Richard Adkerson is the current president, CEO and vice chairman of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. with an established career in the mining sector. He has been in this role since December 2003. He is also known for his past role as chairman of the

International Council on Mining and Metals ICMM was founded in 2001, as a CEO-led leadership organization, to improve sustainable development performance in the mining and metals industry. Sustainable Development In late 1998 a small group of mining industry CEOs came together to quest ...

Education

Adkerson graduated with highest honours from

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Unive ...

with a bachelor's degree in accounting in 1970. He attended the six-week advanced management program at

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

Career

Adkerson started out as an accountant in the unpredictable oil and gas business throughout the 1970s before being offered his first role at Freeport in 1989. He was a partner and managing director at

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporat ...

where he managed the company’s oil and gas industry division. Between 1976 and 1978, he was a professional accounting fellow with the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Adkerson was the past chairman of the

and is currently a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

The Business Council The Business Council is an organization of business leaders headquartered in Washington, D.C.Business Roundtable The Business Roundtable (BRT) is a nonprofit lobbyist association based in Washington, D.C. whose members are chief executive officers of major United States companies. Unlike the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose members are entire businesses, BRT ...

. He serves on the advisory council of the

Kissinger Institute on China and the United States The Kissinger Institute on China and the United States is a non-profit research organization dedicated to promoting greater understanding of issues in the Sino-American relations, relationship between the People's Republic of China and the United S ...

and as a member of the

Clinton Global Initiative The Clinton Foundation (founded in 2001 as the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, and renamed in 2013 as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was es ...

. He serves on the board of directors of the Arizona Commerce Authority, Greater Phoenix Leadership, and the

Greater Phoenix Economic Council The Greater Phoenix Economic Council (GPEC) is the investment promotion agency for the Greater Phoenix, Arizona area of the United States. GPEC says its goal is to market the Phoenix region in a way that attracts quality businesses and high-wage ...

. He is vice chairman of the

National World War II Museum The National WWII Museum, formerly known as The National D-Day Museum, is a military history museum located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., on Andrew Higgins Drive between Camp Street and Magazine Street Maga ...

, and also serves on the board of visitors of the

MD Anderson Cancer Center The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (colloquially MD Anderson Cancer Center) is a comprehensive cancer center in Houston, Texas. It is the largest cancer center in the U.S. and one of the original three comprehensive cancer centers ...

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. Additionally, he is a member of the

Foundation’s board of directors. The Phoenix Business Journal wrote in November 2014 that Adkerson made $55 million that year, ranking him as the third highest paid US executive.

Recognition

Adkerson received The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers Charles F. Rand Memorial Award in 2011 and was named Executive of the Year by the W. P. Carey School of Business Dean’s Council at Arizona State University in 2010. He has been named The Best CEO in Metals and Mining by

Institutional Investor An institutional investor is an entity which pools money to purchase securities, real property, and other investment assets or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial banks, central banks, credit unions, government-linked co ...

magazine for four years running and was named The Copper Man of the Year 2009 by The Copper Club.

Personal life

Adkerson lives in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. Sun Ranch Partners, managed by Adkerson, purchased the eponymous near

Cameron, Montana Cameron is an unincorporated community in Madison County, Montana, United States. The town is named after its founders, brothers James and Addison Bovey Cameron. Since 1919 the town has been located on U.S. Highway 287. The community is situated ...

in 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adkerson, Richard Living people American accountants Mississippi State University alumni American chief executives Year of birth missing (living people)