AISI appoints new president and CEO to replace Sharkey

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) announced the selection of Thomas J. Gibson as the association’s president and chief executive officer.

Currently senior vice president of advocacy for the American Chemistry Council (ACC), Gibson will assume his new responsibilities on September 1.

Gibson will succeed AISI president and CEO Andrew G. Sharkey, III, who has announced his retirement after leading the Institute over the past 15 years and following a distinguished 30 year career leading steel-related trade associations.

Over his years at ACC and PCA, Gibson has established a track record of achieving legislative objectives working with both Democrats and Republicans. At ACC, he led the chemical industry’s global, federal and state advocacy efforts and has represented the Association before government and media.

At PCA, he led efforts to increase the cement industry’s visibility and clout in Washington, including spearheading industry efforts on climate change and successfully advocating for the cement industry’s inclusion in the Asia Pacific Partnership.

As chief of staff to administrators Whitman and Leavitt, Gibson directed the activities of EPA’s 12 program offices and 10 regional offices, serving as the administrator’s day-to-day manager for the 17,000 employee agency. While serving as majority deputy staff director to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, his most significant legislative accomplishment was in leading the Senate effort on the bipartisan Water Resources Development Act of 2000 that included the $8 billion Everglades Restoration Bill.

Prior to that, Gibson served as the Congressional Liaison Specialist for the EPA, representing the Agency on Capitol Hill on issues diverse as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Superfund, energy policy, global climate change and the Clean Air Act. Before that, he worked for Raytheon Company, first as a naval architect for the Systems Engineering Laboratory and then as a program manager for the Submarine Systems Directorate.