Our people
01 April 2026
Amy McKeown, Head of Regulatory Reporting Advisory, and Zakary Kot, Senior Manager for Climate Risk and Regulatory Reporting, are both part of Macquarie’s Banking and Financial Services (BFS) Treasury team. They each bring a unique perspective to the business and have embraced opportunities for growth, mobility and challenge within Macquarie Group.
Amy McKeown says that even after 14 years with Macquarie, she never imagined she would end up working in regulatory reporting for BFS Treasury.
“This opportunity allowed me to grow in ways I hadn’t anticipated, and it’s been incredibly fulfilling,” she says.
“It all comes back to feeling empowered to put up your hand and take the opportunities that are presented,” she says. “That’s a Macquarie value - it’s seen as really positive when someone wants to grow and be chalenged.”
Amy landed a graduate position at Macquarie in 2002 after completing a tech degree. She initially joined as a developer, writing code for the Macquarie Wealth trading platform, before moving into solutions architecture.
After several years building her career at Macquarie, Amy spent time raising a family and running her own IT business. When she later chose to return to corporate life in 2018, she rejoined Macquarie through the Returner Program, which supported her transition back in a new field as a Technical Business Analyst in the BFS Payments team. She went on to become a Product Director for business banking deposits, then credit cards.
“I enjoyed working in product because the end-to-end accountability was empowering and provided a fantastic opportunity to understand the full breadth of running a product within a business,” Amy says. “I like taking on new challenges, moving around and learning new things - and BFS is supportive of that.”
Two years ago, Amy embraced the opportunity to become the Head of Regulatory Reporting Advisory, a role she has held since. “Senior leaders encouraged me to explore the role and once I understood the impact it could have, I knew it was the right next step for me,” she says.
While there’s a strong financial aspect to the role, Amy says the fact that she doesn’t have a typical accounting background gives her a different perspective.
My tech background helps with the detail, data and technical aspects and my product background provided me with a strong commercial perspective.”
“It’s very different from my previous roles and I find the work highly rewarding.”
Embedded within BFS, the Regulatory Reporting Advisory team helps translate regulatory guidance, and applies the context of BFS products, and customers to determine how Macquarie will comply.
“Being business‑facing means we’re not siloed; we’re deeply connected with product and other teams across the BFS ecosystem,” she says. This embedded model enables the team to support strategic product decisions, bringing a detailed and current understanding of the regulatory environment into business discussions. At the same time, close collaboration with product teams builds deep product knowledge, making regulatory reporting more efficient and more accurate. “It’s our role to ensure regulatory reporting is executed correctly, whilst also steering the solution and making conscious choices around product design,” Amy says. “Whenever there’s a change, we’re involved, so it’s an integrated approach.”
This proximity to both regulation and product gives Amy a broader view of how the business operates.
“You have to understand what you’re reporting and have a holistic view of the banking industry,” she says. “No two days are ever the same. And that’s a lot of fun.”
“Having four children and working can present challenges in maintaining balance,” Amy says.
Part-time work is well supported at Macquarie, and a four-day work week helps Amy find the right equilibrium, allowing her time with her family and opportunities to grow her career.
“I’m a working mum and I’ve had a variety of opportunities to try different roles. This has given me real career diversity and plenty of challenges,” Amy says. “I’ve enjoyed different aspects of all my different teams and roles and there’s always more to learn.”
“More than anything though, my career journey with Macquarie has been fulfilling because there has always been scope to make a difference.”
Zakary Kot’s career with Macquarie has been marked by two constants: change and mobility.
I never would have thought I'd be able to do the variety of things I have done over my 15 years here.”
“I can quite confidently say there’s not a lot of roles that allow you to do climate risk and regulatory reporting simultaneously, which is one reason why I love Macquarie,” Zakary says. “You can have the remit and scope you’re looking for. The roles here are really about you as a person, and your skills and capabilities.”
Zakary originally joined Macquarie through the 2010 Graduate Program as an analyst. At the time, he had a business degree in accounting and finance and a three-year cadetship at an accounting firm under his belt.
“Macquarie’s reputation attracted me, and I wanted to build a career around challenging myself to do different things in the financial services industry,” he explains.
After a year working in Internal Audit in Sydney, Zakary was offered the opportunity to relocate to New York. Zak’s US-based role focused on Macquarie’s varied businesses in North America, and involved a diversity of industries and travel, which he enjoyed.
However, Zakary wanted to pursue the technical side of financial risk, so he applied for a role back in Sydney and transferred to BFS Credit Risk to work on home loans and credit policy, while completing his Chartership. Subsequently, this led to an opportunity to move into Macquarie’s Risk Management Group to provide credit risk support and oversight to business banking.
“Macquarie’s people and flat structure mean you easily build connections that lead to the next step,” Zakary says. “If you show initiative, there’s support.”
In 2021, Zakary was then approached about an option to evolve his existing role.
“I was the first climate risk employee in BFS,” he says. “It was a great opportunity and something new to learn.”
Zak’s current role has evolved, and he now has dual responsibilities, sitting in the BFS Treasury team with a focus on both climate risk and regulatory reporting.
“In a way I’ve come full circle on my accounting background,” he explains. “Starting in internal audit, moving to risk management, then adding a financial regulatory reporting angle.”
An average day for Zakary depends on which hat he’s wearing.
“I work with the regulatory data team and business product teams on preparing and reviewing regulatory submissions. I need to understand the numbers and how our products, systems or business changes may have impacted our returns,” Zakary explains.
“We also perform targeted, in-depth investigations as specific needs arise.”
“It’s not siloed, so our treasury function allows us to add best value to the business, and we’re close to our products and data, applying that subject matter expert knowledge to make sure our reporting is accurate,” he explains.
“I’m more connected with the business than I thought I would be. You really need to understand what’s happening to be able to do this.”
Zak’s climate risk hat sees him analyse emerging risk, manage mandatory disclosures for the annual report, and identify and measure climate risk to inform Macquarie’s reporting.
“We think about climate risk holistically and how we can embed it in risk management frameworks and products,” he explains. “It’s about understanding the impact of climate change on our business operations and model; both the risks and opportunities.”
Transformation work is inbuilt, and the team are continually working on tech, data, AI and analytics improvements to add value and improve efficiency.
Beyond his accounting skills, Zakary explains that problem solving and communication are important aspects of his role, as he needs to ensure stakeholder understanding and gain buy-in.
He says BFS Treasury takes a proactive approach to regulatory reporting, to help the business achieve its growth and ambitions.
“Regulatory reporting provides a great view across the business.”
“Macquarie is an agile organisation and that helps provide that lens of where our focus is,” he concludes. “It’s meaningful work which the business values.”
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