July/August 2003
Jerry Solomon began his career as an aluminum trader in 1952, and he hasn’t looked back since. Now almost 79, he takes a moment to review his weighty contributions to this light metal.
By Si Wakesberg
Solomon’s Story
Background: Born Sept. 4, 1924, in Chicago, where he also grew up.
Education: “I attended the University of Chicago from first grade through my master’s degree,” Solomon says. Indeed, he attended UC’s laboratory school through high school then continued there on his undergraduate studies, which were interrupted by military service in World War II. Upon discharge, he returned to UC to complete his bachelor of arts degree in 1947 and went on to earn an MBA there in 1949.
Military Service: Enlisted in the U.S. Army in April 1943, serving in the Americal Infantry Division as a machine gunner in the South Pacific. Near the end of World War II, he was transferred to the intelligence section of his battalion. He was discharged in December 1945.
Family: Married Carol Simon in 1946. Three children—James and fraternal twins Robert and Judy—and six grandchildren.
Career: Parlayed his experience as a buyer for a department store into a position as a buyer for U.S. Reduction Co. in 1952, eventually becoming a vice president at the firm. Left in 1981 to form the Chicago-based metal trading division for Hunter Douglas Co. Led that division until 1993 and continued to serve Hunter Douglas in other contexts for several more years. Currently consults for several other metal companies.
Association Highlights: Participated for years on NARI’s metal consumers division, filling the post of president from 1978 to 1980. Also worked on the specifications committee and served on NARI’s national executive committee in 1980 and as a NARI director from 1981 to 1983.
Hobbies: Golf and stamp collecting.When Jerry Solomon finished his Army service in 1945, he had no idea that his career path would eventually lead him into the aluminum industry. His first career, in fact, was far afield from metals—working as a buyer for a Chicago department store. He started out in 1947 buying decorative household products such as draperies and shades, then became the principal buyer of boys’ and mens’ clothing. By 1952, he’d ascended to assistant merchandising manager, and his prospects in the retail business seemed unlimited.
Then the department store’s union employees went on strike. “I decided then it was the right time to leave,” Solomon says. Fortunately, one of his personal friends was a man named Charles Rosenblum, then vice president of U.S. Reduction Co., a leading secondary aluminum smelter. When Rosenblum heard that Solomon was seeking a new career, he said to him, “You’re already a buyer—why don’t you come and buy for us?”
Solomon didn’t have to be asked twice. So, in 1952, he agreed to work for U.S. Reduction as an aluminum scrap buyer based in the company’s East Chicago, Ind., location. Before he was officially hired, he recalls, he had to take a handful of tests. “At that time,” Solomon explains, “it was very ‘in’ to give job candidates all kinds of psychological and mechanical aptitude tests.” Though he laughs that he probably got “the lowest score ever” on the mechanical aptitude test, those results obviously had no effect on his ultimate success in the aluminum industry.
When Solomon began his aluminum career, “there were many outstanding aluminum purchasing specialists in the smelting field,” he recounts. Two of them were Leo London and Ed Teller, the deans of scrap purchasing at U.S. Reduction. When London died in the late 1950s and Teller relocated to Los Angeles to help the company open a new plant there, Solomon took over their former scrap-purchasing responsibilities.
Over the years, Solomon not only became a vice president of U.S. Reduction, but he also earned the reputation as a top trader in the domestic and international secondary aluminum markets. Solomon was instrumental, for instance, in expanding the firm’s trading activities into the world market. He bought silicon metal from Yugoslavia and remelt secondary ingot from Russia, making U.S. Reduction “one of the few companies doing business there during the Cold War days,” he notes. Solomon also opened trading offices for the company in key cities such as Tokyo and London.
Solomon’s smooth, steady career progress continued until 1976, when international conglomerate American Can Co. acquired U.S. Reduction. This purchase came as a “traumatic shock” to Solomon because “we used to be a very close-knit organization, then we suddenly became part of a huge company with management elsewhere.”
Though he had some reservations, Solomon signed a five-year contract to continue working for U.S. Reduction. When his contract expired in 1981, however, he decided to leave the company. “I was 57 years old, and I figured this might be my last opportunity to do something different,” he states. How different? “I was crazy enough to start a brand-new business,” he says.
Taking a Different Track
Solomon’s “brand-new business” came about this way: While at U.S. Reduction, Solomon had come to know executives at Hunter Douglas Co., a producer of aluminum products. That Netherlands-based company had a manufacturing plant in Roxboro, N.C., and Solomon wanted to form his own trading firm and “do the buying for that plant for them.” The company, which had trading offices in Europe but none in the United States, liked the idea but asked Solomon if he’d start the business as part of Hunter Douglas rather than as an independent firm—and he agreed.
The new entity became the metal trading division of Hunter Douglas, and Solomon led the division as president from an office in Chicago. “We traded anything we could,” he recounts. “We bought aluminum scrap and some sheet products, traded primary and secondary aluminum ingot, and so on.” Under his energetic leadership, the division grew spectacularly, at one time having offices and operating subsidiaries in Tokyo, London, the Netherlands, and the United States. Asked whether it occurred to him that he was building a new company at an age when many executives retire, Solomon says with a smile: “I wasn’t aware that I was that old.”
Solomon headed this division for 12 years—until about 1993—when he opted to scale back his involvement. “Think of a man who wanted to keep his hand on everything and when he realized it was no longer possible, he retired,” he says. So, Solomon willingly handed over the reins of the metal trading division to Alan Klein, believing that companies of this type needed to be guided by younger executives. (Notably, Solomon still keeps in touch with the division’s management, currently led by George Ribet, whom he praises and with whom he maintains good relations.)
Though he retired as head of the metal trading division, Solomon continued to work for Hunter Douglas for several years in other contexts, such as helping the firm open a scrap-purchasing office on Longboat Key, Fla. While he’s now completely retired from Hunter Douglas, Solomon still consults for several other companies “in a very minor way,” he says.
Looking Back
Today, nearing 79, you can find Solomon mostly on the golf course, looking fit and tanned by the Florida sun. He owns a condo in Florida and spends his summers in Michigan City, Ind. Wherever he is, his mind is never far from aluminum, and he can’t resist turning the conversation to market issues.
“Look at the changes that have occurred,” he says. “The LME is now the chief price determinant, and the auto companies want to buy their aluminum ingot based on LME quotes. There are fewer secondaries—they expanded too much and then fell on very hard times. Today, a prime such as Alcoa is aggressive in the aluminum market, both on the scrap-buying end and in selling ingot to die casters. Manufacturers are making more precise products, so there’s less scrap available, and China is gobbling up lots and lots of scrap.”
Then he puts the searchlight on the primes. “When you look around,” he observes, “you see that Reynolds does not even exist anymore, Kaiser is wobbling, and Alcoa is into scrap. It certainly is a vastly different industry than the one I entered in 1952.”
Though he acknowledges that smelters and processors today are facing difficult economic conditions and other imposing challenges, Solomon still has a few words of advice based on his decades in the industry: “Keep your costs down, carefully watch the competition, pay attention to the global market, and make sure you know the people to whom you are selling.”
While many people influenced his thinking over the years, he names a few as his true mentors, including Charles Rosenblum and Ed Bergman of U.S. Reduction; Ralph and Henry Sonnenberg of Hunter Douglas; Hans van Rhijn, a liaison with Hunter Douglas; and Martin Tressel of Alcoa.
Solomon can also look back and point to his long, distinguished involvement in the National Association of Recycling Industries (NARI). “The minute I had a territory for buying scrap,” he says, “I started going to the local chapter meetings and the national convention, then I got involved in NARI’s metal consumers division.” Indeed, Solomon served in that division “for a long time,” eventually becoming the division’s president. His NARI service also included contributions to the specifications committee and stints on the national executive committee and as a director.
“What really stands out in my mind, though,” he says, “is the very first aluminum roundtable where we had 21 attendees sitting around a table discussing the market outlook. Look at what’s happened: Today, ReMA gets more than 350 attendees at that same roundtable.”
Time has indeed brought dramatic changes to the aluminum market, the scrap industry, and its trade associations. Despite the changes, some things remain the same—like Solomon’s credo for success. “I’d say that working hard is the most important thing,” he says. “To get ahead in today’s competitive world, you still have to burn the midnight oil.” •
Si Wakesberg is New York bureau chief for Scrap.
Jerry Solomon began his career as an aluminum trader in 1952, and he hasn’t looked back since. Now almost 79, he takes a moment to review his weighty contributions to this light metal.