Andrew Forrest

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Andrew Forrest (born 1961) also known by his nickname Twiggy, is a Western Australian mining entrepreneur, currently Chief executive officer and the major shareholder of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) Ltd, which is developing the Pilbara Iron Ore and Infrastructure Project, and as at December 28th 2007, was identified as Australia's richest man. ^[1]^[2]

1 Career
2 Wealth
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Career

Forrest is the youngest son of Donald and Judith Forrest. He is the great-grandnephew of former Premier John Forrest.^[3] His early years were spent as a jackeroo on the family station at Mindaroo in the Pilbara ^[4]^[5]

Forrest graduated from Hale School in Perth and after university embarked on a career in stockbroking starting at broking house Jacksons. In his early 30s he became the founding CEO of Anaconda Nickel (now Minara Resources). Although this project experienced teething problems during commissioning and attracted intense criticism, it has since grown to be one of Australia's single largest mineral exporters with its giant Murrin Murrin Joint Venture nickel project.

In 2003, he took control of Allied Mining and Processing and renamed it Fortescue Metals Group. ^[6] As CEO, Fortescue grew to possess three times the tenements of its nearest rival in Western Australia's iron ore rich Pilbara region. Fortescue holds major deposits at Mount Nicholas, Christmas Creek, Cloudbreak, and Tongolo.

In 2007, Forrest took control of a Niagara Mining which owns tenements around Laverton, Western Australia, the site of the famous 1969 Poseidon nickel boom.^[7]

Former Prime Minister, John Howard said of Forrest in 1999: "I've met a lot of managing directors, but I don't think I've met a more self-evidently enthusiastic and dedicated managing director than I’ve met in Andrew Forrest"^[8]

Forrest is married with three children.

[edit] Wealth

In 2006 Forrest was placed #31 on Forbes' Australia and New Zealand Rich List and said to be worth $400 million.^[9] In 2007 his net worth was $1.3 billion and was #754 on Forbes' world-wide billionaires list.^[10] Fortescue's rising share price has seen Forrest, who owns 36%, overtake James Packer as Australia's richest man with a fortune of over $7 billion in December 2007. Though in January 2008 he went back behind James Packer partly due to share falls on Wall Street.^[11]It is worth noting however that the most recent Forbes Listing as at March 06, 2008, lists Forrest as Australias Wealthiest Man with Packer second.^{[citation needed]}