Bethlehem Steel Establishes New Centralized Procurement and Transportation Organization
Bethlehem Steel Corporation
For Immediate Release
BETHLEHEM, Pa., October 27, 2000 - Continuing its drive to lower costs, simplify and streamline corporate structure and enhance stockholder value, Bethlehem Steel Corporation has established a new centralized procurement and transportation organization.
In announcing the establishment of the new organization, Duane R. Dunham, Bethlehem Steel's chairman, president and chief executive officer said, "Today's business environment demands speed and functional alignment to provide our operations with best-in-class service and our customers with quality products and solutions. This new organization will better enable us to do that by leveraging our buying across the entire enterprise. It will also allow us to more efficiently control our inventories, better coordinate our shipments and better position us to take advantage of new e-Procurement and e-Business opportunities."
Leading the new organization will be Thomas J. Conarty, senior vice president and chief procurement and information officer. Said Mr. Conarty, "Quite simply our objective for our procurement and transportation organization is to take control of the entire supply chain in a more unified, efficient and effective manner. It will involve approaching the entire process holistically from procurement to production planning and scheduling to shipping finished product to our customers. The new organization will also allow us to accelerate our corporate-wide strategic sourcing initiative that has already proven to be a very valuable cost reduction tool."
Key leaders in the new organization reporting to Mr. Conarty are as follows:
Jonathan P. Krum has been appointed general manager, procurement. Mr. Krum will be responsible for all procurement activities throughout the corporation including raw materials, MRO, capital and services. He will also be responsible for all procurement activities at Bethlehem's business units. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Krum was general manager, raw materials. As part of this realignment, Victor H. Dodson has been appointed district purchasing manager-east, and will be responsible for purchasing activities at the Sparrows Point Division and Pennsylvania Steel Technologies. John H. Keiser has been appointed district purchasing manager-west, and will be responsible for purchasing activities at the Burns Harbor Division including the Galvanized Products Division in Lackawanna, N.Y. Both will report to Mr. Krum.
Ronald D. Casbon has been appointed general manager, transportation and logistics. Mr. Casbon will be responsible for all transportation and logistics activities throughout the corporation including production planning and scheduling, transportation and all transportation related activities at Bethlehem's business units. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Casbon was general manager, MRO, capital, reclamation and services. Key transportation managers at all locations will report to Mr. Casbon, along with Delmar A. Davis, director of transportation, and Dr. Charles F. Long, manager, production planning and scheduling.
Peter J. Franolic will continue as director, corporate energy affairs, and James F. Reynolds will continue as director of information technology.