New challenges for Alcan exec

After stickhandling some of the biggest deals in recent Canadian corporate history, David McAusland, Alcan Inc.'s executive vice-president of corporate development, and chief legal officer, has decided to move into the unknown."I am going to work very hard to help with the transition here, which will take a couple of months, (but) I've decided that my job here is done," McAusland said in an interview yesterday, one day after Alcan and Rio Tinto Group named the proposed executive management team that will oversee the integration of the two companies once the $38.1-billion (U.S.) merger of both is complete.The companies said an announcement about who will become the top lawyer of the combined aluminum products group, to be based in Montreal, will be made at a later date.But since Alcan will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, and no longer be a publicly traded company, that job will not have the executive clout or the strategic development duties that McAusland assumed in a dizzying ride that saw Alcan double its size and revenue base twice after he joined the company in 1999, following 22 years as a corporate lawyer and managing partner for Byers Casgrain LLP, which became Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP in 2000."I suspected there would be a lot of change and that is one of the reasons I moved," said McAusland, 53, a McGill University law graduate and former president of the Montreal Board of Trade (1999).

The job did not disappoint."It allowed me to stretch, to extend myself, to test and retest and continue to test the limits of my capabilities," McAusland said. "It has been a tremendous opportunity and ride - the things most people dream of."Indeed, the highlights - "too many to mention" - include not only dealing with a hostile $28-billion (U.S) takeover offer by one-time parent Alcoa that preceded the Rio Tinto deal, but the whirlwind of negotiations and renegotiations surrounding Alcan's takeover of French aluminum giant Pechiney.If that were not enough, there were also major divestitures, including the spin out of Novelis Inc. into the largest rolling products company with sales of $6 billion (Alcan's sales were $23.6 billion last year), accompanied by a financing of $2.9 billion."I have been very lucky and the company has been extremely good to me," McAusland added. "I want to move on, and it is a good opportunity to move on."So, has he been approached to work somewhere else specifically or have anything particular in mind?The answer is no, on both counts, and McAusland said he is in no hurry."I have all sorts of messages from all sorts of different people in many different places," McAusland said."The only thing I am reasonably certain of is that somebody somewhere will give me something interesting and fun to do. I am confident in that, but beyond that, I don't know.

My priority is to have a new chapter where I will continue to have fun with people I like to work with."I will be looking forward to working in some sort of environment where I can have fun with people I like and respect and can continue to be challenged in whatever type of business, profession, role, I don't know yet."In the meantime, in addition to planning for the anticipated closing (Oct. 23 is the tender deadline for shareholders, with a closing expected soon after), on the main order of business is the divestiture of Alcan's packaging operations, a business with $6 billion in sales.And it is far too early to say how Alcan's in-house legal team of 40 lawyers, including about a dozen based in Montreal, will be reconfigured.Beside McAusland, key lawyers on the team include Pierre Chenard, general counsel and deputy chief legal officer, in London yesterday working on the beginnings of the transition team's work, Roy Millington, corporate secretary, and Louis Dubé, who oversees intellectual property operations of the company and related activities.Said Millington about McAusland yesterday: "Great guy, great boss, great legal mind, one of the best lawyers I have had the pleasure to work with. I have always been surprised about how often he's right about things. He has the right instinct."Asked about the challenge for chief legal officers in today's business environment, McAusland said,"It varies from industry to industry. It is continuing to demonstrate that the legal profession and people with legal training is not a function or a profession that should be narrowly defined."We all need to demonstrate our ability to stretch the boundaries and that was certainly what my priority was and I think that is what is important for anyone in a job like this to focus on."

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