15th Annual Mexican Steel Forum

Since 1998, Christopher Plummer has been Managing Director and Chief Consultant for Metal Strategies Inc., a leading international management consulting company in the field of steel, metals and mining.

Mr. Plummer is one of the most widely-known industry analysts with over 20 years of experience. His previous positions include:

• Managing Director and Senior Vice President, World Steel Consulting for the 400-member CRU International (Commodity Research Unit) -London

• Managing Director and Senior Vice President of World Steel and Metals Industry Practice for Chase Manhattan Bank.

• Managing Director, World Steel, Metals and Mining Consulting for Standard & Poor’s DRI-WEFA (now Global Insight) the world’s leading and largest business analysis and forecasting company, founded by 1981 Nobel Economics Laureate Lawrence Klein

Agustin Del Rio got his undergraduate degree in Economics from Monterrey Tech. He obtained his Masters Degree and finished his doctoral studies in Economics at the University of Missouri at Columbia, specializing in Econometrics and Monetary Theory and Policy. He is also a graduate of the Program for Management Development in the Graduate School of Business at Harvard University.

He started his professional career as a Full Time Professor of Economics at Monterrey Tech. He later worked as an economist at Grupo Industrial ALFA in Monterrey, Mexico, and in the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund, in Washington, D. C.

He has been Manager of Economic Studies at the Container Division of Vitro, and Chief Economist and Director of Corporate Planning of the same business conglomerate.

Mr. Del Rio was also Director of Research of the Centro de Análisis y Difusión Económica (CADE), a Think Tank engaged in Economic Policy Analysis, in Monterrey, Mexico.

At the present time, Mr. Del Rio is Regional Delegate for Banco de Mexico, and teaches part time at Universidad de Monterrey .

Edmo Chagas has covered the LatAm basic materials industries since 1996, first at Pactual, then at UBS and now at BTG Pactual. An Institutional Investor ranked analyst, he has one of broadest coverage of Latin American steel companies in the region.

Sergio Martin has specialized in Mexican economic issues for 25 years. He is currently the head Mexico economist for HSBC. His professional experience includes prominent positions in the federal government, Banca Serfin, ING, Barings, JPMorgan Chase and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Mr Martin’s work has also been published widely, and he has taught in several Mexican universities.

Richard is a strategy consultant to the Iron & Steel and related industries with over 20 years of experience. Prior to joining Deloitte Consulting, he was a Managing Director of Hatch Beddows, a strategy consultancy specializing in Mining and Metals clients worldwide.

He has experience consulting on issues related to corporate and business unit strategy development, capital investment planning and appraisal, new market and product development, and merger and acquisition planning and support. His clients have represented virtually every world region, and have included producers, suppliers, customers, governments, unions, lenders, private equity and other investors.

Prior to joining Hatch Beddows, Richard was the Director of Strategic Planning at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh.

Richard received a B.A. from Yale University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and resides in Pittsburgh, PA.

David Brooks is currently Senior Vice President of American Metal Market. Previously, he was Deputy Editor of AMM and worked for AMM and sister publication Metal Bulletin in both London and New York.

Brooks, who started his career as a metals reporter in 1998, oversees AMM and AMM Events' day-to-day operations.

Oscar Rivera was born in Mexico were he initiated his career with Ryerson, he graduated with a BA in International Business from ITESM Monterrey, an internship on International Business Development in The European University in Belgium and earned an MBA from Birmingham Business School in England.

He has over 12 years of experience in the steel service center industry; he initiated his career with Ryerson in Mexico were he held various sales and marketing positions. In 2002, he was asked to join the Ryerson Global Accounts Group based in Chicago, IL to lead sales activities to major OEM’s within US & Mexico. His current responsibilities include reestablishing Ryerson’s position in the Mexican market.

Ryerson is a leading distributor and processor of metals in North America. Headquartered in Chicago, we operate service centers in cities across the United States, Canada and China where we serve an expanding international customer base.

Ron Stowe was appointed Director of Product Coordination for ThyssenKrupp Steel USA, LLC in April, 2008. He is responsible for coordinating the monthly sales volumes and pricing for the carbon steel segment of ThyssenKrupp’s new $4.2 billion steel and stainless steel processing facilities currently under construction in Calvert, AL. When completed, the facilities will employ 2,700 employees and produce approximately one million metric tons of stainless product and four million metric tons of carbon steel annually.

Ron previously served as Manager, Hot Rolled Products for Bethlehem Steel Corporation. He began his career at Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1962. Ron left Bethlehem Steel in 2003 and joined Primary Steel, LLC where he was initially General Manager of the New Castle, DE division. In 2006, Ron became Director of Supply Chain Management for Primary Steel LLC and relocated to the Chicago area.

Ron graduated from Youngstown State University in 1960. He is a graduate of the Infantry School at Fort Benning, GA and served in the US Army where he attained the rank of Captain.

Luis Landois is Sales Director of Altos Hornos de Mexico an integrated steel mill located in Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico, with an annual capacity of 3 million metric tons of finish products. Landois joined Altos Hornos de Mexico in 1996 as Sales Sub manager for the Northern Region, since then he has moved through various positions including Sales Manager for Capital Goods sector and Distribution Sales Sub director.

Luis Landois is member of the Board of Directors of the National chamber of the steel industry in Mexico and has been a speaker in several steel forums as the National confederation of steel distributors in Mexico, Association of steel distributors of Jalisco, Association of steel distributors of Monterrey, and the American Institute of International Steel.

Born in Nueva Rosita, Coahuila Mexico, graduated from the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Monterrey Tec) with a Bachelor degree in Business Administration. He earned an MBA degree with elective emphasis in marketing from National University in San Diego, California.

Arturo Marroquin has been, recently, appointed General Manager of Acero Prime, the leader steel processor and distributor in Mexico. He joined the company in year 2000 and among other accomplishments he has successfully started up operations of the Ramos Arizpe and Toluca Plants; coordinating activities from the construction works to the business transition from other plants.

Since 1996 he has been involved in the steel service centers industry, where he has held different rolls such as Product Engineer, Automotive Sales Coordinator and Plant Manager among others.

Mr. Marroquin was born in Monterrey, Mexico. He holds an MBA degree from EGADE and a B.S degree in Mechanical Engineering from Universidad de Monterrey.

Ramón Treviño Guajardo graduated with a Business Administration degree from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.

Joined the AD2 Top Business Management Program at the IPADE Business School.

President of the Northeast Steel Distributors Association in 1997.

Vice-President of Steel Service Centers at CANACINTRA (National Association of Transformation Industries) in 2002 and 2003.

President of the National Confederation of Steel Distributors in 2004 and 2005.

Mr. Trevino has held different positions in several family-owned companies, all of them related to the steel industry business, and since 1995 holds the CEO position at Fortacero.

Graduated from ITESM (Monterrey Tech) with a Major in Chemical Engineer and minor in Administration.

He also has had graduate studies in Administration and Management at Harvard Extension School and a

Master in Administration from the ITESM (Monterrey Tech) as well.

He Started working in 1994 at the ALFA Group in Versax division for a 2 year. After he joined Steel Technologies de Mexico where he has gone through different managerial positions up to his current one as Senior Vice President.

Founder in 1966 of Serviacero Steel service center located in León, Guanajuato, with 3 divisions: Comercial, Worthington jv., and Especiales (www.serviacero.com).

Mr Zermeño Padilla handles operations across different locations in México, and is also Chairman of the Board. He has also participated in different institutional groups, including educational and non-profit organizations. He is currently a member of the Board of CANACERO, and President of the CONADIAC association.

Mr Zermeño Padilla was born in Dec 8 ,1942 and has a Bachelor degree at ITESM in Monterrey campus 1965, and post-graduate studies at the University of Austin,Texas, and IPADE in México.

Frank Haflich has covered various aspects of the metal market for AMM for over 15 years, including the West Coast steel market, aerospace, titanium and Latin America. He is a graduate of the University of Connecticut.

Al Zapanta was born in Los Angeles, Calif., and attended local schools and college in the

Los Angeles area. He received an Associate of Arts from East Los Angeles College, a

Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Psychology, a Master of Arts in Public Administration and

completed course work for his Ph.D. in International Political Economics from the University of Southern California. He graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Business and the Inter-American Defense College, the National War College, in Washington, D.C. He speaks Spanish fluently and has an elementary knowledge of French.

In the private sector, he worked as an industrial engineer for Bethlehem Steel, and as

Director of Governmental Affairs for ARCO until his retirement in 1993 after 18 years of

service as a senior executive. During his time with ARCO, Al was responsible for

negotiations with Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) on oil and gas matters and the copper

mines owned by Anaconda, an acquisition of ARCO. He was also the company's

representative to local, state and federal governments on oil and gas legislation,

environmental regulation, transportation-related issues (pipelines, ocean tankers, tanker

trucks and rail tank cars) and public affairs.

Al has held numerous Presidential appointments, including a White House fellow in 1973-74 and as Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Management and

Administration from 1976-77. During both of these assignments he participated as chairman of Infrastructure Studies on Urban Mass Transit, Rail Transportation, the Airport Airways Study, the Water Conservation Initiative, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Fraud Review, the Teton Dam Disaster Audit, and was the Department's representative to the National Visitor Center Intermodal Station in Washington, D.C. Al was also appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the U.S. State Department Advisory Committee on International Trade Technology and Development from 1981-1987, and by President George W. Bush as a private sector delegate to the U.S. - Mexico Partnership for Prosperity from 2001-Present. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfield appointed Al Zapanta to serve as Chairman of the Reserve Forces Policy Board (RFPB) from 2002-2004.

He was appointed the first U.S. senior officer to lead a Peacekeeping Mission to the United Nations Referendum on the Western Sahara to serve with USSR, People's Republic of China, French and British military officers as the Chief of Staff. General Zapanta's military record includes the award of the Silver Star, five Bronze Stars for Valor, the Purple Heart and thirty other awards during the Vietnam War. He was also recently awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal for Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Restore Hope in Somalia and Restore Democracy in Haiti. Mr. Zapanta was appointed by the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia to the rank of Major General.

Presently, Al is the President and CEO of the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce and is responsible for operations in ten regional offices in the United States and ten in Mexico.

Mr. Eguren is the chief executive officer of Ternium Mexico. He is Counselor of CAINTRA. Prior to that he served as chief executive officer of Sidor. He has held several other executive positions since joining the Techint Group in 1987, such as commercial director of Sidor, chief executive officer of Tavsa, general manager of Socominter (Venezuela), economic planning manager and treasurer of Tamsa, and commercial planning manager of Siderca. He was also director of IVES (Venezuelan Steel Institute), ILAFA (Latin-American Institute of Iron and Steel) and Matesi, and president of CAVEARG (Venezuelan Argentinean Chamber). Mr. Eguren is an Argentine citizen

Education:

MBA in Business Management

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, Massachusetts, 1996

BA in Business Administration

Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina, 1987.

Career Path:

Chief Executive Officer, Ternium México. 2008 - current.

Chief Executive Officer, SIDOR; Caracas, Venezuela. 2004 – 2008.

Commercial Director, SIDOR; Caracas, Venezuela. 2000 - 2004.

Chief Executive Officer, TAVSA; Caracas, Venezuela. 1998 - 2000.

General Manager, SOCOMINTER; Caracas, Venezuela. 1997 - 1998.

Treasurer, TAMSA; México D.F. 1996 - 1997.

Finnancial Planner, TAMSA; Veracruz, México. 1993 - 1995.

Team Leader, Commercial Planning Division SIDERCA; Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1992 -1993.

Internship, Financial Planning Division SIDERCA; Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1987 – 1992.

Mr. Barajas was born in Mexico an initiated his career there with Whirlpool in 1991. He graduated with a BA in Economics from the Monterrey Tech at Monterrey Mexico, and MBA from the Universidad Regiomontana at Monterrey Mexico and a Master of International Management from Thunderbird in Glendale, Arizona.

Mr. Barajas initiated his career as a Buyer and then Commodity Manager at Whirlpool in Monterrey, Mexico and in late 1997 he was asked to join the Global Procurement Group based at St. Joseph, MI. During his career at Whirlpool, he has held different positions with increasing responsibility for global commodities such as steel, compressors, motors, glass, evaporators and other.

His latest global procurement responsibilities, have been in the position of Global Director of Cooling Systems Sourcing in the period of 2004-2005 and since 2006, he has held the position of Director Global Commodity Management - Steel which represents the largest commodity spend for Whirlpool.

In his latest role he was given the task to globalize the steel sourcing group which before 2006 was organized in multi-regional teams. Today, the global steel team manages the steel supply for over 40 facilities in 12 different countries, and counts with sourcing offices at India, Brazil, Mexico, China and USA. Whirlpool is considered in the industry as one of the leading companies in the globalization of steel sourcing, and the creation of global relationships with their suppliers.

James M. Gresh is vice president – global marketing and Steel Group international operations at The Timken Company.

Named to the position in 2009, Gresh is responsible for all international sales and operations for the company's Steel Group as well as global marketing for industrial customers.

He previously served as vice president of Asia strategy. He was responsible for assessing and driving the company’s major investment initiatives in Asia and worked with all business units to accelerate Timken’s growth in the region.

In that role, he built upon his experience as president of Timken's operations in China from 2002 to early 2008. During his time in China, Gresh oversaw significant revenue growth, establishment and management of three joint ventures, and the addition of four manufacturing facilities. By the end of 2008, Timken China employed nearly 4,000 people, with engineering centers and a full business infrastructure to serve the China market.

In 2001, Gresh served as vice president of marketing and strategic growth for the company’s former Automotive Group in 2001. Prior to that role, he was vice president and controller of Timken’s bearing business in North and South America, taking that role in 1998. In 1994, he was named general manager of the Precision Steel Components Business for the company’s Steel Group. The appointment followed several years of experience in the group, including serving as manager of steelmaking and area manager of reliability at the Faircrest Steel Plant in Canton, Ohio. He joined Timken in 1982.

Gresh received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Over twenty years of experience in procurement, supplier quality, manufacturing, and consulting with for years in the corporate level.

Cosma Mexico and Latin America, Monterrey, Mexico.

Corporate Purchasing Manager to date 2/2009-Up

•Purchasing Cosma Mexico and Latin America Group strategy development

Magna Automotive Systems, San Luis Potosi, Mexico

General Program Manager, 3/2008-1/2009

•Location plant selection and gate reviews I and II for the GM GSV 300 program

Magna Toluca Interiors, Toluca, Mexico

Launch Purchasing and Quality Suppliers Manager, 9/2007-2/2008

•Successful launch a new plant for the Chrysler JC49 program

Sonora Forming Technologies (Magna Corp.), Hermosillo, Mexico

Purchasing Manager 10/2004–8/2007

•Successful launch a new plant for of the Ford CD338 program

FORMEX S.A. (MAGNA Corporation), Saltillo Coahuila / Mexico

Purchasing Advisor in Continuos Improvement 06/2004–10/2004

•Redefined Purchasing strategy for Indirect material Area

•Cost reduction initiatives implementation

Corporate GKN PLC, Redditch, England/Walled Lake, MI / Mebane, NC

Senior Group Procurement Executive 12/2000 – 05/2004

•US commodity leader for Energy, Personal Protective Equipment, MRO Bearings,

Chemicals & Coolants, Consumables, Flat and Tool Steel for the Automotive, Aerospace, Sinter metals, and Off Highway Systems divisions

•Achieved savings of $1.4 Million in 2002 and $ 547,000 in 2003

FORMEX S.A. (MAGNA Corporation), St Thomas, ON

Purchasing Manager 08/1998–01/1999

• Responsible for productive/non-productive purchases

• Launch of a new plant in Mexico for the GMT 800/250 programs

• Developed comprehensive purchasing strategy and QS 9000 procedures

VELCON S.A. (Manufacturer of CV joints). Celaya, Guanajuato Mexico

Direct Materials and Logistic Purchasing Chief 05/1996–07/1998 and 01/1999-11/2000

• Managed the direct materials department with annual budget of $50 million

• Spearheaded partnership programs with international suppliers to lower supply chain costs

• Reduced Inventory by 55% and costs by 6%

• Increased quality and delivery performance from 92% to 98%

• Implemented VDA 6.1 and QS-9000 quality certifications

Manufacturing Project Engineer 05/1994–04/1996

• Administered manufacturing and automation projects in large production lines

• Participated in multifunctional teams for designing and implementing projects of material handling, automation of production lines

• Increased productivity by 150% and quality by 55%, while reducing manual operations by 38.4% and inventory by 50%

CEDEI S.A. Industrial Technology Development and Training. Celaya, Guanajuato Mexico

Trainer /Consultant in Automation and Quality 08/1989–04/1994

•Designed and implemented courses and projects related to mechanical systems, quality,

automation and robotics

•Served on multifunctional teams focused on productivity and quality

EDUCATION

University of Guanajuato, Mexico

•Master’s of Business Administration with concentration in Finance 09/1989-06/1994

Graduated with academic excellence honor

Technological Institute of Celaya, Mexico

•Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Industrial Engineering 08/1984-08/1988

EXECUTIVE TRAINING

•Procure-e Training. St Louis, MO 04/2003

•Corporate Procurement Seminar. Redditch, England 04/2002

•Purchasing Management and Getting Better at Negotiations. Celaya, Mexico 10/2001

•E-procurement System with Cataloga Co., Walled Lake, MI 05/2001

•Benchmarking Seminar. Celaya, Mexico 10/1999

•Supplier Quality Assurance and Negotiation Skills. Paris, France 10/1997

•One-year program in International Trading. Celaya, Mexico 09/1997

ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE

•Bilingual English / Spanish

•Excellent skills in negotiation and leadership

•Pro-active, team-oriented, and entrepreneurial spirit

•Over seven years of experience in strategic sourcing and international markets

•Professor of Quality and Finance in the MBA program at the Technological Institute of

Celaya

•Conducted business negotiations in Japan, Korea, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany,

Austria, Canada and the UK

HONORS AND AWARDS

•Received quality auditor award in the state of Guanajuato for two consecutive years

(1997-1998) from Vicente Fox who was the state governor and currently the Mexican President.

•Selected as honor speaker in the graduation ceremonies of the 1988 (BS) and 1994 (MBA) classes.

•First place in the annual mechanical engineering contest of 1987 in the University of New Orleans organized by ASME, representing the Technological Institute of Celaya.

David Brooks is currently Senior Vice President of American Metal Market. Previously, he was Deputy Editor of AMM and worked for AMM and sister publication Metal Bulletin in both London and New York.

Brooks, who started his career as a metals reporter in 1998, oversees AMM and AMM Events' day-to-day operations.

Born in Kiel, Germany, Mr. Brebach started his working career as an apprentice in a Thyssen wire mill, then worked with different trading companies before moving to the U.S. in 1972. For the next 30 years, Mr Brebach has worked in steel distribution, trading and mill representation - in Belgian, Finnish, German, Japanese, Swiss and US companies. He started Iron Angels of Colorado, Inc. in 2001 as a sales agency. Sales volume peaked near 40 million dollars in 2008.

Mr. Brebach is the former Director and President of the Texas Association of Steel Importers, which merged into the American Institute for International Steel in 1990, and has been Director of the latter since its inception.

Victor Cruz Cano has over 17 years experience in the steel industry. Victor joined to Altos Hornos de Mexico 1993, as a consultant in Commercial and Marketing Division.

In 1995 Victor was requested to be in charge of the commercial and administrative activities of Grupo Acerero del Norte in Latin America as Manager for GAN International of Venezuela having the base office in Caracas.

During 1999-1998, Victor Cruz participated and supported GAN’ due diligence during Sidor’s tender.

Victor Cruz joined the MAN Ferrostaal Group in 2003, as Commercial Manager for the International Trading division in Mexico.

During 2008 after the successful merger of CCC Steel and Ferrostaal Metals Group, Victor assumed the responsibility of commercial activities of Coutinho & Ferrostaal in Mexico, Central and South America.

In 2009, Victor became the General Manager of Coutinho & Ferrostaal Mexico headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico.

Ken’s practice includes the full range of U.S. international trade actions, such as antidumping and countervailing duty, safeguards, Section 301, customs, and GSP investigations. He also advises clients on related antitrust, tax (transfer pricing), FCPA, intellectual property, export controls, and international arbitration considerations in consultation with Hughes Hubbard & Reed’s experts in these related fields.

Engineer in Computational Systems graduate of the Technological Institute of higher education of Monterrey, with Graduate in Finances in the same Institute.

It has performed diverse charges among the ones that emphasize: General Director of the National Camera of the Industry of the Iron and of the Steel (CANACERO); General Coordinator of Administration (CFO) of the Federal Attorney's Office of the Consumer (PROFECO); Chief of Staff and Enclosed Private Secretary of the C. Secretary of Commerce and Industrial Promotion (SECOFI); Assistant General Manager of Information and Statistical and Systems Manager of the Undersecretaryship of International Commercial Negotiations; Deputy Director of Information of the General Direction of Politics of Foreign Trade inside the Office of the Secretary of Commerce and Industrial Promotion; Systems Analyst of the Group VITRO and Systems Analyst of the Greater Accountancy of Estate.

Frank Haflich has covered various aspects of the metal market for AMM for over 15 years, including the West Coast steel market, aerospace, titanium and Latin America. He is a graduate of the University of Connecticut.