Fortescue Future Industries CFO Guy Debelle steps back to focus on health after cycling incident
Fortescue’s green offshoot has lost another high-powered recruit with FFI’s chief financial officer stepping back from his role to ‘focus on his health’, the company has said.
Fortescue Metals executive chairman Andrew Forrest has lost another high-powered recruit for his green energy offshoot, with former Reserve Bank deputy governor Guy Debelle quitting his role at the company for health reasons after only six months with the company.
Dr Debelle was recruited by Fortescue Future Industries as its chief financial officer in March, with the appointment a coup by the mining billionaire. He officially joined FFI in June.
On Wednesday, a day after Fortescue’s annual meeting, the company told shareholders that Dr Debelle had quit his executive role with the company “to focus on his health”.
“In August 2022, Dr Debelle was involved in a serious bicycle incident. Over the past few months, he has been recovering, while managing the demanding duties associated with his role as CFO, and has made the difficult decision to step back to be able to focus on his health,” Fortescue said in a statement.
Fortescue delivered its annual financial statements shortly after the August cycling accident and on the company’s earnings call Dr Forrest described the incident as “minor”. “I have excused Guy Debelle. He had a minor biking accident on the weekend, and will be back on his pins shortly,” Dr Forrest said at the time.
Since then Dr Debelle has attended a string of high-profile business meetings in the last six weeks, crisscrossing Australia to espouse Dr Forrest’s vision to dominate the global green hydrogen business.
The former RBA deputy governor attended the UBS Australia Conference on November 14, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission conference on November 3 and the Citi Australia conference on October 13.
He was also booked to speak at the inaugural South Australian Investment Conference in Adelaide on December 1.
Fortescue said on Wednesday Dr Debelle would transition onto the FFI board, focusing on policy, regulatory and financial advisory.
“Guy’s recovery has been tough and is still ongoing. He has decided, with my full support and with the support of the Fortescue family, to stand down from this role and transition to a role on the FFI board so he can fully focus on his recovery,” Dr Forrest said.
Dr Debelle’s resignation is the latest in a string of high profile executive departures from Fortescue over the last 18 months.
Fortescue’s senior human resources executive, Linda O’Farrell, quit the company early this month, capping a frenetic 18 months that has seen an almost complete turnover of the company’s leadership team.
Only three of the 11 members of Fortescue’s executive leadership team listed in the company’s 2021 annual report now remain with the company: chief financial officer Ian Wells, long-term legal boss Peter Huston, and former FFI chief executive Julie Shuttleworth, although Ms Shuttleworth is now in a new role.
Other high profile recruits to FFI have also left, including its US boss Paul Browning, who quit the company in September only 8 months after beginning the role.
Dr Forrest returned to an executive role at the company he founded in August, after the December 2021 resignation of chief executive Elizabeth Gaines took effect. Like Dr Debelle, Ms Gaines remains with the company in a non-executive role.
Speaking after Fortescue’s annual meeting in Perth on Tuesday, Dr Forrest told reporters the company was still looking for a new chief executive for its iron ore business but was “in no hurry” to make an appointment.
Ian Wells remains group CFO of Fortescue Metals, the company said on Wednesday.
Despite the turnover, analysts remain positive about Fortescue’s prospects. In a note on Monday, Macquarie said a structure linking executives incentives to emissions targets would “help to align the management’s long term planning with company’s decarbonisation priorities”. “To achieve its ... target, Fortescue expects to invest a total capital of US$6.2b ($9.3bn) with most of the expenditure planned (between 2024 and 2028,” they wrote.
Fortescue shares closed 16c, or 0.8 per cent, lower at $19.04
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