The steelman dubbed Dr Death who failed to revive fortunes

Tony Pedder's 31-year career in the steel industry came to an abrupt halt yesterday as he was forced out of the top spot at Corus.

Mr Pedder took over as chief executive a year and a half ago with a mission to transform the Anglo-Dutch group's fortunes.

The 53-year-old, dubbed "Dr Death" in 2001 when he toured steel plants where workers were being laid off, had hoped the company had "drawn a line in the sand" when it closed its Llanwern plant two years ago. But the redundancy toll continued to grow as demand continued to fall.

Serious cracks started to appear in his strategy last autumn when Corus walked away from its planned £3bn merger with Brazil's CSN.

But the final straw came earlier this week when a Dutch court forced Corus to abandon the sale of some of its aluminium businesses, casting doubts over the group's future.

Mr Pedder started his career with British Steel in 1972 as a graduate trainee from the University of London. Over the course of his 31 years with the group, he held several senior management positions including managing director of the stainless steels business. He was made a board member in 1992.

When he became CEO in September 2001, he replaced John Bryant and Fokko van Duyne. The joint chief executives were fired at the end of 2000 after the chairman, Sir Brian Moffat, lost patience with their failure to make progress after the merger of British Steel and Hoogovens to create Corus 14 months earlier.