Alcoa replaces CEO with longtime company insider
Alcoa Corp.’s board of directors has replaced the company’s CEO Roy Harvey with the company’s chief operating officer, William Oplinger, the North Shore-based company announced on Monday.
The sudden move, effective Sunday, brings an end to Mr. Harvey’s leadership of the aluminum firm, which began when Alcoa split into two companies in November 2016. The mining, refining and smelting segment retained the original name. The fabrication arm was named Arconic. (Last month, Arconic
was acquired by private equity firm Apollo Capital Management Inc.)
Mr. Harvey has also resigned from the board of directors. He will serve as a strategic adviser to Mr. Oplinger through the end of the year. According to the company’s latest proxy statement, Mr. Harvey, who earned about $12.8 million in compensation last year, could receive nearly $50 million in severance upon termination.
Mr. Harvey and Mr. Oplinger have been with Alcoa for two decades.
Most recently, Mr. Oplinger served as chief financial officers until February, when he was appointed COO. He will continue to perform the functions of the COO along with his new responsibilities, and will also be seated on the board of directors, replacing Mr. Harvey as the only company representative.
The company has credited Mr. Oplinger, as CFO, with strengthening its “strong reputation among research analysts, rating agencies, and stockholders with clear investor strategy and messaging, achieving investment grade ratings for the company’s debt for the first time since the separation,” according to Alcoa’s latest proxy.
In a statement on Monday, Alcoa’s new CEO said he’s honored to lead the company and “will be focused on executing on our strategies to create value today while we work on our long-term vision to reinvent the aluminum industry for a sustainable future.”
Alcoa employs more than 13,000 workers worldwide and has facilities in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Iceland, Norway, Saudi Arabia and the U.S, among other locations. The company has had four consecutive quarters of income losses.