The metals giant's shareholders will vote on Alexander Voloshin's candidacy, and on other candidates for the new 13-member board, on December 26.
Voloshin held the post of board chairman of the Russian electricity monopoly Unified Energy System (UES) until it was broken up in July into a web of power generating companies, in large-scale reforms to attract foreign investment to the decaying industry.
Russian business daily Kommersant reported earlier on Wednesday that two rival billionaire shareholders in Norilsk Nickel - Potanin, owner of Interros holding company, which has around 30% of shares in Norilsk Nickel, and Oleg Deripaska, owner of aluminum giant RusAl, which holds 25% plus two shares in Norilsk Nickel - "had managed to resolve all disputed issues through negotiations."
According to Kommersant, RusAl and Interros will have four seats each on the board of directors, which will also have three independent members and a government representative.
The inclusion of a government representative was one of the terms under which state-controlled Vnesheconombank agreed to grant RusAl a $4.5 billion loan to refinance its debt to a consortium of Western banks accumulated as a result of purchasing the stake in Norilsk Nickel, the paper said.
Potanin announced on Tuesday that the heads of companies holding major stakes in Norilsk Nickel would not sit on its board.
Norilsk Nickel is Russia's largest diversified mining and metals company, the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium, and one of the world's largest producers of platinum, rhodium, copper and cobalt.
