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Freeport names veteran CEO Richard Adkerson as chairman, reinstates dividend

Freeport names veteran CEO Richard Adkerson as chairman, reinstates dividend

Editor's Note: The Richard C. Adkerson School of Accountancy, housed in MSU’s College of Business, is the namesake of this alumnus who completed his degree with highest honors in 1969 and earned an MBA a year later. In 2007, the university's school of accounting was named after Adkerson.

Portrait of Richard Adkerson
FILE PHOTO: Freeport-McMoran CEO, Richard Adkerson poses for a picture during an interview with Reuters at the CRU's World Copper Conference in Santiago, Chile April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Rodrigo Garrido

(Reuters) - Freeport-McMoRan Inc named long-time Chief Executive Officer Richard Adkerson as chairman of the board, the U.S. miner said on Tuesday.

Adkerson, 74 and CEO since 2003, said he has no plans to retire and is healthy.

The company also said Gerald Ford would retire as director upon the end of his current term in June. Ford would step down as non-executive chairman of the board.

Freeport added it has reinstated dividend on its common stock at an annual rate of $0.30 per share, an increase of $0.10, prior to suspending the payments in April last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reporting by Sucharita Ganguly and Juby Babu; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Shounak Dasgupta