Rewriting the Steel Industry with Jeremy Flack, CEO and Founder of Flack Global Metals

While analyzing the Chicago Board of Trade and derivatives markets, Jeremy Flack, the CEO and founder of Flack Global Metals, began to wonder why steel hadn’t evolved like other modern commodity markets. He saw a unique opportunity: Steel lacked risk management tools to hedge against price volatility. Flack Global Metals was born, combining steel production, investing, and price risk management strategies to disrupt how the historically change-resistant steel industry operated. Coming in as an outsider, Flack shares his entrepreneurial journey, the evolution of the steel industry, and the personal discipline required for leadership.

• Crack Your Own Code: Flack’s biggest piece of advice for leaders is an exercise in self-awareness and identifying patterns that drive decision-making. For example, Flack understands that when he feels destabilized, he tends to make grand decisions, such as hiring an employee or buying or selling a company. Understanding his behavior has helped him pause, reflect, and avoid mistakes and other business challenges. 
• Constant Evolution: Entering the industry as an outsider, Flack was never tied to traditional ways of thinking, following the mantra, “what got me here, won’t get me there.” Over time, he has evolved his business from an asset-light operation to a hybrid model with hard assets, while shaping its culture through years of mergers and acquisitions. He saw early on how the industry was transforming — from the rise of scrap recycling to mini mills and the growth of financialized commodities — and seized the opportunity to start his company. His experience has changed how he leads, approaches change, and views the future relative to the past. 
• The Emotional Toll: Flack describes his entrepreneurial journey as “psychological warfare,” balancing fear of failure, the desire to stay ahead of the growth curve, and the fear of losing everything he had built. Understanding his patterns has helped him navigate what he calls some of the hardest decisions of his career, including pivoting, losing relationships, and “getting out of the way,” as he put it, by promoting a new president to grow the business beyond him.

Today, Flack Global Metals has over 190 employees across three facilities and is among the top 50 service centers in North America. Flack began his career in commercial banking with PNC Bank, and later served as CFO of a manufacturing business, gaining firsthand insight into how raw material costs affect financial stability. In 1998, he transitioned to steel distribution, becoming a part owner of his previous organization in 2006 and president in 2009. Flack Global Metals is an industrial manufacturing, distribution, and capital markets firm specializing in the buying, selling, trading, and investing of flat-rolled steel.

Listen to the full episode to hear more insights from Flack, including how he overcame imposter syndrome, has stayed grounded through success, and made learning his number one talent.