Andrew Forrest

Andrew Forrest
Born	John Andrew Henry Forrest 1961 Perth, Australia
Residence	Perth, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Alma mater	University of Western Australia
Occupation	Non-executive chairman, Fortescue Metals Group
Net worth	A$6.9 billion
Board member of	Niagara Mining
Religion	Christian
Spouse	Nicola Forrest
Children	3

John Andrew Henry Forrest (born 1961), better known as Andrew or by his nickname Twiggy, is a Western Australian mining company director, currently a non-executive chairman and previously the chief executive officer of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG). In 2010 he surpassed James Packer as the richest man in Australia.

Early life

Forrest was born in Perth, Western Australia, the youngest of three children of Donald and Judith Forrest. He is the great-great nephew of John Forrest, the first premier of Western Australia. His great-grandfather, David Forrest, was the manager and (with his brothers John and Alexander, and Septimus Burt) part-owner of Minderoo Station. Forrest's early years were spent as a jackaroo at Mindaroo Station, in the Pilbara. Minderoo was owned by the Forrest family until it was sold in 1998 by Donald due to relentless drought and debt, but was bought back by Andrew in 2009.

Forrest was educated at Onslow Primary School, before moving back to Perth to attend Christ Church Grammar School and then Hale School. As a child, he suffered a stutter problem, which is how he came to develop a relationship with Ian Black, whose father Scotty Black, an Aboriginal, became Forrest's mentor. Forrest then attended the University of Western Australia where he studied a double major in economics and politics.

Career

Anaconda Nickel

After graduating, he worked as a stock broker at the broking house Jacksons. In his early 30s, he became the founding CEO of Anaconda Nickel (now Minara Resources), which has since grown to be one of Australia's single largest mineral exporters with its Murrin Murrin Joint Venture nickel project.

Fortescue Metals

In 2003, he took control of Allied Mining and Processing and renamed it Fortescue Metals Group. He is still a major shareholder of FMG, through his private company, The Metal Group. Since then, the company has grown to possess three times the tenements of its nearest rival in Western Australia's iron ore rich Pilbara region. Fortescue holds major deposits at Mount Nicholas, Christmas Creek, Cloudbreak, and Tongolo. In 2007, he took control of a Niagara Mining, which owns tenements around Laverton, Western Australia. At FMG, Forrest turned the organisation to become a bigger iron ore exporter in the Pilbara region than BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. He was nominated as the 2011 Western region Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission took legal action against FMG and Forrest. Although an initial ruling by Justice John Gilmour in 2009 found Forrest hadn't acted in a misleading or deceptive manner, Chief Justice Patrick Keane and judges Arthur Emmett and Raymond Finkelstein of the Federal Court of Australia overturned this decision in 2011, finding that FMG and its Chairman and CEO, Andrew Forrest, had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct and breached the continuous disclosure provisions in the Commonwealth Corporations Act 2001, by claiming to have binding contracts with China. The court found that a Chinese framework agreement does not amount to a binding contract, in the natural meaning of the word. If found to have breached director's duties, Forrest faces the possibility of being banned as a director of an ASIC-listed company. FMG is appealing against the decision.

Forrest described the Gillard Government proposed Minerals Resource Rent Tax as "economic vandalism" and a "mad dog's breakfast" that would drive up foreign resource ownership. He stated he would challenge it in the High Court as being unconstitutional, as it discriminates against states, and fails to appropriately capture big producers BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. WA premier Colin Barnett has stated the state government would back constitutional action, admitting the tax had been suggested to him as a "sovereign risk". He was highly critical of the government's expenditure of $38M on an advertising campaign, that was not approved using the usual processes, as it had to "counter mining industry 'spin' about the resources super profits tax". The treasurer Wayne Swan says the big miners will pay at least $2bn tax, and wrote to the head of BDO Accounting, who modelled the claims Forrest used, noting they were "utterly unrealistic" and riddled with errors. Treasury concurred that they would be unable to release the assumptions underpinning its forecasts, as they were based on confidential information provided by the big miners. Gillard struck a deal with BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata to develop the MRRT after the failed mining tax under Rudd. Independent Andrew Wilkie has requested the government take Forrest's mining tax grievance to heart.

BioMD

In June 2011, Allied Medical, of which Forrest owns 46%, was acquired by BioMD for over $20M.

Philanthropy

Indigenous Australians

During his tenure at Fortescue, Forrest has been recognised for his work on the issue of indigenous disadvantage, using Fortescue Metals Group’s Vocational Training and Employment Centre to equip members of the indigenous communities for employment in the mining industry.

After stepping down as Chief Executive Officer of FMG to reflect that he had been spending more than 50% of his time on Indigenous philanthropy, and to hand leadership reins to former head of engineering company Thiess, Nev Power, he became Ambassador of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation. Encouraged by the philanthropic work of the Rockefeller Group, Warren Buffet, and Melinda and Bill Gates, Forrest founded the Australian Children's Trust with his wife Nicola in 2001. He also started the GenerationOne project, which was founded as a result of his hero and first mentor outside his father, Scotty Black. Forrest obtained assistance from James Packer and Kerry Stokes, who are each donating $2M, along with the support of their respective media stations, Channel 9 and Channel 7. The organisation works with the Australian Children's Trust to help create sustainable solutions on addressing social disadvantage.

With Kevin Rudd, Forrest launched the Australian Employment Covenant, which campaigns to have businesses hire indigenous Australians, as they could "add value" to Australian businesses because they were "professional and reliable and wonderful" and that there is no reason for indigenous disparity. He stated that he was dedicating time to the Covenant not because he was a "great guy", but that it was "good business". GenerationOne ran a series of television advertisements privately funded by Forrest, Packer and Stokes. Between 2008 and 2011, he obtained 253 business signatories to his covenant. With then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Forrest is planning to employ 50,000 Aborigines.

Forrest has long opposed welfare dependency for indigenous Australians. As apart of this opposition, he recounted stories of young Aboriginal girls in the Pilbara offering men sex for cigarettes, which caused five indigenous women from the region to collectively lodge a complaint with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission that the comment was racist and vilified the community. Some indigenous activists have accused Forrest of engaging in questionable methods of land acquisition.

Charitable donations

Through his children's charity, as of 2007, Forrest has donated $10M, which of September 2007, received an extra $80M injection to a total $90M.

In 2008, Forrest donated the proceeds from the sale of 5,000 tons of iron ore to the Chinese earthquake relief effort.

Forrest and his wife contributed to Hale School's "150th Anniversary, Gateway to the Future Appeal". In 2009, Forrest opened Hale's new library, named the Forrest Library in recognition of the contributions made by the Forrest family to the school.

Forrest participated in the 2010 and 2011 St Vincent de Paul Society CEO sleepouts, joining the CEOs of Burswood Entertainment Complex, Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, YACWA, Lycopodium Minerals, among others, to raise $3M.

Personal life

Forrest is a church-going Christian and is married with three children. His friends includes former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, former Labor state Minister for Planning Alannah MacTiernan, Liberal state Minister for Indigenous Affairs Peter Collier, and former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard, billionaire James Packer, former state Labor premier Brian Burke, deputy leader of the opposition Julie Bishop, Olympic athlete Cathy Freeman, former athlete Herb Elliot, and billionaire media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes, and billionaire businessman Lindsay Fox.

He is an Adjunct Professor at the Chinese Southern University, a fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, has an Australian Centenary Medal and Australian Sports Medal, and was awarded Citizen of the Year for Regional Development, and Australian Ernst & Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year. He was formerly the Director of Australia's Export Finance and Insurance Corporation, the West Australian Chamber of Minerals and Energy, and Chairman of Athletics Australia. Forrest has previously addressed the Queensland University of Technology, and Christians in the Marketplace.

External links

• Transcript of Four Corners interview 12 August 2002
• Australian Employment Covenant
• GenerationOne
• Inspirational quotes from Forrest
• Official profile on Forbes