James Hardie

James Hardie Industries Ltd.

Type	Public
Traded as	ASX: JHX : JHX
Industry	Building materials
Founded	Melbourne, Australia 1888
Headquarters	Ireland
Key people	Louis Gries, CEO Russell Chenu, CFO
Products	Columns Commercial Facades Weatherboards Fencing and Lattice
Revenue	A$1.5 billion
Number of employees	3,100
Website	www.jameshardie.com.au

James Hardie Industries Ltd. is an industrial building materials company headquartered in Ireland and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange which specialises in fibre cement products. James Hardie manufactures and develops technologies, materials and processes for the production of building materials. For over 20 years, Hardie has also operated a research and development facility devoted solely to fibre-cement technology. The company was a key player in asbestos mining and manufacturing in Australia through most of the twentieth century.

Working with products containing asbestos - including the building material known as "Fibro" - caused people to develop various pleural abnormalities such as asbestosis and malignant mesothelioma. The 2009 book Killer Company and the 2012 TV docu-drama Devil's Dust are about James Hardie Industries. In May 2012 the High Court of Australia found that seven former James Hardie non-executive directors misled the stock exchange over the asbestos victims compensation fund.

James Hardie immigrated to Australia in 1888 from Linlithgow, Scotland, and created a business importing oils and animal hides. Andrew Reid, also from Linlithgow, came to join Hardie in Melbourne, and became a full partner in 1895. When Hardie retired in 1911, he sold his half of the business to Reid.

James Hardie Industries Ltd first listed on the in 1951. For much of the twentieth century, James Hardie was the dominant manufacturer in Australia of asbestos cement sheet and other related building products which used asbestos as a reinforcing material.