Liberty Galati appoints first female chief

Liberty Steel Galati has appointed Aida Nechifor its new general director, the first woman to lead the Romanian steelworks, Liberty Steel says. She will also have management responsibility for Liberty Skopje in Macedonia.

Nechifor, who was previously the plant’s chief financial officer and a member of the management committee since December 2018, joined the Galati steelworks in 2001.

Prasanta Kumar Mishra, who was appointed the plant’s interim general manager in February, has been appointed Galati’s new executive director. He will continue to work closely with Nechifor to steer the operational and technical aspects of the plant’s production activity. He will lead on the preparation of the key strategic development projects, such as the plant’s new electric arc furnace, direct reduced iron plant and MI.DA mini-mill, Liberty observes.

Nechifor “can now lead the team to continue its drive to improve the plant’s production levels up to 3 million tonnes of steel a year, from around 2 million last year, as well as accelerate the plant’s ambitious plans to become carbon neutral by 2030,” says Paramjit Kahlon, chief executive primary steel and integrated mining of Liberty Steel Group.

Former Galati chief executive Bogdan Grecu voluntarily stepped aside in February after being implicated by Romanian authorities in an alleged corruption case (see Kallanish passim). Liberty came under fire recently from the Czech government and unions for selling its Ostrava plant’s excess carbon emissions allowances to Liberty Galati.

Adam Smith Germany