Macquarie’s Once-Paralyzed Banker Seeks Charitable Risk Takers

Simon McKeon was paralyzed from the hips down after collapsing at a board meeting in 1999. He feared he’d be confined to a wheelchair for life. A year later, his eyesight almost disappeared crossing a Melbourne street.

The dealmaker at Macquarie Group Ltd. and holder of the world sailing speed record was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. More than a decade on, the 55-year-old Melbourne office chairman of Australia’s biggest investment bank is all but free of symptoms. He says the episodes spurred his charity work, from counseling ex-heroin addicts to raising money for research into the disease which afflicted him.