Alcoa Inc (AA), Peabody Energy Corporation (BTU), Southern Copper Corp (SCCO): This Is One Incredible CEO

One employee benefit that stands out like a sore thumb to me is its housing program. For those of its 72,000 employees who qualify, RUSAL works with a large Russian mortgage lender to secure extremely low interest rates to purchase a home, and then RUSAL steps in to pay for at least 50% of an employee’s monthly mortgage! How cool is that?

In addition to its housing program, RUSAL helps its younger employees through the Schools of Success program which is focused on encouraging innovation through project and social improvements within the company. Promotion with RUSAL is also very much geared toward seniority and is almost always done from within. In today’s economy, that’s a rarity.

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of all is the incredible act of kindness that Deripaska just demonstrated to his employees last month. You see, Oleg Deripaska isn’t hurting for cash with a net worth of some $8.5 billion. However, as a sign of good faith to the employees that helped make him the wealthy man he is today, he decided to return the entirety of his $3 million bonus and divvy out $25,000 in stock to 120 lucky RUSAL employees. As I said, RUSAL employees are well taken care of.

Two thumbs up
While the aluminum market could certainly be better, RUSAL is setting itself up for big gains in the not-so-distant future when global aluminum pricing improves and supply stabilizes. With a mountain of benefits for employees that really speak to a high quality of humanitarian care and a CEO willing to dole out $3 million of his own money to his employees, I feel very confident in giving Oleg Deripaska two thumbs up.

The article This Is One Incredible CEO originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Sean Williams.

Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.

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