Having been one of the most influential business leaders in the country, Luke Sayers AM has turned into a warning story of how a promising career can collapse within a short period. From his modest origins in the country of Victoria to the head of one of the largest consulting firms in Australia, Sayer’s path to greatness is a bright example of success in the corporate world and the demise of the largest corporations all at once.
Who is Luke Sayers?
Luke Frederick Sayers was born in 1970 in Melbourne, and since his father Graham was the local high school principal, he grew up as the middle of three children in Rochester, Victoria. Sayers graduated in business accounting and information systems after leaving Coomoora Secondary School in the south-east of Melbourne and attending Monash University.
Sayers is a married man with four daughters, including Alexandra, who was born with Down syndrome and was the one who inspired the family to do charitable work. Their advocacy of disability turned into a foundation of the public image of Sayers, as the foundation was created, Inclusion Foundation (previously known as e.motion21), to help children and young adults with Down syndrome.
The Corporate Ascent
Sayers started her professional career with a small internship with Price Waterhouse (currently PwC) during her 1991 summer vacation. His career path is meteoric – he has worked in different divisions, including spending some years in Washington D.C, before joining as a partner at the age of 29. He was made the youngest CEO of PwC Australia in 2012 at the age of 42.
PwC Australia had achieved unprecedented growth under the rule of Sayers. The growth of revenues by 80% to 2.6 billion in 2020, compared to 1.4 billion in 2012-13, and the number of staff grew by 3,000. This growth put PwC at the top of Australia’s Big Four consulting firms, beating its competitor Deloitte by about 300 million dollars.
Recognition and Honours
Sayers was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2019 in order to recognise his business success, his work in the community, and his service to people with a disability. His business awards also saw him being awarded the CEO of the Year in the Pride In Diversity Australian Workplace Equality Index awards.
Outside of business, Sayers had plenty of board work, such as the Carlton Football Club since 2012, where he was elected president in August 2021. He was also involved in different charity organisations, and the Inclusion Foundation was very close to his heart since his daughter had Down syndrome.
The Tax Leaks Scandal
The first significant crisis in the reputation of Sayers was the PwC tax leaks scandal. Having been the CEO between 2012 and 2020, he was in charge during the time when the PwC staff used confidential Treasury briefings on multinational tax schemes to devise strategies for the very companies that the government was attempting to tax. Although Sayers was questioned by the Senate on several occasions and his misconduct was revealed, he denied being aware of the misconduct, and the senators doubted his reliability.
The scandal caused serious negative publicity for PwC and criminal investigations by the Australian Federal Police. Although Sayers exited PwC in 2020 to form Sayers Group, the scandal remained in his wake.
What Happened to Luke Sayers?
The dramatic conclusion of Sayers’s public career occurred in January 2025. On January 8, 2025, his X (previously Twitter) account shared a lewd image, with a female executive of Bupa, one of the primary sponsors of Carlton, tagged in it. The post text took about 13 minutes to be deleted.
At the time Sayers was on vacation in Italy with his family, he said he had been hacked, and deactivated his social media account. But the cybersecurity analysts also doubted the situation by pointing out that a normal hacker would alter passwords and lock out account holders, which it did not seem to do.
The Swift Inquiry and Retirement
The Integrity Unit of the AFL immediately investigated the incident. Although the investigation concluded that the statement by Sayers was compromised and that he had not violated rules in the AFL, it was too late. According to reports, Bupa put pressure on Carlton, with the top officials requiring a complete accounting of the incident.
Sayers resigned as the president of Carlton on January 21, 2025, only 15 minutes after the AFL stated that he was innocent of the charges. He claimed in his statement that he was deeply saddened by the fact that several other individuals, such as his family, friends, and colleagues, as well as his football club, had fallen into this issue. This ruling puts a foot in the sand”.
At the same time, Sayers had gone on a leave of absence from the executive chairman position of Sayers Group. His wife, Cate, also resigned quietly as director of their co-founded Inclusion Foundation, but it is not clear when she left it.
Individual Life and Family Influence
This scandal had a great influence on the family life of Sayers. Cate Sayers, who had developed her own brand as an advocate of people with Down syndrome with the Inclusion Foundation, left the charity she established and ran with her husband. The four teenage daughters of the couple were now placed in the undesirable publicity.
The financial position of the Sayers family did not worsen because of the scandal. They sold their historic mansion, Strathnaver, in Hawthorn East, for over $16.5 million in late 2024, having bought it in 2005 for $4.84 million. The seven-bedroom house that was built in the 1880s had a three-storey tower, which had a 360-degree view with a two-storey pool house.
Current Status and Net Worth
Although there is no publicly available information about the net worth of Sayers, his successful PwC career, the creation of Sayers Group, and massive real estate investments suggest that he is rather wealthy. Sayers Group is a company established in 2020 and has won more than 10 million Australian Government contracts, of which some 9 million were given out under former Finance Minister Mathias Cormann as a secret co-owner.
After the scandal, the company changed its brand to Tenet Advisory and Investments and no longer identifies itself with the name of its founder. The company currently has 20 partners and 60 employees in Australia, which is a major business venture as opposed to the personal participation of Sayers.
The Broader Questions
The case of Luke Sayers brings up some critical concerns regarding corporate responsibility, social media safety, and what people should expect of prominent individuals. Although he was officially cleared of the crime by the authorities, there is still much speculation by the general population as to the actual conditions of the social media post. The question many people would ask themselves is how hackers could post one explicit picture, label a particular business partner, and then go on to lose the account so fast.
This event also showed how vulnerable corporate reputations are in the digital era. One social media post, no matter the source, did just enough to end a career spanning decades and make several resignations in a variety of organisations.
Legacy and Lessons
The story by Luke Sayers is a complicated case study of recent leadership in the corporate world. His business history at PwC, where he transformed this company into the largest consulting firm in Australia, is attestable to his true executive ability. His philanthropic activities, especially to people with Down syndrome, came out as a more human and caring side.
These achievements were, however, shadowed by the tax leaks scandal and the social media crisis, which shows how historical ties and current crises can quickly ruin reputations that were built over time. The downfall of Sayers is an eye-opener to Australian business leaders on the need to train and practice crisis management, data protection, and uphold impeccable personal and professional ethics.
The Luke Sayers saga is a reflection of the two-sidedness of contemporary leadership, where great accomplishments can be overtaken instantly by controversy and where the boundary between personal and professional life has practically vanished in our globalised world.
