Moving Metal

illness was terminal, his death still shocked the company. “We are greatly saddened by Steve’s death,” announced Hannah. “He was an important part of the Reliance family and he will be missed.” To succeed Weis, Dave Hannah promoted from within, naming thirty-three-year-old Karla Lewis as Reliance’s new CFO. It was a bold move, considering Lewis’s relative youth, but she had earned the position. She “performed many of the functions of Chief Financial Officer as Steve bravely fought his battle with cancer,” noted Hannah. Lewis was no novice when it came to dealing—and negotiating—with the big corporate banks. Board member Les Waite later recalled how Lewis stepped naturally into the job. “It wasn’t even a decision,” he said. “We just accepted that Karla was going to be the CFO.” “We couldn’t operate without her,” Waite added, “She’s just spectacular.” One other major management change occurred on January 28, 1999, when Crider retired as CEO, placing the company completely in the hands of the new generation of Hannah, Mollins, and Lewis. “They’re very good people,” Crider said, “the best in the industry.” Dave Hannah became the new CEO—no surprise since it had been in the manage- ment succession plan for years. “Dave’s contribution to our success is self-evident, and his proven ability as President makes him the obvious choice to lead Reliance into the twen- ty-first century,” Crider declared. “He will be an outstanding leader for the next couple of decades.” Although Crider was officially retired, he stayed on as Chairman of the Board in a non-executive capacity. Dave Hannah was already known as Reliance’s “Man of Steel,” as the Los Angeles Business Journal dubbed him. Hannah had earned the title, in part by working twelve-hour

By the late 1990s, Dave Hannah had made a name for Reliance—and for himself, as Metal Center News named him “Service-Center Executive of the Year.”

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