Key US-based Fortescue Future Industries executive Todd Clewett quits Andrew Forrest’s green energy bandwagon

Another senior Fortescue Future Industries executive has flown the coop, with Washington-based director Todd Clewett to leave Andrew Forrest’s green energy business by the end of the year. Mr Clewett has spent just over three years working for FFI while based in the US, most recently as director of government affairs and sustainability. His profile for a recent offshore wind and green hydrogen summit in Melbourne described him as the “international lead for government, environment, lands and communities” for FFI. “Todd was a member of the pioneering FFI team with chairman Dr Andrew Forrest that visited over 40 countries during COVID in 2020/2021 to establish early-stage green hydrogen projects,” that profile reads. “Todd has played a key role in enabling the green hydrogen industry globally over the past three years. “Prior to his role at Fortescue, Todd worked for 15 years in a variety of executive roles in the resources sector in Panama, Mongolia, and Papua New Guinea.” Mr Clewett’s LinkedIn profile describes his position as reporting directly to FFI chief executive Mark Hutchinson. A Fortescue spokesman confirmed Mr Clewett was leaving FFI having “accepted a role closer to home to spend more time with his family”. Fortescue has been beset by an exodus of executives in recent months, headlined by the shock departure of chief executive Fiona Hick in August, just 48 hours after the company celebrated its 20th anniversary at a glitzy party in the remote Pilbara. Ms Hick spent just six months in the top job and was promptly followed out of the door by chief financial officer Christine Morris, who had lasted just three months. Later that same week — which coincided with the release of Fortescue’s full-year results — former Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor Guy Debelle also pulled up stumps. Mr Debelle originally joined FFI — Fortescue’s green energy arm — as chief financial officer but stepped back into a part-time director role following a serious cycling accident. The pace of turnover within Fortescue has been well documented, with just three of the 11 people on the 2020 executive occupying those same roles today. Mr Forrest previously characterised Ms Hick’s departure as the result of a failure to buy into Fortescue’s ambitions to rapidly decarbonise and branch out from its traditional dominance in the iron ore industry into emerging green energy products like hydrogen. “What we have now is a literally galloping herd of people who want to see this company go green,” Mr Forrest said in September. “So if you want to step outside that, you’re given a choice. You’re not fired, there’s no disagreement, you’re just given a choice: step back in, or you call it. “All I’m saying is that Fiona was given the choice and she made her own decision. “We’re not going to let a single person’s disagreement with the direction of this company affect it. You either get on the bus or get off the bus, but you make the choice. No one was pushed.”