In July, it was announced to the employee-owners of Scot Forge that Ron Hahn was promoted to President of the company but would continue to maintain his role of Chief Operating Officer.
This is a natural progression for Scot Forge; Ron has a long history with the company and has been sharing many of the President’s responsibilities with CEO and Chairman of the Board, John Cain, since becoming COO in 2011.
Ron joined the company in 1990 as an intern in Maintenance and Engineering performing all sorts of hands-on tasks with the equipment care and maintenance. That year, he was the recipient of the Peter I. Georgeson Scholarship from the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). His potential was quickly realized and in 1991 he was hired on full-time. He continued to work in Engineering and in 2001 was promoted to the Engineering Manager. In 2006, Ron earned the opportunity to serve as the Project Crew supervisor. By 2008, Ron was promoted to Director of Manufacturing which was followed by the promotion Vice President and COO in 2011.
Ron has contributed to the success of Scot Forge in many ways over the course of his career, but his favorite project has been the design and engineering of the 5,500 Ton press in Spring Grove. Ron was responsible for putting the business case together for the asset but recalled with pride how it took the dedication of the entire Engineering and Maintenance teams to get the press up and running within a strict deadline of a year to meet some critical customer needs. He stated about the project, “The fun part was seeing the team come together. There was a mission and the team came together to make that happen.”
When asked about his newest promotion, Ron stated that he’s most looking forward to building on the relationships that make us all stronger…with employee-owners, customers, partners, suppliers and competitors. Since he has worked on both the operations and commercial sides of the business, he understands the advantages of these long-term partnerships and how they translate to benefits for all parties involved.
Since the transition of President from John to Ron happened during healthy economic times, Ron can focus on his strategy to continue to build on the strengths of our culture, order fulfillment and on-going customer learning.
“I’ve been here 27 and a half years,” he stated, “and the culture is what differentiates us. We’ll continue to grow and invest where our customers need us. [Regarding] our business development ... we're not stopping that either. Diversification in our markets is an important part of our strategy, especially with our employee-ownership culture. Our strategy will always be looking to grow where our customers need us.”
Ron describes his priorities as faith, family and work family. He has two children who both attend UW-Madison. He loves to spend his free time golfing with his kids and his wife, Cami.
John Cain will continue to serve in his role as the CEO and Chairman of the Board at Scot Forge. Read John’s full letter to the Scot Forge employee-owners about this long-term transition.
Read the Full Letter