About

After nine years with a major law firm, specialising in M&A, securities, and corporate law in Sydney and then Hong Kong, and four years as head of legal for Macquarie Asia Real Estate in Hong Kong, Brett Cameron was recruited back into Australia with Dexus as a senior legal counsel and then stepped into the general counsel and company secretary role in September 2014. Highlights in Cameron’s career include his first move in-house with Macquarie using his Australian firm experience and knowledge of the Asian and particularly Chinese market.

He describes Macquarie as a ‘fast paced, stimulating environment, where you had to be ready to proffer and support your advice real time whilst dealing with a savvy and ambitious commercial team. It really taught me to back my instinct, but also when to push back and say “I really need to test this one with external counsel”’. Before Cameron was appointed at Dexus, he has only ever managed a relatively small team and was suddenly leading a team of 17 across legal, risk, board services and records, joined the executive and became company secretary for the listed Dexus board. He identified that the first year was a steep learning curve as he needed to adapt to the more strategic level of thinking required, the leadership demands of a large team and the need to more thoughtfully apply his time.

During his tenure he has been involved in many notable transactions including the US$3.5bn takeover of ASX-listed Commonwealth Property Fund in a joint venture with the Canadian Pension Plan Board, the acquisitions of 100 Harris St, Ultimo, a 50% interest in the MLC centre and another asset from three different vendors for a combined US$800m whilst effecting a contemporaneous equity capital raising for US$550m. Additionally, he worked on the establishment of a new joint venture real estate fund with the National Pension Service of Korea and Future Fund, acquired circa $500m AUD DPIF commercial portfolio from Colonial in less than three weeks, and major and complex office tower developments at 480 Queen Street, Brisbane and King’s Square, Perth. Since starting at Dexus he has resolved all litigations that he inherited and has incurred no more.

On his style of leadership Cameron says that, ‘my approach is quite inclusive and I have created an environment where the team is encouraged to contribute ideas rather than have me always direct the traffic. For example, led by one of my senior legal counsel, we have embraced AI to help us disrupt ourselves by having standard form documents and NDAs produced directly by the business and ultimately executed electronically. Once we roll this out across the business, this will tremendously empower the business and free up an enormous amount of time for the team to stay focussed on the higher value end of the spectrum’.