John Thuestad and Jean-Pierre Gilardeau Elected Vice Presidents of Alcoa

NEW YORK--Alcoa announced today that its board of directors has elected John Thuestad, 49, and Jean-Pierre Gilardeau, 57, as vice presidents of Alcoa.

Thuestad is Chief Operating Officer for Global Primary Products Worldwide, focusing primarily on reducing the cost of aluminum production within Alcoa’s worldwide aluminum smelters as well as reducing the cost of alumina production at its refineries worldwide. With the two new smelters Alcoa recently acquired in Norway, Alcoa’s global smelting capacity has grown to 4.8 million metric tons per year. Alcoa also produces 900,000 metric tons of recycled aluminum, bringing the total capacity to 5.7 million metric tons per year. Alcoa’s alumina production will increase to more than 17.9 million mtpy by the end of 2009 with the expansion of the Alumar alumina refinery in Brazil, making Alcoa not only the world’s largest primary aluminum producer, but also the largest alumina producer.

Gilardeau is President, Global Primary Products – North America and Iceland. In this role, Gilardeau strengthens coordination and best practices across Alcoa’s extensive Primary operations in the U.S., Canada and Iceland. For nearly a decade, Gilardeau had been president of Alcoa’s Primary Products facilities in Canada, which include smelters in Baie Comeau, Bécancour and Deschambault as well as a rod plant in Bécancour. He has also headed a development program that gave Alcoa the opportunity to renew power contracts to its three Canadian smelters (roughly 2000 MW of hydropower) until 2040 and launched the modernization and expansion of the Baie-Comeau smelter. He also has accountability for Alcoa Fjardaal in Iceland, Alcoa’s first new primary smelter in 20 years, and is overseeing the feasibility study to establish a second smelter in Bakki, North Iceland.

About Alcoa

Alcoa is the world leader in the production and management of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum and alumina combined, through its active and growing participation in all major aspects of the industry. Alcoa serves the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial transportation and industrial markets, bringing design, engineering, production and other capabilities of Alcoa's businesses to customers. In addition to aluminum products and components including flat-rolled products, hard alloy extrusions, and forgings, Alcoa also markets Alcoa® wheels, fastening systems, precision and investment castings, and building systems. The Company has been named one of the top most sustainable corporations in the world at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and has been a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for eight consecutive years. Alcoa employs approximately 63,000 people in 31 countries across the world. More information can be found at www.alcoa.com

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