Overview
Hemrich Tanner was working in a Swiss law office in the summer of 1954 when he received a call from Irving Rossi, one of the pioneers who developed the first marketable continuous casting process. Rossi asked Tanner to join him as general manager in a new venture to prove that the process had incredible commercial potential.At lunch, Rossi, "the born salesman, kept right on with his passionate discourse about the sort of aggressive enterprise Concast would become. The force of his personality impressed me so much that I turned to him at the end...and said, `O.K., let's give it a fry.' He hired me on the spot with a handshake, which to this day remained the sole basis of my employment contract with Concast. ..."
This was the beginning of a lifetime achievement that introduced the concept of minimills, pools for machine builders and licensees, and the development of multi-strand casting, to the steel industry and the world. Rossi and Tanner built a company that became so dominate in the steel industry that European and American governments ordered it dissolved.
When Concast controlled more than 60 percent of the world market it was forced to reorganize because the antitrust authorities in Washington and in the European Common Market feared the development of a monopolistic situation. H. Tanner's acclaimed personal account of the rise and eventual dismemberment of Concast AG, a balance of technical details, recollections and anecdotes, tell the fascinating story of the revolutionary process known as continuous casting and its impact on steel, the world's most important material.
The author was born in 1925 in eastern Switzerland. After studying law in Switzerland, Paris, and the Hague, he earned his doctor's degree in law at the University of Berne, passed the bar examination, and briefly practiced law in New York and in eastern Switzerland.
Besides acting as president of Concast AG, Dr. Tanner engaged as a reserve officer in Swiss military activities where he reached the rank of Brigadier General. He was also active as a member ( and often chairman) on Boards of internationally oriented corporations. Now retired, he mainly administers a benevolent foundation, which he created at the occasion of his 70th birthday.