Fortescue Metals Group will become one of the few major ASX companies with a female chief financial officer after appointing former travel industry executive Elizabeth Gaines to the role.
Fortescue chief executive Nev Power said the $19 billion iron ore miner had conducted an "exhaustive" global search before settling on Ms Gaines, who has been on the company's board since 2013.
"Elizabeth is a highly experienced chief financial officer who also brings significant global, commercial and operational experience from a range of industry sectors to complement Fortescue's highly capable finance team," Mr Power said.
Ms Gaines replaces Stephen Pearce, who resigned in September to join global miner Anglo American.
Mr Pearce has been credited with steering Fortescue through a phase of rapid growth before leading the drive to lower its costs and slash its heavy debt pile during a period of weak iron ore prices.
In December, Fortescue became the first ASX20 company with a majority of female directors after appointing BlueScope Steel director Penny Bingham-Hall and dual Olympic gold medallist Jenn Morris to the board.
Ms Bingham-Hall and Ms Morris joined Ms Gaines, Gold Road Resources director Sharon Warburton and former vice-president of ExxonMobil Jean Baderschneider on the board of nine.
'Driven by talent'
At the time chairman Andrew Forrest told The Australian Financial Review he was "happy that Fortescue may send a signal that having a majority of women on a board is no longer unusual but we were not driven by that target, we were driven by talent".
Ms Gaines worked her way from CFO and chief operating officer to be chief executive officer of travel agency network Helloworld before resigning in June 2015.
Although she had been with the business for seven years, she had only been in the top job of the Qantas-backed group for 15 months.
Prior to this she worked in finance and operations of travel companies Stella Group and British outfit Entertainment Rights.
She is also a prior CEO of Heytesbury, the Western Australian cattle company owned by the Holmes a Court family.
Ms Gaines, who will begin at Fortescue on February 6, will continue as a Commissioner of Tourism WA, but will step down from some other corporate boards.
Free to air television company Nine Entertainment announced her resignation on Tuesday. She is also a director of medical device developer ImpediMed, data centre operator NextDC and convenience store network 7-Eleven, which has been embroiled in controversy over under payment of workers.
Nine seeks new board members
Nine was hit with two resignations in one day – a third of its board, with former Best & Less chief executive Holly Kramer also stepping down. It is understood Ms Kramer had previously indicated she was looking to step down.
Nine, led by chairman Peter Costello, is said to be looking for skill sets to replace both women, regardless of gender. Nine had a good record on the board gender diversity front, with three men and three women on the board.
Ms Gaines will join Fortescue just weeks after it achieved a long-pursued 40 per cent gross gearing target, a milestone that could open the door to higher dividends.
The miner, which is due to release its December quarter production update this month, took advantage of improving iron ore prices to pay down $US700 million of debt in September and a further $US1 billion in December, leaving just $US1.98 billion still to be repaid in 2019 and about a further $US2.6 billion in 2022.
The iron ore price hit a more than two-year high on Monday of $US83.65 per tonne.
