International Women’s Day is an especially meaningful day at New Millennium Building Systems.
From the shop floor to the executive suite, women move us forward and play a vital role in our company’s growth. They contribute to our culture of collaboration. They create valued relationships within and outside our walls. They enable us to build success together.
“The many women in our company are very much part of the team that excels and dutifully serves the customers that rely on our expertise in structural steel building products,” New Millennium President Jim Anderson said. “We would not be where we are as a company — or an industry, for that matter — without the talent and dedication of so many women. For that, we thank you.”
We don’t just honor the women who work with us. We are honored they have chosen to work with us.
Here are five examples of the women making a difference at New Millennium across the country.
Summer is clear about her future at New Millennium. “I hope to continue to move up, that’s always been my goal. That’s what I’ve always told them from the get-go: I’m not here to stay in one position. I want to go as high as you all will let me go.”
She has been going full force for four years at New Millennium. In 2018, she started in accounts payable then moved to payroll before landing in her current role — all at our Salem, Virginia, location. Summer says the company supports employees, no matter their gender.
“They always strive for you to excel, grow, and learn,” she says. “They’ll do that through anyway they can. They always say, ‘What can we do to help you grow?’”
For Summer, that meant New Millennium paid for her to go back to school. With the company’s support, she earned her MBA from Radford University in May.
As an accountant, Summer helps keep projects moving and on budget. “I deal a lot with inventory, our costs and analyze what it’s costing us each month compared to last month,” she says. “Are prices going up? What’s going on? Do we have everything we ordered? I track that.”
What are her professional plans for the near future? “Just keep on going. That was my main drive to finish my master’s degree. Keep on going.”
Although she had no steel industry experience, Isabeau felt comfortable when she began working at New Millennium in 2018 as a safety clerk. She has a background in agriculture and had plenty of experience operating heavy machinery.
“I started out in safety here,” she says. “I got really interested in the shop culture. I’ve never been super-feminine, and I kind of resonated with everybody out there, so I moved to be a welder.”
Today she’s an inspector for Line 1, which handles joists. She and her fellow inspectors on Lines 2 and 3 “insure that everything that leaves our shop is ready for our customers and ready to be erected.”
While she acknowledges it could be intimidating for women to pursue working in the steel industry, Isabeau says she has always felt like part of the team in Fallon.
“They really treated me like a man when I first started,” she says. “They didn’t alienate me because I was a female. I got my butt ripped just like everybody else would. I got spoken to like everybody else would. I got respected like anybody else would.”
Isabeau would someday like to become a production line supervisor, but she’s also planning even further ahead
“I intend to on retiring from New Millennium,” she says. “It’s an awesome place.”
In her 21 years with New Millennium, Bridget has exemplified the opportunities available to all employees. Her career began after high school, when she joined us as a sales coordinator in Butler, Indiana. She quickly progressed to sales estimator to scheduler to shipping supervisor to national accounts and, finally, to her current position in Butler.
As she advanced through the organization, Bridget says her co-workers and leadership supported and encouraged her every step of the way.
“There has never been a time while I’ve been employed at New Millennium where I felt like I was on a different level than the males,” she says. “New Millennium fosters an environment where every person is given the same opportunities if they choose to pursue them, no matter if you are male or female.”
In her role now, Bridget oversees a team of eight, but she considers herself a “small part of a big wheel.”
“One thing I admire about New Millennium is the fact that everyone has the ability to have a huge impact on our company, exactly where you are in your current job,” she says. “Having fun and doing your best (even when no one is looking) goes a long way in continuing to keep the culture here what it was when we started 20-plus years ago.”
When Beth thinks about her future at New Millennium, she sees opportunities within reach at all levels of the company. That’s because leadership values and invests in employees from their first day on the job regardless of their gender or experience, she says. Her recent move from accounts payable to sales coordinator is a prime example.
“When I applied for this job, everybody was super supportive,” Beth says. “I had to do multiple interviews with managers at different departments, and everyone was very professional. They were happy for me. They want to see you succeed and do better.”
Beth, who has worked seven years in Hope, Arkansas, describes the environment there as inclusive.
“We are one big team,” she says. “We all have to work together. We all have to do what’s best for the company. You can see that when it all comes together in the final product.”
Almost a year ago, Beth transitioned into her role as sales coordinator. She works with sales managers and directly with customers on project details. Her favorite part of her job is seeing what customers built with our products.
“It’s pretty cool to see the finished product and to know I was a part of it.”
Andrea was looking to get out of the banking industry about 11 years ago when she noticed a sales coordinator opening at New Millennium. She interviewed, got the job, and has been with us ever since in various roles.
Although she had just started, Andrea says she told her manager at the time she wanted to do more.
“If I was going to come to New Millennium, I wanted to learn many things so I could be the best at it as I could,” she said.
Opportunity and growth within the company helped her quickly advance, she says, going from coordinator to sales estimator, sales supervisor, purchasing agent and her current role in Fallon, Nevada.
“Every step of the way, I’ve had a lot of really good support,” she says. “New Millennium has never made it difficult to be a woman in this industry. I’ve always had a really good support system, which has been very helpful.”
In Fallon, Andrea says she’s proud to see women occupying roles on the shop floor as well as district sales manager.
“We have four women working in our shop right now,” she says. “That’s hard work. It just shows that if you want to do something, you really can. It doesn’t matter if you’re a woman. It makes me really proud to say that.”
In addition to honoring the skilled women at New Millennium on International Women’s Day, we want to recognize all the women around the world who are working day in and day out to further the manufacturing industry. From top to bottom, women make game-changing contributions to this industry every day. We are grateful to be able to call them our peers and colleagues.
Our team members work in unison to further our mission to build success together with our customers and with one another.
Helping build America’s structures is only one part of our mission. So is building America’s communities and workforce.
Building a better steel experience
