Mechel OAO announced last week that it had created a divisional management system for the company’s operational activities. The process, which began in 2008, has resulted in establishment of the following management companies:
· Mechel Mining Management Co., headed by Boris Nikishichev, is responsible for management of mining division operations.
· Mechel Steel Management Co., headed by Andrey Deineko, is responsible for steel division operations.
· Mechel Ferroalloys Management Co., headed by Gennady Ovchinnikov, is responsible for ferroalloy division operations.
· Mechel Energo, headed by Viktor Gvozdev, is responsible for power division operations.
· Mechel Trans Management Co., headed by Alexander Starodubov, is responsible for logistics unit activity
The new management companies will fully control operational activities within the segments. Mechel OAO management will retain the right to control operational and financial activities of the group’s divisions as well as strategic management of financial policy, major mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships, capital investment programs and other.
Mechel noted that its divisional management system helped it to successfully overcome world economic crisis by allowing the company to be flexible in the changing market environment and letting managers of the company’s divisions and business units to make immediate decisions. As a result, Mechel’s steel segment was the first in Russia to reach full utilization of production capacities after the crisis, while Mechel’s mining segment managed to increase coal production significantly. The Ferroalloys segment’s plants also became profitable, while the efficiency of Mechel’s power assets’ operations rose due to the centralization of their management system.
With construction of the divisional management structure now complete, Mechel Senior Vice President Vladimir Polin is leaving the company. The new structure has been successfully integrated into Mechel’s strategic management, and Polin’s position will now be eliminated.
“We regret Vladimir Polin’s leaving the company,” commented Igor Zyuzin, Mechel’s CEO. “He is a highly experienced professional, who has done a lot for Mechel group’s formation and development. Many large-scale projects have been started and successfully completed with his help. He worked hard to facilitate Mechel’s passing through the world economy crisis in 2008 – 2009. But we understand that Mr. Polin has finished working on one of his the most important tasks – implementation of the efficient divisional management structure.
“We respect his intention to take a new position which is more interesting for him,” added Zyuzin. “We are sure he will be successful in his work and wish him good luck”.
As a result of final transformation of Mechel group’s operational management into divisional structure and the recovery from the global financial crisis, the company said that core shareholder Igor Zyuzin is leaving the position of CEO and returning to the post of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, a position that he had held until December 2006.
The company’s Board of Directors has appointed Yevgeny Mikhel to the position of Mechel OAO’s CEO. Prior to this appointment, Mikhel worked as the First Deputy CEO of Mechel OAO from April 2009. Before that he served as Mechel OAO’s Vice-President for Legal Matters and Director of the Legal Department (from September 2007); Director of the Department of Judicial Protection and Legal Regulation of Mechel OAO (from July 2003); Director of the Legal Department of Mechel Trading House OOO (from July 2002); and Head of the Department of Litigation and Enforcement of Court Orders of Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant (from October 2000). He graduated from the Urals State Law Academy.
Mechel, one of Russia’s leading companies, comprises four segments: mining, steel, ferroalloy and power. Mechel unites producers of coal, iron ore concentrate, nickel, steel, ferrochrome, ferrosilicon, rolled products, hardware, heat and electric power, and its products are marketed domestically and internationally.