Bob Weidner is President and CEO of the Metals Service Center Institute, a 111-year-old trade association representing producers and distributors of aluminum, carbon and stainless steel. He is a member of its board of directors and ex officio member of its finance, compensation, audit and governance committees. Since joining the association in 2001, he has fiercely advocated for North American manufacturing and the use of industrial metals.
Under his leadership, MSCI successfully completed a turnaround strategy, grew its revenue from $4 million to a peak of $10 million (2015), and transformed its membership. This makeover included a merger with the former National Association of Aluminum Distributors and expansion of membership category definitions. MSCI launched numerous new proprietary products and services including: executive education programs at the Olin Business School at Washington University and a partnership with Thayer Leader Development Group, several quantitative and analytical tools. MSCI is an active member of several Coalitions advocating on behalf of manufacturing, industrial distribution and free enterprise. Working with its 30 chapters, MSCI engages in issued-based grass roots advocacy and has a joint scholarship program, which has granted almost $8 million to over 3,700 children of member company families.
Prior to joining MSCI, Weidner was a seasoned business executive with corporate turnaround experience in manufacturing, metals and food distribution. He was formerly Vice President of Human Resources at Alliant Foodservice, a $6.5 billion foodservice distribution company, and before that worked at $5 billion Inland Steel Industries. While at Inland he helped in its turnaround strategy and held a variety of accounting, finance, product management, marketing and communications positions. He has extensive experience in investor relations having been a part of teams that raised over $1 billion of new financings including: 1st Mortgage Bonds, Unsecured Debentures, Secondary Offerings, Convertible Preferred Stock and partial IPO of a metal’s distribution subsidiary. He also was a member of the senior management team responsible for raising over $1 billion from the sale of Inland Steel Company and divestiture of Ryerson as a standalone entity in 1998. Weidner was actively involved in the National Investor Relations Institute and its Senior Roundtable.
Weidner is an active leader within several business and association communities:
Weidner is a graduate of Culver Military Academy and a past director of the Culver Legion Board of Directors. He holds an M.B.A. in finance and accounting from the University of Notre Dame and a B.A. in political science from Northwestern University. He also has successfully completed the Professional Accounting Program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He and his wife, Kathy, reside in Lake Barrington, IL.