The press may not always be nice to Freeport-McMoRan, but that doesn’t stop CEO Richard Adkerson from respecting the media, he said Thursday night during the last installment of the Iconic Voices series at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Iconic Voices was a Cronkite speaker series led by Cronkite and W.P. Carey School of Business professor of practice Jeff Cunningham, who was the former publisher of Forbes. The series initially had three events starting in late February, but the first was canceled. The second speaker was Warren Buffett in a taped video interview in mid-March.
Cunningham pointed out during the discussion that negative attention and scrutiny from the public and the media can be challenging for Adkerson and Freeport-McMoRan, a global natural resource company headquartered in Phoenix.
“The media has not always been that kind to Freeport-McMoRan,” he said.
But at the end of the discussion, Adkerson said that despite many CEOs’ and leaders’ frustration, journalists’ efforts to tell the truth are important.
“I have tremendous respect for the work that journalists do,” he said. “It’s a real tough job to cover things like complex business transactions. I think it would be a fascinating field to study.”
As CEO of one of the world’s largest producers of copper and gold, Adkerson is responsible for setting the record straight on the realities of mining, he said.
“Here’s the situation: Mining inherently has enormous impacts on the environment,” Adkerson said. “You have to disturb huge amounts of material to be able to recover copper and other metals that we mine. We have mines where we move a million tons of rock every day. That has environmental impacts.”
Adkerson also addressed social concerns of running mining operations in remote areas of the world, in places such as Indonesia and New Guinea, and how the company aims to educate the public.
“Rapid growth creates problems, and there are issues, particularly internationally, with how central governments treat indigenous populations,” Adkerson said. “Mining is big physical operations and it involves a degree of danger.”
Adkerson said Freeport-McMoRan created a website to educate people on mining.
Adkerson also touched on what it took to become CEO of the global company. He discussed his competitive spirit and how it helped him in his job, as well as the importance of learning and understanding all aspects of the industry and establishing credibility.
“Learn how to be diligent and understand what you’re talking about in the sense of negotiating a transaction,” Adkerson said. “You’re going to have to learn to work with other people and use common instincts.”
One of the keys to having a successful company like Freeport-McMoRan, he said, is supportive and determined employees and leaders.
“We have an extraordinarily motivated team of people that enjoy working together and share a common focus,” Adkerson said.
Audience member Dorthea Stolze, of Globe, Arizona, said she enjoyed hearing from Adkerson.
“I thought he was very entertaining,” Stolze said. “He sounded pretty optimistic.”
Contact the reporter at rbouley@asu.edu
