Dec. 4, 2006 — The newly installed board of directors for Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp. announced that James P. Bouchard has been elected Chairman and CEO of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp., effective immediately. The board of directors also named Craig T. Bouchard, 53, as President and Vice Chairman of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp.

Bouchard, 45, was appointed immediately after certification of the vote of the annual meeting of shareholders was received late Thursday, Nov. 30. The directors nominated by Esmark Inc. received a majority of more than 67% at the annual meeting of shareholders held on November 17, 2006.

Wheeling-Pittsburgh’s newly installed board of directors includes:

• C. Frederick Fetterolf, former President of Alcoa
• James A. Todd, former CEO of the former Birmingham Steel (now part of Nucor)
• Albert G. Adkins, former Chief Financial Officer of Marathon Oil and Treasurer of U.S. Steel
• Clark Burrus, former Controller of the City of Chicago
• George Munoz, former Chief Financial Officer of the United States Treasury and CEO of Overseas Private Investment Corp.
• James V. Koch, President Emeritus of Old Dominion University and former President of The University of Montana
• Joseph Peduzzi, a highly regarded investor and risk manager
• James Bowen, former President of the West Virginia AFL-CIO
• Lynn R. Williams, former President Emeritus of United Steelworkers.

Bouchard said he was honored to lead the management team charged with rebuilding Wheeling-Pitt into a financially-sound, well-diversified and profitable steel company. “It's my personal mandate to provide the leadership and commitment to re-energize our employees and work with the shareholders of Wheeling-Pitt, our employees, the United Steelworkers and the Ohio Valley communities to position Wheeling-Pitt for future growth and prosperity. I greatly look forward to that challenge.”

“Our transition efforts with Wheeling-Pitt have been underway for several weeks and we have already started the rebuilding process,” added Bouchard. “As part of that process we want all of our constituencies, but especially our valued customers, to know that we remain committed to providing quality products and customer service and we believe any changes that will be made will only improve our business. We also want to reassure our employees that we will take steps to rebuild Wheeling-Pitt into a profitable and successful company, but our new team cannot do it alone — we need the continued dedication and help of our great employees. We look forward to communicating our plans with our employees, customers and suppliers in the weeks and months ahead.”

Wheeling-Pittsburgh was organized as a Delaware corporation on June 27, 1920 under the name Wheeling Steel Corp. Its headquarters is located in Wheeling, W.Va., with major production facilities in the Upper Ohio and Monongahela valleys. Wheeling-Pittsburgh is a holding company that, together with its several subsidiaries and joint ventures, produces steel and steel products using both integrated and electric arc furnace technology. The Company has slab making production capacity of 2.8 million short tons and hot rolling capacity of 3.4 million tons. Approximately 65% of its sales are comprised of high value-added products.

Headquartered in Chicago and founded by the Bouchard Group, Esmark is a steel services family of companies. Esmark’s mission is to establish the benchmark standards for strategic consolidation, operating efficiency and management excellence in the steel sector.