Turcotte resigns from Algoma Steel: transition to Essar done, CEO takes summer off.

Algoma Steel is a Northern Ontario company in the spotlight for 2008. It just won't be with Denis Turcotte at the helm.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The 46-year-old Thunder Bay native, who shepherded a restructured Sault Ste. Marie steel mill fresh out of bankruptcy in 2002 into one of North America's most profitable integrated steel producers, resigned his position April 30.

Six years ago, he replaced Sandy Adam as president and CEO when the debt-ridden Sault Ste. Marie rolled sheet and plate producer was emerging from its second bankruptcy in nearly a decade.

Turcotte is the last president and CEO of Algoma. Under the new corporate structure under Essar Global of Mumbai, India. Armando Plastino, Algoma's vice-president of operations, will move up to become chief operating officer.

The company was bought last year by Essar for $1.85 billion. Turcotte says it's quite common when ownership changes, that senior management changes with it.

"In this case, it was an opportunity to pass the baton on at the right time."

Turcotte says he's leaving on positive terms with the Ruia family whom he calls "fantastic operators" and "great entrepreneurs" who are committed to the steel business for the long run.

With the transition into the Essar fold complete, he plans to take six months off.

"I thought was just a good time for me to take a bit of a break."

He plans to relax and spend time at the camp with his family with no immediate plans to move from the Sault.

"I've been working hard since coming out of university I loved work and always put a lot into it, but here's a great opportunity to take a sabbatical, spend time with my wife (Julie) and kids (Danielle, Patrick, Phillip), travel a bit, just relaxing for a while.

"Post-Labour Day, then I'll start thinking about what I want to do professionally moving forward."

But he'll stay active on Domtar's board of directors and serve on the Ontario Ministry of Energy's Advisory Committee.

Personally, it was a tough winter for the Turcotte family with the sudden passing of 17-year-old daughter Adele at Ryerson University in December.

To steel industry analyst Peter Warrian, Turcotte was the right man at the right time.

"This has gotta go down as one of the great turn-arounds in Canadian business history"

Under Turcotte's leadership, Algoma capitalized on spiking global steel prices and posted record-high profits (including $344 million in 2004) which made the company a highly attractive takeover target during a wave of industry consolidation.

He's credited for introducing a results-oriented culture at the cyclical 106-year-old steelmaker, helped iron the bugs out of its flagship mill, the Direct Strip Production Complex, and explored new markets.

Turcotte came into the job with a new perspective from outside the steel industry

A former Tembec senior executive, was already a rising Canadian industry star, being named a 1998 recipient of Canada's Top 40 Under 40. He was named Canadian Business magazine's CEO of the Year in 2006.

Trained as a professional engineer, he came out of the pulp and paper industry where he spearheaded an employee-led drive to prevent the closure of a Spruce Falls paper mill by Kimberley-Clark and its subsequent acquisition by Tembec.

Warrian ranks Turcotte's performance at Algoma in the same strata as that of Roger Phillips at Regina-based Ipsco, North America's most profitable mini-mill. Phillips came out of the aluminum industry.

"It can't be an accident that both came from outside the steel industry," says Warrian, a professor at the University of Toronto's Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources.

Warrian says Turcotte's final chapter is far from being written.

"I don't think we've seen the last of Denis" says Warrian. "He's a Northerner."

A CEO with a certain personality, skills and the talent as a turn-around artist moves on the next gig at some stage, says Warrian.

There's opportunities with a "couple of upstart companies" in the energy and real estate field, but he would like "to try to help some entrepreneurs with some great ideas in the North."

Turcotte calls his successor, Armando Plastino "a great man that I've come to call a friend. "I trust him with my children. He's a guy with good values, excellent work ethic, and he knows that mill inside and out."

Essar plans to a sink $500 million in new capital investment in Algoma over the next three to five years.

"That's critical going forward to make hundreds of millions of capital gets deployed the right way.

"I can't think of anybody better to accomplish that than Armando."

www.algoma.com

By IAN ROSS

Northern Ontario Business