Catherine Cobden

Catherine Cobden is the President & CEO of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, representing Canada’s primary steel, and pipe, and tube industry. Member companies produce 13 million tonnes of steel, pipe, and tube products and support over 123,000 jobs in Canada. Ms. Cobden has over 25 years of industry association, regulatory, and advocacy experience in Canada’s national capital of Ottawa. Prior to taking the helm of the CSPA, Ms. Cobden was President of Cobden Strategies Inc. where she provided strategic advice to many private and public sector clients in the areas of forestry, manufacturing, mining, construction, and renewable energy. Ms. Cobden also spent 13 years at the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) where, as Executive Vice President of FPAC, she played a key role in developing the sector’s long-term transformation strategy in response to changing market dynamics and the evolving expectations of civil society. Ms. Cobden is a strong advocate for climate leadership and a founding member of Nature Canada’s “Women for Nature” initiative. In 2021, she was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Lobbyists by The Hill Times. She is a Chemical Engineer from the University of Toronto and is on the Board of Directors of COREM –— a world- recognized innovation organization for Canada’s mining sector. Ms. Cobden lives in Ottawa with her husband and two children. 

Thad Solomon

President and CEO since 2021.  Served as Chief Operating Officer since August, 2020.  Prior to joining Steel Technologies in 2020, Thad held various leadership positions in the U.S. steel industry

Phillip Bell

Philip K. Bell is President of the Washington, DC-based Steel Manufacturers Association. Prior to leading the SMA, Phil served as Director of External Communications and Public Affairs for Gerdau North America based in Tampa, FL. He is a 25-year industry veteran, who developed an interest in the steel industry and manufacturing in the late 1980s while working in maintenance and operations at Elementis Chromium in Corpus Christi, TX. He has held executive-level positions in operations, human resources and public affairs with Gerdau, the SGL Carbon Group, and Qualitech Steel Corporation.Mr. Bell currently serves on the U.S. Department of Commerce International Trade Advisory Committee on Steel (ITAC 11), advising the Secretary of Commerce and United States Trade Representative on trade policy, trade agreements, and other trade related matters that benefit U.S. businesses, workers, and the economy. He is a member of the National Association of Manufacturing (NAM) Council of Manufacturing Associations (CMA) and the Association of Iron & Steel Technology. Phil graduated from Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. He holds a master’s degree in Global Strategic Communications from the University of Florida.

David Stickler

David Stickler serves as Hybar’s chief executive officer. Hybar was formed in August 2023 when the company closed on the US$700 million of financing necessary to build a technologically advanced, environmentally sustainable scrap metal recycling steel rebar mill in northeast Arkansas. He also serves as senior managing partner of Global Principal Partners. Throughout his career, Stickler has invested in, structured and raised billions of dollars of capital for numerous high-profile steel projects, including a number of greenfield mini-mill projects in North America and Asia. In addition to providing and raising capital for projects, he frequently provides ongoing management assistance to the projects Global Principal Partners invests in. He has led and structured several transactions involving scrap recycling companies and scrap substitute facilities.

Over the course of his career, Stickler has focused on using advanced technology as a tool to increase product capability, improve labor efficiency, reduce energy consumption and generally support his drive to operate steelmaking facilities based on profitability per time on the mill rather than the more traditional tons per year mentality. On his two most recent greenfield mini-mill projects, SeverCorr, now Steel Dynamics Inc. – Flat Roll Group Columbus Division, and Big River Steel, he led the effort to bring a high level of automation into the operations. Stickler is also focused on environmental sustainability and he drove Big River Steel’s efforts to become the only LEED Certified steel producer in the world (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Most recently, under his leadership, Hybar became the first steel producer in the world to issue Climate Bonds. Stickler has extensive Wall Street investment banking experience, and early in his career he served in the Reagan Administration. He holds an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.S. degree in accounting from Bowling Green State University.