Silverstein Vows to be Back
April 28, 2010

Is it "Hasta La Vista" for Leon Silverstein, outgoing CEO of Arch Aluminum?

Hardly.

Silverstein is more likely to utter "I'll be back" than the Terminator's other signature phrase.

"Leon told key employees yesterday that he would be leaving," said one person with knowledge of the discussion who preferred not to be identified. "He said the family values he believed in were not necessarily those shared by Sun Capital, so he was leaving. He vowed he would be back. He asserted that he has no non-competes in place that would keep him from doing so."

Silverstein's departure caps a 5-month period since Arch announced bankruptcy reorganization and its subsequent sale to the investment firm Sun Capital Partners Inc. Interestingly, the person who was widely thought to be the original link between the two organizations, former Arch chief financial officer Mark Kuchenrither, left his position as vice president of operations of Sun Capital last month and currently is working at EZCorp, which offers short-term loans and credit services.

So what really happened?

Industry speculation is just that but centers on Sun Capital's continued desire to use Silverstein as its liaison to industry companies and former creditors in the future. "It is general industry knowledge that Silverstein and other members of Arch's management team had personally visited a number of former creditors to urge them to begin working with Arch again," said another. "I don't think that exactly worked out the way they [Sun] expected."

At press time, Sun Capital was unavailable for comment.

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