Dr Andrew FORREST

Chairman and Co-Founder, Minderoo Foundation, Fortescue Future Industries, Fortescue Metals Group, Tattarang

Dr Forrest is Australia’s most active philanthropist and one of the most effective business leaders of his generation.

In 2001, he co-founded Minderoo Foundation with his wife Nicola. To date, they’ve donated US$1.6bn to address modern slavery, ocean health, cancer, indigenous disparity, childhood development, disaster resilience, and plastic waste.

Dr Forrest has a PhD in Marine Ecology from the University of Western Australia. He serves as an IUCN Patron of Nature, a World Economic Forum Friend of Ocean Action, Global Patron of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, and served as a Councillor of the Global Citizen Commission charged by the UN to modernise the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In 2021, Fortescue announced a 2030 target for carbon neutrality, and established Fortescue Future Industries, a developer, financier, and operator of a global portfolio of renewable energy resources.