Alain J. P. Belda


Alain J. P. Belda is an American Canadian businessman that has been a Managing Director of Warburg Pincus since 2009. Previously he was the Chairman of the Board of Alcoa from January 2001; he was Chief Executive Officer from January 2001 until May 2008.

Early years

Belda was born in Morocco of Jewish family Origin

Business experience

While CEO of Alcoa in 2007, Alain J. P. Belda earned a total compensation of $25,931,201, which included a base salary of $1,457,500, a cash bonus of $1,000,000, stocks granted of $6,978,791, and options granted of $13,558,026.

Controversies

On October 6, 2005, in the paper EXAME in São Paulo, Brazil, there appeared an article by journalist Alexa Salomão, where Belda was quoted as saying Alcoa was paying Brazilians twice as much for energy for the corporation's Brazilian aluminum smelters, as it was paying Iceland's state-run energy firm Landsvirkjun: "...the agreed price — 30 dollars per megawatt-hour — was far from ideal. In Iceland, the company pays half that." When this news reached Icelandic media, on June 7, 2006, the reaction was negative from environmentalists opposed to the already controversial Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant, and others, as Icelandic citizens and other firms pay eight times that.
Friðrik Sophusson, the director of Landsvirkjun, said the quoted price was ridiculous, the real price being somewhat higher. A New York spokesperson for Alcoa said Belda had been "inaccurate" in the interview. An Icelandic social-democratic member of parliament, Helgi Hjörvar, who is on the board of Landsvirkjun, challenged authorities to reveal the real price and thus "clear the air" surrounding the project—the dam and the smelter. No answer was ever received. Representatives of Alcoa finally apologized to Landsvirkjun for the slip-up, Salomão's article was removed from Alcoa's website.

Other directorships

and E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company and International Business Machines. Mr. Belda serves on the board of trustees of The Conference Board, the world's leading business membership and research organization, and is a member of the board of trustees of the Brown University Corporation.