Andrew Forrest loses key green hydrogen executive

The billionaire will install former AGL boss Andy Vesey to run the North American business after the abrupt exit of Fortescue Future Industry’s local boss Paul Browning.

Andrew Forrest in Canberra last week. The Fortescue Metals billionaire will install Andy Vesey to run his North American clean enery business. Picture: Martin Ollman

Mining magnate Andrew Forrest has lost a key executive after the abrupt exit of the North American boss of his green hydrogen business, Fortescue Future Industries.

Paul Browning started as FFI’s North America president and chief executive on January 1, but The Australian has confirmed he has already left the business.

Mr Browning had earlier this year visited the White House with Mr Forrest, the billionaire Fortescue Metals Group executive chairman, meeting with Joe Biden to explain FFI’s vision for green hydrogen-based energy.

Former AGL Energy boss Andy Vesey will step in to bolster FFI’s North American ranks.

A former president and CEO of Mitsubishi Power Americas, Mr Browning had been announced by FFI as a key hire in North America with much fanfare last October.

At the time, then FFI boss Julie Shuttleworth said he would be the first of many appointments in the rapidly growing North American green hydrogen market.

“We’re excited to bring Paul’s proven renewable energy experience and entrepreneurial track record to lead FFI’s North American operations and build our team as we advance FFI’s global initiative to reduce carbon emissions,” Ms Shuttleworth said at the time.

“Paul will lead our green hydrogen work in North America and help FFI reach our goal of building green hydrogen energy production that is equal to the very largest oil and gas companies that exist today.”

An FFI spokeswoman confirmed Mr Browning had “moved on” from his role. “We wish him the very best and are grateful for the contribution he has made to FFI. Mr Andrew Vesey will step in to support the FFI North American team,” she said on Sunday.

Mr Browning also spoke in glowing terms about the role and huge potential of green hydrogen. He was the ninth staff member in the US but planned to grow the office to 500 by the end of 2023.

“I interviewed with Andrew and he made that comment of green hydrogen becoming the world’s largest traded commodity. I just sat there,” Mr Browning said.

“I was in an interview and I sort of sat there for a couple of minutes because I was really sort of thinking about what an ambitious idea that was. And I just decided, no, that would just be a wonderful thing to spend the next decade working on trying to make that kind of thing a reality.”

“I got deeper and deeper into green hydrogen, I realised that I had sort of found my personal calling, or maybe my mission,” Mr Browning said in April.

“I’m 54 years old. I’ve done quite a few things in my career. And I just decided I want to spend this last decade of my career doing something that’s really important to me. I honestly believe that figuring out green hydrogen is something that has to happen this decade. It’s really important to addressing climate change while also advancing human prosperity.”

Ms Shuttleworth stepped down from the top FFI job as part of a management reshuffle earlier this year that saw Mr Forrest return as executive chairman.

Mr Forrest has since said his role was to help Fortescue’s “march to go green” and that finding a new iron ore boss to replace Elizabeth Gaines was “not the highest priority appointment” for Fortescue. FFI had 1122 staff at the end of June – more than double the 500 it employed in October.

FFI has 120 different development projects under consideration in 40 countries. New FFI boss Mark Hutchinson promised analysts there would be firm announcements on projects by the end of the year.

Mr Vesey joined FFI as its head of energy transition projects while outgoing Fortescue boss Elizabeth Gaines will remain on the Fortescue board, and will become FFI’s “global brand ambassador”.

FFI’s current Director of Projects Gordon Cowe, will become its Head of Projects Development, with Fortescue also recruiting McKinsey’s Christiaan Heyning as the company’s head of decarbonisation. Fortescue’s green arm has a 15m tonne a year target by 2030 for green hydrogen and has allocated 10 per cent of Fortescue’s total net profit after tax. It had a $US1.1bn ($1.6bn) war chest available at June 30.

FFI’s budget this year is about $US100m for capital spending, and up to $US700m on operating costs – up from $US148m and $US386m, respectively, last year.

Mr Forrest has identified North America as a key market for FFI, saying he wanted to turn the region “into a leading global green energy heartland and create thousands of green jobs now.”

In May, the company said it was considering building a green hydrogen facility near the last operating coal fired power station in the state of Washington. In November, FFI announced a agreement with Universal Hydrogen, a company focusing on hydrogen powered flight.

Mr Forrest said he was considering investing in as many as 22 power stations in the coal state of West Virginia which could be converted to use renewable energy. The billionaire mining magnate made the comments after a visit to the US, where he travelled to West Virginia to meet Democrat senator Joe Manchin, an influential figure in Congress.

Last week, Mr Forrest said that bankers had valued the green energy subsidiary at $US20bn.

“I’ve had expressions of interest made to me by fund-of-fund managers, by big infrastructure managers – they’ve talked around $US20bn,” he said.

“That’s the kind of overture given to me to try and entice us to list FFI, which I don’t think is in Fortescue’s best interest.”

Dr Forrest wants FFI to be shipping 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen to customers by the end of the decade, but is yet to build a renewable energy project or produce any hydrogen in commercial volumes.

The $US20bn valuation suggests FFI is worth almost half of the value of Fortescue, which was capitalised at about $53bn on the ASX at Friday’s close.