Tim Roberts’ former right-hand man Darren Weaver believed to be the boss of Chris Ellison’s new family office

A Barramundi breadcrumb and close ties with Chris Ellison’s billionaire chum has a former liquidator pegged as the boss of a new family office. Mineral Resources on Friday revealed its founder and chief, Mr Ellison, had sold $122 million worth of company stock for “personal financial planning purposes”. This included for “the establishment of a family office”, which is a private investment firm that manages family wealth across multiple generations. Sources close to Mr Ellison believe former Ferrier Hodgson partner Darren Weaver will be overseeing investment decisions of the new family office. Mr Weaver left Warburton Group — the Cottlesloe-based family office of Multiplex scion Tim Roberts — at the end of last year. Mr Weaver served as chief executive and then chair of Warburton over a ten-year period. Mr Ellison and Mr Roberts have strong personal and business links. Most notably, Mr Roberts sold a 35-metre yacht called M.Y. Anya to Mr Ellison and at one stage Mr Roberts’s private jet charter company AV West had a half stake in Mineral Resources’ in-house airline MinRes Air. A recent filing to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission lends further weight to the theory Mr Weaver will be overseeing the Ellison’s business affairs. Mr Weaver in February became a director of Wild Barra Fisheries — a private company based in Darwin involved in the fishing and processing of Barramundi, King Threadfin Salmon and Black Jewfish. Mr Ellison is Wild Barra’s only other director and his main personal corporate entity — Sandini Pty Ltd — is the sole shareholder. MinRes declined to comment on Mr Weaver’s rumoured appointment to the Ellison family office and Mr Weaver did not respond to The West Australian’s requests for comment. Shares in MinRes fell 8 per cent on Friday following news of Mr Ellison’s stock sell-down and continued to decline on Monday, down 1.3 per cent by the close of trade. MinRes on Monday would not reveal whether Mr Ellison had plans to sell more stock to boost his family office coffers. The new family office could soon get a large capital injection through another source of Mr Ellison’s wealth. Mr Ellison is selling his riverside Mosman Park mansion, for which he paid a Perth record of $57.5 million in 2009. The mining magnate and his wife Tia are currently living a neighbouring property, according to recent corporate filings. Mr Ellison was supposed stand down as MinRes boss by the end of this month after the company’s board in November 2024 committed to finding a replacement CEO within 18 months. This followed scandals involving Mr Ellison evading tax and misusing company funds. Those dealings are part of an ongoing investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. However, the messaging around Mr Ellison’s purported exit from MinRes has changed since a new chair, Malcolm Bundey, joined the company nearly a year go. Mr Bundey has made it clear MinRes should not be rushed into replacing Mr Ellison to meet “an arbitrary deadline”, throwing the expected leadership succession into uncertainty. That has pleased Mr Ellison’s supporters among MinRes’ 64,000 shareholders who argue he is vital to the company’s success. MinRes’ value has surged more than 150 per cent over the past year.