Former CSIRO chief executive Larry Marshall is joining the board of mining giant and aspiring green hydrogen producer Fortescue Metals Group, hailing its founder Andrew Forrest as Australia’s greatest entrepreneur.
“Andrew is the greatest Australian entrepreneur I’ve ever met. And I am an Australian entrepreneur, and he’s the best,” Dr Marshall said. The appointment adds scientific and entrepreneurial weight to the board as the company prepares to make final investment calls on five green energy projects before December 31 and developing battery and electrolyser-making businesses.
“So we’re committing everything we have and everything we are to building a massive green energy company. A green metals company and a green technology company to stitch it all together.” Dr Forrest told the crowd of the hard times in the early days of Fortescue and the toll on the family, including the pain of Nicola suffering a miscarriage while they were on a roadshow trying to raise funding to get the company off the ground.