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.

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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)