A brand new entrant leading a buzzy location-tracking app took out the top spot. He joins two other US-based CEOs, a Chemist Warehouse beneficiary, and a multi-national banking CEO in the Top 5.
There are some familiar company names in the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) 2026 ASX CEO Pay report. BHP makes an appearance, as you would expect, as does Wesfarmers, and CSL.
For the first time, however, the Australian CEOs who earned first, second, and third place are running dual-listed US and ASX-traded companies.
Life360 CEO Chris Hulls took the top spot, with more than $47.7 million in realised pay in financial year 2025. Remarkably, the 2026 list is the first time Hulls has been a part of ACSI’s Top 100 CEO Pay report, which tracks realised pay – defined as executed stock options, vested shares, cash salary and cash bonuses.
Hulls is US-born, and co-founded location-sharing and safety app Life360 in San Francisco in 2008. Australian angel investor James Synge wrote the first cheque for the company, and sits on the board of directors to this day.
It was Synge who advised Hulls to consider listing on the ASX, where Life360 would be a big fish in a small pond, rather than pursue the crowded US IPO market in 2019. Today, the company is dual-listed on the ASX and, as of 2024, also on Nasdaq.
Hulls executed his options on Nasdaq during financial year 2025, which skyrocketed him to the top spot in ACSI’s 2026 list.
Following Hulls on the list, is another California-based CEO heading up a dual Australia/US listed company.
Mick Farrell joined CPAP empire ResMed, which was founded by his father Dr Peter Farrell, at the turn of the century, just after the company moved from Nasdaq to the NYSE and listed on the ASX. Farrell rose through the ranks to become CEO in 2013.
The CEO took home $35 million in financial year 2025, and while he now resides near the company’s headquarters in San Diego, he was raised in Sydney.
Third on ACSI’s 2026 list, earning $33.5 million, is News Corporation CEO Robert Thomson, who oversees the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, New York Post, The Australian, news.com.au, the UK’s Times and Sunday Times, as well as book publisher Harper Collins and the REA Group.
Born and bred in Melbourne, Thomson is at the helm of fellow Australian Rupert Murdoch’s global empire. Now based in New York, Thomson slipped from the very top of 2025’s list.
Sigma Healthcare’s Vikesh Ramsunder, who oversaw the 2025 Chemist Warehouse acquisition, was fourth on the list and is the highest Australian-residing ASX CEO, earning more than $32 million during financial year 2025.
The 20 Highest Paid ASX CEO’s
Foreign-based company CEOs in blue italics. Tap a column header to sort. Source: ACSI 2026 ASX CEO Pay report.
Previously residing in Cape Town, Ramsunder relocated to Melbourne to run Sigma Healthcare in 2021. The total shareholder return in financial year 2025 was 135 per cent, bringing the South African-born executive’s realised pay to a whopping $32.6 million.
Rounding out the Top 10 ASX CEO earners, are Macquarie’s Shemara Wikramanayake, New Zealand-domiciled Neuren Pharmaceuticals’ Jon Pilcher, Goodman Group’s Greg Goodman, Genesis Minerals’ Raleigh Finlayson, US-headquartered Newmont’s Tom Palmer, and BHP’s Mike Henry.
Want to see more Forbes articles on your feed? Tap here to make Forbes Australia a preferred source on Google.
Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here or become a member here.
