Steel King announces succession plan as president Jay Anderson to step down

Steel King Industries, a leading manufacturer of storage rack and material handling products has announced that company president Jay Anderson will be stepping down from his role at the company. Brian Pfannes, the company’s Vice President of Supply Chain and Platform Products, will be named president of Steel King in January 2023, with Anderson supporting the transition process during the second half of the year.

Anderson has spent 38 years at Steel King, the company his father Fred Anderson founded in 1970. Jay Anderson was named VP/GM in 1999, and then president in 2001. Pfannes will be only the 4th Steel King president since the company’s founding.

Anderson’s leadership successfully helped expand the company’s product portfolio along with driving industry-leading manufacturing innovation resulting in 369% growth over the period.

In his time at Steel King, Jay Anderson has seen it all. From labor challenges to supply chain disruptions, steel inflation, and economic downturns to introducing new technology that revolutionized how the company manufactured its products. “I have viewed it as my greatest responsibility to build a team of high-quality people at Steel King,” said Anderson. “A great benefit of our team building philosophy is having people able to step up into positions of greater responsibility as we grow and evolve. Brian is the right person to take the reins at Steel King to continue our investment in providing long-term value and stability to our customers.”

Pfannes holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a BS in Business Management from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He began his career in Sales at Walters Buildings and Metal Forms Corporation. He joined Steel King in 2012, where he has been Director of Purchasing and Vice President of Supply Chain and has been a member of the Executive Leadership team since 2019.

“At our core, Steel King is about creating engineered, customer-centric, value-based solutions that deliver tangible benefits for our customers, and partners,” said Pfannes. “It will be a great privilege to lead Steel King as only its 4th President in the company’s 50-year history. Over the past four years, I’ve had the great pleasure of being directly mentored by Jay. His strong customer advocacy and steady leadership during unstable times has helped prepare us to compete and win in the future. I’m excited about this next chapter in my career and for the opportunity to continue Steel King’s legacy of building a resilient ‘Built to Deliver’ Supply Chain for our customers.”

Pfannes has already begun meeting with Steel King customers, dealers, and integrators across the country and will continue over the summer and fall and into 2023. For the balance of 2022 Anderson will help Pfannes transition into his new role, and after this year will be an ‘as-needed’ resource. “I hope to attend industry events and otherwise assist Steel King from the sidelines if called upon,” Anderson concluded. “Steel King is deep within my DNA, and I will always be emotionally vested in and proud of the company’s success.”