Alcoa Inc. named the former heads of KPMG LLP and First Solar Inc. to sit alongside a former Mexico president and an ex-Caterpillar Inc. boss on new boards when the company splits in two later this year.
The New York-based company, which plans to separate its manufacturing business from its legacy smelting and refining segments, said in a statement late Wednesday that the two new boards will include current Alcoa directors alongside new members.
CEO Klaus Kleinfeld plans by year’s end to group its smelters, mines and power assets into a stand-alone entity that will keep Alcoa’s name. The board of the new downstream company, Arconic Inc., will include Delphi Automotive Plc Chairman Rajiv Gupta and Julie Richardson, a former partner and head of the New York office at Providence Equity Partners LLC.
The upstream company’s board will include Mary Anne Citrino, senior adviser at Blackstone Group LP; Timothy Flynn, the former CEO of KPMG; and James Hughes, a former CEO of First Solar. They’ll join James Owens, a former chairman and CEO of Caterpillar Inc., and Ernesto Zedillo, a former president of Mexico.
The board appointments show “they’re taking more and more steps to get to the finish line,” Justin Bergner, a Rye, New York-based analyst at Gabelli & Co., said by telephone.
By Joe Deaux
