KEY POINTS:
Steel runs in American Paul Zuckerman's family.
After the Great Depression hit the New Jersey industrial belt, his grandfather Harry Zuckerman founded the Abbey Metal Corporation specialising in recycling scrap metal, choosing the name to be first in the Yellow Pages.
A couple of decades later, Harry's two sons Arthur and Burt took over the business, recycling old military parts, medical equipment and office products.
"It's just a small family business with 10 employees but I got involved in steel as a child," says Zuckerman, Fletcher Building's steel division chief executive, from his Penrose office.
He has a framed collection of Superman books, as well as valuable Spiderman and original Captain America comics, locked in his desk drawer.
"You know the saying - man of steel," he says, referring to Superman.
"I might not appear to be your typical iron worker but I did get involved in steel as a child through my family's business in New Jersey."
His father, Arthur, is now retired but Abbey in Moonachie, New Jersey, still recycles metal.
This year Zuckerman was appointed to head Fletcher's steel division, which had annual sales of $1.1 billion in the year to June 2007, operating earnings of $80 million and funds of $496 million.
Two months ago, he took responsibility for a workforce of 3305 people, with brands Pacific Steel, Pacific Wire, CSP, Cyclone, Fletcher Reinforcing, Fletcher Easysteel, Pacific Coilcoaters, Diamond and Stramit.
The position was created when the company split steel out of its building products division.
Last year, Fletcher decided to replace the division's chief executive Andrew Reding with two chief executives. Zuckerman was appointed to head steel, which has three businesses: long steel products which convert scrap metal into reinforcing rod and bar, a rollforming business and steel merchandising.
Zuckerman said he had been spending a lot of time learning about Fletcher since he started.
"The track record of this business has been to grow globally and make large acquisitions, which is attractive to me because that's exactly what I've been doing. I've been going around the world, looking at growing global businesses."
Zuckerman said his biggest challenge was to bring growth to the division, particularly in light of global consolidation in the sector.
"Fletcher Building is a building and construction company. The question for us is how do we participate in the steel industry and there's no simple answer," he said.
His office on Great South Rd has an iconic steel work of art on the wall. Ralph Hotere's untitled 1984 stainless steel corrugated sheet on hardboard is an abstract work which Zuckerman loves for its earthy tones.
His career has been almost totally dedicated to steel businesses, aside from a short spell as a university administrator.
Before the Fletcher job, he was president of BlueScope Steel for China, a position he took up in 2005. In the past year, that business completed three major capital projects and a large part of it was restructured. He lived in Shanghai's Hongqiao, one of the city's older and more established expatriate communities.
"Shanghai is a wonderful place to live. The downside is you are a stranger in that land and you know you are going to be leaving at some time. You are always an outsider," he says, despite having taken Mandarin classes and his children being relatively fluent in the language.
His role at BlueScope was very different from his one with Fletcher's steel division.
"Fletcher's steel business is more complex. BlueScope in China only had a flat rolled business for roofing and wall applications. But Fletcher has seven businesses with a whole range of different steel activities."
In 2003, he was appointed vice-president of BlueScope's marketing and business development in Australia and it was while living there that the family travelled to New Zealand for holidays, which made the latest move easy.
He had an academic spell from 2001 to 2003, when he was chief administrative officer of humanities for the University of California at Los Angeles.
From 1994 to 2001, he worked at global steel giant BHP, appointed president of BHP Coated Steel USA.
This role involved him working closely with trade unions and he said the management team built the business from a single coil paint line into what is now Steelscape.
Steel, he believes, has spawned a global industry, a sector without borders which has a big effect on people's everyday lives.
"We use it to make cars, appliances and all types of structures. It starts out as iron ore which we get from the ground and we use heat and other processes to turn it into steel. Best of all, when we're finished with it, it is fully recyclable.
"I find the whole process wonderful. It's an amazing material and an exciting industry. I think steel has got a great history and a great future ahead of it."
Paul Zuckerman
* Position: Steel division chief executive, Fletcher Building.
* Age: 43.
* Family: Wife Nicole, children Jack, 8, Natilie, 6, Sarah 3.
* Career: PPG Industries, BHP Steel, University of California, BlueScope Steel in Australia and China.
* Education: Master's in business administration, finance and marketing from Ohio State University. Bachelor of science and chemistry from Syracuse University, United States.
* Interests: Certified scuba diving instructor, skier and keen traveller.
