Bert Tenenbaun, longtime president of the Savannah-based company his family founded nearly a century ago, has been promoted by Chatham Steel’s parent company to corporate director of wellness for Reliance Steel & Aluminum.
Jerry Rooney, formerly executive vice president of Liebovich Steel & Aluminum in Rockford, Ill. – also a Reliance Steel company – has been named president of Chatham Steel.
The Savannah company, which became part of Reliance in 1998, embarked on a wellness initiative in the mid 1990s. Through Tenenbaum’s leadership, Chatham Steel has been recognized many times on a national basis for its achievements in wellness and health care cost containment.
With Reliance (NYSE: RS), Tenenbaum will leverage his wellness knowledge and the health care cost containment he has experienced with Chatham Steel’s 300 employees to the 11,000 employees who make up the Reliance family of companies.
“We accomplished a lot with wellness at Chatham Steel,” Tenenbaum said Tuesday. “We improved employee health and, because we are self-insured, we were able to increase benefits with no increase in costs to our employees.
“Reliance recently opted to become self-insured and, because we already had a solid track record at Chatham Steel, they asked me to take the lead.”
Tenenbaum said he has no immediate plans to move from Savannah, choosing instead to work at home and commute when necessary to Reliance headquarters in Los Angeles. He also plans to continue his extensive involvement in the community, where he serves on a number of boards and authorities.
A former chairman of the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, Tenenbaum also served as chairman of the United Way of the Coastal Empire. In 2007, he led the annual United Way campaign, surpassing his goal of $8 million.
Tenenbaum’s promotion and Rooney’s appointment mark the first time in Chatham Steel’s 98-year history the company has been headed by a non-family member.
“It’s definitely a new day for us, but a good one,” he said. “I’ve known Jerry for more than 14 years. Liebovich Steel is very much like Chatham Steel. The transition should be seamless.
“They won’t even know I’m gone.”
Chatham Steel was founded in Savannah in 1915 by Samuel Tenenbaum as a scrap iron and metals business. Samuel’s three sons came into the business, which expanded into plumbing and industrial supplies in 1937. In the late 1940s, the company expanded into steel warehousing. Five third-generation family members - including Bert Tenenbaum - became active in management in the 1960s and ‘70s, guiding the company through rapid growth in the 1980s.
In the early 1990s, the company sold its industrial supply and recycling businesses to concentrate on strengthening its metals distribution division. In the late 1900s, the company became part of steel giant Reliance.
ABOUT RELIANCE
Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. is the largest metals service center company in North America. Through a network of more than 240 locations in 38 states and ten other countries, the company provides value-added metals processing services and distributes a full line of over 100,000 metal products to more than 125,000 customers in a broad range of industries.
