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Australia’s Fortescue taps Woodside veteran as CEO amid green energy push

Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group (OTC:FSUGY) on Tuesday appointed former Woodside (OTC:WOPEY) Energy executive Fiona Hick as its chief executive officer, effective February 2023, as Elizabeth Gaines made way for a new boss in August.

Hick joins Fortescue at a time when the iron ore giant is delving into mining of critical minerals and rare-earths and is also striving to transition into a green energy firm through its unit Fortescue Future Industries (FFI).

Hick spent more than two decades at Woodside, most recently as the executive vice-president of Australian operations, part of the team that led the company through its $40 billion merger with global miner BHP Group (NYSE:BHP)’s petroleum arm.

She will lead Fortescue Metals’ mining arm, culminating a year-long search by the company’s billionaire-founder and chairman Andrew Forrest.

Hick will help the company “step beyond fossil fuels”, said Forrest.

Gaines, who oversaw a tripling in the share price of one of the world’s biggest iron ore miners in the past four years, remains on Fortescue’s board as a non-executive director.

Last week, former Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor Guy Debelle stepped down as the finance chief of FFI. Mark Hutchinson, a former president of General Electric (NYSE:GE)’s European operations, is slated to helm FFI by 2022-end.
Source: Reuters

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