Management Team

Mr. Taylor began his career with Cargill, Inc. in the Metals trading business. Throughout Mr Taylor’s 33 years with Cargill he held a variety of positions within their metals trading and steel service center business with posts in Minneapolis, New York City, Chicago, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Houston Texas. Mr. Taylor became president of Cargill Metals Supply Chain in 2002 and retired from Cargill in that position in 2014. Mr Taylor became a director on Friedman Industries board in 2016 and was later named Chairman of the Board in 2017. In addition to Chairman, Mr. Taylor became president and CEO of Friedman Industries in March of 2019. Mr. Taylor has served on the board of Metals Service Center Institute on two occasions from 2007 – 2010 and 2013-2014. Mr. Taylor also served as MSCI Inaugural Health and Safety Chairperson from 2013-2014, along with serving as Flat Roll Product Division Chair for MSCI from 2007 – 2010 and member of Committee of the Flat Roll Council from 2004-2014. Mr. Taylor graduated with a degree in business from Linfield University in 1981.

Alex LaRue was appointed Chief Financial Officer, Secretary and Treasurer in March 2018. He joined Friedman as Controller of the Company’s Texas Tubular Products division in 2011. During his time at Friedman, Mr. LaRue has also held the positions of Vice President Secretary and Treasurer and Assistant Vice President Secretary and Treasurer. Prior to joining Friedman, Mr. LaRue worked in public accounting specializing in financial statement audits and reviews. Mr. LaRue earned his Bachelors of Business Administration from Baylor University with a major in accounting. Mr. LaRue is a licensed certified public accountant in the state of Texas.

Gaurav Chhibbar was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Friedman Industries in July 2025. He joined Friedman with over 15 years of experience in leading business transformations, and M&A strategy across Metals value chain. Mr. Chhibbar previously worked as a Principal at the Boston Consulting Group and held roles with Cargill Metals across Singapore and the U.S. At Friedman, Mr. Chhibbar oversees commercial, operations, and strategic market expansion. Mr. Chhibbar earned his Master’s in Business Administration at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business with a major in Analytic Finance and Strategy. He also holds degrees in International Business from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and an Engineering degree from Panjab University.

Brian Hatlevig joined Friedman Industries as Commercial Director in 2020. Mr. Hatlevig came to Friedman from Plateplus, where he served as senior vice president from 2017-2020. Prior to that Mr. Hatlevig spent 21 years at Cargill, was on the senior leadership team and led various commercial activities for Cargill Metals in North America ranging from trading, sales, risk management, purchasing, supply chain, and strategic pricing. From 2006–2010, Brian was based in Geneva, Switzerland, responsible for Cargill’s trading activities of ferrous products in Europe, Russia, ME, & Africa. Mr. Hatlevig was also responsible for leading a global team that covered flat rolled products worldwide. Brian graduated from Luther College in 1996 with degrees in Business Management & Economics.

Jonathan Holcomb was appointed VP of Sales and Purchasing in 2016. Jonathan joined Friedman in 1997 as a sales associate. He has been actively involved in a sales and purchasing function with Friedman IND since 1999. Jonathan joined Friedman upon completion of his bachelor’s degree from Stephen F Austin. He completed his MBA at LeTourneau University – Longview TX in 1999.

Kim Thomas joined Friedman Industries in April of 2024 as HR Director. Kim has over 20 years of experience in Human Resources, in IT, Telecommunications, and Oil & Gas industries, including over 10 years with Hewlett Packard. Kim most recently served as the HR Leader of North America Offshore Operations with Weatherford International, where she supported several onshore plants & machine shops, as well as offshore rigs in Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and Eastern Canada. Kim holds a BS from Oklahoma State University as well as a master’s in human resources from Houston Baptist University.

Michael J. Thompson was appointed Vice President and General Manager, of the tubular division, in January 2023. He began his sales career with Texas Tubular Products in October of 1999. Mr. Thompson was designated Sales Manager in 2010 and Vice President of Tubular Sales in 2017. Mr. Thompson earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas A&M University in College Station, TX.

Paul Rottmann was appointed Vice President Operations in 2022. He joined Friedman Industries as Vice President Operations following Friedman’s acquisition of the Plateplus, Inc. assets. During his time at Plateplus, Paul served as Sr. Vice President Sales & Operations 2021 – 2022 and Vice President Operations 2018 – 2021. Prior to that, Paul held various operations leadership roles for Cargill, Inc., with his latest serving as Plant Manager 2007 – 2017.

Rick joined Friedman Industries in September of 2022 as part of the acquisition of Plateplus Metals from Metal One. During his 4 years at Plateplus Rick was actively involved in many parts of the business including, sourcing, sales, personnel and strategy allowing him to see the business and industry from many different perspectives. Prior to his time with Plateplus, Rick spent 30 years as part of Cargill Metals where he was promoted to Vice President. He spent significant time in both the trading and service center areas where he developed relationships on both the international and local level. Rick graduated in 1987 from St. John’s University with a BA in Business and currently lives in western Wisconsin.

Sergio Juan was appointed IT Director in 2022. He joined Friedman Industries during Friedman’s acquisition of Plateplus, Inc.’s assets. During his time as IT Director at Plateplus Sergio led the carve out of all IT operations from Cargill, Inc, established a new IT department and moved all IT operations to cloud-based. Prior to that Sergio held various IT leadership positions managing multi-national IT organizations, ERP implementations, business intelligence, infrastructure, cybersecurity, SOX compliance, cost optimization, etc. Sergio was based in The Netherlands for a 5-year rollout of a global ERP system for ABB. He earned a Computer Information Systems degree from Texas State University.

Stephane Bedat joined Friedman Industries as Director of Analytics in April of 2023 after serving as a Strategy Advisor to the company. Prior to that, Mr. Bedat was a Portfolio Manager at Millennium Management and Carlyle. Mr. Bedat began his career at Cargill in Geneva as a Commodity Analyst. Mr. Bedat earned his BA and MS from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland.

Trisha A Fleming joined Friedman Industries as Director of Customer Solutions following Friedman Industries’ acquisition of Plateplus, Inc. in April of 2022. She joined Plateplus, Inc in January of 2018 following their acquisition of Cargill Metals. In June of 2015 she joined Cargill Metals serving as the Customer Service Manager and later transitioning to the VP of Customer Service and Functional Development. Prior to Cargill Metals, she had 20 years of experience in manufacturing in various roles including Accounting, Production, Lean Manufacturing, Demand Planning and Customer Service. Ms. Fleming earned her MBA from Sam Houston University and her B.A. in Finance from Florida State University.