CLEVELAND, Dec. 14, 2016
/PRNewswire/ -- Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE:
CLF) today announced the following executive leadership
promotions, effective January 1,
2017.
- P. Kelly Tompkins is named
Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer. Mr.
Tompkins, currently Executive Vice President & Chief
Financial Officer, will oversee the U.S. Iron Ore and Asia Pacific
Iron Ore Operations, as well as the Commercial and Business
Development functions.
- Timothy K. Flanagan is named
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer &
Treasurer. Mr. Flanagan, currently Vice President, Corporate
Controller, Treasurer and Chief Accounting Officer, will assume
executive responsibility for Finance, Accounting, Tax, Treasury and
Investor Relations.
Lourenco Goncalves, Chairman of
the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer said, "Even with
the considerable progress we have made in our turnaround, I still
have plenty of work to do as CEO of Cliffs for the next several
years. In order to ensure that our critical objectives are
accomplished, I am very pleased to announce the promotions of
Kelly Tompkins to COO and
Tim Flanagan to CFO. Since the very
beginning of my tenure as CEO of Cliffs, Kelly has been my number
two executive and right-hand man. His promotion to COO is a formal
recognition of the major role he has played, and will continue to
play, within our organization." Mr. Goncalves added, "Over the
course of the two and half years I have been running Cliffs,
Tim Flanagan has proven himself as a
knowledgeable and reliable leader within our finance department. As
we continue to improve our financial results and execute complex
transactions, I feel fortunate that I will have Tim working
directly with me for the next several years."
Kelly Tompkins joined
Cliffs in May 2010, having previously
been executive vice president and chief financial officer for RPM
International Inc., a NYSE-listed, global specialty chemical
company. Before joining RPM in 1996, he held various legal and
management positions with Cleveland-based Reliance Electric Company
and Exxon Corporation in Houston,
Texas. Mr. Tompkins received his B.A. degree from
Mercyhurst College and his J.D. degree
from Cleveland-Marshall College of
Law. Before serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial
Officer at Cliffs, he served in executive vice president roles in
business development, commercial, legal and government affairs.
Tim Flanagan has held a
variety of financial leadership roles since joining Cliffs in 2008,
most recently responsible for the accounting, reporting, treasury
and financial planning and analysis functions. He also
previously served as the Assistant Controller and Director of
Internal Audit. Prior to his tenure at Cliffs, Mr. Flanagan spent
eight years providing external audit and consulting services to
large public multi-national companies across a number of
disciplines including accounting, internal audit and risk
management while employed at Arthur Andersen and Protiviti,
respectively. He has a B.S. in Accounting from the
University of Dayton and is a Certified
Public Accountant licensed in Ohio.
About Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.
Cliffs Natural
Resources Inc. is a leading mining and natural resources company in
the United States. The Company is
a major supplier of iron ore pellets to the North American steel
industry from its mines and pellet plants located in Michigan and Minnesota. Cliffs also operates an iron ore
mining complex in Western
Australia. Driven by the core values of safety, social,
environmental and capital stewardship, Cliffs' employees endeavor
to provide all stakeholders operating and financial transparency.
News releases and other information on the Company are available at
http://www.cliffsnaturalresources.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains
statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the
meaning of the federal securities laws. As a general matter,
forward-looking statements relate to anticipated trends and
expectations rather than historical matters. Forward-looking
statements are subject to uncertainties and factors relating to
Cliffs' operations and business environment that are difficult to
predict and may be beyond our control. Such uncertainties and
factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those
expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These
statements speak only as of the date of this release, and we
undertake no ongoing obligation, other than that imposed by law, to
update these statements. Uncertainties and risk factors that
could affect Cliffs' future performance and cause results to differ
from the forward-looking statements in this release include, but
are not limited to: trends affecting our financial condition,
results of operations or future prospects, particularly the
continued volatility of iron ore prices; availability of capital
and our ability to maintain adequate liquidity; our level of
indebtedness could limit cash flow available to fund working
capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general
corporate purposes or ongoing needs of our business, which could
prevent us from fulfilling our debt obligations; continued
weaknesses in global economic conditions, including downward
pressure on prices caused by oversupply or imported products,
including the impact of any reduced barriers to trade, recently
filed and forthcoming trade cases, reduced market demand and any
change to the economic growth rate in China; our ability to reach agreement with our
iron ore customers regarding any modifications to sales contract
provisions, renewals or new arrangements; uncertainty relating to
restructurings in the steel industry and/or affecting the steel
industry; our ability to maintain appropriate relations with unions
and employees; the impact of our customers reducing their steel
production or using other methods to produce steel; our
ability to successfully execute an exit option for our Canadian
Entities that minimizes the cash outflows and associated
liabilities of such entities, including the CCAA process; our
ability to successfully identify and consummate any strategic
investments and complete planned divestitures; our ability to
successfully diversify our product mix and add new customers beyond
our traditional blast furnace clientele; the outcome of any
contractual disputes with our customers, joint venture partners or
significant energy, material or service providers or any other
litigation or arbitration; the ability of our customers and joint
venture partners to meet their obligations to us on a timely basis
or at all; the impact of price-adjustment factors on our sales
contracts; changes in sales volume or mix; our actual levels of
capital spending; our actual economic iron ore reserves or
reductions in current mineral estimates, including whether any
mineralized material qualifies as a reserve; events or
circumstances that could impair or adversely impact the viability
of a mine and the carrying value of associated assets, as well as
any resulting impairment charges; the results of prefeasibility and
feasibility studies in relation to projects; impacts of existing
and increasing governmental regulation and related costs and
liabilities, including failure to receive or maintain required
operating and environmental permits, approvals, modifications or
other authorization of, or from, any governmental or regulatory
entity and costs related to implementing improvements to ensure
compliance with regulatory changes; our ability to cost-effectively
achieve planned production rates or levels; uncertainties
associated with natural disasters, weather conditions,
unanticipated geological conditions, supply or price of energy,
equipment failures and other unexpected events; adverse changes in
currency values, currency exchange rates, interest rates and tax
laws; risks related to international operations; availability of
capital equipment and component parts; the potential existence of
significant deficiencies or material weakness in our internal
control over financial reporting; and problems or uncertainties
with productivity, tons mined, transportation, mine-closure
obligations, environmental liabilities, employee-benefit costs and
other risks of the mining industry. For additional factors
affecting the business of Cliffs, refer to Part I – Item 1A. Risk
Factors of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2015. You are urged to
carefully consider these risk factors.
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SOURCE Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.