VOL. 08 | ISSUE 4 | Winter 2025 / 2026
Kathleen Quirk Announces Appointment of Cory Stevens as President and Chief Operating Officer-Americas
On November 5, President and Chief Executive Officer Kathleen Quirk issued the following memo to all Freeport employees:
Today, we announced a new, streamlined organizational structure for the Americas whereby Cory Stevens was appointed to an expanded role as President and Chief Operating Officer for Freeport Americas, effective December 1, 2025.
Over the last five years, our Freeport Americas team, led by Josh Olmsted, successfully managed a series of challenges, including pandemic-related labor and supply chain shortages, inflationary pressures and a decline in ore grades.
During this period, we focused on our people and processes to enhance safety management and training systems amid high workforce turnover in the U.S., built robust preventive maintenance systems to improve asset health and deployed new technologies to improve operational efficiencies, leach recoveries and define new avenues for growth; including our Leach to the Last Drop initiative, Bagdad 2x project, Safford/Lone Star expansion and transformative expansion of El Abra.
The hard work by our team to overcome the challenges during this period of dynamic change in our industry and our drive to be the best operator in the industry formed a strong foundation for the future.
As we look forward, we see a world with increasing requirements for the metals we produce, particularly copper. The intensity of use for copper continues to build beyond traditional uses, including for broad-based electrification and exponential growth in data computing used in AI models.
With our large-scale production footprint and significant undeveloped resources in the Americas with advanced-stage growth options, we are well positioned to build new supply to support a growing copper market.
The ability to grow supplies of copper is challenging, as we have seen across the industry. Success in achieving our growth targets in the future will require us to go beyond being “best at the basics” by integrating new technologies and taking our performance to a higher level as “America’s Copper Champion”. We are at an exciting inflection point for our business, which will drive new opportunities for our people.
Cory’s passion for innovation, our industry and people, his proven ability to drive operational excellence, develop and empower future leaders, lead major projects and find new opportunities for value creation position him to take our Americas business forward as we prepare for a new phase of growth.
I am pleased that Josh will remain a Freeporter, supporting Cory in a Senior Advisory capacity. Cory and Josh have partnered together for many years and have made each other better. With his strong operational and technical acumen, steady leadership and outstanding character, Josh has earned tremendous respect at all levels of the organization, and we are grateful for his commitment to support our next chapter.
Please join me in congratulating Cory on his appointment and in showing our appreciation for Josh’s accomplishments and his new role.
Today, we announced a new, streamlined organizational structure for the Americas whereby Cory Stevens was appointed to an expanded role as President and Chief Operating Officer for Freeport Americas, effective December 1, 2025.
Over the last five years, our Freeport Americas team, led by Josh Olmsted, successfully managed a series of challenges, including pandemic-related labor and supply chain shortages, inflationary pressures and a decline in ore grades.
During this period, we focused on our people and processes to enhance safety management and training systems amid high workforce turnover in the U.S., built robust preventive maintenance systems to improve asset health and deployed new technologies to improve operational efficiencies, leach recoveries and define new avenues for growth; including our Leach to the Last Drop initiative, Bagdad 2x project, Safford/Lone Star expansion and transformative expansion of El Abra.
The hard work by our team to overcome the challenges during this period of dynamic change in our industry and our drive to be the best operator in the industry formed a strong foundation for the future.
As we look forward, we see a world with increasing requirements for the metals we produce, particularly copper. The intensity of use for copper continues to build beyond traditional uses, including for broad-based electrification and exponential growth in data computing used in AI models.
With our large-scale production footprint and significant undeveloped resources in the Americas with advanced-stage growth options, we are well positioned to build new supply to support a growing copper market.
The ability to grow supplies of copper is challenging, as we have seen across the industry. Success in achieving our growth targets in the future will require us to go beyond being “best at the basics” by integrating new technologies and taking our performance to a higher level as “America’s Copper Champion”. We are at an exciting inflection point for our business, which will drive new opportunities for our people.
Cory’s passion for innovation, our industry and people, his proven ability to drive operational excellence, develop and empower future leaders, lead major projects and find new opportunities for value creation position him to take our Americas business forward as we prepare for a new phase of growth.
I am pleased that Josh will remain a Freeporter, supporting Cory in a Senior Advisory capacity. Cory and Josh have partnered together for many years and have made each other better. With his strong operational and technical acumen, steady leadership and outstanding character, Josh has earned tremendous respect at all levels of the organization, and we are grateful for his commitment to support our next chapter.
Please join me in congratulating Cory on his appointment and in showing our appreciation for Josh’s accomplishments and his new role.