Steel Dynamics has given the chief executive's job to its finance chief of nineteen years, and the co-founder she succeeds becomes executive chairman on the same day
Mark Millett gave notice on a Monday.
Steel Dynamics told the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday morning that Millett, its chairman and chief executive, had informed the board on 3 August of his intention to retire as chief executive effective 1 January 2027, and that the board has appointed him executive chairman from the same date. Theresa E. Wagler, executive vice president and chief financial officer, becomes president and chief executive on 1 January. Richard A. Poinsatte, executive vice president and treasurer, becomes chief financial officer that day.
One change took effect immediately. The board seated Wagler as a director and grew itself from seven members to eight to make room.
Four operating chiefs move four months earlier
The same item lists appointments effective 1 September, and they reach further down the company than the succession itself does. Barry Schneider, currently president and chief operating officer, becomes executive vice president and chief technology officer. Miguel Alvarez moves from senior vice president of the aluminum group to chief operating officer for aluminum flat rolled products and metals recycling operations. James Anderson moves from the long products steel group to chief operating officer for construction products operations, and Christopher Graham moves from the flat roll steel group to chief operating officer for flat rolled steel operations.
Read the dates together and one title goes missing. Schneider gives up president on 1 September. Wagler does not pick it up until 1 January, and the filing names nobody in between.
What the filing does not say
It gives no reason for the retirement beyond the notice itself, and it attaches no compensation arrangement for any of the seven officers named. The press release filed with it calls the announcement the culmination of a succession planning process, and quotes Kenneth Cornew, the lead independent director, thanking Millett for the company "he co-founded over 30 years ago". On Wagler the same release is specific about length of service and says nothing about pay: executive vice president and chief financial officer since 2007, and at the company for 28 years.
Nineteen of those years were spent signing the accounts.
The company published no financial results with this filing, and the 8-K carries no forecast, no guidance and no restatement. It is a list of names and dates.
