Jon Harald Nilsen joins Hydro's corporate management

Jon Harald Nilsen (49) has been appointedNorsk Hydro’sexecutive vice president with responsibility for the Light Metals area. He succeeds Eivind Reiten, who takes over as Hydro’s President and CEO in May.

The company’s Light Metals segment comprises the following divisions: Aluminium Metal Products, Aluminium Extrusion, Automotive Structures, Rolled Products and Magnesium. The segment, which employs some 15,000 people, had operating revenues of more than NOK 30 billion in 1999.

For the past two years Nilsen has headed the Aluminium Metal Products division, where his responsibilities have included number of vital issues in the commercial sphere and in connection with strategic development. He graduated in 1975 from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration and has worked for Norsk Hydro since 1977. He takes up his new position on 15 February.

Truls Gautesen (51) succeeds Nilsen as divisional president and head of Aluminium Metal Products on the same date.

Gautesen, who graduated in engineering at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1972, is currently responsible for metal production and supply in the division. He has worked in Hydro since 1980 and has been general manager of Norway's largest aluminium plant at Karmøy. Prior to that, Gautesen was employed outside of Hydro; at Lista Aluminium and at Aluminium Bahrain.