Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest is an Australian businessman, philanthropist and entrepreneur, widely considered one of the country’s greatest change agents.
Why you should listen
As founder and chairman of Fortescue Metals Group, Andrew Forrest has led the company from inception to a market capitalisation of more than AU$30billion. In 2001, he co-founded Minderoo Foundation with his wife Nicola, and he's since donated more than AU$1.5 billion to its core initiatives and more than 280 causes around the world. Never daunted by the scale of a challenge, Forrest devotes his relentless energy to tackling some of the world’s greatest problems, including Indigenous disparity, modern slavery and cancer.
But it is Forrest's most recent pursuit -- a PhD in Marine Ecology -- that led him to the TED stage. Driven by a lifelong love for the oceans, Forrest studied marine life and, along the way, encountered the destructive impacts of ocean plastic pollution, which he is now striving to apprehend.
Andrew Forrest’s TED Talk
Andrew Forrest, Chris Anderson
A radical plan to end plastic waste
14 minutes 36 secondsPlastic is an incredible substance for the economy -- and the worst substance possible for the environment, says entrepreneur Andrew Forrest. In a conversation meant to spark debate, Forrest and head of TED Chris Anderson discuss an ambitious plan to get the world's biggest companies to fund an environmental revolution -- and transition industry towards getting all of its plastic from recycled materials, not from fossil fuels.Posted Oct 2019
