Corn Products International, Inc. has appointed Ilene Gordon as chairman, president and chief executive officer, effective May 4, succeeding the retiring Samuel C. Scott III.

 

After 35 years with the company, Scott announced in January 2008 his intention to retire. He has served as chairman and chief executive officer of the company since February 2001 and president since 1997.

 

Board Member William S. Norman said, "We selected Ilene Gordon because of her strong leadership skills, international experience, and knowledge of commodity businesses and the food and beverage industry. We are confident this will be an orderly, thorough and thoughtful transition."

 

Gordon has more than 30 years of senior-level, international management experience.

 

Since 2007, she has been president and CEO, Rio Tinto's Alcan Packaging, where she is responsible for leading a US$6.5 billion global packaging business with 130 factories in 30 countries servicing the food, beauty and pharmaceutical industries, among others.

 

From 2004 to 2006, she was president of Alcan Food Packaging Americas, where she managed a business with US$1.4 billion in sales and 5,000 employees in six countries.

 

Prior to Alcan's acquisition of Pechiney in 2003, Gordon served in positions of increasing responsibility with Pechiney and Tenneco for more than 20 years, and began her career as a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.

 

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics, Gordon also earned a Master of Science degree in management from MIT's Sloan School of Management. She is a director of Arthur J. Gallagher & Company, chairing its governance committee; and a director of United Stationers, serving on its human resources and governance committees.

 

Westchester, Illinois-headquartered Corn Products International is one of the world's largest corn refiners and a major supplier of food ingredients and industrial products derived from the wet milling and processing of corn and other starch-based materials. The company provides a wide variety of ingredients to customers in more than 60 industries, including the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, animal feed, corrugating, paper and textile sectors.