ST. LOUIS, Oct. 10, 2011 -- Arch Coal, Inc. (NYSE: ACI) today announced organizational changes in its sales and human resources functions and the opening of a sales office in London.

Matt Ferguson will join Arch on February 1, 2012 as a senior vice president of Arch Coal Sales, Inc., reporting to David Warnecke, Arch's senior vice president of marketing and trading. Ferguson will be responsible for metallurgical and thermal sales into the European and South American markets, domestic metallurgical sales, trading and commercial logistics. Prior to Arch, Ferguson served nine years with BHP Billiton. Most recently he spent five years as general manager of marketing with responsibility for the marketing of coal from BHP's global equity production and trading portfolio in South Africa, United States, Australia and Indonesia.

Jennifer Johnson will continue as a senior vice president of Arch Coal Sales, with responsibility for all of Arch's domestic thermal coal sales. Johnson joined Arch in 2006, and most recently was responsible for Powder River Basin coal sales and trading. She will continue reporting to Warnecke.

John Ziegler will become senior director of compensation and benefits, reporting to Sheila Feldman, Arch's vice president of human resources. Ziegler joined Arch in 2002 as director of internal audit and most recently served as senior vice president of sales and administration of Arch Coal Sales.

In addition to these personnel changes, Arch also announced that it will open a London sales office in the first quarter of 2012.

"We believe these changes will allow Arch to take advantage of our strong existing talent while deepening our bench in key areas," said John W. Eaves, Arch's president and chief operating officer. "Moreover, we are continuing to build out our international marketing expertise in order to capitalize on the rapid growth occurring in the global marketplace."

U.S.-based Arch Coal is a top five global coal producer and marketer, with 179 million tons of coal sold pro forma in 2010. Arch is the most diversified American coal company, with mining complexes across every major U.S. coal supply basin. Arch's core business is supplying cleaner-burning, low-sulfur thermal and metallurgical coal to power generators and steel manufacturers on four continents. In 2010, Arch set new company records in safety performance, environmental compliance and revenue generation.