Lenore Trammell is the last remaining Day 1 employee at Big River Steel.

She’s played a huge role in shaping Chairman’s Circle investor Big River Steel, which is headquartered in Osceola, Ark., a town of about 6,500 an hour north of Memphis.

Big River Steel is a “technology company that happens to make steel,” using digital technology to optimize production.   The highly advanced, sustainable mill combines an electric arc furnace with the only endless strip production line in the country.   That ESP line allows for rapid, low-emission, high-quality steel production from recycled scrap for automotive, solar and construction companies.   The company uses up to 90 percent recycled steel and is the first North American steel producer to be certified by ResponsibleSteel.

A native of a Detroit suburb, Lenore began her career in sales at Rogue Steel and was promoted to assistant general counsel as the company became Severstal Dearborn.  There, she managed complex legal and commercial matters, including negotiating and implementing a $1.3 billion capital expenditure program, overseeing a $100 million capital equipment purchase contract and saving more than $5 million by resolving potential liability claims.  She also led procurement supporting more than $100 million in annual spend.

Over time, Lenore built a reputation for “negotiating and drafting multimillion-dollar contracts” and ensuring compliance across complex transactions.

Lenore was recruited from the Detroit area – with a population of 4.4 million people – by Big River Steel  in tiny Osceola.   She admits, “For a big-city girl, I didn’t know what to think.   But we figured it out.  We made it work.   I love living in Osceola and spending time in Memphis.”  The company’s location near rail, I-55 and the Mississippi River was strategic, as was joining the Chairman’s Circle when Big River Steel needed to double its workforce in 12–18 months.  “We needed to have a larger regional reach, so we joined the Chairman’s Circle.   It has really paid off for us,” she said.

Lenore serves as chief administrative officer, chief compliance officer and general counsel of Big River Steel, roles she has helped shape since joining the company in 2014 as a Day 1 employee.  “As soon as Big River Steel closed on their financing, I gave my notice and moved here two weeks later,” she recalls.   Today, she is “the last Day 1 employee left,” having grown with the company to 1,850 employees across two Northeast Arkansas facilities “almost next door to each other—you can see one from the other.”

In 2019, while continuing as chief compliance officer and general counsel, she was promoted to CAO and now serves on the executive committee and as executive sponsor of Big River’s NextGen, the company’s employee resource group.

She is also co-chair of the Chairman’s Circle Workforce Task Force and was recently elected to the Chamber’s board of directors.

Lenore’s path into steel was unexpected.  “I started in steel a year out of undergrad as a temp employee.  I was headed to law school, but they asked me to stay and said they would pay for law school.  I said yes (duh!) and worked full time while going to law school at night,” she said.   Initially, she “did not have an interest in steel at all,” but now says, “I am very happy with my career choice.   My career in steel has taken me to places I never thought I’d go.” In a male-dominated industry, she describes herself as “very much a unicorn.”

Active in the Arkansas Chamber, the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas—where she was named 2024 Woman of the Year in Business—and other civic organizations, Lenore will also soon become an author with the upcoming publication of Curating a God Life.   “A lot of people want to have a good life.  But I really think they want the God life,” she said.  Guided by the advice “Chance favors the prepared mind,” she balances leadership with family, Pilates, reading and cheering on her son as his “biggest fan.”