American leadership with global operating experience.
The Falcon Copper team carries direct operating credits from Freeport-McMoRan, Glencore, Rio Tinto, Barrick Gold, and Phelps Dodge, with hands-on experience at Freeport's Tenke Fungurume and Miami Smelter, Glencore's Mutanda and KCC, Mopani, Nevada Copper, Mineral Park, and the Cortez District.
Senior Leadership
Travis Naugle founded Falcon Copper Corp. and serves as Executive Chairman and Director.
Travis brings extensive domestic and international experience developing large-scale resource projects. A trusted operating partner with the majors in pursuit of big copper, he has executed significant agreements with industry leaders across the Western United States, Alaska, and internationally.
B.S. Mining Engineering; MBA, Chicago Booth. Licensed Professional Engineer.
Ryan Moss serves as President & CFO of Falcon Copper Corp.
Ryan is a former Chief Financial Officer of Lucid Energy Group, a former Partner at Perella Weinberg Partners, and a former Managing Director at Morgan Stanley. His career spans capital markets, natural-resources finance, and corporate leadership across energy and infrastructure sectors.
BBA Finance, University of Texas at Austin; MBA, Columbia Business School.
Rick Gittleman serves as President of Falcon Copper Works.
Rick is a former Senior Vice President of Freeport Africa and a member of the senior management team at Tenke Fungurume. He also held senior management roles within the copper group at Glencore.
His legal, commercial, and operational experience in the African Copperbelt gives Falcon International a direct entry point into the world's most productive copper geography.
A.B., Brown University; J.D., American University, Washington College of Law
Eric Best serves as Executive Vice President, Projects, Construction and Operations of Falcon Copper Works.
Eric is a former Chief Executive Officer of Glencore's Mutanda Mining who held senior roles at Freeport's Tenke Fungurume, as General Manager of Barrick Gold's Cortez District, and as Chief Operating Officer of the Mineral Park mine in Arizona.
He leads development and construction of Falcon's planned U.S. copper smelting and refining facility.
Mike Ciricillo serves as Executive Vice President, Smelters, Refining and Growth of Falcon Copper Works.
Mike was General Manager of Freeport's Miami Smelter and smelter manager at Freeport's Chino Smelter, and led Glencore's worldwide copper smelting and refining as Head of Global Copper Production, across Noranda, ISA/GT and flash-furnace technologies.
He also served as President of Freeport-McMoRan Africa (Tenke Fungurume) and Chief Executive Officer of Nevada Copper.
Phillip Nickerson serves as Vice President of Exploration at Falcon Copper Mining.
Phillip is a former U.S. Exploration Manager at Rio Tinto and a former senior geologist at EMX Royalty Corp, with a career focused on copper and critical-minerals exploration in North America.
M.S. and Ph.D. in Geosciences. Licensed Professional Geologist.
Rich Leveille serves as Chief Prospector of Falcon Copper Mining.
Rich is a former Senior Vice President of Exploration at Freeport-McMoRan, one of the world's largest copper producers. His earlier career includes exploration roles at AMAX, Kennecott, Rio Tinto, and Phelps Dodge — spanning decades of copper and critical-minerals discovery across the Americas and beyond.
He has a history of prolific mineral discoveries across multiple commodities and geographies.
B.S. and M.S. in Geology.
Governance & Oversight
Falcon Copper's board brings together capital markets expertise, national security policy experience, institutional investment management, environmental permitting depth, and resource-company finance.
Travis brings extensive domestic and international experience developing large-scale resource projects. A trusted operating partner with the majors in pursuit of big copper, he has executed significant agreements with industry leaders across the Western United States, Alaska, and internationally. B.S. Mining Engineering; MBA, Chicago Booth. Licensed Professional Engineer.
Former Portfolio Manager at Ridge Run Partners and Millennium Management. Partner at Wexford Capital. Board member at Altus Power (NYSE: AMPS) and Orion Energy. Career spanning institutional investment and corporate governance across energy and infrastructure. MBA.
Senior counselor at Palantir Technologies. Former senior advisor at the White House and National Security Council. Former Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN). Career across national security policy, corporate strategy, and government affairs. B.A., J.D.
Current Chief Financial Officer of a private silver and base-metals producer with South American assets. Former CFO of Novo Resources Corp (TSX/ASX: NVO). Career spanning resource-company finance, capital markets, and corporate governance. BCom.