Fiona Nicholls

Fiona is the Former Vice President of External Relations at Rio Tinto. Building on tertiary qualifications in natural resources and business over 30 years, her experiences developed from field work to the executive committee in the resources industry.

Fiona is the Former Vice President of External Relations at Rio Tinto. Building on tertiary qualifications in natural resources and business over 30 years, her experiences developed from field work to the executive committee in the resources industry.

Fiona began her career in the resources sector in 1987 with Santos as an environmental officer and was appointed General Manager - Environment with the Rio Tinto Group in 1997. In 1999 she was posted to London to take up the position of General Manger - Social and Environmental Reporting. She returned to Melbourne as General Manager - Sustainable Development for Rio Tinto's energy product group in 2002 and in 2006 was appointed General Manager - External Relations for Rio Tinto Coal Australia. She was appointed as Vice President in 2012. 

In her position, Fiona was responsible for the policy development and strategic positioning of the Energy Product Group and its coal and Uranium business with respect to sustainable development, climate change, community and Aboriginal relations, media, communications and government relations. Fiona's role encompassed offices all over Australia, Africa and Canada. In 2012 Fiona was awarded the prestigious Queensland Resources Council Award for Women. 

Fiona has worked across a range of business functions including strategy and planning, exploration and operations, multi-country project development and approvals, due diligence and assurance processes, crisis management, and organisational change. She is an experienced executive and non-executive Director on public company, private and not for profit boards with a sound knowledge of corporate governance and a successful track record of influencing executive business decisions.

Fiona is also the Executive Director of F.N. Sustainability, providing specialist sustainability support to businesses, implementing practical solutions that are innovative, effective and scalable. Fiona works with CEOs on a variety of strategic management issues including development of strategy papers for their Boards on improving business outcomes, strategies for multi-stakeholder fundraising projects and independent reviews of program performance.  

Fiona holds a Bachelor of Natural Resources with Honours, a Masters of Business Administration and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).