Pasman Will Replace Maier as Chairman of Kaiser Aluminum

Cornell C. Maier will resign June 26 as chairman and chief executive of Kaiser Aluminum, where he has worked since 1949, KaiserTech Ltd., the Oakland company’s newly formed parent firm, said Friday.

Maier, 62, also will resign as vice chairman and president of KaiserTech, but not until Jan. 1, the company said. Maier will continue as a director of KaiserTech and Kaiser Aluminum and will serve as a consultant until Dec. 31, 1992.

Maier will be succeeded at Kaiser Aluminum by James S. Pasman, 56, former vice chairman and a director of Aluminum Co. of America, or Alcoa. Pasman, who had been an adviser to British investor Alan Clore, joined KaiserTech as an executive vice president on May 1, the day the parent company was formed as part of an agreement between Clore and Kaiser Aluminum to end a lengthy takeover battle.

Clore agreed to invest $140 million in the company in exchange for the chairmanship of KaiserTech and the right to name a majority of the board for five years.

A. Stephens Hutchcraft Jr.--once thought to be in line for Maier’s job--will continue as Kaiser Aluminum’s president and chief operating officer. Hutchcraft, 56, and Pasman will be elected to Kaiser Aluminum’s board on June 26, the company said.

Maier started in a clerical engineering job, then moved on to sales and worked his way up through the Kaiser Aluminum organization in many of the company’s domestic and overseas operations. He has never worked for another company.

Maier said he has always encouraged Kaiser Aluminum executives to retire about age 62 and had originally intended to retire two years ago because “I felt I had an obligation to practice what I preached.”

Changed Mind

But Maier said he changed his mind after the company and the aluminum industry entered a downturn and a group led by Oklahoma investor J. A. Frates launched a hostile takeover bid. Clore was part of the Frates group.

Maier said that before his retirement he wants to see Kaiser Aluminum returned to operating profitability and see the company’s debt reduced to less than $1 billion on Dec. 31 from $1.35 billion at the end of 1986. The return to operating profits is “imminent,” he said.

Maier’s parting will be cushioned by a “golden parachute” employment severance contract that provides for a payment equal to 2 1/2 times his base salary of $408,000, or a total of slightly more than $1 million.