[Invest Seoul CEO Interview] John Walker, Macquarie Group of Companies, Korea
1. Please introduce yourself.
Sure. My name is John Walker, I’m a chairman of Macquarie Group of Companies in Korea, and I’m also the vice chairman of Macquarie Capital Business in Asia. But we are worldwide
specialist areas like infrastructures, natural resources,
and energy. We’ve got around 13,500 people across our global businesses. So although we were originally started in Australia, we’re now very much a global financial institution with
the majority of our revenues actually coming from
outside Australia. And naturally our business here in Korea, which is primarily based in Seoul, is a very very important part of our global and Asian footprint.
2. What was the biggest advantage of doing business in Seoul?
I think there was a few things. One is that Seoul is very clearly ‘the major city’ in Korea. So one of the great advantages was its population, its proximity to other countries, in the
region, because we were also we were very interested in
company in countries such as Japan, China, etc. Again, this point is about being able to hire very well-educated people, very important to us. And the other big factor was the level of
willingness of other financial institutions and
companies in Seoul to partner with a foreign company that brought some unique financial technology. And, of course, the other key factor for us was the quality of communication
technology. So at that time, some 17 years ago, other
countries in the world were not so advanced in the areas like Internet. Korea was far and far and ahead above those other countries. The other thing that really as I reflect on, it was
very important to us, was the accessibility of regulators
and government officials. So it was not difficult for us to have a dialogue with government or regulators when we were not sure about what the law provided for and what it did not
provided for. So these ingredients of transparency,
accessibility, willing partners, and all of the things that are proper major city brings were extremely important to us as defining characteristics of Seoul. One of the bits of advice we
give to other financial institutions that are looking to
come to Seoul. Think about the idea of entering into partnerships with one of the very good quality local domestic institutions.