MI2 Adds Six New Members to Board

In September 2022, leaders from eight Kentucky metals companies in aluminum, stainless steel, and copper came together at our inaugural strategy session with the express purpose of forming the Metals Innovation Initiative and establishing its formative strategy.

Coming out of the Metals Innovation Initiative’s founding strategy session last September, our initial board was composed of four members: inaugural board chair Matt Bedingfield (President of Recycling, Wieland North America; SVP of Global Metals Management, Wieland Group), Mike Buckentin (President/CEO, Logan Aluminum), Dr. Tim Caboni (President, Western Kentucky University), and MI2 Metals Leadership Council Chair Zak Chehab (Director of Strategy, Novelis).

(You can find perspectives from Matt Bedingfield and Mike Buckentin about their work with MI2 in our first two newsletters, and pieces from Dr. Tim Caboni and Zak Chehab in this month’s newsletter.)

This past month, that inaugural board unanimously voted to extend invitations to six additional board members, three of which will be ex-officio members (meaning that they will not be voting members of the board). Each of these six board members have accepted this three-year term.

The three new voting board members are Cristobal Fuentes (CEO, North American Stainless), Bob Eviston (General Manager, River Metals Recycling), and Henry Gordinier (CEO, Tri-Arrows Aluminum).

The three ex-officio board members are Monique Kuykendoll Quarterman (Executive Director, KY Innovation at Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development), Terry Samuel (President, Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation), and Dr. Rick Smith (Associate Vice President for Workforce and Economic Development, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education).

We are excited to share more with you about these six new board members and are excited to have them take on this role as we help shape MI2’s governance model for a nonprofit organization calibrated to bring Kentucky’s innovation ecosystem together around an industry-executive led approach to working together to make Kentucky the destination for metals innovation. Learn more about each of these six board members below:

Bob Eviston

[Image: Bob Eviston]

Bob Eviston is General Manager of River Metals Recycling, Kentucky’s largest scrap recycler of ferrous and nonferrous materials, a role he was promoted to in August 2021. Previously, he served as the organization’s president, which he had held since 2013. RMR is part of the David J. Joseph Company, part of Nucor’s family of companies since 2008.

From 2008-2013, Eviston served as a General Manager for Trademark Metals Recycling in Florida, overseeing the organization’s Rockledge and Orlando regions. Eviston began his career at The David J. Joseph Company in January 1992 as a Brokerage Representative in the Pittsburgh trading office. He was promoted to District Manager of the Cincinnati trading office from 2000-2006 and transitioned to the operations side of the business as VP, Commercial, from 2006-2008.

Eviston graduated from Indiana University Bloomington in 1991 with a BA in Economics and a certificate in Business Studies.

His wife, Kelli, is a nurse practitioner, and they have three children: Delaney, Ty, and Quinn. In addition to his role on the board of MI2, Eviston serves as a member of the Metals Leadership Council and heads the Branding Strategy Group for MI2.

Cristobal Fuentes

[Image: Cristobal Fuentes]

Cristobal Fuentes is President and CEO of North American Stainless. North American Stainless is the largest fully integrated stainless-steel producer in the U.S.

Fuentes and his family moved to the U.S. to build and operate the North American Stainless in 1990. Today, NAS is the largest fully integrated stainless-steel producer in the U.S. and employs 1,600 people, plus 500 on-site service providers. Since the company’s founding, Fuentes has overseen the original construction of North American Stainless’ campus, 13 subsequent expansions and service centers in Mexico, Canada, Penn, Georgia, and Illinois.

Fuentes has also served as Chairman and Director of Bahru Stainless in Malaysia, a member of the Acerinox Group, from 2016 until 2020, and he currently serves as director for VDM U.S., another member of the Acerinox Group.

Fuentes began his career at Acerinox, S.A., at its Algeciras factory after receiving a Master’s degree in metallurgical engineering.

Henry Gordinier

[Image: Henry Gordinier]

Henry Gordinier is President & CEO of Tri-Arrows Aluminum Inc., a leading supplier of rolled aluminum sheet to the North American Can Sheet market. Mr. Gordinier joined the Company in 2000, and he has served in a variety of leadership roles in commercial, planning, operations, and commodity price risk management functions. From 2008-2014, he worked for Kindred Healthcare as the Vice President of Strategy.He has an MBA from Vanderbilt University and a BA from Brown University. Currently, Mr. Gordinier serves as Vice-Chair of the U.S. Aluminum Association, Member of the Logan Aluminum Board of Directors, and as an Executive Officer of the UACJ Corporation. Tri-Arrows is owned by the UACJ Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation, and its products are manufactured at Logan Aluminum, a joint venture production facility between Tri-Arrows Aluminum and the Novelis Corporation.

Monique Kuykendoll Quarterman

[Image: Monique Quarterman]

Monique Kuykendoll Quarterman is Executive Director for the Office of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, also known as KY Innovation, at the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

Previously, she served as Deputy Executive Director. A globally recognized expert in inclusive innovation, Kuykendoll Quarterman is a co-founder of the Kentucky Intellectual Property Alliance. She is also co-founder of the National Institutes of Health’s Proof-of-Concept Network Action Committee on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (PACE). Kuykendoll Quarterman previously served as the inaugural Executive Director of Kentucky Commercialization Ventures for the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation. During this time, she also served as Co-Investigator for the Kentucky Network for Innovation and Commercialization (KYNETIC).

Kuykendoll Quarterman also has served as a founder of business development consultancy Quartz Smith Strategies, a senior strategist for Park Community Credit Union, a business development manager for Kentucky-based medical device startup MEMStim, and an Innovation Unit Project Manager for the University of Louisville.

She has served as a multi-institutional reviewer of higher education and small business innovation programs, including the PRePARE program at the University of Louisville, supported by the US Economic Development Administration. In all, her efforts have contributed to more than a quarter billion dollars in equitable access to capital dollars coming into Kentucky over the past 10 years.

Terry Samuel

[Image: Terry Samuel]

After a long career at Lexmark and IBM, Terry Samuel joined the Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation as COO in January 2017 and was appointed president in January 2018. KSTC is a state-wide non-profit with the mission to advance an innovation-driven economy in Kentucky. Its programs span from preparing K-12 students for careers in science, technology and entrepreneurship, to working with higher-education to develop, protect and commercialize technology, to investing and developing Kentucky tech-start-ups, through working with Kentucky businesses in growing their revenue and talent.

Samuel’s final role at Lexmark was as Vice President in the Global Service Operations group. Previous to this assignment, Samuel was the VP and GM of Lexmark’s Global OEM & Alliances business unit, serving customers in Asia, Europe and North America. As part of this role, Samuel spent 2½ years on assignment in Singapore.

Across his career, Samuel succeeded in a broad cross section of leadership roles including General Management, International Sales, Supply Chain, Finance, Product Development and Service Operations.

Samuel holds a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts and an MBA from Xavier University. He has served on the executive committee of the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation and on the boards of the Urban League of Lexington, Kentucky Science Center, Opportunity for Work & Living and the Good Shepherd Day School. Samuel has also served in various leadership roles within the Boy Scouts and his church. Samuel lives in Lexington with his wife, Jane, and they have three daughters.

Dr. Rick W. Smith, Sr.

[Image: Rick Smith]

Dr. Rick W. Smith, Sr., has more than 30 years of experience in higher education administration, nonprofit leadership, healthcare administration, public relations, crisis communications training, marketing, business development, diversity training, and television news. He currently serves as Vice President, External Relations and Economic Partnerships, for the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. Previously, he was the organization’s Associate Vice President, Workforce and Economic Development.

Previously, he served as the President and CEO of the United Way of Ross County, Ohio, and Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Community Relations of the Northern Pennsylvania Regional College. A speaker and author, Smith also operates Smith Consulting Solutions (SCS Inc.) and is a member of many professional and civic organizations, including the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), the NAACP, and Rotary International.

Smith, who resides in Louisville, has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Broadcast Communication from the University of Louisville, a Master of Business Administration Degree from Kennedy Western University, a Master’s in Philanthropic Studies degree from the Lilly School of Philanthropy Indiana-Purdue University, and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Bradley University.

He also has a certificate in Fundraising Leadership from the Lilly School of Philanthropy and is a certified Diversity and Inclusion trainer from Cornell University and is a graduate of the Leadership Louisville class of 2015, the 2016 Urban League Leadership Alliance Seminar class III, and the Leadership Kentucky class of 2022, among other accolades.