Steel Mills

The Severstal NA Team, Where are They Now?

Written by Ray Culley

February 17, 2015

Just last week there was an article about Dennis (DJ) Johnson and in his new position as Vice President, Transformation, at Worthington Industries. Johnson joins others now at Worthington including Jim Mortensen, now Director Strategic Product Development and Pat Loney, Product Manager, Hot Rolled and Coated Products. You might think that most of the leadership of Severstal would stay close to their steel roots, but a quick search yields some interesting assignments.

Saikat Dey, former Severstal CEO, partnered with Gerrit Reepmeyer Mikhail Zhavoronkov and Anupam Sengupta to establish Ockham Razor Ventures, an “investment holding company with portfolio holdings across several industries”. The name is a takeoff on a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham which postulates that “plurality should not be posited without necessity” or, as Wikipedia would have it: “Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.” Saikat and his team are located in Birmingham, Michigan.

Prior to Saikat Dey, former CEO Sergei Kuznetsov is now Executive Chairman at All Metals, an independent toll processor and end-to-end logistics provider.

Sachin Shivaram, former Severstal VP Commercial, is now Project Manager, Rig Services at Tenaris.

Tom Marchak, Commercial VP before Shivaram, is Vice President National Accounts for Columbus Recycling Corporation.

Mark Yost, who had been Severstal’s CFO, is CFO/EVP of Champion Home Builders and Bruce Black, VP for the Dearborn works is now General Plant Manager at Gerdau Special Steel North America.

Christopher Kristock, Severstal VP Advanced Engineering, is Vice President Quality and Advanced Technology at SET Enterprises.

Shana Lynn Kellogg, former Associate General Counsel at Severstal, is now General Counsel at Cone Drive Operations, Inc.

Doug Schrader, VP Government Relations, is now Vice Chairman and Founding Partner at International Recycling Group.

Other names from Severstal and where they are today:

•   Ashley Terhune Kotowski, Regional Sales Manager at CSN.
•   Kevin Dimock, Senior Financial Analyst at Wyndham Vacation Ownership.
•   Marika Diamond, Director of Worldwide Public Relations and Communication at Hayes Lemmerz.
•   Jason Pond, Senior Manager of Process and Product Development at Gerdau Special Steel North America.

This article was written by former Severstal NA General Manager of Marketing and Commercial Services, Ray Culley. Culley is the principal at Iterations LLC a consulting company specializing in sales & marketing, business strategy, business process design, customer relationship management and supply chain integration and improvement. Culley is also working with Steel Market Update on special projects related to our conferences and other events.