It's the second time he's held the leadership of the Australian Liberal Party and the second time he's challenged Tony Abbott for the top job. But now, after waiting in the wings, he's finally taken the Office of Prime Minister.
In Canberra after his late-night success, he thanked the outgoing Prime Minister for his service.
"I want to say at the outset what a great debt the nation owes and the party owes, the government owes to Tony Abbott and of course to his family Margie, and their daughters," he said.
Born in Sydney in October 1954, Mr Turnbull has succeeded in senior roles and positions throughout his professional life.
After graduating from the Sydney Grammar School in 1972, he went on to study a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Law from the University of Sydney. He worked briefly as a journalist thereafter and continued a further law degree as a Rhodes Scholar in 1978.
His first taste of Australian politics was in 1981 when he sought Liberal pre-selection for the federal seat of Wentworth in a by-election. Mr Turnbull was defeated, which he described at the time as humbling.
Addressing media on Monday, he said he's now feeling it once more.
"This has been a very important, sobering experience today," he said.
"I'm very humbled by it. I'm very humbled by the great honour and responsibility given to me today."
But Mr Turnbull did not fade from the public sphere.
In the late 1980s he achieved fame as a barrister defending the publication of book Spycatcher, the memoirs of former MI5 officer Peter Wright. He went on to established his own legal firm and in 1997 rose to the position of chairman and later managing director of Goldman Sachs Australia. In 2005 he made the BRW Rich List with a net worth of more than $130 million in 2005.
Drawing on his business prowess, Mr Turnbull said he was taking his party back to its founding principles.
"This will be a thoroughly liberal government," he said.
"It will be a thoroughly liberal government committed to freedom, the individual and the market. It will be focused on ensuring that in the years ahead, as the world becomes more and more competitive and greater opportunities arise, we are able to take advantage of that."
Mr Turnbull won pre-selection for the eastern Sydney seat of Wentworth in 2004. He's been a frontbencher under the leadership of John Howard, holding portfolios including the environment and water resources.
Mr Turnbull has jostled for the role of liberal leader twice before. In 2008 he was voted leader of the Liberal party after a contest with Brendan Nelson but a year later lost the role to Tony Abbott by a single vote. He almost walked away from Australian politics in 2010, after he announced he would not recontest Wentworth at the 2010 May election. He stayed the course, and was present - but not a contender - when Tony Abbott faced a possible spill in February this year. Tony Abbott survived that move, 61 votes to 39.
Mr Turnbull is considered 'centre-right' of the political conservative-liberal spectrum. He's publicly opposed his party's stance on a number of issues. In 2010, as then-Opposition communications spokesman, Mr Turnbull acknowledged changing attitudes to same-sex marriage.
"I think this is a debate that we need to have," he said.
"There have been very big changes in attitudes to all of these issues, these gender-related issues, over many years. And what was unthinkable 20 years ago, 40 years ago, 100 years ago, is now accepted as being, you know, perfectly reasonable."
In May of the same year, when he decided to recontest his seat of Wentworth, he criticised then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for his decision to relegate the Emissions Trading Scheme.
"Kevin Rudd's shelving of the ETS is the most extraordinary act of political gutlessness, of political cowardice, any of us could ever imagine," he said.
"This is a prime minister who described climate change as the greatest moral challenge of our times."
Unlike his predecessor, he has also represented the Australian Republican Movement.
Mr Turnbull will meet the current frontbench ahead of what's expected to be significant changes to the ministerial line-up, which Mr Turnbull has said is likely to take place after parliament rises on Thursday.
There's a lot of work to do, he said.
"I'm filled with optimism and we'll be setting out in the weeks ahead, and the months ahead, we'll be setting out those foundations that will ensure our prosperity in the years ahead," he said.
"There's been a change of prime minister, but we are a very very strong government, a very strong country with a great potential and we will realise that potential working very hard together."
And asked if his appointment is a dream come true?
"This is a turn of events I did not expect, I have to tell you, but it's one that I'm privileged to undertake and one that I'm certainly up to."
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