Fortescue CFO Christine Morris fires back at Forrest camp
Departed Fortescue chief financial officer Christine Morris has blasted claims made by former boss Andrew Forrest, and received some telling support.
Former Fortescue Metals Group finance boss Christine Morris was “very wise” to quit the iron ore major, according to interim Newcrest Mining boss Sherry Duhe, who commented after Ms Morris fired back at the iron ore giant over her abrupt departure.
Ms Morris took to LinkedIn this week to say the Fortescue role was not what she expected when she accepted the job, and she had made the right decision to leave “considering the circumstances”.
Ms Morris was only appointed as the finance boss of Fortescue’s mining business in early June, and began working at the company a month later.
She abruptly quit Fortescue amid a wave of new executive chaos at the mining major, after the sudden departure of Fiona Hick – who had led Fortescue’s mining arm since late February – on the day the company delivered its annual financial results.
Fortescue’s executive chairman, Andrew Forrest, told The Australian in September Ms Morris was “very lucky” to have been appointed chief financial officer in June and had “just scraped in over an internal candidate – which was an error”.
Ms Morris said on LinkedIn she believed quitting the company was the right decision, and offered public support to Ms Hick.
“Some of you will have read or heard that I have left my position as CFO of Fortescue as the role was not what I expected. It was not an easy decision to make, but I believe the right one considering the circumstances,” Ms Morris wrote.
“Although I was only in Perth for a couple of months, I am very grateful to have worked with wonderful people, including former CEO Fiona Hick and the team she assembled. As I close this brief chapter, I am excited to be reunited with my family in Houston and to explore new possibilities and challenges.”
Ms Duhe, a former Woodside finance boss who is currently interim chief executive at Newcrest Mining, said it was a “wise decision” by Ms Morris to leave.
“Best of luck to you in your next steps Christine, and indeed a very wise decision!!”
Ms Morris’ exit came amid an exodus of other prominent departures including former RBA veteran Guy Debelle.
Dr Forrest claimed an extraordinary wave of management departures at Fortescue was sparked after he returned from an overseas trip to find the company’s strategy had been hijacked by several of its executive team.
In an explosive interview, the billionaire chairman of the $62bn mining giant said executives who had left the iron ore major had struggled to cope with the “boiler room” conditions of the company and were not following his green vision.
He said he was not to blame for the rapid hiring and firing of staff that had engulfed the company.
Dr Forrest founded Fortescue two decades ago and built the West Australian company into one of the world’s most powerful mining companies, taking on its bigger competitors BHP and Rio Tinto. It now has plans to build an even bigger business targeting green energy.
Meanwhile, institutional investors have told the company’s new leadership they “understand” the reasons for last week’s extraordinary executive chaos, according to Fortescue Energy boss Mark Hutchinson.
He said he was more confident than ever that the company would meet Dr Forrest’s goal of building infrastructure capable of supporting 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen production a year by 2030, despite flagging that the first round of Fortescue’s green energy projects would be relatively small.
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