Movers & Shakers: TONY HINCHLIFFE

Tony has never strayed far from his Steel City roots during his 34 years in the wire industry.

Tony has spent the last 11 years as CEO of manufacturing giants ArcelorMittal Sheffield.

Tony commented: “My whole working life so far has been spent in the wire industry! In 1990 I started work at Tinsley Wire in Sheffield as a trainee working on the sales desk. I spent 9 years at Tinsley Wire in total which included being the Sales Rep for Gridweld land reinforcement, and Area Sales Manager for Welded Mesh.

“In 1999 I moved from Tinsley Wire (Betafence) to take up a position as Sales Manager for Genwork, a wire worker in the Midlands, and later progressed to General Manager. In 2008, I moved back to Sheffield to take up the position of Industrial Wire Sales Manager for ArcelorMittal and in 2013, started my current position as CEO of ArcelorMittal Sheffield,” he added.

I’ve been lucky that in all my places of work I have had some great, influential people who have taken me under their wing and really showed me the way

ArcelorMittal is the world’s leading mining and steel company with operations across the globe. The company’s site in Sheffield is part of the WireSolutions division and manufactures a range of agricultural and chain link fencing products, as well as steel fibres for concrete reinforcement.

ArcelorMittal Sheffield originally started life back in 1984 as Estate Wire and was founded by Hugh Facey, owner and inventor of Gripple.

There’s been a number of positive role models in Tony’s working life as he explained: “I’ve been lucky that in all my places of work, I have had some great, influential people who have taken me under their wing and really showed me the way.

“There was Jim Doran and John Swain at Tinsley Wire, Alan Surtees at Genwork and John Unwin at ArcelorMittal. Alan has sadly passed away now but I am still in regular contact with Jim and the two Johns and I’m grateful for the impact they have had on my career over the years.

“They’ve all played a part in moulding my management style which leans more towards a democratic style. I trust our team to make decisions they believe in and get behind, and find this works really effectively for us,” added Tony who has three grown up children