Richard C. Adkerson
President & CEO, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.
Member
Richard C. Adkerson is the President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. He also serves as Co-Chairman of the Board of McMoRan Exploration Co. (MMR). He graduated from Mississippi State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting with highest honors and an MBA degree. He later completed the Advanced Management Program of the Harvard Business School. Prior to joining Freeport-McMoRan in 1989, he was a Partner and Managing Director of Arthur Andersen & Co. where he headed the firm’s Worldwide Oil and Gas Industry Practice. From 1976 to 1978, he was a Professional Accounting Fellow with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. and a Presidential Exchange Executive.
Mr. Adkerson currently serves as Chairman of the International Council on Mining and Metals and on the Executive Board of the International Copper Association. He is President of the Mississippi State University Foundation Board of Directors, chaired its “State of the Future” capital campaign, serves on the University’s Advisory Board for the College of Business and serves on the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association and the Bulldog Club. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Greater Phoenix Leadership and the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, and is a member of the Business Council of New Orleans and the River Region. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, the Dean’s Council of 100 for the Arizona State University W. P. Carey School of Business, and serves on the Board of Trustees of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Board of Visitors, the Development Board of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes of New Orleans, the Louisiana State University Ourso College of Business Executive Board of Advisors, the Xavier University President’s Council and the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Foundation Board. He was named the Outstanding Accounting Alumnus of Mississippi State University in 1989 and the Outstanding Alumnus of Mississippi State University’s College of Business and Industry in 1991. In 2009, for the second straight year, Institutional Investor magazine ranked Mr. Adkerson first in their annual ranking of “America’s Best CEOs” in the Basic Materials – Metals & Mining category.