Features

Steel Summit: Ace Steel’s Kimberlie Henry receives the 2025 NexGen Award
Written by Kristen DiLandro
September 2, 2025
Kimberlie Henry of Ace Steel is the recipient of the 2025 SMU NexGen Leadership Award.
The NexGen Leadership Award, sponsored by Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI), Modern Metals, and Target Steel is in its seventh consecutive year. The NexGen Award goes to an emerging leader within the greater steel community age 35 or younger.
Henry was presented with the award at the SMU Steel Summit 2025 conference in Atlanta last week. Her nomination included several notable accomplishments. A few standouts were her innovative approach to gamifying sales training materials and systems implementations that showed immediate ROI.
Nicola Coslett, CEO of CRU Communities; SDI President and COO Barry Schneider; and Michael D’Alexander, publisher of Modern Metals magazine, presented her with the award.
SMU congratulates Henry and the award’s other finalists for being recognized as upcoming leaders in the next generation of steel.


Kristen DiLandro
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