Peter Steyn, Division Director at Macquarie Group, is a panelist on our Keystone Analyst Program and has been an active supporter of Future IM/Pact through our partnership with Macquarie Group. Here he shares the lessons he’s learned on the journey to mastering his inner game of investing.
When Peter Steyn first arrived in Australia from South Africa, he was already a top-rated equity analyst. But that didn’t mean it was smooth sailing from the start of his new life.
“It takes time and energy to start a new life and career in a new market and I spent the first few years in Sydney questioning myself and my process,” he says. “It took a while to realise I had to be true to who I am. I can’t operate in a method that’s materially different to who I am. Once I recommitted to that, I started to resonate more with clients.”
For Peter, now Division Director at Macquarie Group, success in investing – and in life – isn’t just about intellect or technical skill. It’s about self-awareness, curiosity, and the conviction to trust your own process.
A core tool used in the Keystone Analyst Program is the Enneagram – a powerful personality profile that reveals hidden behavioural patterns. Peter took the test and shared his results with Yolanda, finding them scarily accurate.
“The enneagram revealed to me the quiet conversations that happen internally. It reminded me of the things I know are my strengths and derailers, and how they serve me or don’t.”
As a Type 2 personality (The Helper), Peter is wired to build strong relationships, something that’s been critical to his success on the sell side, where trust and networks matter. “I’ve built strong relationships with clients and corporates. Being people-focused has contributed to my success.”
But it’s not just charm. For Peter, being attuned to people means he sees markets and companies differently.
“My people orientation has me view companies as a complex system, managed by imperfect people, trying to achieve outcomes that look perfect – so it comes out as a series of numbers on a financial statement that can drive a share price up.”
It’s a layered, human-centred lens that helps him embrace complexity and nuance – but it also comes with challenges. “I have a core belief that we can always fix things and that helps me listen and understand the full picture in a thoughtful way. But sometimes I’m not as flexible as I should be. In the medium to long term, most things look better and I’ve learned I need to be more intentional about the short term.
Everyone will do it differently. You have to find your way. You have to know yourself to find your way and that will drive your success.
Like many high performers, Peter’s growth hasn’t come without challenges – especially in the high-stakes, high-feedback world of sell-side research.
“As a sell-side analyst, we’re rated and ranked all day. I’ve had to develop a level of resilience to be OK with the fact that your approach won’t be appreciated by everyone. You need to live with that discomfort.”
His way through? Anchoring to his personal values. “I manage that by being true to myself and how I work rather than trying to be all things to all people.”
That self-trust didn’t come overnight. It’s been built over years of diligence, reflection and curiosity, driven by humility.
“Self-belief is diligence underpinned by the humility that you don’t know everything,” he says. “So you discover as much as you can. The curiosity to understand the system more broadly builds confidence in your model. Then you trust it, lean into it, and it becomes self-fulfilling.”
Peter credits much of his clarity to his spiritual life. His executive coaching journey helped him distil his priorities: “My Christianity is the most important thing and drives what I do. From there I need to do a better job at caring for myself, then family and work. That then helps me to care, support and love.”
That mindset has shaped how he applies himself every day: with diligence, generosity, and perspective.
“This work is important, but it’s also temporal. I’ve learned not to hold too tightly. I can freak out when it’s not going well or I can let it go. I’ve been given talents, and I’m applying them. This does not come easily, nor always naturally.”
And he’s clear on what success really looks like. “I’m here for clients – to be a good example of a thoughtful analyst who can build a highly successful franchise, and develop analysts coming up the ranks.”
His advice to analysts and those starting out?
“Everyone will do it differently. You have to find your way. You have to know yourself to find your way and that will drive your success.”
Join the Keystone Analyst Program and uncover the investor only you can be. Sydney and Melbourne registrations now open.
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As a sell-side analyst, we’re rated and ranked all day. I’ve had to develop a level of resilience to be OK with the fact that your approach won’t be appreciated by everyone. You need to live with that discomfort.
Future IM/Pact is a collaborative initiative across the investment management industry aimed at increasing representation of female investors and creating workplace cultures where everyone can flourish.
Future IM/Pact is a collaborative initiative across the investment management industry aimed at increasing representation of female investors and creating workplace cultures where everyone can flourish.
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