Rusal Is Said to Plan 1st Woman CEO as Deripaska Steps Down
Rusal Is Said to Plan First Woman CEO as Deripaska Steps Down
(Bloomberg) -- United Co. Rusal will name finance head Alexandra Bouriko as chief executive officer, the first time a woman will lead one of Russia’s largest commodity companies, according to people familiar with the matter.
Billionaire Oleg Deripaska is stepping down as president of Rusal and En+ Group Plc as part of a broader reshuffle, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the appointments will be announced after the Rusal board meets Feb. 22. En+ CEO Maxim Sokov will take the role as president of En+ and Rusal CEO Vladislav Soloviev will become CEO of En+.
Bouriko, 40, would join a very small group of high-level women executives in the metal and mining industry. She has been Rusal’s CFO since October 2013, before which she was deputy CEO at En+. Prior to joining En+, Bouriko spent 16 years with KPMG in Russia and Canada, including as a partner.
Rusal said in a statement on Tuesday that the Feb. 22 meeting will consider the executive changes, among other matters, but so far the board “has not considered or discussed any such issue” and no changes to the CEO or president positions have been made. Earlier, press services for Deripaska and En+ declined to comment.
Deripaska decided to step down from the non-operational roles after the companies achieved targets he had set, the people said. He will focus on the strategic development of other companies and the resignation isn’t linked to the conflict with Vladimir Potanin over MMC Norilsk Nickel, they said. The decision also isn’t connected to a video posted by opposition leader Alexey Navalny, the people said.
Rusal shares soared more than 50 percent in 2017 on the back of rebounding aluminum prices. The company, the largest aluminum producer outside China, has a market value of $10.5 billion.
(An earlier version of this story corrected the title of Deripaska to president, instead of CEO of Rusal in the second paragraph.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Yuliya Fedorinova in Moscow at yfedorinova@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net.
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.