Andrew Forrest defends leadership style as Fortescue Metals Group appoint Fiona Hick as new mining boss

Fortescue Metals Group chairman Andrew Forrest has defended his demanding management style as the group named Woodside Energy executive Fiona Hick to take charge of its mining business. The appointment came nearly a year after Elizabeth Gaines announced she was stepping down as chief executive of FMG and crystallises a split of management responsibilities that will see its mining and clean energy arms run by separate chief executives reporting to the board. However, there appears little doubt that Mr Forrest, FMG’s founder and major shareholder, will remain firmly in control and continue to drive the group’s ambitious decarbonisation agenda. The recruitment of Ms Hicks coincided with renewed concerns about the retention of management at FMG after a slew of senior departures over the past year, including the resignation last week of former Reserve Bank deputy governor Guy Debelle as chief financial officer of Fortescue Future Industries after barely six months. Mr Forrest on Tuesday claimed that FMG was actually turning over less talent than its mining rivals but made no apologies for the “pace we roll at”. “New people come in and they are surprised by it. It’s typical of a fast-improving organisation,” he said. “People can find change often difficult, and I have to remind people that there is no possibility of improvement without change.” Mr Forrest said FMG’s comparatively lower turnover rate suggested “people really do like our management style”, adding that while the leadership was “in transition”, the company was supported by a stable board. Ms Hick, a WA-educated engineer who has been with Woodside for 22 years, will join FMG in late-February after leaving the energy company on Tuesday. Her new role comes with responsibility for the Pilbara iron ore business which sustains FMG and its investors, including development projects in Australia and Africa. A key part of her job will be delivering on the multi billion-dollar transition of FMG’s mines over to renewable energy as part of its plan to hit net zero by 2030, and ensuring the new Iron Bridge magnetite mine hits its straps. Ms Hick said the new job was “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”, citing the attraction of both FMG’s entrepreneurial culture and the scale of its ambitions on decarbonisation and renewable energy. “The plan for the future is challenging and also very exciting,” she said. Ms Hick pointed to the opportunity to “continue to run the iron ore business exceptionally well and at the same time decarbonise that business and use that to demonstrate leadership on climate change”. Mr Forrest, who had been questioned over the delay in finding a replacement for Ms Gaines, said FMG had “scoured the globe” in its search, looking at about 100 candidates. “I am so thrilled to have found someone so close to home that knows the Pilbara like the back of her hand and that will love this company as much as we all do,” he said. “Fiona’s highly strategic operational mind and her easy natural leadership of people is typical of a character that is always vulnerable to new ideas. “This is critical in the constant search for simplicity and streamlining that is Fortescue. Fiona has the natural humility and adaptiveness to flourish in Fortescue’s rare leadership environment.” Woodside had earlier announced the resignation of Ms Hick, the current president of the influential WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy, praising her “significant contribution” to the group. Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill called out Ms Hick’s “exceptional vision and leadership in the many roles she has fulfilled at Woodside”. “Fiona’s tenure was outstanding across a very challenging period in which the operations group was responding to the emerging and ongoing impacts of the pandemic and global market disruptions,” Ms O’Neill said.