Richard Meli is an independent businessman and former senior executive at Rio Tinto (1996-1999) where he managed the company's global mergers and acquisitions, and President of Rio Tinto subsidiary Luzenac America (1999-2001). From 2001 to 2004, Mr Meli was an independent consultant to the mining and oil and gas industries, and was president of La Mancha Resources (2004-2006). Mr Meli worked for Kennecott Corp from 1980 until it was acquired by Rio Tinto in 1989. He was senior vice president at Kennecott and served in a number of planning, analysis and financial management positions. Mr. Meli began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1971, spending eight years in the firm's New York office, becoming a CPA and reaching the level of Audit Manager.