Zoo News - Farewell Foster

I have not been able to confirm this directly, but I am told Foster Lee has retired from the Shanghai office of Rio Tinto Alcan.

I understand Foster checked out at the end of March.

I have known Foster since 2005. In those days, he was the purchasing and logistics manager for Alcan’s Ningxia plant. Logistics was his personal nightmare at that time. The one railway line into the plant had to be scheduled carefully to allow bagged alumina into the plant along with carbon and other raw materials, at the same time as metal had to leave the plant. As if scheduling the line wasn’t hard enough, he also had to manage the fleet of rail cars, which meant getting those cars emptied in time to receive metal, or finding new rail cars and getting them shunted to the plant.

Foster had previously spent some 18 years with Chalco, in Guizhou from memory. I remember that because I remember he told me his wife and family remained down south while he was up north working for Alcan. Tough gig.

At the end of 2006, when my 2-year contract with Alcan expired, it was Foster Lee that Alcan appointed to replace me. Since then Foster has been involved in procurement and raw materials roles in Alcan/ Rio Tinto Alcan’s Shanghai office, most recently as Director - Carbon business development and carbon industrial analysis.

I wish Foster and his family all the best for the future.

While on Zoo News - all the best to Mindy Yi who is expecting a baby in a couple of months. Mindy is also based in Shanghai, but works for Alcoa there as aluminium market analyst.