Truls Gautesen

CEO of Qatalum

Truls Gautesen (57) is CEO of Qatalum. He was previously president of Hydro's primary aluminium production, a global production system consisting of 11 fully and partly owned plants in Norway, Germany, Australia, Canada and Slovakia.

Gautesen is a chartered engineer, specializing in technical electrochemistry, from the Norwegian Institute of Technology. He started his industrial career with Aluminium Bahrain, and came to Hydro in 1980, where he was general manager of Europe's largest aluminium plant at the time, Karmøy, and later held senior position in Hydro's corporate aluminium management. Gautesen is married and has one daughter and two sons.

Hassan Al Rashid

Deputy CEO

Hassan Al Rashid (42) is Deputy CEO of Qatalum, starting in his new position November 1st 2007. Rashid is Qatari and has a BSc in Chemical Engineering.

He started his career in Qatar Petrochemical Company in 1988, working as Engineer. In 1995 he took over the position as Plant Superintendent, before he joined Qatar Plastics Products Company in 2000 as General Manager and Board of Director. Rashid reports to CEO of Qatalum - Mr. Truls Gautesen.

Olaf Meissner

CFO

Olaf Meissner (45) is German and graduated from the University of Cologne in 1992 and holds a Masters degree in Business and Administration. He joined Hydro in 1992 as a plant controller.

He has experience from different positions in controlling and finance and took over as head of the High Purity business in 2002. During the last two years he has worked as head of accounting and reporting in Hydro Aluminium Metal.

Ahmed Salem Ahmed Al-Kuwari

HR and Administration Manager

Ahmed Salem Ahmed Al-Kuwari (49) is Qatari and holds a BSc degree in Political Science. He started his career with Qatar Petroleum in 1988 in the Human Resources department. He took over the position as assistant HR manager for manpower planning and recruitment in 1996. In 2002 he joined QAFAC, and has worked for the last five years as administration manager for the company.

Steve Davison

Power Plant Manager

Steve Davison (43) is English and holds a diploma in marine engineering. He worked offshore in the North Sea for 10 years before joining the power plant business in 1992 with Alstom Power.

In 1997 he was appointed production manager for the operations and maintenance of an 800 MW combined-cycle power plant in Malaysia. During the last two years he has worked as station manager for CS Energy in Australia, responsible for a 325 MW combined-cycle power plant in Queensland.

Pål Vigeland

Casthouse Manager

Pål Vigeland (52) is Norwegian and graduated from the Technical University in Trondheim, NTNU, in 1979. Vigeland joined Hydro in 1982 and worked initially in the Projects /Engineering division. He then joined Qafco in Qatar and worked in maintenance management from 1984 to 1986.

Since then he has gained wide experience from different leadership positions in the aluminium industry. He was managing director of Holmestrand Rolling Mill, incl. casthouse, for 7 years and also a part of the rolled products management team responsible for R&D and recycling. From 2004 until 2006 he worked in the High Purity business unit as the manager for Germany.

Roald Holten

Reduction Manager

Roald Holten (47) is Norwegian and holds a BSc in chemical engineering from the University of Wyoming and a Master of Business and Administration from Golden Gate University. He joined Hydro in 1987 as potline superintendent for the Karmøy Plant in Norway.

During the last 10 years he has worked in operational management positions at Karmøy, and is currently production manager for the prebake and Søderberg potlines.

Andrew Robbins

Carbon Manager

Andrew Robbins (43) is Australian and holds a technical degree in electronics and a masters degree in business and administration. He joined Hydro in 1992 as a shift maintenance coordinator at the Kurri Kurri plant in Australia.

He has experience gained in different positions in maintenance and operations. For the last 6 years he has worked as carbon plant operations manager.

Kurt Jan Nilsson

Technical Manager

Kurt Jan Nilsson (50) is Norwegian and graduated from NTNU in 1982 as civil engineer in metallurgy. Nilsson joined Hydro in 1982 as project engineer in R&D electrolysis. Nilsson has gained wide experience of the aluminium business in Hydro and was general manager of the Høyanger metal plant from 1993.

In 1999 he joined Hydro’s Oil & Energy division as platform manager in the North Sea. For the past two years he has worked as head of the center for training, leadership and work processes in Bergen, Norway.