James Hardie Industries plc. 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 or Fibrolite – 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.