Leadership Team

Leadership Team

The members of the Company’s senior management are set forth below. They are members of the Leadership Team, which is entrusted with the day-to-day management of the Company. The members of the Leadership Team are appointed and dismissed by the Board of Directors. The Leadership Team may exercise only the authority granted to it by the Board of Directors. 

Aperam benefits from the experience and industry know how of its Leadership Team. The team is comprised of nine members including the Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”), Mr. Timoteo Di Maulo.

Secretary to the Leadership Team: Mr. Guillaume Bazetoux, Head of Finance.

Mr. Timoteo Di Maulo is the Chief Executive Officer since January 2015. Mr. Di Maulo has 25 years of experience in the stainless steel industry, having held a number of positions in the controlling, purchasing, logistics and commercial areas and has been CEO of different units of the Company. Previously, Mr. Di Maulo was Chief Commercial and Sourcing Officer from May 2012 to December 2014. Prior to this function Mr. Di Maulo has served as Chief Executive Officer – Services & Solutions since 2005. In 1990, Mr. Di Maulo joined Ugine Italia, where he held various positions in the controlling, purchasing and sales departments. While at Ugine Italia, he successfully implemented and launched the ERP System, “Sidonie”, across all of Ugine’s subsidiaries worldwide. In 1996, Mr. Di Maulo joined Ugine’s Commercial Direction in Paris where he was in charge of its Industry and Distribution division. Mr. Di Maulo was subsequently named Service Division Industrial Director in 1998 and took on additional responsibilities as Chief Executive Officer of the German SSC, RCC. In 2000, Mr. Di Maulo was named Chief Executive Officer of U&A Italy, a role which gave him full responsibility for its mill sales network and its two Italian SSCs. Mr. Di Maulo was then appointed Chief Executive Officer of ArcelorMittal’s Stainless Europe Service Division in 2005 and, in 2008, of ArcelorMittal Stainless International (which included the division’s worldwide mill sales network, all distribution and processing centers and ArcelorMittal Stainless Europe’s tube mills and precision strips). Mr. Di Maulo is a graduate of Politecnico di Milano in Milan and holds an M.B.A. from Bocconi University in Milan. Mr. Di Maulo is a citizen of Italy.

Mr. Sudhakar Sivaji, is the Chief Financial Officer of Aperam since May 6, 2020. Mr. Sivaji has close to 20 years of experience in finance and transformation projects, and spent the last 12 years at thyssenkrupp’s Steel and Material Services businesses. During his time with thyssenkrupp, he has held key responsibilities in Europe, USA and Latin America structuring the development of the company’s portfolio and the financing of assets and transactions, leading the NAFTA SSC business, running international supply chains and logistic networks, and setting up and running digitization projects.

Most recently he was leading performance and restructuring programs for the thyssenkrupp Group since 2019. Mr. Sudhakar Sivaji holds a Master of Business Administration from the European School of Management and Technology, Berlin and a Bachelors in Engineering from Coimbatore Institute of Technology, India. Sudhakar is a citizen of Germany.  

Ms. Vanisha Mittal Bhatia joined Aperam in April 2011 and since has held the position of Chief Strategy Officer. She is a non-independent Director of ArcelorMittal. She was appointed as a member of the LNM Holdings Board of Directors in June 2004. Ms. Vanisha Mittal Bhatia was appointed to Mittal Steel’s Board of Directors in December 2004, where she worked in the Procurement department leading various initiatives including “total cost of ownership program”. She has a Bachelor of Sciences from the European Business School. She is also the daughter of Mr. Lakshmi N. Mittal. Mrs. Mittal Bhatia is a citizen of India.

Mr. Nicolas Changeur has been the CEO for Services & Solutions and Chief Marketing Officer for Stainless & Electrical Steel Europe since September 14, 2020. Previously, he was Chief Marketing Officer for the Group since November 2014. Mr. Changeur joined the Group in 2003 as Head of strategy of J&L, USA. He then held various positions inside the stainless segment in strategy and in operations in Europe and in South America. Prior to joining the Group, Mr. Changeur spent 2 years as Senior Associate at AT Kearney, a strategy consulting firm. Until July 2012, Mr. Changeur was in charge of Services & Solutions Tubes & Bars. In July 2012 he was appointed Responsible for Operating Marketing. Mr. Changeur holds a master in science in general engineering from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers and a master in business administration from INSEAD. Mr. Changeur is a citizen of France.

Mr. Bernard Hallemans has been nominated CEO of the Recycling & Renewables (R&R) division and Sustainability since September 1, 2023 combining the new position of CEO R&R with the role of Chief Technology and Sustainability Officer he has held since January 2023. He was Chief Executive Officer Stainless & Electrical Steel Europe from September 2020 till December 2022 and Chief Operating Officer Stainless & Electrical Steel since October 2016.
Previously, Mr. Hallemans was Chief Technical Officer and Member of the Leadership Team from November 2014 to September 2016. Mr. Bernard Hallemans joined the Group in 1995 as a research and metallurgical engineer. He conducted different Research and Development, quality and process improvement projects in the stainless steel making, hot rolling and cold rolling areas until 2001.

From the Ugine & ALZ merger in 2002 to 2007, he was responsible for the setup and management of the customer service department of the Genk plant and later of the Division Industry within Stainless Europe. In 2008, he moved to Châtelet, heading the Châtelet plant. He was appointed Plant Manager of Genk, effective January, 2012. Bernard graduated as a Metallurgical Engineer from KU Leuven, where he worked for 4 years as a research assistant while finishing his PhD in Materials Science. He holds a European Executive MBA from ESCP-EAP Paris. Mr. Hallemans is a citizen of Belgium.

Mr. Frederico Ayres Lima has been the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Marketing Officer for Stainless & Electrical Steel South America since September 2020. Previously, he was the Chief Operating Officer Stainless & Electrical Steel South America since December 2014. Prior to this function Mr. Lima held the position of Commercial Director of Aperam Stainless & Electrical Steel South America since 2009. Mr. Lima started his career in the Group in 1996 in Brazil as Metallurgist performing various roles in cost efficiency, technical assistance and production. Mr. Lima worked in with exports from 2000 to 2003 and was appointed Manager in 2003 pursuing responsibilities in Europe in the fields of synergies between mills, logistics and coordination of the stainless sales network. Mr. Lima moved back to Brazil in 2006 and held positions of Export Manager and afterwards General Manager. Mr. Lima holds Engineering and Master in Science degrees in Metallurgy from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and an Executive MBA in International Business Management from the Fundação Getulio Vargas. Mr. Lima is a citizen of Brazil.

Mr. Bert Lyssens has been the Responsible for Sustainability, Human Resources and Communications since April 2015. Mr. Lyssens started his professional career in Belgium and was Executive Search Consultant at Schelstraete & Desmedt as from 1994 before joining Cimad Consultants in 1997 as Project Staffing Manager and IBM as HR Manager in 1998. From 1999 to 2005, Mr. Lyssens held senior HR positions at AT&T, an American multinational telecommunications corporation, with assignments in The Netherlands and the UK and responsibilities for EMEA. He joined Agfa Gevaert in 2005 as HR Director responsible for EMEA and was appointed HR Director International at Agfa Graphics in 2006. In 2008, he was appointed VP Human Resources at Agfa HealthCare and in 2010, he was appointed Group Vice President. Mr. Lyssens holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Ghent. Mr. Lyssens is a citizen of Belgium.

Mr. Frédéric Mattei has been the Chief Executive Officer Alloys & Specialties since June 2014. Mr. Mattei started his career in 1998 at Creusot Loire Industrie, where he was successively project leader, manager of the hot rolling mill and clad plates workshop and Logistics and Quality Manager. From 2005 to 2007, he was head of Strategy and Innovation of ArcelorMittal’s Global Plates business unit.

In 2007, he became the manager of the Le Creusot plant, part of ArcelorMittal’s Industeel unit. In 2013, Mr. Mattei joined the Salzgitter Group as CEO of Salzgitter Mannesmann Stainless Tubes – France. Mr. Mattei is a graduate of France’s Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and holds an Executive MBA from ESCP- EAP. Mr. Mattei is a citizen of France.

Mr. Geert Verbeeck holds the position of Chief Executive Officer Stainless & Electrical Steel Europe from 2023. Prior to this function he held the positions of Chief Technology Officer Aperam (and member of the Leadership Team) with responsibilities for Health, Safety & Environment, Industrial Risk & Innovation and Purchasing, from April 2020. Mr. Verbeeck started his career in ArcelorMittal in 1989. He took several positions in the domain of IT and Automation in the period of 1989 till 2004 in the sites of ArcelorMittal Gent, ArcelorMittal Bremen and TailorSteel Genk. In 2004 he became  the head of the Automation department of ArcelorMittal Gent.

From 2006 till 2014, he was the plant manager of the steel plant in ArcelorMittal Gent. In 2014 he became the Chief Operations Officer of ArcelorMittal Gent, and Chief Executive Officer of ArcelorMittal Poland in 2015.

Mr Verbeeck graduated as an Engineer in Computer Science at the KU Leuven university, specializing afterwards in medical image processing and artificial intelligence. Mr Verbeeck is a citizen of Belgium.