What drives Kathleen Quirk, CEO of one of Arizona’s most profitable companies? We asked

A woman now runs one of Arizona's most valuable and profitable companies, an industry leader in a male-dominated industry. Who is Kathleen Quirk, and why is she so excited about the copper business?

Show CaptionHide Caption

How to send news tips to azcentral.com and The Arizona Republic Readers can send news tips to The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com via the newspaper's social media channels or by email.

The Republic Copper mining is one of Arizona's oldest industries, dating to territorial days, but Kathleen Quirk can't contain her enthusiasm for the innovation and changes taking place. Partly, that's because of the potential for technological advances that can extract the metal more efficiently from stockpiles of previously mined rock, said the new CEO at Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan.

Her excitement also reflects the many cutting-edge industries -- wind and solar power, electric vehicles, data centers and others -- that depend on copper for their own advancements. "This is a whole new era of decarbonization, and copper is essential for it," said Quirk, who succeeded longtime CEO Richard Adkerson in June at the helm of a corporation that perennially ranks as one of the most valuable and profitable in Arizona. "It's an incredibly exciting time to be a copper producer." The company also is a sizable supplier of gold and molybdenum, which is used in various industrial applications such as a lubicrant or to increase the strength of steel.

Electric vehicles, for example, need up to four times the amount of copper compared to gasoline-driven cars and trucks, along with copper-intensive charging stations, the company noted in a recent report. Similarly, wind and solar generation also requires much more copper compared to power plants that rely on traditional fossil fuels. What to know: Stock prices down, recession worry looms[1]

Quirk certainly knows the industry. She spent nearly her entire career in it. After earning an accounting degree at Louisiana State University and working for a few years in tax accounting at Mobil, she joined Freeport in 1989.

She advanced into higher roles, including chief financial officer in 2003 and president in 2021. She worked for years alongside company leaders James Moffett, who served as both chairman and CEO, and Adkerson, who remains Freeport's chairman. The smaller and younger Freeport moved its headquarters to Phoenix after acquiring Phelps Dodge in 2007 for £25.9 billion.

Phelps Dodge first started mining copper at Morenci in eastern Arizona, in 1881, more than three decades before statehood. Freeport earned a profit of just under £2 billion over the 12 months through June, on £24.7 billion in revenue. The company's stock market capitalization or worth is around £59 billion.

Freeport ranks near the top in all three measures, compared to other corporations headquartered in Arizona.

A demanding but interesting job

Quirk, 60, was born and grew up in the New Orleans area, the daughter of an engineer father and homemaker mother. Her father, who she said is still working at 87, taught her the importance of hard work and encouraged her to go into accounting. "From my mom, I learned more about empathy and passion," she said.

Quirk, who is single, said she enjoys playing pickleball and other sports and watching sports, including women's professional basketball and the PNB Paribas Open pro tennis tournament held annually near Palm Springs, California. She remains close to family members and friends, including some of her former college peers at LSU. In addition, she sits on the board of Vulcan Materials,[2] one of the companies whose shares have traded the longest in the stock market, with some of the best results for investors.

She also spends a lot of time traveling and meeting with people, which she views as essential. "It's an international business, so I'm dealing with a lot of time zones," she said. "I like to catch up with people and get updates; it's not a boring job but one of continuous learning." Quirk insists she's not a workaholic but admits her new CEO role, which she assumed in June, comes with enormous demands and responsibilities.

That's not surprising for a company that at the end of last year counted more than 27,000 global employees including 10,100 in Arizona, many in the southeastern part of the state. She said the corporation has a collaborative, largely informal, culture that stresses teamwork and initiative, among other attributes. Freeport's talent needs include employees adept in data science and analytics.

"It's a sizable company but with a culture of family," with low turnover and employees sometimes following in the footsteps of a parent or even a grandparent, she said. "I really believe culture is so important in organizational success." The company's name is affixed atop a downtown-Phoenix high-rise, where Freeport continues to rent space, but she and many other administrative employees have moved to a suburban office park near 44th Street and Broadway Road south of Sky Harbor International Airport. The new space, which includes an enclosed outdoor patio with couches, flatscreen televisions and cornhole games, is collaborative and comfortable but also functional, she said.

Challenges facing the company and industry

What keeps her up at night? "It's something all the time," Quirk said.

For example, the company faces ongoing regulatory challenges and environmental concerns and must deal with many different governmental entities, including those in Indonesia, where Freeport has a big copper and gold operation, and in Peru and Chile. Mining can be a dangerous business, with employees working around heavy equipment, chemicals, high temperatures in the smelting process. "But you just got to work through it," she said, adding that the company's culture includes a focus on safety that she believes is shared throughout the workforce.

Quirk also said securing sufficient talent can be a challenge -- not so much in foreign nations, where the jobs are coveted, but in remote mining locations in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. More mining news: Protesters say uranium shipments near the Grand Canyon threaten health, safety[3] As a result, Freeport likely will start embracing innovations such as autonomous-driving haul trucks, the giant vehicles that transport newly mined rock to be processed.

Haul-truck drivers have solitary jobs that can be difficult to keep filled, she explained, so autonomous vehicles already are being used by other mining entities in places including Canada and Australia. It can be difficult to recruit people to work in remote places like Bagdad, Freeport's deep-reserve copper mine north of Wickenburg and west of Prescott. The company in such places needs to supply housing, schools and other infrastructure and amenities.

With copper demand high and with fewer discoveries, the industry must be more efficient and resourceful, such as in extracting copper from rock piles that were mined years before but never fully exploited, she said.

A company with many women leaders

Despite being the first female CEO at this preeminent Arizona corporation that operates in a traditionally male-dominated industry, Quirk said she doesn't think much about it. "With the culture here, you're not identified by your gender; it's what you can contribute and how you can be part of the team," she said. "We have a lot of female leaders in this company." Quirk talks with unbridled passion and enthusiasm for the company, the industry and her position in it.

"I have been so fortunate at Freeport to work around good people, smart people," she said. "I have been like a sponge my entire career -- you can learn so much from others."

Reach the writer at [email protected][4].

References

1. ^ Stock prices down, recession worry looms (www.azcentral.com)
2. ^ Vulcan Materials, (azcentral.com)
3. ^ Protesters say uranium shipments near the Grand Canyon threaten health, safety (www.azcentral.com)
4. ^ [email protected] (eu.azcentral.com)