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Former finance chief is CEO of Twinsburg steel products company
By Paula Schleis
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Saturday, Aug 30, 2008
Employees at Atlas Steel Products in Twinsburg have acquired the company from the family of its late owner, Lawrence ''Bo'' Burr.
The company's former chief financial officer, John Adams, has been named president and chief executive. He has acted in those positions since Burr became ill last year.
After Burr died in April, the Atlas management team worked with National City Bank on a plan to turn the company into a 100 percent employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) by midsummer.
''Without Bo's management style of creating an empowered work force, it would have been difficult to develop the ESOP in that short time frame,'' Adams said. ''He always encouraged all associates to view this company as theirs and that thought process was important in working through this transition.''
Atlas employs more than 80 people, most of whom have opted into the stock program.
Adams said the company is fortunate to ''be in a position to execute a transition that we believe will lead to Atlas Steel's continued growth and success.''
Growth over the past decade has been through product diversification, he said.
The company focused on aluminized steel products until
the late 1990s, when other heat- and corrosion-resistant materials were added to the lineup. Also, Burr hired a stainless-steel product manager and installed a tube mill for producing welded aluminized tubing.
Adams said Atlas' new focus is sales growth and customer service, with the goal of becoming one of the top 10 distributors of steel products in North America.
''The excitement and efforts of the management team and associates in this new ESOP company is overwhelming,'' Adams said.
Federal legislation created the ESOP system in 1974 as a way to put ownership into the hands of American workers.
Today, some 11.5 million people work for 11,000 ESOPs in the United States.
In Ohio, there are about 400 ESOPs with 480,000 employee owners.
According to the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University, the rate of ESOP growth in Ohio over the past decade has been three times the national rate.
Employees at Atlas Steel Products in Twinsburg have acquired the company from the family of its late owner, Lawrence ''Bo'' Burr.
Get the full article here.
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