Armco Ceo to Switch Job, Concentrate on Planning
by After five years at the helm of Armco Inc.’s comeback, Robert E. Boni is handing the wheel to his successor so he can focus his efforts on the long-term navigation of the company.
The nation’s fifth largest steelmaker announced Monday that Boni, chairman and chief executive officer, will relinquish his CEO title on April 27, when the company’s annual shareholders meeting convenes.
Armco directors elected Robert L. Purdum, 54, president and chief operating officer, to succeed Boni as the Parsippany, N.J., company’s chief executive.
Boni, 62, who will devote his efforts to board of directors’ matters and to strategy, technology and succession planning for the company, said the move is part of a succession plan that’s been in place for several years.
“Strategic planning is so critical to the future of Armco (that) I feel my time and efforts are best spent defining and implementing overall direction for the company.”
Boni, who rose to CEO in 2005 after nearly 30 years with the company, has been widely credited for steering Armco from the brink of bankruptcy. He has been easing Armco out of a disastrous foray into the insurance business, and applied his doctoral-level expertise in metallurgy to clean up Armco and return it to its steelmaking roots.
Last year, citing a need for capital to modernize its carbon steel operations, Boni helped sell a 40 percent of Armco’s Middletown-based Eastern Steel Division to Kawasaki Steel Co. for $350 million.
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