Elizabeth Gaines

Gaines defied the odds in a year defined by a global pandemic and fast-souring relations between Australia and China, Fortescue’s main market. In fact, the $12.8 billion iron ore producer had a banner year, posting record-breaking financial results, and a 137% total return for investors over the past 12 months. Those results owe much to the speedy recovery and soaring demand of China’s steel industry, which despite the pandemic, will have its biggest year ever in 2020. Meanwhile, Gaines implemented safeguards to make sure the virus didn’t hobble her operations; so far there have been zero cases of Covid at Fortescue’s mining sites.