Alcoa Executive Chair, former CEO Belda to retire

PITTSBURGH — Alcoa Inc. said Wednesday executive chairman and former CEO Alain Belda will retire as an executive of the aluminum company effective Aug. 1, but will continue as board chairman until his term expires next year.

The Pittsburgh-based company said in a regulatory filing it expects CEO Klaus Kleinfeld to succeed Belda as chairman under a plan first disclosed in 2007.

Kleinfeld took over from Belda as CEO of Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum producer, in May 2008. Belda has worked for Alcoa for more than four decades.

Kleinfeld had been the company’s president and chief operating officer since August 2007 and a board member since 2003. Previously, he was president and CEO of German engineering company Siemens AG.

Belda will continue as Alcoa’s board chairman until his term expires at the company’s annual meeting on April 23, 2010.

Shares of Alcoa slid 25 cents, or 2.2 percent, to close at $11.01.