Simon Lyons was an army officer but has been involved in the day-to-day management of financial services businesses for over 20 years. His business career began at Porter Western as a stockbroker in 1994, and he was a director and substantial shareholder of Porter Western when the business was sold to Macquarie Bank in 1999. Mr Lyons became the state manager for Macquarie Bank in Perth and was later promoted to a division director. He was moved to a national role as head of broking (distribution and development), and went on to become the head of Macquarie Private Wealth, Asia. Mr Lyons spent several years working in Asia and India establishing, acquiring and managing wealth management businesses for Macquarie Bank. After leaving Macquarie Bank in 2008, he established and managed wealth management and corporate advisory businesses. In January 2016 he became chief executive and executive director of ASX-listed Goldfields Money prior to its renaming as BNK Banking Corporation in March 2019, and resigned as managing director in May 2020.