ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL, NEXT-GENERATION LEADER DANIEL DODERER LOVES BEING AN ECONOMIST AND WANTS TO OPEN DOORS TO DIVERSE VOICES
Above: Steel Market Update Managing Editor Michael Cowden, Steel Manufacturers Association President Philip K. Bell, Flack Global Metals Economist and Research Director Daniel Doderer, Modern Metals Publisher Michael D’Alexander and Nicola Coslett, CEO for CRU Events
October, 2023- ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL, NEXT-GENERATION LEADER DANIEL DODERER LOVES BEING AN ECONOMIST AND WANTS TO OPEN DOORS TO DIVERSE VOICES
The 2023 SMU NexGen Leadership Award, co-sponsored by the Steel Manufacturers Association and Modern Metals, was awarded to Daniel Doderer in late August.
Doderer has been at Flack Global Metals since October 2018. As an economist and the company’s research director, he conducts historical analysis and reports on the steel industry and the broader U.S. economy to develop the research the Flack Metal Bank team relies upon to make financial and risk management decisions for clients.
Manufacturers, steelmakers, fabricators, toll processors, service centers and trading companies may nominate employees under age 35 for this annual award. Nominees should have identified ways to improve processes or service delivery to customers; implemented change creatively; inspired and encouraged professional and personal development in one’s self and others; contributed to the success of an initiative that benefited those outside one’s own department; and/or helped attract other young people to the industry.
Daniel Doderer grew up in Colorado but his father grew up in Chicago so holidays and summers were spent in the Windy City. He came to his current career in a very roundabout manner. In high school, he says, “I wasn’t the most studious kid and I didn’t feel confident about pursuing college.”
During summers, he performed manual labor such as construction and installing fencing on farms in Montana. “When the recession happened, my father lost job his and we moved to Kansas City in 2009.” There, Doderer found work at a used tire recycling shop. “It was hot and humid and I was going around buying old tires from car lots. We filled up semi-trucks with tires that were reused for turf and other applications.”
Meanwhile, he wondered about his alternatives. “Within a few weeks, I realized that I wanted to work in an office. I had aspirations for creative minded work more than physical labor.”
EDUCATION
He originally came to Chicago to study architecture at City Colleges, inspired by the city’s enormous legacy of famous architects and city planners. In hindsight, he finds it interesting “how significant the role steel has on the architecture of cities,” says Doderer. But after two years, he moved back in with his family.
Doderer later returned to Chicago to attend DePaul University, where he took an economics class that “engaged an entirely different side of my brain. The application of economics can essentially go to everything in the world. Why are things the way they are? Economics can provide the answer. I loved having that framework. As soon as I was bitten by that bug, my curiosity rose to the next level.
“There is a great program at DePaul: the Master of Science in Economics and Policy Analysis,” Doderer says. “It’s a four-plus-one program so in senior year, you are taking graduate courses.” He completed his master’s degree in 2020.
Daniel Doderer works with a team of FGM executives to understand and react to economic variables that will impact steel pricing and influence risk mitigation strategies
While still a student, Doderer worked at bars and cafes, and in customer service. He was eager to get started on his profession when he saw an internship opportunity at Flack Global Metals. “They were looking for someone to help with a weekly report on economics and policy analysis, and it seemed a match made in heaven,” he recalls. About six months into the internship, FGM kept him on for an extension and then eventually hired him full time.
INSPIRATION
Doderer’s favorite professors at DePaul were Gabriella Bucci and Rafael Tenorio. “They helped me to find my footing, to think about the applied side of economics. One of the cornerstones for the profession is ceteris paribus [Latin for all things being equal]. You try to determine impact of one thing, and their unintended consequences. “As you start trying to apply it, Econ 101 is a total fallacy because the variables are endless,” Doderer says. “You have to accept that and realize you won’t have ‘the answer.’ The goal is to be the least wrong. The world cannot be broken down into simple formulas.” He fell in love with economics, saying it is “frustrating but endlessly exciting.”
Flack Global Metals recently expanded with the purchase of Fabral, which purchases metal for building structures.
TESTING THEORIES
Doderer likes to work hypotheses and test them endlessly. Every day, “there’s something new to put into the pot—so many different dynamics. This is a framework for a lifelong endeavor,” he says. “You learn to forget assumptions that were right in the past, which events are one-offs and which events are prescient.
“Say domestic steel production is restrained, leading to a price increase, so will the mills be more disciplined and stop chasing market share at any cost? Perhaps, but a simple maintenance issue may have caused that dip in output and not discipline. You might be wrong about where the floor or ceiling is for prices. We have to come to a theory and test it again and again.
“This is an awesome industry,” Doderer continues, despite having joined it during a period of massive upheaval. “I started in October 2018, five months after Section 232 was implemented, which upended the market dynamics. Then COVID breaks out. All the things I was told I never needed to worry about are the things we need to worry about.”
Flack Global Metals relies on in-house research and analysis to help clients manage their steel buys with less risk
CONTRIBUTIONS
Doderer’s colleagues praised his abilities when they nominated him for the SMU NexGen Leadership award.
“We are a fast-moving organization that is constantly juggling multiple priorities, many of which rely on Daniel’s input. Daniel always delivers,” CEO Jeremy Flack says.
“Daniel is directly responsible for much of what our entire organization relies on to be successful. In every interaction, he ensures all voices are heard—even those who disagree with his analysis— regardless of whether the discussion is with an intern or our CEO,” says Ben Bullock, senior vice president.
“Daniel brings analytical rigor and discipline to analyzing the steel markets as well as macroeconomic events,” says Flack Metal Bank Vice President Brad Clark. “In an ever increasingly interconnected world, where both the speed and quantity of information flows can be overwhelming, his thoughtful, incisive analysis creates tremendous value for both FGM and its customers.”
DANIEL DODERER, FLACK GLOBAL METALS
Doderer credits the diverse experiences of the FGM team with helping him grow. “We have so many people here with different professional experiences. They are thoughtful and curious and want to collaborate, to figure out what happened and what might happen. It is a fulfilling way to work.”
Many of these colleagues were metals traders and are focused on hedging and risk management strategy. This provides for “a very interesting give and take. They are looking at live pricing on the forward curve and determining where the value is on that curve for ourselves and for our customers, and what our exposure is and how to minimize risk. It’s a fascinating marriage of practical needs, the live markets and theoretical frameworks.”
Doderer says the team pushes him to be more practical while he pushes them to be more theoretical. “On both ends, we are sharper for it, more adept, more agile. It’s a balance of thinking of the here and now and what’s coming down the pike.”
LIFEBLOOD
Doderer admits he didn’t know there was a thriving metals industry in North America before joining FGM. “I was very surprised to see as much domestic production as there is, that it is the cleanest steel in the world, and that we are a driving force worldwide even though we don’t have the most output. I look out the office window and see steel as the lifeblood of civilized society. It helps us achieve things,” Doderer says.
Winning the SMU NexGen Leadership award makes Doderer feel grateful. He hopes that it will help him reach more people from whom he can gather new perspectives and opinions. That interaction, he says, “makes an economist live up to their full potential. The foundation is numbers and models but there is a lot of experience that cannot be replicated by looking at screens.”
GOALS
“I feel a lot of gratitude for the organization [FGM] that took a chance on me,” Doderer adds. That, alongside the NexGen Leadership program, compels Doderer “to give other people—who, like me, don’t have a traditional educational or work background—the tools, the assets and institutional knowledge I have been afforded and share that.”
From an economics perspective, he says, “it’s important to have your foundation, your forecasting, the mathematics, a strong understanding of the historical data. But the final part of it is diverse opinions and perspectives. Being part of NexGen will open doors for me and I hope to open doors as wide as I can for others.”
Doderer is married with one son and a child on the way. His wife, Elisa, is an art therapist and counselor in private practice. Doderer grew up rooting for the Chicago Bears and the Blackhawks but thanks his wife every day for helping him “see the light” and become a Buffalo Bills fan a decade ago (Elisa is from Buffalo).
