OREANDA-NEWS. January 05, 2016. ArcelorMittal today announces that Lou Schorsch, 66, senior executive vice president, member of the Group Management Board and CEO of ArcelorMittal Americas will retire from the company, effective end of February 2016. Mr Schorsch joined the company in 2003 as CEO of Ispat Inland.

Going forward it has been decided to structure the Americas business with dedicated leadership for four distinct business areas.

Jim Baske will be Executive Vice President of ArcelorMittal and chief Executive Officer ArcelorMittal North America (excluding USA).  John Brett, currently executive vice president finance, planning and procurement for ArcelorMittal USA, will be appointed chief executive of ArcelorMittal USA. Andy Harshaw, the current CEO of ArcelorMittal USA, is retiring but will stay with the company until 31st March 2016 to assist with the leadership transition.  

In South America, Jefferson de Paula and Benjamin Baptista will continue as CEO South America Long and CEO South America Flat respectively.

All four will report to group chairman and CEO, Lakshmi N. Mittal.

Brian Aranha, currently vice president global automotive and commercial coordination, will assume leadership responsibilities for Mr Schorsch’s additional roles of strategy, CTO, R&D, CCM and global automotive, also reporting to Mr Lakshmi Mittal. He will be supported by David Clarke as head of strategy and CTO, Greg Ludkovsky as head of R&D and Brad Davey as head of global automotive.

Separately Robrecht Himpe, currently executive vice president and CTO of ArcelorMittal, will be appointed chief executive of AM/NS Calvert, working closely with AM/NS Calvert president Chris Richards and the rest of the Calvert team to accelerate the ramp-up of this important asset.