CHICAGO — Commercial Metals Co. (CMC) president and chief executive officer Joseph Alvarado will also become chairman of the company’s board beginning Jan. 1.

The Irving, Texas-based steelmaker said Thursday that current chairman Anthony Massaro will become CMC’s lead director when Alvarado takes on the new role.

"The appointment (of Alvarado as chairman) will ... promote unified leadership for the company, allowing for a single, clear focus for management to execute its strategy and business plans," Massaro said in a statement.

Alvarado took over as CMC’s chief executive officer in 2011 as the company made sweeping changes in its management team (amm.com, May 24, 2011). He had been named the company’s president earlier the same year (amm.com, April 7, 2011).

Before joining CMC, Alvarado was vice president of tubular operations at Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp. and president of U.S. Steel Tubular Products Inc. until retiring in February 2009. He was president of the former Lone Star Technologies Inc. before it was bought by U.S. Steel Corp. in 2007.