Aleris appoints new leader of Aleris Americas

Aleris International, Inc. announced that Galdino Claro joined Aleris as executive vice president and CEO, Aleris Americas, reporting to Steven J. Demetriou, chairman and chief executive officer, on June 3, 2008. Claro will be responsible for all Aleris operations in the Americas.

Throughout his career in the metals industry, Claro has held key operational, marketing and product development roles with broad global responsibilities. Since September 2007, he served as president and chief executive officer of Heico Metal Processing Group, a $2 billion conglomerate with operations in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Previously, Claro spent more than 20 years with Alcoa, Inc., ultimately serving as vice president, operations of Alcoa Global Packaging. In that capacity he oversaw the operations of 86 manufacturing facilities and eight research-and-development centers in the United States, Latin America and Europe.

As president of Alcoa China & Korea Holding Company from 2002 to 2005, Claro led significant strategic growth in the region and was responsible for eight joint ventures and wholly owned operations, including aluminum smelting, refining, rolling and hard alloys extrusions.

Prior to 2002, he served as president of Alcoa Europe Extrusions; managing director of Alcoa Northern European Extrusions; managing director of Alcoa Latin America’s Cargo-Van Business Unit; and Marketing and Product Development director of Alcoa Latin America’s Semi-Fabricated Products Division among other positions.