Richard M. Gittleman, Founding Partner
- Rick Gittleman is a legal, government relations and public affairs executive with over thirty years of experience advising multinational companies on mergers and acquisitions, project finance, mining, oil and gas, agriculture and electricity projects across the globe, with a particular specialty in Africa. Offering a comprehensive perspective of the developing world that spans legal, cultural, and political issues, Rick’s emphasis has remained focused on advising companies on how to reduce risk across a spectrum of transactions.
- Rick has lived in Africa for more than 15 years, where he helped international companies understand and operate in African nations by providing legal services and advising on how to do business in Africa. Moreover, he has worked for international mining companies in a senior capacity and established legal, government relations, public relations, and community departments, as well as overseeing the establishment of legal and ethical compliance programs. Through these ventures, Rick has cultivated close engagements with the governments of a number of African governments, developing nuanced understanding of both how African governments function in these contexts – and how they fail. This understanding has enabled him to advise companies in providing risk assessments to potential investors.
- Rick currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alto Verde Copper, a company registered in Ontario, Canada with on going projects and prospective projects in North and South America.
- Prior to that, Rick served as Senior Executive Overseeing Legal Issues and Stakeholder Engagement at Glencore, SA, where he developed corporate strategies to improve relations with government, community and civil society stakeholders at mine sites in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Peru, Chile and Argentina.
- Preceding that, Rick was Senior Vice President for at Freeport-McMoRan Africa and advised Freeport from 2009 until 2015 in the DRC in connection to its large copper and cobalt mine in Fungurume, Katanga and its exploration projects in DRC.
- Rick also had over 20 years of experience as a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. He worked on mergers, acquisitions and project finance in energy and mining sectors, providing practical and technical background for his subsequent roles in-house. He managed the firm’s Energy Practice group and its Renewable Energy Practice group. Rick started his career at Akin Gump as the head of Akin & Gump’s European Corporate Practice Group and was based in the firm’s Brussels office from 1991-1997, when he moved to the firm’s D.C. office.
- Rick served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zaire/DRC, graduated with a bachelor’s concentration in Political Science and American Civilization at Brown University, and received his Juris Doctor (cum laude) from American University, Washington College of Law.
- Languages: English & French.
Eric V. Best, Partner
- Eric Best is an internationally experienced mining executive with more than 30 years of progressive responsibility between top-tier mining companies. He has a proven record of accomplishments and optimization efforts to deliver maximum value to stakeholders, particularly in copper and cobalt operations.
- Eric has spent 12 years in Africa designing, building, and operating large scale copper – cobalt operations for multinational mining companies.
- Most recently, Eric was the General Manager of Nevada Gold Mines Cortez District. In addition to production operations, he was leading permitting activities for two addition mines in the district.
- Eric has served as CEO of Glencore’s Mutanda Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where he optimized copper production and increased Mutanda’s cobalt output to become the largest global producer. As CEO, he managed political and social aspects of the business as well. Social projects included construction and funding of hospitals, schools, and agricultural infrastructure.
- Prior to Mutanda Mining, Eric was General Manager of Glencore’s Katanga Mining processing division. While at Katanga, he successfully delivered processing expansions to bring installed copper capacity to 300,000 metric tons per annum.
- Eric started his time in Africa with Freeport-McMoRan at their Tenke Fungurume in 2008. He served first as a Project Manager where he assisted in the design, construction, and commissioning of the first greenfield copper and cobalt mining operation in the DRC for many years. Following commissioning, he became Plant Manager until 2011.
Mike P. Ciricillo, Senior Advisor
- Mike is a mining executive and mining engineer with thirty years of experience in the industry, including senior management responsibility at Phelps Dodge, Freeport McMoRan and Glencore. He has managed significant mining assts in Africa and South America.
- From 2007 through 2009 Mike had responsibility in connection with the construction of the Tenke Fungurume Mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- In 2010 he returned to the DRC and in 2012 was named the President of Freeport Africa with oversight of the Tenke operation which had 7,000 employees, an operating budget of $700 million per year and produced 200,000 tonnes of copper per year and 15,000 tonnes of cobalt per year. Mike reported directly to Freeport’s CEO.
- Mike moved to Glencore in 2014 where he initially served as Regional Head of Copper and was based in Lima, Peru. He oversaw the Antapaccay mine and mill (200,000 tonnes per year of copper concentrate), the Altonortte copper smelter in Chile (280,000 tonnes per year of copper anode and was the director at the Antamina copper/zinc mine in Peru.
- Mike was named Glencore’s Head of Copper Smelting and Refining Operations in 2016 and in 2018 was named Glencore’s Head of Copper: Industrial Operations.
- He next served as CEO of Nevada Copper Corporation, a company whose shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange and managed the Pumpkin Hollow underground mine.
- Mike currently serves as the President, Natural Resources for the NANA Regional Corporation. He is accountable for the results of various income and shareholder employment generating businesses including facilities management, engineering, transportation, construction, and natural resources management. NANA is a partner in the Red Dog zinc mine (with Teck) and the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (with Trilogy and South 32). NANA is a for-profit Alaska Native Corporation with the mission to improve the quality of life for the shareholders.
- Mike advises RMG Minerals on a number of technical mining matters.