Richard Adkerson

President and CEO, Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold

Richard C. Adkerson is President and Chief Executive Officer of Freeport- McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. FCX, with headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, is the world's largest publicly owned copper producer and the principal supplier of copper to the United States. FCX operates the Grasberg mining complex in Papua, Indonesia, the world's largest copper and gold mine in terms of reserves, and conducts significant mining operations in North and South America and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is also Co-Chairman of McMoRan Exploration Co., a New York Stock Exchange company engaged in oil and gas exploration and production offshore and onshore in the Gulf of Mexico region of the United States. McMoRan is an industry leader in drilling deep natural gas wells in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Mr. Adkerson graduated from Mississippi State University with a Bachelor of Science degree with highest honors and an MBA degree. In 2010, he received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Mississippi State. He also completed the Advanced Management Program of the Harvard Business School in 1988. Prior to joining Freeport-McMoRan in 1989, he was Partner and Managing Director in 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.

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 a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, The Business Council and the Business Roundtable. He serves on the Host Committee for the 2011 APEC CEO Summit, on the Advisory Council of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States and as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Commerce Authority, Greater Phoenix Leadership, the Greater Phoenix Economic Council and the Dean's Council of 100 for the Arizona State University W. P. Carey School of Business. He is Vice-Chairman of the National WWII Museum, serves on the Board of Visitors of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, and is Campaign Chair of the Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, "Cancer Has Met Its Match" campaign in Phoenix. He served as President of the Mississippi State University Foundation Board of Directors, chaired its "State of the Future" capital campaign, and serves on the University's Advisory Board for the College of Business. He was inducted into the American Mining Hall of Fame in 2010, named National Alumnus of the Year of Mississippi State University in 2011, received The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers Charles F. Rand Memorial Award in 2011 and named Executive of the Year by the W. P. Carey School of Business Dean's Council at Arizona State University in 2011. In each of the past four years, Mr. Adkerson was named The Best CEO in Metals and Mining by Institutional Investor magazine and was named The Copper Man of the Year 2009 by The Copper Club.