CEO Alain Belda

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 ... Read Full Story

Vacuum Forming Vacuum forming is a superplastic forming process in which a gas pressure differential is imposed on the superplastic diaphragm, causing the material to form into the die configuration. Sometimes called stretch forming, the applied pressure is limited to atmospheric pressure (that is, 100 kPa, or 15 psi), and the forming rate and capability are therefore limited. The rate of pressurization in blow forming is normally established such that the induced strain rates in the forming sheet are maintained in the superplastic range. The rate of pressurization is determined by trial and error, or by the application of analytical modeling methods. This pressure ... Read Full Story

Alcoa announced that Alcoa Chairman Alain Belda was honored by the Asia Society this week for his environmental leadership, including Alcoa’s progress to reduce GHG emissions and address global warming. In accepting the award, Mr. Belda said, “At Alcoa, we see global warming as the sustainability issue of our generation. To me, it is critical that [...] Read Full Story

Alcoa announced that Alcoa Chairman Alain Belda was elected to the IBM board of directors, effective July 29, 2008. Alain Belda is chairman of Alcoa. Mr. Belda has a long, distinguished career at Alcoa joining the company nearly 40 years ago in its Brazilian affiliate, Alcoa Aluminio. He was elected a vice president of Alcoa [...] Read Full Story

☻ Marriage is not a word. It's a sentence....(a life sentence!). ☻ Marriage is a 3-ring circus - engagement ring, wedding ring and Suffering. ☻ A happy marriage is a matter of give and take; the husband gives and the wife takes. ☻ A woman was telling her friend , "It was I who made my husband a millionaire." "And what was he before you married him?" asked the friend. The woman replied, " A multi-millionaire". ☻ There was this woman who had an artist paint a portrait of her covered with the most amazingly beautiful and expensive jewels. Her explanation - "If I ... Read Full Story