Steel Mills

Karla Lewis To Be Reliance President and CEO Effective Jan. 1

Written by Laura Miller

October 11, 2022

Service center behemoth Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. will have a new leader come the start of 2023.

RelianceCurrent CEO James D. Hoffman will step down from his position at the end of this year, allowing current company president Karla Lewis to step up and serve as both president and CEO, effective Jan. 1, 2023.

Hoffman, who will maintain his position on Reliance’s Board of Directors, will serve as a senior advisor to Lewis until his official retirement in December 2023.

Reliance’s Board expressed its gratitude to Hoffman for guiding the company “through the pandemic while maintaining focus on operational excellence,” as well as contributing to its safety culture, corporate integrity, record revenues, profitability, and earnings per share.

Lewis, having already served on Reliance’s management team for 30 years, “brings unique, firsthand knowledge of Reliance’s operations, financial position, and strategic vision,” the Board said. “…We are confident that she will expand upon her record of accomplishments while strengthening Reliance’s position as the premier metals service center company in North America.”

Reliance operates approximately 315 locations in 14 states and 13 countries. Its principal executive office is in Scottsdale, Ariz.

By Laura Miller, Laura@SteelMarketUpdate.com

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. She has held a variety of positions within the steel industry since 2007, including reporting and editing for Steel Business Briefing/Platts, the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, and Kallanish Commodities, as well as marketing for what was then known as ThyssenKrupp Steel USA (now AM/NS Calvert). After a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel in 2021 and has covered the flat rolled, tubular, and trade areas of the industry. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.

Read more from Laura Miller

Latest in Steel Mills

Leibowitz: Biden block of Nippon-USS deal has broad, mostly bad consequences

As one of my university professors once said (and it’s stuck with me for half a century), “Change is the only permanency.” On Friday, President Biden acted to block the acquisition of United States Steel by Nippon Steel Corp. of Japan, without acknowledging the changes that have already occurred in the steel industry, and which are likely to increase. After more than a year of raging debate, it seems that nobody was convinced by arguments. Nippon’s worker-centered concessions, including safeguarding the jobs of U.S. Steel’s unionized workers and committing to more than $2 billion in investments for the aging plants at Gary, Ind., and the Mon Valley complex in Pennsylvania, were not mentioned in the president’s announcement on Friday.