Chris L. Ayers
President, Global Primary Products
Executive Vice President, Alcoa
Houston, Texas  
 
Chris Ayers is President, Alcoa Global Primary Products.  He most recently served as Chief Operating Officer for the business.  This unit operates 23 smelters and nine alumina refineries worldwide and has bauxite assets in Australia, Brazil, Jamaica, Suriname and Guinea.  Alcoa’s global aluminum smelting capacity totals 4.8 million metric tons, and its global alumina capacity totals more than 18 million metric tons.  Chris is also a member of the Alcoa Executive Council, the senior leadership group that sets strategic direction for the Company.
 
Chris joined Alcoa in February 2010 as Chief Operating Officer, Alcoa Cast, Forged and Extruded Products, a new position responsible for Alcoa’s Forgings and Extrusions, Power and Propulsion, and Oil and Gas businesses. He was elected a Vice President of Alcoa in April 2010 and an Executive Vice President of the Company in August 2010, when he was named Chief Operating Officer for Global Primary Products. 

Prior to joining Alcoa, Chris was President of the PCC Forgings Division of Precision Castparts Corporation.  This division is composed of two separate companies: Wyman Gordon Forgings and Special Metals Corporation.  When Ayers led PCC Forgings, the business had $3.5 billion in revenues and 5,500 employees in facilities located in North America, Europe, UK, and Australia.  He was president of Wyman Gordon Forgings from 2004 –2006.

Chris began his career with United Technologies Corporation, working in a number of assignments in its Pratt & Whitney business.  Later, he joined PCC Airfoils, Inc., a manufacturer of airfoil castings for the aerospace and industrial gas turbine industry, where he was Vice President/General Manager of facilities in Cleveland, Ohio.  He was also the Managing Director of facilities located in both Leeds and Leicester, England.  He joined Precision Castparts in 1999.
 
He is a member of the board of directors of Universal Stainless & Alloy Products, Inc.  Chris is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in aerospace engineering.  He obtained an MBA degree from the University of Connecticut.