She is the most giving philanthropist in Australia, yet most Australians have no idea who she is.
After 30 years of marriage to iron ore mogul Andrew Forrest, Nicola Forrest unwillingly entered the public eye when the mining power couple announced their intention to donate the “great bulk” of their wealth over their lives.
Their fortune is estimated to be $27.25 billion based on the value of their stock, particularly in Fortescue Metals Group, with a large portion of it coming from the sale of iron ore to China.
Before forming Fortescue in 2003 and beginning to mine iron ore in Western Australia’s Pilbara area, Mr. Forrest established Anaconda Nickel Ltd., currently known as Minara Resources.
Mrs. Forrest is referred to as the “undercover billionaire” in the family joke.
The moniker was given to her in part because of her infamous frugal tendencies and in part because she wanted to live in Andrew Forrest’s shadow for many years.
According to daughter Grace Forrest, “The [undercover billionaire label] originates from the fact that she’d be urging dad Sydney and I to consume a week-old expired yoghurt since it’d be wasted.”
The UCB dislikes waste in any kind.
Even Mrs. Forrest avoided using cling wrap and washed and reused plastic ziplock bags because of her mother’s abhorrence of waste.
Mrs. Forrest said in April that she and Andrew will donate their riches because they didn’t want to “burden” their three children—daughters Grace and Sophia and son Sydney—with a handout.
She said earlier this year that believing they would receive a big sum of money does not assist children.
Grace Forrest was named the Young Australian of the Year in Western Australia in 2018 for her work with the organization Walk Free, which is supported by the wealth of her parents and works to end modern slavery.
Actress Sophia Forrest and her partner Zara Zoe just got engaged.
She has previously appeared in the Australian drama Love Child and the DC film Aquaman.
The co-founders of Canva, Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, as well as Len Ainsworth, the head of Aristocrat Pokies, are among the other Australians who have promised to donate their wealth.
The Minderoo Foundation, which the pair established to keep their pledge, is run by Mrs. Forrest, and it has already spent $2.6 billion in 11 initiatives.
It gave $400 million in 2017 and $655 million in 2019, setting new records.
There have been many who have criticized the organization. Given that the foundation is based on mining sector earnings, environmental activist organizations have questioned the organization’s dedication to environmental problems in particular.
However, Minderoo is just beginning. It is said to be preparing to contribute more than $1 billion annually.
Some initiatives are as significant as abolishing slavery, combating global warming, and bridging the divide between Australians of Indigenous and non-Indigenous descent.
As personally meaningful as enhancing early childhood education are other Minderoo endeavors.
Nicola Forrest said at the National Press Club in February of last year, “I am inspired by the experiences I’ve had both parenting, and losing, children.”
Mrs. Forrest’s greatest love is working with young children, which she developed in part as a result of the 1988 stillbirth of her daughter Matilda.
The family requested a post-mortem, which revealed there was nothing wrong and that their baby was a “wonderful, lovely little girl” even though she was stillborn.
She said that Matilda’s death “tore our family apart.”
I contacted Professor John Newnham at the Women and Infant’s Research Foundation as a result of this experience, joined their board, and collaborated with them for years.
In fact, the Minderoo Foundation was founded 20 years ago as a result of this partnership and the research I got deeply involved in.
It helped me realize how obvious a fact was. The first five years of life are essential to a person’s health and happiness from conception.
You can secure the future if you protect those years.
The foundation also prioritizes enhancing pre-school instruction for kids under five years old.
They could be unable to focus, adhere to directions, express themselves, or communicate with adults or other children. Or then, Mrs. Forrest remarked, they could be abnormally withdrawn or nervous.
These kids fall behind so rapidly that, in her words, by the time they reach adolescence, they “are entirely disconnected.”
In 2019, Minderoo released a significant analysis that revealed the annual cost of Australians’ “late intervention” with school-age children is $15.2 billion.
“The cost of our inactivity is smeared on the government’s budget documents,” she added. “And that was before COVID. $5.9 billion for child protection, $2.7 billion for young criminality, and $1.3 billion for mental health.”
Eliminating childhood cancer is one of the other goals of the Minderoo Foundation.
Under the guise of uniting in the fight against cancer, Minderoo also wants to see the sale of cigarettes to anyone under the age of 21 outlawed.