Nucor Corporation has entered into an agreement
to acquire 50% of Duferdofin-Nucor S.r.l., a new joint venture
being created with Duferco S.A. for the production of beams in
Italy and the distribution of beams in Europe and North Africa.
The joint venture includes the Duferco Group’s Italian long product
production assets and associated distribution companies.
Nucor will pay euro 423.5 million (approximately US$658 million)
for its 50% equity stake in Duferdofin-Nucor.
The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of
2008.
Hirschmann
consolidates businesses
Belden Inc., headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri,
has consolidated its affiliated Belden Europe (Venlo, The Netherlands),
HEW-Kabel (Wipperfürth, Germany), Hirschmann Automation and Control
(Neckartenzlingen, Germany) and Lumberg Automation (Schalksmühle,
Germany) companies into the newly formed business unit of Belden
EMEA.
Its operational headquarters will be located in the greater area
of Stuttgart, Germany. Dr. Wolfgang Babel, who already headed Hirschmann
and Lumberg Automation, was named president of Belden EMEA.
Besides a broad portfolio of copper and fiberoptic cables as well
as automation components, Belden EMEA will also provide solutions
for the communications technology in automation. To this end, the
business unit plans to further complement its activities with proprietary
developments as well as through acquisition. Turnover, which totalled
approximately EUR 550 million in 2007, is expected to be doubled
within the next few years.
IronPlanet
promotes Mike Groves to senior VP
IronPlanet recently promoted Mike Groves to
the position of senior vice president of North American sales.
Groves will be responsible for IronPlanet’s continued growth in
the United States, Canada and Mexico. Groves has been with IronPlanet
for five years.
Before joining IronPlanet, Groves worked for 11 years in the auction
industry as vice president and general manager of Forke Brothers
and division manager of Ritchie Brothers. Groves also held the
position of regional used equipment manager for Nortrax Southeast.
Verenium
appoints John Dee to board of directors
Verenium Corporation announced the appointment
of John F. Dee to its board of directors. The Company also announced
that Geoffrey Hazlewood, Ph.D., senior vice president of research,
has resigned for personal reasons effective May 31, 2008 and will
be returning to his native England. Dr. Hazlewood will remain as
an exclusive consultant to the Company and will join its scientific
advisory board.
Dee served as president, chief executive officer, and director
of Hypnion, Inc., a privately-held neurosciences drug discovery
company. Before Hypnion, Dee spent three years as a “turn-around”
CEO, specializing in reviving under-performing biotechnology companies
including Genta, Inc. Prior to his move into biotechnology, Dee
spent several years as a senior management consultant at McKinsey & Co.,
Inc., an international management consulting firm, where he led
teams of senior executives in the development and implementation
of new strategic directives and performance improvements.
Dee currently sits on the board of directors for NeuroPhage, Inc.,
a neuroscience company that develops biomanufacturing workflow
methods and technologies for biopharmaceutical companies.
Commercial
Metals acquires supply company
Commercial Metals Company has completed the
acquisition of substantially all the operating assets of Rebar
Services and Supply Company (RSS) of Fort Worth, Texas.
Established in 1982, RSS is a rebar fabricator that serves the
North Texas area and has approximately 30 employees. The acquired
assets will operate under the new name of CMC Rebar as part of
CMC’s Americas Fabrication and Distribution segment.
Cherry
appoints Joel Gutierrez as CFO
Joel Gutierrez has been named chief financial
officer for Houston-based Cherry Companies, a construction and
demolitions company. In his new role, Gutierrez oversees the financial
operations of Cherry and handles all cash management for the company.
Gutierrez, who joined Cherry over four years ago, has more than
17 years of experience in accounting. He started out at Cherry
as the assistant controller and then moved to the controller role.
Prior to Cherry, he served as the financial analyst and regional
accountant at Philip Services Corporation, where he managed the
financial statements for the Midwest region of the industrial services
company.
Smurfit-Stone names new director
of quality
Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation has named Julie Robinson director
of quality for corporate accounts in the company’s Corrugated Container
division.
Robinson will serve as a liaison between customers, corporate sales
representatives and the company’s box plants, ensuring that internal
and external customer quality requirements are met.
Robinson, a 30-year veteran of the packaging industry, previously
served as general manager of Smurfit-Stone’s label plants in St.
Charles, Illinois, and Greensboro, North Carolina. Those facilities
were sold as part of Smurfit-Stone’s Consumer Packaging division
divestiture in 2006.
Doosan president retires after
30 years of service
Lawrence Silber, president of Doosan Infracore Portable Power,
formerly Ingersoll Rand Utility Equipment, had announced his retirement
effective June 1, 2008, after 30 years of distinguished service.
Silber began his career with Ingersoll Rand working as a sales
trainee in the professional tools group.
He moved into marketing and business management for that business
unit, holding various positions such as regional and national sales
manager. In 1989, Silber was promoted to vice president, holding
that title in many capacities of the business: sales and worldwide
marketing, automotive aftermarket and sales distribution operations.
In 2006, Silber was named president of Ingersoll Rand Utility Equipment.
Selection of a new president is underway.
Olympic Wire new distributor
for IPS Balers
Olympic Wire and Equipment, Inc., a supplier of products and service
to the waste and recycling industry, has reached an agreement with
Georgia-based IPS Balers, Inc. to become an authorized dealer for
the company’s Conquest Series and Two-Ram Bale Tie Balers.
Olympic is now the authorized distributor of IPS equipment in California,
Nevada and Arizona. The company also provides customers with regular
maintenance and repair programs, making it the only IPS distributor
to service these models in the western United States.
Austen joins Safety Vision as
director of engineering
Safety Vision, a provider of mobile digital video solutions, has
hired Russell Austen as director of engineering. In this new position,
Austen will manage the company’s in-house engineering department
at its Houston, Texas headquarters campus, which features on-site
research & development, testing, and quality control labs.
In league with Safety Vision Chief Technology Officer Christopher
Fritz, he will steer conceptualization and design of the company’s
evolving line of mobile digital video recorder (MDVR) systems and
wireless data capture and management solutions.
Before joining Safety Vision, Austen held positions as system architect/design
lead for Immersive Media, Inc./Freestone Systems, Inc. and Texas
Instruments, Inc. in Dallas, Texas.
Patrick Harper joins MHF Packaging
Solutions
MHF Logistical Solutions, Inc. announced that Patrick Harper has
been named business development manager of the company’s packaging
division, MHF Packaging Solutions.
Before joining MHF Packaging Solutions, Harper worked as a sales
executive with EMA, a St. Louis, Missouri-based company specializing
in industrial and commercial waste management, beneficial reuse
programs, and environmental remediation and abatement projects.
His environmental sales and marketing background also includes
roles with Illini Environmental, Haz-Waste, Inc. and Tri-Rinse,
Inc.
