He is best known as the former CEO (and current non-executive chairman) of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), and has other interests in the mining industry and in cattle stations.
With an assessed net worth of A$33.29 billion according to the Financial Review 2023 Rich List, Forrest was ranked as the second richest Australian.
[24] In April 2003, he took control of Allied Mining and Processing, which had rights to iron ore in the Pilbara, and renamed it Fortescue Metals Group (FMG).
[11] Since then, the company has grown to possess three times the tenements of its nearest rival in Western Australia's iron ore rich Pilbara region.
He was highly critical of the government's expenditure of $38M on an advertising campaign, that was not approved using the usual processes, as it had to "counter mining industry 'spin' about the resources super profits tax".
[12] The former treasurer Wayne Swan said the big miners would pay at least A$2 billion tax, and wrote to the head of BDO Accounting, who modelled the claims Forrest used, noting they were "utterly unrealistic" and riddled with errors.
[34] Treasury concurred that they would be unable to release the assumptions underpinning its forecasts, as they were based on confidential information provided by the big miners.
The group is made up of several business divisions: Fiveight, Harvest Road, Squadron Energy, Tenmile, Wyloo Metals, Z1Z,[37] and Akubra.
In the following month, Forrest announced that he would create a new tournament called the Indo Pacific Rugby Championship which would include the Western Force and five other teams from the Indo-Pacific region.
[43] In 2020, Forrest acquired both Quanbun and neighbouring property, Jubilee Downs, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia for over A$30 million.
[50] In 2017 Forrest was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the mining sector, to the development of employment and business opportunities, as a supporter of sustainable foreign investment, and to philanthropy.
[1] In 2019 Forrest was awarded a PhD in Marine Science from the University of Western Australia,[51] and has a strong interest in maintaining the health of the oceans.
[56] He gave the 2020 Boyer Lecture to outline a case for hydrogen energy and ways to manage human impacts on the oceans.
They stated:[57][58] "We hope to help empower individuals and families currently suffering the despair of poverty, slavery and the lack of opportunity for themselves and their children.
"After stepping down as chief executive officer of FMG, Forrest noted that he had been spending more than 50% of his time on Indigenous philanthropy.
[60] Encouraged by the philanthropy of the Rockefeller Group, Warren Buffett, and Melinda and Bill Gates,[61] Andrew and Nicola Forrest established the Australian Children's Trust in 2001.
[67][68] As the two-year deadline approached, estimates put the number of Indigenous job placements under the scheme at around 2,800, well short of the original goal.
[70] He has recounted stories of young Aboriginal girls in the Pilbara offering men sex for cigarettes, leading to five indigenous women from the region collectively lodging a complaint with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission that Forrest's comment was racist and vilified the community.
[77] Forrest's daughter, Grace volunteered at an orphanage in Nepal and discovered the children she had looked after had been trafficked to be sex slaves in the Middle East.
[78][79] Grace, aged 21 years, said at a 2014 interfaith meeting held at the Vatican, "I feel like a puppet for hundreds of thousands of girls who are voiceless – if I can stand for them, that is what I'm here to do.
[83] Forrest founded the Global Freedom Network that the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar lead.
The Global Freedom Network works to stop all religious faiths from using organisations involved with slavery in their supply chain.
Then you know that you can’t rest until you free them.In 2014 Andrew and Grace Forrest attended a meeting held in the Vatican, being a Joint Religious Leaders Declaration Against Modern Slavery.
The anti-slavery declaration was signed by Pope Francis, Mata Amritanandamayi, Justin Welby, Thích Nhất Hạnh, K. Sri Dhammananda, David Rosen, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Abraham Skorka, Mohamed Ahmed El-Tayeb, Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi, Basheer Hussain al-Najafi, and Omar Abboud – religious leaders representing forms of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.