BOARD OF DIRECTOR BIOS
Andrew S. Bissot
Vice President of Engineering, Manufacturing Excellence and Reliability, Metallus Inc.
Andrew Bissot is vice president of engineering, manufacturing excellence and reliability for Metallus Inc., a role he has held since May 2021. Before joining the company, Bissot served in a variety of roles at Outokumpu Stainless. He spent time in the commercial organization managing the responsibilities of pricing, innovation and customer solutions for the Americas division and served in roles responsible for overseeing maintenance, reliability and manufacturing excellence. Prior to Outokumpu, Bissot progressed through multiple layers of leadership responsibilities at United States Steel Corporation in management and support functions within its melting, casting, hot rolling, cold rolling and coating operations. He has a mechanical engineering degree from The University of Alabama and a master’s degree in leadership from Duquesne University. He has also obtained a variety of educational certificates from the University of Notre Dame – Mendoza College of Business, University of Cambridge, and the University of Alabama – Birmingham. Bissot also offers support to the Metrics Committee within the Society of Maintenance and Reliability Professionals and the Competences Review Steering Group for the Institute of Asset Management.
Greg Brandon
Divisional Vice President, CMC
Greg Brandon is vice president of the Southeast Division of CMC. In this role, he oversees operations and commercial functions for steelmaking, recycling and fabrication, including Impact Metals. Brandon started his tenure at CMC in 1998 as an inside sales representative at CMC Steel South Carolina. Since then, he has held a number of roles including inside sales manager, shipping manager and works manager. He relocated to Birmingham, Ala., USA, as the director of operations for CMC Steel Alabama in 2012, before returning to South Carolina in 2018, where he became the director of rebar fabrication, before being appointed director of operations at CMC Steel South Carolina in 2021. He assumed the role of vice president, Southeast Division in April 2022. Brandon earned a bachelor’s degree in management and marketing, followed by an M.B.A. from the University of South Carolina.
Daniel R. Brown
Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President for Advanced Technology Steelmaking, United States Steel Corporation/Big River Steel
Dan Brown was named vice president and chief operating officer of Big River Steel – A U. S. Steel Co. in July 2021 and advanced to senior vice president of advanced technology steelmaking in February 2022. In addition to Big River Steel operations, he has responsibility over the new mill, Big River 2. Brown has over 28 years of service with United States Steel Corporation, joining the company in 1994 as a management associate for the cold rolling division at the Irvin Plant, Mon Valley Works. In 1996, he was transferred to Edgar Thomson (primary operations), Mon Valley Works and advanced through several increasingly responsible positions in steelmaking and secondary metallurgy. In 2003, he relocated to U. S. Steel Serbia as plant manager – primary operations for two years and then plant manager – finishing and tin operations for two years. Brown returned to the U.S. in 2006 as plant manager – finishing operations at Fairfield Works. In 2007, he became plant manager – primary operations at Fairfield Works. In 2008, he was named division manager – ironmaking at Gary Works, Ind., and then later as division manager of steelmaking and casting at Gary Works. He was promoted to plant manager – primary operations at Gary Works in 2018. In April 2019, he was named general manager – automotive operations (Great Lakes Works/Midwest Sheet) with responsibilities for the Great Lakes Plant, Desco Coating, and the Midwest Sheet facilities. Brown earned his B.S. degree in business logistics from The Pennsylvania State University. He also earned his M.B.A. in finance from Duquesne University.
Michael Cooke
Director of Technical Services, SSAB Iowa Inc.
Michael Cooke is currently with SSAB Americas at the Montpelier, Iowa, USA, facility. He graduated in 1991 from the Colorado School of Mines with a B.S. degree in metallurgical and materials engineering, and he began his career in the steel industry later that year at Geneva Steel in Provo, Utah, USA. In 1999, he accepted a metallurgist position with Ipsco Steel at the Montpelier, Iowa, steelmaking facility, which was later acquired by SSAB in 2007. In his current position, he has been the SSAB Iowa director of technical services for 18 years and is responsible for the steel plate mill’s quality system, metallurgy, and chemical and physical testing laboratories; he also oversees the quality and physical testing labs at SSAB’s three cut-to-length plate facilities. He has been at the Iowa location for 25 years and employed in the steel industry for 33 years. Cooke received his M.B.A. from St. Ambrose University in 2007. He has held the position of chair for the Plate Rolling Technology Committee and has also presented for the AIST Hot Sheet and Plate Rolling Fundamentals training seminar covering both Steckel rolling and plate finishing equipment. He was a co-author and recipient of the Gilbert Speich Award in 2008, and co-inventor for two U.S. patents.
Dirk Francis
Chief Operating Officer, Primary, Cluster Dunkerque, ArcelorMittal France
Dirk Francis was appointed to ArcelorMittal Dofasco G.P.’s executive team in April 2022. He previously served as chief operating officer, primary, ArcelorMittal Germany, and deputy site manager of ArcelorMittal Europe Flat Products since 2018. Prior to joining ArcelorMittal Germany, he was head of blast furnaces and sinter plants at ArcelorMittal Ghent from 2015 to 2018. He joined ArcelorMittal Ghent in 1998 in cokemaking, where he held several positions as project manager, line manager and support manager. in 2008, he was appointed head of cokemaking and in 2012 his responsibilities expanded to include raw materials, the Harbour, Recycling and Internal Transport. Francis started his career in 1995 at Philips Lighting in the Netherlands, in charge of development and assembly of energy-saving lamps. He holds a master of civil engineering degree in mechatronics from the University of Leuven, Belgium, as well as a master of industrial engineering degree in electromechanics from the Industrial High School of Ghent, Belgium.
Jeff Joldrichsen
Vice President Operations, BlueScope Coated Products
Jeff Joldrichsen started in the steel industry with North Star Steel Beaumont as a management trainee. He worked as a shift meltshop maintenance supervisor and day mechanical supervisor over the electric arc furnaces at the Beaumont mill. Joldrichsen left the steel industry and worked for several years in the float glass industry as a manufacturing engineer. He rejoined the steel industry and started work at North Star BlueScope Steel (formerly known as North Star BHP Steel), where he has held multiple roles, including meltshop maintenance general foreman, caster maintenance manager, hot strip mill operations manager, a secondment as mill manager at New Zealand Steel, caster operations manager, and vice president of operations. Joldrichsen has recently joined BlueScope Coated Products as their vice president of operations over their light-gauge facilities throughout the U.S. He received a B.S.M.E. and his M.B.A. from the University of Toledo and has completed executive leadership courses at the University of Michigan and the University of Melbourne.
Francesco Memoli
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tenova Inc.
Francesco Memoli is the president and chief executive officer of Tenova Inc., a leading original equipment manufacturer (OEM) supplier of sustainable processes and technologies in the metals sector, part of the Tenova Group. He started his professional career in Spain with the automaker Nissan in 1996, but quickly moved to the steel industry, joining the Techint group of companies in 1998. His steelmaking experience begun as a metallurgical engineer in the Tenaris steel plants in Argentina and in Italy, where he was involved with steel scrap and direct reduced iron melting operations. He then moved to the sister company Tenova in Italy covering various roles, from process design to plant commissioning, from technology service to plant sales, before moving to Pittsburgh, Pa., USA, in 2008, with the task of promoting green technologies for the metalmaking sector of North America. Originally from Naples, Italy, Memoli holds an M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and an M.S. in industrial engineering from Universidad Pontificia Comillas of Madrid (Spain). He is the inventor of seven active patents about ironmaking, electric arc furnace, powder metallurgy, steel slag recycling, and safety. He has published more than 100 articles and papers and has been one of the contributors to the October 2020 “Iron and Steel Technology Roadmap” of the International Energy Agency.
Joseph Morey
Consultant, Morey Industrial Consulting
Josephy Morey is a primary iron and steelmaking expert who is in the process of starting Morey Industrial Consulting after over 28 years with United States Steel Corporation. He has held various positions from shift manager to general manager as well as several internal consulting roles and as a leader of cross-functional teams. Morey earned a chemical engineering degree from Colorado School of Mines, an M.B.A. from Indiana Wesleyan University, and a Master Black Belt Certification from Villanova University. He has represented U. S. Steel on the board of the Steel Manufacturing Simulation and Visualization Consortium with Purdue University Northwest and participates in the Indaba partnership with Carnegie Mellon University. He serves as chair of the AIST Ironmaking Technology Committee and is an active participant in the Decarbonization Subcommittee, which includes contribution to the AIST/NIST decarbonization road map.
Stephen M. Murphy
Director — General Procurement, Metallus Inc.
Stephen Murphy has been employed with Metallus (formerly TimkenSteel Corp,) for over 18 years. He is currently the director, general procurement. He is responsible for a team of commodity managers and the procurement of consumables, MRO, corporate, CapEx, energy, and plant services. In his previous role, he was the plant manager of a metal recycling facility that was owned and operated by TimkenSteel. He also held the position of unit manager of steel processing in the finishing and the rolling mill departments at TimkenSteel. He also spent four years in thermal neat as the area manager. Murphy holds an M.B.A. from the University of Ashland, and a B.A. degree Baldwin Wallace University, He has been an AIST member since 2013 and he has served on the Northeastern Ohio Member Chapter board for nine years.
April Pitts-Baggett
Senior Quality Engineer, Nucor Business Technology
April Pitts-Baggett graduated from the University of Alabama in 2004 (B.S.) and 2006 (M.S.) with degrees in metallurgical engineering. She began her career at Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa Inc. in 2006, holding multiple metallurgist and supervisor positions while concurrently completing her Ph.D., also in metallurgical engineering. In 2019, she moved to Italy to serve as the chief metallurgist of Duferdofin-Nucor. She returned to the states in 2020 to serve as a process metallurgist at Nucor Steel–Decatur LLC until 2022. Pitts-Baggett is currently the senior quality engineer with Nucor Business Technology, designing Nucor’s flat mill system upgrade. Additionally, she serves as the chair of the advisory board for the University of Alabama’s Metallurgical Engineering department and is a committee member for the Annual Nucor Children’s Charity Classic. She currently serves on AIST’s board of directors and is the awards chair for the AIST Women in Steel Membership Committee, and she is a past chair of AIST’s Ladle & Secondary Refining Technology Committee.
Neil Tannyan
USA Regional Manager – Iron and Steel, Hatch
Neil Tannyan is responsible for Hatch’s U.S. Iron and Steel business, including business development and has oversight of iron and steel project work. He has over 20 years of experience in the steel industry, having started his career at Stelco Inc.’s Hamilton, Ont., Canada, cold mill as a process metallurgist in 2001 progressing through quality and operations management roles to area manager of cold rolling and shipping. He joined Hatch in 2008 as a project manager and relocated to Ukraine then Brazil, where he worked on projects for Metinvest and Vale, respectively. He moved to Pittsburgh in 2012 and joined AIST’s Project & Construction Management Technology Committee, in which he has been heavily involved over the last 12 years, including serving as chair in 2022–2023 and developing and implementing the inaugural Project Management 101 course. Some of his notable projects include the U. S. Steel – Gary Works pig caster, U. S. Steel – Gary Works’ hot strip mill upgrade program, NLMK Pennsylvania’s walking beam reheat furnace, and the U. S. Steel – Granite City Works #1 caster project. He has a bachelor’s degree in applied science in materials engineering (2000) and master of applied science in materials engineering (2002) both from the University of Toronto. He has also been part of the AIST Foundation Scholarship Committee for the last three years and a presenter at AISTech since 2018.
Thomas C. Toner
Senior Advisor and Vice President, Operations, SSAB Americas
Tom Toner is vice president of operations for SSAB Americas, a position he has held since 2017. In this role, he has leadership responsibility for all operational activities at SSAB’s North American steel plant, including safety, productivity, cost control and quality. In addition, in March 2022 he was appointed as a member of the Transformation Office team (Stockholm, Sweden). Toner joined SSAB (formerly IPSCO) in 1998 as meltshop manager at the company’s mill in Montpelier, Iowa, USA. In 2006, he was named superintendent of Primary Operations. He was given the added responsibility in 2012 of being team leader for the Northern Business Unit (NBU), accountable for the financial performance of the NBU production facilities consisting of the Montpelier, Iowa, operations, and cut-to-length line facilities in Minnesota and Ontario. He also served as general manager of the Iowa operations from 2015 through 2017. Toner holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration (with a concentration in operations management) from the University of Delaware. He is also a graduate of the Strategic Metals Management Program, Olin Graduate School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., USA.
Kyle W. Vanover
Hot Mill Metallurgist, Steel Dynamics Inc. – Flat Roll Group Butler Division
Ted Vrehas
Director of Engineering, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.
Ted Vrehashas served as director of engineering at Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. since 2024 and leads the Construction Management Group and Capital Engineering programs for the Eastern Plate, Rail, and Specialty facilities. He earned a B.S. degree in civil/construction engineering and management from Purdue University in 1992 and began his career in the steel facilities construction market with Eichleay Corp. as an intern in 1989. He joined Graycor Industrial Constructors in 1994 and completed numerous projects in steel facilities over the next 29 years including key projects as the Rockport Works Continuous Cold Mill, rebuild of the No. 7 Blast Furnace at Indiana Harbor, rebuild of the Dearborn Blast Furnace, and the “C” Coke Battery installation at Clairton Works. Vrehas joined the Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. team in 2023 leading the construction management group to efficiently execute projects and outages. He has participated in the AIST Project & Construction Management Technology Committee since 2005, is a Midwest Member Chapter board member, and is a past Midwest Member Chapter chair.