Industry leaders recognized for lifetime achievement

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. (ISRI) bestowed Lifetime Achievement Awards on two outstanding industry leaders during its 2010 Annual Convention and Exposition in San Diego. This year’s recipients are Tom Salome and Marvin Siegel.

Salome has spent a lifetime in Waco, Texas, growing one of the most successful scrap recycling businesses in the region, and emerging as a distinguished community leader. His success has always been driven by a passion for learning. He was the first male in his family to attend college, graduating from Baylor University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1953. He continued his business studies, pursuing a master’s degree in economics before entering the Air Force during the Korean War.

In 1957, Salome began working for Melvin Lipsitz, owner of a small scrap yard, M. Lipsitz & Co. Lipsitz became his mentor and, at age 25, with no previous experience in the scrap business, Salome embarked on a 53-year career in the scrap industry.

As the company expanded, he was rewarded with an increasing ownership share and a greater role in management. During this period, Salome also began his lifelong participation in the industry’s associations, beginning with the Institute of Scrap Iron and Steel and later ISRI. During the past five decades, he has held numerous leadership roles in ISRI and its predecessor organizations, including board member, every leadership position in the Gulf Coast Chapter, ISIS finance committee chair, and ISRI convention chair.

Siegel built a thriving scrap business in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Unlike many recyclers who are active in a family scrap business from a young age, Siegel’s early education and career was in public accounting, working in the textile business. In 1977, he left textiles to become a partner in a small scrap metal operation called Spartanburg Iron & Metal Corporation.

Ten years later, Siegel bought the company and, through a series of highly successful mergers and acquisitions, saw it grow into one of the largest scrap processing and recycling companies in the industry. At his retirement in 2009, Marvin Siegel was executive vice president of Omnisource Southeast, a business unit that included over 30 yards with seven shredders in five different states.

In the 1980s, Siegel became active in the industry associations ISIS and NARI, and later ISRI. He became involved in chapter and national committee work, serving as chapter president and a member of the ISRI board and executive committee. His distinguished service as chair of the ISRI legislative affairs committee was invaluable during the struggle to achieve relief from Superfund liability, resulting in the passage of the Superfund Recycling Equity Act in 1999.