a Western Australian mining magnate currently a non-executive chairman and previously the chief executive officer of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG). He is also a substantial supporter and official public Ambassador of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation. In 2010 he surpassed James Packer as the richest person in Australia, although by 2012 had slipped to the third richest person.
Education
Forrest was educated at Onslow Primary School, before moving back to Perth to attend Christ Church Grammar School and then Hale School. As a child, he suffered a stutter problem, which is how he came to develop a relationship with Ian Black, whose father Scotty Black, an Aboriginal, became Forrest's mentor.
Forrest attended the University of Western Australia where he studied a double major in economics and politics.
Career
After graduating, he worked as a stockbroker at the brokerage houses Kirke Securities and Jacksons. In his early 30s, he became the founding CEO of Anaconda Nickel (now Minara Resources), which has since grown to be one of Australia's single largest mineral exporters with its Murrin Murrin Joint Venture nickel project.
In 2003, he took control of Allied Mining and Processing and renamed it Fortescue Metals Group. Since then, the company has grown to possess three times the tenements of its nearest rival in Western Australia's iron ore region. Fortescue holds major deposits at Mount Nicholas, Christmas Creek, Cloudbreak, and Tongolo. In 2007, he took control of a Niagara Mining, which owns tenements around Laverton, Western AustraliaAt FMG, Forrest turned the organisation to become a bigger iron ore exporter in the Pilbara region than BHP Billiton. He was nominated as the 2011 Western region Ernst & Young.
He is an Adjunct Professor at the Chinese Southern University, a fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, has an Australian Centenary Medal and Australian Sports Medal, and was awarded Citizen of the Year for Regional Development, and Australian Ernst & Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year. He was formerly the Director of Australia's Export Finance and Insurance Corporation, the West Australian Chamber of Minerals and Energy, and Chairman of Athletics Australia. Forrest has previously addressed the Queensland University of Technology, and Christians in the Marketplace.
Politics
Chief Executive Officer of
Forrest launched the Australian Employment Covenant, which campaigns to have businesses hire indigenous Australians, as they could "add value" to Australian businesses because they were "professional and reliable and wonderful" and that there is no reason for indigenous disparity