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WCI Steel names vice president–operations

WCI Steel, Inc. announced today that James F. Walsh has been named vice president-operations. Walsh has served as a consultant to WCI since April 2005 and has worked in various managerial and officer-level positions in the steel industry for 30 years.

Patrick G. Tatom, WCI's president and chief executive officer, said that Walsh's broad background in steel operations will be invaluable to WCI as it emerges from Chapter 11 reorganization.

Walsh began his steel industry career in 1975 as a management trainee at U.S. Steel Corp.'s Gary Works, progressing through first- and second-level management positions to senior area manager of melting and casting. He left U.S. Steel in 1987 to become marketing director for Emeryville, Ca.-based Qualimatrix, Inc., where he subsequently was appointed vice president and operations director. Walsh joined AK Steel Corp. in Middletown, Ohio, in 1993, and held various upper-level positions, including manager of maintenance technology, vice president of research and design engineering, vice president of manufacturing and vice president of corporate development, before being named executive vice president of GS Industries in Charlotte, N.C., in 1999. Following the sale of GS Industries, Walsh led North Star Steel's flagship operations in Monroe, Mich., until that entity was sold in 2004.

Walsh has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame and a master's degree in business administration from Indiana University-Northwest.