Michael Salomon, president and chief operating officer (COO) at Specialty Steel Works’ (SSW), has been selected by the board of directors, as chief executive officer (CEO) and president, effective Monday. He will also become a member of the SSW board the company said in a statement.
As COO, Salomon has led efforts to make the company more customer focused, simplified its business model and improved its cost structure, according to Ben Santonelli, SSW’s chairman. In his new role Salamon will be responsible to move the company forward in a way that allows the business to make the most of opportunities presented in a changing environment.
Salomon will take over from Joel Hawthorne who stepped down as CEO on Monday. Hawthorne had taken over this position in November 2017 as the company came out of bankruptcy. According to Santonelli, as CEO, Hawthorne incorporated changes that led the business to achieve high potential. He rebuilt customer and investor confidence and encouraged employees to push strategy and created value for stakeholders.
SSW is headquartered in Hammond, Indiana, and is a manufacturer and processor of specialized steel products including, high quality engineered cold finished steel bars and precision tolerance, cold drawn seamless tubes.
SSW operates under three business units including, Niagara LaSalle, Corey Steel Company, and Michigan Seamless Tube. Its specialty steel processing business is operated out of six production facilities in the midwest with a combined annual capacity to produce 680,000nt (617,000mt) of cold finished steel bars and 55,000nt of seamless tube.