The story
MFG was co-founded in 2006 by Hamish Douglass and Chris Mackay off the back of careers in investment banking. The MFG entity was established through a complex recapitalisation deal where an existing listed vehicle—the underperforming Pengana HedgeFunds Group—was taken control of and renamed, severing formal ties with the previous entity.
Pengana had been founded in 2003 by Malcolm Turnbull, who was later to become Australian prime minister, and a merchant banking colleague, Russell Pillemar. The Turnbull family retained 20 per cent of the new company after the merger.
Douglass and Mackay used their contacts to raise approximately A$100 million in initial working capital for Magellan and to seed the investment strategies. At the same time, A$378 million was raised to establish the Magellan Flagship Fund in a closed-ended listed investment company structure (ASX code: MFF).
In July 2007, MFG launched the Magellan Global Fund and Magellan Infrastructure Fund as unlisted trusts, providing A$15 million and A$5 million of seed capital respectively.
In December 2021, Brett Cairns resigned from his position as CEO. In March 2022, co-founder Hamish Douglass resigned from the Magellan board and co-founder Chris Mackay took up the role of chairman. David George was appointed CEO in May 2022 but resigned in October 2023 to be replaced by Andrew Formica as Executive Chairman on an interim basis as the company searched for a new CEO. Sophia Rahmani was appointed CEO and managing director of Magellan Financial Group, effective 3 March 2025, following her tenure as managing director of Magellan Asset Management, which she commenced in May 2024.
As at 31 December 2025 Magellan reported A$39.9 billion in funds under management.
From Wikipedia’s article on Magellan Financial Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4