Tata Steel has announced that with effect from October 1 2010, Kirby Adams will hand over responsibility for the leadership of Tata Steel Europe to Dr Karl-Ulrich Köhler, who will become Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

Mr Adams has decided to step down from his executive roles and return to Australia, having successfully initiated a restructuring of the company and restored profitability. He will remain available to Tata Steel in an advisory capacity.


Dr Köhler, 54, was appointed Chief Operating Officer in February 2010 and is working closely with Mr Adams in implementing a new strategy and business model to enable Tata Steel Europe to compete more effectively in a challenging steel industry.

Prior to joining Tata Steel Europe, Dr Köhler worked during his 30-year steel industry career at the companies that today comprise ThyssenKrupp Steel, where he was most recently Chairman of the Executive Board and a Member of the Executive Board of the parent company, ThyssenKrupp AG. Until October 2009 he was President of Eurofer, the European steelmaking federation. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience of steelmaking in Europe, as well as of the European steel supply chain and customer base. Dr Köhler is already a board member of Tata Steel Europe and he will join the board of the parent company, Tata Steel Ltd later this year.

(CD)