Another senior executive has left Australian iron ore giant Fortescue just months into the job, adding to the rapid turnover of management in recent years.
The departure of chief financial officer Christine Morris was announced to the Australian stock exchange on Thursday evening, just days after the CEO announced she was resigning.
The majority of Fortescue’s executive team has left or shifted roles since 2021 with Morris’s resignation representing the 11th major change in less than three years.
Morris was appointed to the key position in early June and, according to the ASX announcement, will be immediately replaced by the company’s group manager of finance and tax, Apple Paget.
Comment was sought from Fortescue.
Earlier this week, the company’s chief executive, Fiona Hick, announced she was leaving just six months after taking the top role. Fortescue said Hick had made a joint decision with the board to leave.
“The departure of Fiona has been both friendly and mutual and we warmly wish her the best for her future,” Fortescue said in a statement on Monday.
Hick joined Fortescue from Woodside in February. There does not appear to be any transition period with her successor, the former head of operations Dino Otranto, taking over immediately.
Hick had announced Morris’s appointment in June, describing her as “a very experienced chief financial officer with a successful track record in aligning financial and corporate strategy and leading the finance divisions of global organisations”.
Morris’s predecessor, Ian Wells, resigned in January, shortly after the former deputy Reserve Bank governor Guy Debelle left his executive role. Debelle was recovering from a serious bicycle crash at the time and stayed with the company in a different position.
The ownership structure at Fortescue is also subject to change after the separation of the country’s wealthiest couple – Andrew and Nicole Forrest – made public in July.
The Forrests said at the time their decision to live apart would not affect their shared philanthropic or business interests, which include more than a one-third stake in Fortescue.
Fortescue this week announced its weakest annual profit in three years, dropping 23%.
Fortescue reported a full-year net profit of US$4.8bn, weighed down by retreating iron ore prices. It also registered a large impairment charge linked to its Iron Bridge magnetite project, which suffered cost blowouts during construction.
