Special Report: Wealth creators

The mining and property booms have created unprecedented wealth in Western Australia. WA Business News looks at the individuals leading the charge.

The Western Australian entrepreneurs who have created the most wealth in the non-mining sector are led by people who spent most of their business life running private companies before opting for a sharemarket float.

The iron ore boom has underpinned the enormous wealth of Fortescue Metals Group Ltd managing director Andrew Forrest, and it has also boosted the wealth of some of Western Australia’s most famous families.

There may be a host of rags-to-riches tales among the executives enjoying the share price spoils of their publicly listed entities, but it’s a storyline that also extends to the private sector.

WA Business News’ Wealth Creators may be sitting on enormous fortunes, but that wealth is predominately on paper. And while the stock market can push the value of an individual’s shareholding up, it can just as easily make the wealth disappear.

The resources boom has swelled the job books for many of the country’s engineering firms, which in turn has lifted company profits and share prices and lined the pockets of some of the industry’s long-serving executives.

Fortescue Metals Group Ltd boss Andrew Forrest laid the groundwork for his current wealth four years ago this month when he negotiated a deal with Allied Mining & Processing.