Mark Garber, an independent non-executive director of Russia’s aluminum producer Rusal, has resigned from his position with effect from June 28, 2018, “due to other business commitments,” the Russian company said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Garber confirms that he does not have any disagreement with the board of directors and that there is no matter relating to his resignation which needs to be brought to the attention of the shareholders of the company,” the statement said, according to Vedomosti.
In May, Rusal’s top management, including CEO Alexandra Buriko resigned after Oleg the company’s owner Oleg Deripaska agreed to also quit the post of non-executive director of and dump his shares in the company in order to save it from U.S. sanctions.
In April, Maksim Goldman and Daniel Lesin Wolfe quit Rusal’s board of directors as non-executive directors of the company. The head of Swiss trader Glencore Ivan Glasenberg and former U.S. ambassador to the UK Philip Lader also left the company’s board.
On April 6, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions against a few Russian businessmen, including Oleg Deripaska, as well as several enterprises belonging to him, including Agroholding Kuban, Eurosibenergo, Rusal, Russian Machines Holding and GAZ Group, B-Finance investment company, Basic Element, and En+. Later the U.S. authorities said that sanctions relief could be provided for Rusal if its co-owner Deripaska made divestment and relinquished control over the company.
On May 18, En+ Group presented a plan on U.S. sanctions relief, which contained reduction of the stake of its main shareholder Oleg Deripaska to less than 50% and suspension of its influence on the board of directors.
American investors were also instructed to cancel all contracts they signed earlier with all blacklisted companies before June 5. Later the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury extended the deadline for ending transactions with the Russian aluminum producer Rusal until October 23, 2018.
