O’Neill Is Named Alcoa Chairman

PITTSBURGH —  Aluminum Co. of America said Monday that its board has elected International Paper Co. President Paul H. O’Neill as Alcoa’s chairman after a yearlong effort to accommodate Charles W. Parry’s request to retire early.

O’Neill, Alcoa’s youngest chairman at 51, will also assume Parry’s title of chief executive. The change is effective June 15.

C. Fred Fetterolf, 58, will remain Alcoa’s president, chief operating officer and a director, the company said in a statement.

Parry, 62, will continue as a director of the nation’s largest aluminum producer.

He is credited with shifting Alcoa’s focus from aluminum production and finishing toward aerospace and defense, packaging, ceramics and other advanced materials.

Alcoa abandoned its organization along product lines, including flat-rolled sheet, and in July reorganized by markets, such as packaging, which includes beverage can stock, plastic and closures.

Parry was elected chairman and chief executive in 1983. Parry’s 39-year career with Alcoa included posts in engineering, finance, planning and smelting operations with the Pittsburgh-based parent and its largest affiliate, Alcoa of Australia in Melbourne.

O’Neill joined International Paper in 1977 as vice president of planning. He moved up to senior vice president of paperboard and packaging in 1983 and became president in 1985.

O’Neill served as a staff member and deputy director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget from 1967 to 1977.