OREANDA-NEWS. OAO Severstal ("Severstal") completes the process of election of independent directors: nominees for the positions of independent chairman of the Board of Directors and three independent directors are named.

According to the press service of “Severstal”, on November 20, 2006 the company announced the nominations of Chris Clark as Independent Director and Non-executive Chairman of the Board, Martin Angle as Independent Director  and Chairman of the Audit Committee and Ron Freeman and Dr Peter Kraljic as Independent Directors, subject to their appointment to the Board by Severstal’s shareholders at an EGM in December 2006.

Following the nomination of Rolf Stomberg as Senior Independent Director, announced on 2 November 2006, these are the remaining four Non-Executive Director appointments to be made as part of Severstal’s new corporate governance arrangements designed to comply with the key elements of the UK’s corporate governance standards.

Once appointed, Severstal will have a 10 person Board comprising five Executive Directors and five Non-Executive Directors including Chris Clark as Non-Executive Chairman.

Chris Clark is Chairman of Associated British Ports and Chairman of Urenco Ltd and Wagon Plc. He spent his executive career with Johnson Matthey plc, the FTSE 100 specialty chemicals and precious metals group becoming Chief Executive in 1998.

Martin Angle has been an Operational Managing Director at Terra Firma Capital Partners (previously Nomura International, Principal Finance Group) since 2001 and is a former group Finance Director of TI Group plc.

Ronald Freeman is a board member, advisory partner and shareholder of investment bank and securities dealer, Troika Dialog, (Moscow) and was head of the Banking Department of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for two consecutive terms.

Dr Peter Kraljic is currently a Director Emeritus at McKinsey following his 32 year career at the company and has held a number of senior positions until his retirement in 2002.