Mill General Manager

Gregg Whigham has a passion for aluminum. Born and raised outside Boston, Massachusetts, he joined aluminum giant Alcoa immediately after graduating from the University of Texas El Paso’s engineering and material science program. Over his 30-year career with Alcoa, he held many different positions in locations throughout the world. His last job, World Class Operations Manager for Arconic’s Global Rolled Automotive and Aerospace Aluminum Products Division was at the company’s Davenport, Iowa, facility.  
Earlier this year, he started a second career in aluminum when he joined Braidy Industries as the mill general manager. He simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be part of this historic project.
“I’m still pinching myself. This is so exciting. Something like this hasn’t happened here in the United States in 30-plus years. Over the last 10 to 15 years, we’ve seen these aluminum mills being built overseas,” he said, adding he’s often thought, “Why can’t we have that here in the U.S.?”  
Braidy Industries’ mill will be the most technologically-advanced rolling mill in the U.S. when it opens in part because it is being built from the ground up specifically to meet the needs of its customers. “We have changed equipment capability based on customer feedback,” said Whigham, “We’re working with equipment vendors all over the world and they are building equipment that will meet our customers’ needs now and in the future.”      
How Braidy’s highly-skilled workforce is acquired and managed will also set it apart.
“Craig Bouchard has often said, ‘Thirty percent of this is the equipment, but 70 percent of it is really the people,’” said Whigham. The development of Ashland Community and Technical College’s (ACTC) Advanced Integrated Technology degree program will be a key ingredient to in that success.
“One of the hardest things is finding technical people to be able to run the mill, finding those key resources is surprisingly hard. Being able to grow our own and bring them through the program will be a definite advantage for our mill! You can have the most advanced equipment out there, but if you don’t know how to operate it, you don’t know how to optimize it, then you aren’t yielding the benefits that equipment has to offer… that’s where the partnership with ACTC is really going to separate us from the competition.
“We are starting here with a blank piece of paper. And it’s not just the equipment. It is starting with a fresh team based culture. One thing I’d like future employees to know is that they will have a huge role in shaping the success of the plant. Every day, people coming to work at Braidy will know what they do is important, that it is valued and it has a significant impact on the business…
“We have a lot of people, not just the investors, who are depending on us doing it right.” He added, “One of the things Craig Bouchard has impressed on the team is the social impact this is going to have on Ashland. He is making sure we understand that - expectations are high but we are up for that!”  
Whigham and his wife Melinda, who moved to Ashland last year, are looking forward to being a part of the transformation the mill promises. “We’ve lived in smaller towns before and we think Ashland is just great. I think it is going to be great for Braidy Industries too,” he said.