Name: Fred Stephan
New position: President and CEO at Kaiser Aluminum
Previous position: Chief operating officer for global flexibles at Amcor
Franklin, Tennessee-based Kaiser Aluminum has appointed Fred Stephan as president, CEO and board member, effective Nov. 1.
Kaiser serves packaging applications including coated food, coated end and tab, bottle and body stock, as well as aerospace, automotive and engineering end markets. It operates a rolling mill in Newburgh, Indiana, that produces coil for beverage and food packaging. The publicly traded company has approximately 4,000 employees and had net sales of about $3.4 billion last year.
Stephan will succeed Keith Harvey, who has led the company since July 31, 2020, and has been with Kaiser for over four decades. Harvey will continue in an advisory role until Oct. 31, 2027, and will maintain his position as executive chairman of Kaiser’s board, a role he has held since Jan. 1, 2025.
Amcor announced in June that Stephan, the company’s chief operating officer for global flexibles, was retiring from Amcor and would stay on as an advisor through Dec. 31. Stephan had joined the company through Amcor’s 2019 acquisition of Bemis. He served as president for North America flexibles until 2024 when he took on the broader COO role.
Kaiser recently beat second-quarter earnings expectations, in part crediting a “higher-value packaging mix.” Packaging conversion revenue rose 34% year over year to $174 million. Shipments were up 10% year over year.
