The steel industry rewards two things above almost everything else: long horizons and operational discipline. Capital cycles measured in decades, customer relationships measured in generations, and supply chains that span hemispheres do not respond well to short-term thinking. Across thirty years and four continents, that has been the consistent lesson of my career — and the foundation of every business I have led since.
A 25 YEAR CAREER AT BLUESCOPE TO GLOBAL CAREER IN STEEL
My career began in 1993 at BlueScope Steel, in finance, sales, marketing and operations roles. The early years at BlueScope gave me something that is hard to replicate later: a working understanding of how a global resources organisation actually runs end-to-end. Every part of the business — the engineering decisions, the commercial choices, the operational trade-offs — connects to every other part, and the people who do well in steel are the ones who can hold that whole picture in their heads.
That foundation took me into senior leadership roles across the Asia-Pacific. As President of BlueScope downstream operations for Sri Lanka and Thailand, I led regional steel-building operations through a period of significant market expansion. The work was as much about building local teams and customer trust as it was about commercial performance, and it set the pattern for everything that followed.
As President of Tata BlueScope Steel in India, where the brief was to spearhead a US$100 million start-up and establish manufacturing operations from a standing start. Building industrial capacity in India teaches you patience with regulatory process, respect for local supply chains, and a hard-edged appreciation for unit economics — none of which is optional.
Over twenty-five years I held senior executive roles across the company’s Australian and Southeast Asian businesses. As President for Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, I led a US$600 million regional business — the kind of operation where every market has its own dynamics, its own customer base, and its own competitive shape, and your job is to make it all hang together.
Following a major restructure of the Australian business, I was appointed General Manager and given the task of rebuilding and restructuring commercial revenue across the largest commercial division of the company — A$3.5 billion in revenue spanning domestic and international markets. The work focused on growth, integration, and long-term operational performance. Three things stand out in retrospect: the quality of the team we built, the depth of customer relationships that carried the business through cyclical pressure, and the discipline of treating every market as its own commercial problem rather than a homogenised whole.
BETWEEN BLUESCOPE AND TODAY – iTRADE STEEL AND EMPOWER STEEL
As Executive Chairman of iTrade Steel Pty Ltd, we are building a digital steel trading platform that does for global steel trading what the best digital marketplaces have done in other categories: replace layered intermediation with a direct interface between end-use customers, mills, logistics partners and financial counterparts. Pricing clarity, transactional control and end-to-end visibility — the things every steel buyer wishes the market gave them — are what the iTrade platform is designed to deliver at scale. This is steel trading rebuilt around modern infrastructure rather than around inherited convention.
As Chairman of Empower Steel Australia Pty Ltd, I work alongside the executive team on governance, long-term strategy and global positioning. Empower Steel produces high-performance painted and coated steel from its Thailand base, designed specifically to service the Australian and New Zealand markets and aligned with Australian, New Zealand and Thailand industrial standards. The proposition is simple in its ambition: a more refined, more consistent & better value alternative in a sector that has historically been dominated by BlueScope. Bringing that proposition into the Australian market means cross-border partnership work, technical alignment, and a long-run commitment to product quality — all of which are areas where I find the work most engaging.
WHAT THE NEXT DECADE LOOKS LIKE
If the first three decades of my career taught me the operational discipline of running steel businesses at scale, the next decade is about applying that discipline to two structural shifts. The first is the move toward digitally-integrated supply chains in steel trading — what iTrade Steel is built around. The second is the rebalancing of regional manufacturing capacity across the Asia-Pacific, where local industrial bases are being rebuilt for reasons that combine economics, resilience and geopolitics. Both shifts reward the same things steel has always rewarded: long horizons, operational discipline, and an unsentimental focus on the customer’s real problem.
I am grateful to have spent a career in an industry that does work that matters — the buildings, the infrastructure, the manufactured products that everyday economies depend on. The work is not glamorous, but it is consequential. Three decades in, I would not have chosen anything else.
To learn more about Jason Thomas Ellis and his experience across global steel leadership, manufacturing, and industrial operations, visit the About page.
Jason Thomas Ellis
Jason Thomas Ellis is Executive Chairman of iTrade Steel Pty Ltd and Chairman of Empower Steel Australia Pty Ltd. He has held senior leadership roles across BlueScope Steel, Tata BlueScope Steel, Commercial Metals Company, Butler and BHP Lysaght. He holds a BA (Political Science) from the University of Sydney and an MCom (Finance) from the University of Wollongong, and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.