Energy and mining company Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has parted ways with LSU alum and chief executive of its oil and gas unit Jim Flores, who is stepping down as the company seeks to restructure its business to cut costs.
Reuters reports Freeport-McMoRan announced this morning that it would eliminate all executive management roles at the oil and gas unit, and integrate the financial and administrative roles with the company’s corporate functions.
Flores, a Lafayette native, has endowed the LSU Flores MBA program. According to a biography posted to the E. J. Ourso College of Business website, he was a key figure in establishing LSU’s master’s degree in business administration program as a producer of industry leaders, executives and other business professionals.
He founded Ocean Energy Inc. in 1992, and in 1996 Flores and his wife, Cherie, made a donation to the business college to endow the MBA program, which was renamed in the couple’s honor. He was named Young Businessperson of the Year by the Business Report and Junior Achievement that same year.
Freeport-McMoRan, under pressure from its largest shareholder Carl Icahn and weak commodity prices, said in October it was looking at a strategic review of its oil and gas business, including spinoff and joint ventures.
Today the company says it would look to cut more costs and capital expenditures, and will  continue to evaluate options for the sale of certain assets of the oil and gas unit.
Unit COO Doss Bourgeois and CFO Winston Talbert are also leaving as part of the overhaul, the company said on Tuesday.
The team served as the unit’s executive management since Freeport-McMoRan bought Plains Exploration Co. in 2013.
