The Rodney Wylie Lectures
The Rodney Wylie Eminent Visiting Fellowship brings a globally respected visitor to the University each year to provide intellectual leadership and engage with alumni and the community through its annual public lecture series.
The 2025 Rodney Wylie Lectures:
What’s behind Japan’s market transformation?
Japanese companies are becoming more competitive, in significant part because corporate governance reform is driving a revolution in shareholder value mindset in the country. Amid global uncertainty, Japan's market is experiencing a period of stability and growth, attracting interest from business leaders and investors worldwide.
Central to the reforms has been 2025 Rodney Wylie Eminent UQ Visiting Fellow Hiromi Yamaji san, Group CEO of Japan Exchange Group, Inc., which operates Tokyo Stock Exchange, Osaka Exchange and Tokyo Commodities Exchange. He shared an insider’s perspective on his leadership of corporate governance reform in Japan and how it is transforming the Japanese market.
The 2025 lectures were moderated by one of Australia’s leading financial commentators, Alan Kohler AM, including an in-conversation following the keynote address.
About the presenter
Hiromi Yamaji
Hiromi Yamaji is the Group CEO of the Japan Exchange Group, Inc. Since joining the group in June 2013, he has led several developments in Japanese financial market as CEO of Osaka Exchange, Inc. (2013-2021) and CEO of Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc (2021-2022). Before joining the group, Yamaji san had 36 years’ experience specialising in the investment banking area and served as Executive Vice President and Head of Global Investment Banking at Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. During his professional career, he worked in Europe and the US for 18 years and served as President and CEO of Nomura Europe Holdings plc in London, and Chairman of Nomura Holding America Inc. in New York.
About the moderator
Alan Kohler AM
Alan Kohler AM began his journalism career in 1970 as a cadet at The Australian. He went on to become Chanticleer columnist and later editor of the Australian Financial Review, before heading up The Age as editor and joining the ABC’s 7.30 Report in 1995 as economics correspondent. Since 2002, he has been a familiar face on ABC News as a finance presenter. In 2005, Kohler launched Eureka Report, followed by Business Spectator in 2007 – two groundbreaking ventures in financial journalism later acquired by News Corporation. Today, Kohler writes for the Intelligent Investor and continues to share his insights as a finance presenter and columnist for the ABC.
Watch the Rodney Wylie Lecture 2025
What's behind Japan's market transformation?
History
The Rodney Wylie Eminent Visiting Fellowship program was created in 2009 through a visionary gift from Mr John Wylie AC, and is named in honour of his father, Mr Rodney Wylie OBE.
Rodney graduated from UQ with a Bachelor of Commerce in 1948 and a Bachelor of Arts in 1950. He went on to have a distinguished career as a leader in the Australian accountancy sector, and as the non-executive director of several Queensland companies.
Rodney was awarded the Order of the British Empire – Officer (Civil) in 1988 for his contributions to the accountancy profession. In 2017, he was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame, which recognises outstanding contributions and achievements made by organisations, companies and individuals to develop the Queensland economy and society.
Previous Rodney Wylie Eminent Visiting Fellows
- 2024: Michel Barnier, former European Union Chief Negotiator following the 2016 Brexit referendum.
- 2023: Sir Peter Donnelly, CEO and Co-Founder of Genomics plc, and Emeritus Professor of Statistical Science at the University of Oxford.
- 2022: Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, CEO and Managing Director, Mirvac Group
- 2019: Dominic Barton, Global Managing Partner Emeritus and Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company
- 2018: Ben Gray, Founding Partner of BGH Capital
- 2015: Manuel Pinho, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
- 2014: Jean-Charles Rochet, Swiss Finance Institute Professor of Banking, Banking and Finance Institute, Zürich University
- 2011: David Carpenter, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Albany, New York
- 2011: Sharon Strauss, Professor in Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis
- 2010: Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences
About John Wylie AC
John Wylie AC is one of Australia’s most respected financiers, recognised for his leadership across investment banking, asset management and public service. His career includes senior leadership roles at Credit Suisse First Boston and Lazard before founding Tanarra Group, an alternative asset manager with international reach.
He has advised some of Australia’s most significant companies and chaired key national institutions, including the Australian Sports Commission and the Melbourne Cricket Ground Trust and the State Library Victoria. As a UQ alum (Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) ’83) and Rhodes Scholar, Wylie maintains a strong connection with the University, notably through establishing this lecture series in honour of his father, the late Rodney Wylie OBE.
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