CORRECTED - NEWSMAKER-Cooper looks to fire up Imperial's growth

(Corrects 1st paragraph in Nov 10 story to say "second youngest" instead of "youngest", in 5th paragraph to say "join four other" rather than "join three other" and in the 8th paragraph adds the name and age of Katherine Garrett-Cox)

* Alison Cooper named CEO designate at Imperial Tobacco

* Joins small band of female CEOs at FTSE 100 companies

* Looks to boost growth at Britain's top cigarette group

By David Jones

LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Alison Cooper is set to become the second youngest female chief executive of a FTSE 100 company as she looks to put sales growth at the top of her agenda for the world's No 4 cigarette group Imperial Tobacco Plc (IMT.L)

Cooper, 43, was widely tipped to take over the top job at the maker of Lambert & Butler and Gauloises cigarettes next year after shadowing current CEO Gareth Davis for eight months.

Davis is set to retire next May, the day before his 60th birthday.

"Alison has worked closely on all the big deals with Gareth so the transition at the top of Imperial would appear to be very smooth," said one tobacco industry analyst.

When she takes over, Cooper will join four other female CEOs of Britain's top 100 companies, and become the second woman to run a big tobacco company following Susan Ivey at United States-based Reynolds American Inc (RAI.N).

In her ten years at Imperial, Cooper has worked closely on the two big acquisitions that transformed Imperial into a world tobacco player - Reemtsma and Altadis -- but as big tobacco deals start to dry up her emphasis will be on sales growth.

"Imperial's highlights have been on acquisitions and cost control, now we will look for growth with our expanded business in different geographies," Cooper said on a conference call.

She is set the join Angela Ahrendts at luxury goods group Burberry Group Plc (BRBY.L), Cynthia Carroll at mining group Anglo American Plc (AAL.L), Marjorie Scardino at publishing group Pearson Plc (PSON.L) and Katherine Garrett-Cox, aged 41, at investment company Alliance Trust (ATST.L) as female CEOs of FTSE 100 groups.

Davis has led Imperial since its demerger from the sprawling Hanson empire in 1996 where he embarked on a series of acquisitions to put the cigarette maker on a faster growth path than its arch British rival Gallaher.