Dr. Andrew Forrest is Australia’s most active philanthropist and among the most effective business leaders of his generation. Andrew is Founder and Chairman of Fortescue Metals Group (Fortescue), a US$60 billion listed natural resources company that’s invested US$40+ billion developing global scale infrastructure and some of the world’s most efficient resource extraction and transport techniques. Fortescue is Australia’s highest growth company over the last two decades and has devoted its future to leading the industrial world into a clean energy future. In 2001, Andrew co-founded Minderoo Foundation with his wife Nicola, and to date they’ve donated more than US$1.6 billion supporting 300+ initiatives addressing modern slavery, ocean health, cancer, indigenous disparity, early learning, artificial intelligence, disaster resilience, and plastic waste. He recently completed a four-year PHD in Marine Ecology, is an IUCN Patron of Nature, a WEF Friend of Ocean Action, and a member of the UNEP Scientific Advisory Committee on the Assessment on Marine Litter and Microplastics. He is Global Patron of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, and recipient of the Australian Sports Medal and the Australian Centenary Medal. In 2016, he served as a Councillor of the Global Citizen Commission, charged by the UN to modernise the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 2017, Andrew was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to philanthropy, mining, employment, and sustainable foreign investment.
In 2021, Fortescue announced its commitment to become zero-emissions by 2030, and created Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), a developer, financier, and operator of a global portfolio of renewable energy resources. FFI is investing in zero-emissions energy resources to produce green energy at a scale equal to the oil and gas super-majors. FFI will produce 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen per annum by 2030, to break the supply and demand conundrum, through a global multi-hub supply chain.
