Fortescue appoints Woodside operations vice president Fiona Hick as mining chief
Woodside veteran Fiona Hick will take over as chief executive of Fortescue Metals Group’s mining arm.
Fortescue Metals Group has anointed Woodside operations vice president Fiona Hick as the chief executive of its mining arm, almost a year after former boss Elizabeth Gaines announced she intended to leave the company’s top job.
Ms Hick, a 21-year veteran at Woodside, commences as chief executive in February.
She last worked in iron ore with Rio Tinto as a rail superintendent in 2001 and has been Woodside’s operations vice president since 2019. She served as its strategy and planning boss, and before that as its crisis management leader.
Ms Gaines announced her intention to stand down as the Fortescue chief executive on December 10, 2021, but remained on until August as the company hunted for a successor.
Ms Hick is not a direct replacement for Ms Gaines, but will report to the company’s board, as does Fortescue Future Industries chief executive Mark Hutchinson.
In May, Fortescue founder Andrew Forrest said he would become the company’s executive chairman, taking on the role of running its iron ore division as being the figurehead and driving force behind FFI, its fast-growing green energy subsidiary.
As recently as last week, at Fortescue’s annual shareholder meeting, Dr Forrest said he was in “no hurry” to find a replacement.
Since then, the company has been hit by the departure of FFI chief financial officer Guy Debelle after only months in the role, capping a year during which there has been substantial turnover in the top ranks of the iron ore major.
Ms Hick will be charged with keeping costs down at Fortescue’s iron ore operations in an increasingly inflationary environment, overseeing the commissioning of the company’s troubled Iron Bridge magnetite project, as well as the companies ambitious $US6.2bn ($9.2bn) plan to decarbonise its iron ore operations by the end of the decade.
And she will have to do so in an increasingly uncertain global environment, as China’s Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns throw a shadow over the prospects of a quick economic recovery in Fortescue’s biggest customer, and at a company that has seen the departure of the majority of its senior leadership over the last two years.
On Tuesday, Ms Hick told The Australian she would lead the “streamlining and simplification” of Fortescue’s metals business.
“There‘s rising input costs. We all need to be attuned to that and that’s part of why streamlining and simplification will be part of our focus,” Ms Hicks said.
“But they are pressures that are on every company and so it’s really important that we do whatever we can to get in front of that.”
She said she did not believe her lack of recent experience at a mining business would be an issue in her new role, given her engineering background, early career experience at Rio Tinto’s iron ore operations, and transferable skills from her role at Woodside.
“Some of the transferable skills are around seeking to understand, listening to people, challenging the status quo, thinking about where we can improve the business. I think a lot of those skills are definitely transferable.
Ms Hick has been part of the executive leadership team at Woodside since 2019, with her most recent role overseeing the operational performance of the company’s Australia assets – including both Woodside’s original North West Shelf operations and the Bass Strait production hubs inherited from its merger with BHP’s oil and gas division.
Her career at the oil and gas producer included a stint overseeing its health, safety, environment and quality performance.
Dr Forrest told The Australian he did not believe the dual chief executive structure, with himself as executive chairman, would be a problem for Fortescue, as he ran a “highly collaborative” boardroom.
“The chairman has one vote,” he said. “It is highly collaborative, there’s heaps of discussion, push back. It is a dynamic board, and yes we generally reach consensus but not without lots of debate – exactly as it should be.”
Dr Forrest said the recruitment of the long-term Woodside executive would help Fortescue “step beyond fossil fuels”.
“Fiona’s highly strategic operational mind and her easy natural leadership of people is typical of a character that is always vulnerable to new ideas. This is critical in the constant search for simplicity and streamlining that is Fortescue,” he said in a statement.
“Fiona has the natural humility and adaptiveness to flourish in Fortescue’s rare leadership environment through values, as opposed to command and control. Fiona has the right personality to lead our metals organisation.”
Ms Hick said the Fortescue role was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”. “I have enjoyed and grown immensely during my 20 years in energy. I am as committed to the new future of the world as Andrew is,” she said. “I join with, and commit to, Andrew and Fortescue’s vision of becoming the leading green metals and energy company globally.”
Fortescue shares closed up 42c to $19.46 on Tuesday. They have slid some 2 per cent this year.
Last week, Fortescue said former Reserve Bank deputy governor Guy Debelle would leave the company for health reasons only six months after he started.
Dr Debelle was recruited by FFFI as its chief financial officer in March and joined in June.
Fortescue said on Wednesday Dr Debelle would transition onto the FFI board, focusing on policy, regulatory and financial advisory.
“He has decided, with my full support and with the support of the Fortescue family, to stand down … and transition to a role on the FFI board so he can fully focus on his recovery,” Dr Forrest said last Wednesday.