Ray Edwin Powell

Ray Edwin Powell

Ray Edwin Powell, "Rep," business executive (b at Table Grove, Ill 7 Dec 1887; d at Montréal 9 Nov 1973). Educated at University of Illinois, Powell served in the US army during WWI. He then joined Alcoa, the Aluminum Co of America, and in 1928 came to Canada, becoming a VP of ALCAN (Aluminium Co of Canada), a subsidiary of Aluminium Ltd. From 1937 to 1957, Powell was Alcan's president, overseeing an extraordinary expansion in the company's business. Because ALUMINUM was a vital war material, Powell was able to use loans from the British, American and Australian governments and tax arrangements with the government of Canada to expand his company's facilities along the Saguenay River. Between 1937 and 1944, Alcan's assets increased 500%. Alcan expanded again in the early 1950s, establishing a power development and smelter at KITIMAT, BC. Under Powell, Alcan moved from being an American subsidiary to becoming an independent Canadian company.