Pittsburgh’s Alcoa Corporation appoints chief strategy officer

John Slaven

Alcoa Corporation, a Pittsburgh-based global producer of aluminum, recently announced that John Slaven would join the company as its new executive vice president and chief strategy officer, effective Feb. 4.

Slaven will be responsible for supporting Alcoa’s overall strategy and overseeing its corporate and business development functions, global supply chain and energy development. Slaven will be a member of Alcoa’s executive team and an officer of the company and will report to President and CEO Roy Harvey.

“John has extensive experience in the metals and mining business, including global experience in several commodities and industry sectors across the full aluminum value chain,” Harvey said. “His experience spans from early stage exploration through project development and operations, to sales and marketing and end users, which will be an important asset to our Company as we continue to pursue our strategic priorities and multiyear capital allocation framework.”

Slaven previously served for 13 years as partner and managing director at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Most recently, he led BCG’s practices for North American Metals and Mining and Infrastructure and Public Transport. Before his time at BCG, Slaven worked at BHP Billiton for nine years and held senior strategy and business development roles in Perth and Singapore in the Iron Ore, Minerals Exploration, and Aluminum, Manganese, and Nickel business units.

Slaven previously worked for Alcoa Inc. from 2002 through early 2006, implementing its Asia growth strategy and the turnaround of its Latin America business. He also led its sales and marketing growth in Asia and the corporate strategy, financial planning and analysis functions in New York.

Slaven earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cape Town.