Fortescue Metals CFO quits, the 11th executive to leave in three years
Fortescue Metals has lost its chief financial officer, Christine Morris, just two months after she was appointed to the key position at the clean energy and iron ore group chaired by billionaire Andrew Forrest.
The exit was announced on Thursday evening barely three days after Fortescue’s chief executive, Fiona Hick, parted ways with the company after just six months in the job. In comments on Wednesday, Dr Forrest said Ms Hick did not agree with the company’s agenda, specifically to achieve zero emissions in its mining operations and its big bets on green hydrogen.
Christine Morris is leaving Fortescue Metals.
On the same day as those comments, Fortescue published a bizarre shareholder presentation warning investors they may die if action was not taken swiftly to curb “lethal humidity”.
Ms Morris was announced as the new finance boss for Fortescue’s mining division on June 2 and started in the role in early July. Ms Hick was pivotal in her selection after long-serving CFO Ian Wells quit in January.
She will be the 11th senior Fortescue executive to leave in the past three years. Former Reserve Bank deputy governor Guy Debelle quit his executive role in November after just 143 days with the company. Dr Debelle remains a director of a Fortescue subsidiary, Australian Fortescue Future Industries.
Fortescue “secured” the services of former chief executive Elizabeth Gaines in June, when her pay more than doubled to $1.26 million to reflect the much bigger dual role she was performing for Fortescue as a director and roaming global ambassador for its hydrogen business. Aside from Ms Gaines, just two of the 11 people serving on Fortescue’s top executive ranks in late 2020 remain with the company today: lawyer Peter Huston and
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