TEAMMATE SPOTLIGHT

Plant Metallurgist, Nucor-Yamato

Home Country: Nigeria

Age: 26

Work Tenure: 6 months

BLUEPRINT: How did your professional journey lead you to Arkansas?

DAMILOLA BALOGUN: I have been in the United States for four years. I went to school at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri to obtain my doctorate in Metallurgy.

I’ve always wanted to work in a very big steel mill. Nucor is the largest steel manufacturer in the United States and our division, Nucor-Yamato Steel, is the largest manufacturer of beams in the United States.

BP: What do you like best about working at Nucor?

DB: Nucor is a company that really takes care of teammates. We are not even called employees, we are called teammates, we are called family. I have seen Nucor go out of their way to take care of their teammates. That’s why teammates typically always give their all to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Another very good thing about Nucor is that there is no hierarchy. What I’m trying to say is, you can start from entry level and end up as the CEO.

BP: What have you found to be important skills aside from your technical skills and how have you developed those?

DB: One of our challenges as a steel company is to be the world’s safest. To do that, we are held accountable in how we perform our work. To do that you need excellent communication skills.

In the six months since I joined Nucor, I have improved my communication skills thanks to training that involved going out into the plant to ask my teammates questions and get to know them on a deeper level.