The Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) share price is down more than 1% after the large iron mining ASX share announced another executive departure.
CFO leaves
Fortescue told the market that its chief financial officer (CFO), Mr Ian Wells, has decided to leave the business.
He joined in 2010 and has held various senior executive finance roles. Mr Wells has been the CFO since 2018.
According to Fortescue, he left the business to “pursue other opportunities.”
Fortescue is going through a process to identify a new CFO. Mr Wells will continue in his role until 31 January 2023.
Management commentary
The Fortescue executive chair Andrew Forrest said:
Ian has made a huge contribution to Fortescue over what we will look back on as the formative years of Fortescue. Working closely with the board, Ian and the executive team have played an important role in the development and execution of our capital allocation framework together with supporting Fortescue’s differentiating culture and values.
Ian has been a trusted member of the executive team which has led Fortescue through a number of iron ore market cycles, more recently the impacts of COVID-19 together with global volatility. Despite these challenges Fortescue has retained a reputation for consistent and predictable performance as well as operating and capital cost discipline.
What to make of this
It is normal for leadership positions to change. Fortescue has two different businesses within its structure – mining and green energy (Fortescue Future Industries).
There have been quite a few leadership changes for both businesses over the past couple of years. Is that something to worry about? Possibly not, if it has just been an unfortunate coincidence of timing.
But, I’d suggest that businesses typically do better when they have stable leadership to guide them and carry out the long-term strategy.
I suppose the main figurehead is Andrew Forrest who remains at the helm and is driving the business towards a greener future.
I’m certainly not looking to sell my Fortescue shares based on this news, but I think the Fortescue share price is too high for me to want to buy any more at the moment.
