After his partner dropped dead, globetrotting financier David Stickler found himself at the helm of a steel mill startup in rural Arkansas.
nside cavernous blue hangars set on 1,100 acres of what was once soy fields abutting the Mississippi River, a succession of 300-ton scrap-filled buckets—the remains of old cars and refrigerators—await their turn at the furnace. Wailing sirens pierce the deafening rumble, and sparks fly as blindingly yellow flames rise up from the glowing ladle.
“We view ourselves as a technology company that just happens to make steel,” says Stickler, pounding his fist on a table for effect., Big River is hands down the most technologically advanced and fastest-growing steel producer in North America. With only 513 employees its cash flow per employee amounts to a whopping $557,000 compared to integrated producer U.S. Steel’s $61,000. The next most efficient mini mill competitor, Steel Dynamics, operates at $253,000 per employee.
Stickler’s transformation from banker to steel company CEO wasn’t planned. A Cleveland native and former accountant, he spent 15 years as an investment banker, mostly working on financing big steel, including the $385 million Bain Capital used to launch Indiana’sIn the mid-1990s he met his future wife, Rebecca Li, a vivacious Chinese wellness consultant who was showing a friend Hawaiian real estate.
After getting incentives and funding from Arkansas and local municipalities, Stickler chose Osceola, a small town about 50 miles north of Memphis, downriver from massive scrap metal yards in cities like Chicago, adjacent to Burlington Northern rail lines and close to major trucking routes I-40 and I-55. Entergy offered it rock-bottom power rates through 2026.
Another differentiator at Big River is its LEED certification. “Typically it’s for university and government buildings,” says Stickler. “A lot of people thought we were nuts to try and qualify for it.” Stickler believes it will make the difference whether it is selling to Chrysler, Volkswagen or Walmart. “People won’t pay more for our steel because it’s produced in a LEED-certified facility, but everything else being equal: price, service, quality, etc., we get the order,” says Stickler.
If there is one big question mark surrounding Big River’s future, it may be its ability to thrive under its $1.5 billion debt load. In May, the steel startup got the Arkansas Development Finance Authority to lend its name to $487 million in 30-year junk municipal bonds to finance expansion. According to, the bonds will boost the company’s leverage ratio to a risky 6.8 times and drop its interest coverage ratio to one or less.
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