Above: Barry Schneider, President and COO of Steel Dynamics Inc., and Nicola Coslett, CEO Communities, CRU, present the award to Kimberlie Henry. Photo: Braden Cox with Vertical Productions, LLC
October, 2025- The 2025 winner of the SMU NexGen Leadership Award is Kimberlie Henry, head of inside sales and office manager at Ace Steel Supply in Houston.
Before joining the steel distribution company in 2022, Henry began working at 19 for a company that designs automated security gate systems for residential and commercial properties. It was a small company and she worked there part time. She left after about a year due to the long commute but was later asked to return to a full-time position. For two years, says Henry, “I learned as much as possible but there was limited room for growth due to the size of company.” She applied to Ace from an advertisement on Indeed.
Bruce Margolin, COO and executive vice president for Ace Steel Supply, nominated Henry for the leadership award. Among the reasons he cites is Henry’s role in implementing the Decision Wise 360-degree employee review system, which he says fosters a culture of accountability, transparency and professional growth.
EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEES
“A 360-degree employee approach involves collecting input from all directions: supervisors, peers, subordinates and even customers to provide a holistic view of an employee’s performance, skills, behavior and effectiveness,” Margolin explained in his nomination letter.
Typically, says Henry, workplace reviews “have negative connotations. This technique allows a different approach, a more well-rounded understanding, using external sources, like customers and peers,” not just the one-person perspective of one’s boss.
Decision Wise “allows us to see gaps in perception, and see it as less of a biased view. It encourages honest feedback,” Henry says. It is also more egalitarian in that the employee is involved in the process of formulating action plans based on their review. “You are analyzing it together and setting obtainable goals that the employees agree with. This has strengthened the review process and the team culture,” she says.
Henry’s next project was to research and select a new employee training platform. “It was evident that employees hated having to complete training. It was like trying to force feed carrots to a toddler,” says the mother of an 8-year-old girl named Ellie. “Who can blame them? The structure was boring and didn’t take into account how our brains are wired to perform. So how do you structure this to gain adherents?” She looked into platforms emphasizing gamification, “which helps people to stay focused. It taps into our brain’s reward process. There is a sense of achievement to get to the next level, instead of watching a one-hour video where your eyes glaze over.”
Henry talks with attendees at the SMU Steel Summit. Photo, Braden Cox with Vertical Productions, LLC.
Litmos, the platform chosen for Ace Steel Supply, “has all the tools you need for measuring achievement and rewarding it with points, and badges with slogans such as ‘you’re on a roll’ or ‘you’re acing it.’ You can see your teammates climb the leader board,” which is especially attractive among sales staff, who “are very competitive,” Henry says. The system is still new and being rolled out well into 2026, “but already you see the benefits we are getting from it.”
INSIDE SALES
Margolin’s nomination letter includes the fact that Henry “built the inside sales department— recruiting, training, structuring and managing an expanding team—from the ground up.”
According to Henry, “there was no inside sales team. We had three outside salespeople. I started as a receptionist. Within eight months, I took over human resources, accounts receivable and office management.” The previous owner’s wife had performed all those duties, she says.
“A bit later, I took over production to manage outside processors.” For all that, “it was just me,” she says. By October 2024, however, Henry had hired and trained three people and a replacement for the HR and AR responsibilities. In September, “we welcomed our sixth inside sales team member.”
There was an urgent need to grow this team, according to Henry. She says one of the outside sales people, Austin Reynolds (2022 SMU NexGen Leadership Award winner), became her mentor in terms of learning both sales and production.
She says Reynolds “was going out finding customers, taking orders, entering them into the system and placing orders with the processing department—all by himself. And he had a rough time keeping up.”
Outside salesman and former SMU NexGen Leadership Award winner Austin Reynolds, Henry and Bruce Margolin, COO. Photo: Kobie Abram
Now, the outside sales team is freed up to pursue new business. “The sales people are the hunters, and inside sales takes care of everything after that. It gives the business a better opportunity for growth and allows each person to focus on what they are best at. Process improvement and accuracy grows with an inside sales team. Not only one person solves a problem. You have a support system and you bring the decisions and resolutions closer to the customer,” Henry says.
TRACKING ORDERS
To better equip the inside sales department to manage the continually increasing workload, Henry implemented a visual transactional T-card system displaying the shared status of all open orders to better control the on-time delivery of customer orders. “Her work has had a measurable impact on our entire business. When she takes on an assignment, she owns it and always completes the initiative,” Margolin wrote in his nomination letter.
“A T-card system is essentially a calendar for your orders,” explains Henry. “When I formed the inside sales team, we were experiencing so much growth, and it was evident we needed stronger processes for tracking and expediting orders.”
All orders are submitted with physical paper. “That is challenging. The more orders you have, the higher the chances you misplace paperwork. We had trouble tracking paperwork and figuring out order status, and some paperwork contained incorrect information.”
The new order submission process works like a tickler file. “Files are ordered by day of the month.” In addition, a calendar card board in the office features slots for each day. “If I have an order due on the 1st, it has the customer name, purchase order and is marked as ready to ship immediately.” If an order is due later, “that’s when paperwork risks getting lost.”
The team assembled at Ace Steel Supply’s plant in Houston. Photo: Kobie Abram.
PLANNING
As Ace Steel Supply transitions from its legacy ERP system to a new platform, “we are creating a digital version of the T-card system within that,” Henry says. The point was to focus on Ace’s ability to deliver on time. “That was a driving factor: We must do what we say we’re going to do. We track on time and late sales orders. We were able to improve on-time deliveries and expedite processes. That is a huge improvement.”
Henry believes the ERP system will be a game changer. “It will take us to the digital age. We will be able to use technology to facilitate communication, whereas we have been using paper. We will be able to work from anywhere. Imagine what we can do with our tasks taking half the time? I am thrilled for it.”
VOICES CARRY
Henry sits on Ace Steel’s EOS Leadership Team. (EOS = Entrepreneurial Operating System.) The team meets weekly for 90 minutes to focus on the business, to gain clarity, focus and control over the organization with a concentration on vision, people, data, issues, process and traction, Margolin said in his letter.
Henry’s “viewpoint and contributions to these sessions are remarkable. She brings tough issues to the floor and rallies the team to make tough decisions. She brings a level of resourcefulness and real-world problem-solving that is often unmatched.
“From my perspective,” Margolin wrote, “what truly sets [Henry] apart is her presence— the way she communicates. It’s not just about being articulate; it’s about knowing when to speak, exactly what to say and how to say it. She doesn’t waste words. She cuts through the noise with clarity and confidence.
“It’s the kind of communication that makes people listen, reflect and, most importantly, grow. Being the sole female on the Leadership Team, she more than holds her own,” Margolin wrote.
These meetings “pushed me to build confidence in speaking up, not only as the only woman, but as the youngest and least experienced” person there, says Henry, who credits Margolin with being her mentor, alongside Reynolds.
During meetings, she says, “Bruce would have me repeat something if it seemed like no one heard me the first time. So over time, I felt comfortable pointing out inefficiencies and questioning processes that may have been dated. I had to look at things that were problematic but I just did it, and advocated for change until I saw the results I thought were needed. I want to focus on what the company needs to succeed,” Henry explains.
“I gathered opinions, restated them and then had a plan for execution. You cannot just come in with problems, but with solutions. I don’t take excuses; I am direct. When it comes to solving problems, the person who has the best idea should come forward. I want people to step up because I may not be the best to articulate and execute a solution.
“If a process depends on only one person to make a decision, that’s not a good process,” she says. “We have to be able to execute and show others how to do that, too.”
Ace Steel Supply COO and mentor Bruce Margolin congratulates Kimberlie Henry following her win. Margolin nominated Henry for the annual prize. Photo: Braden Cox with Vertical Productions, LLC
PASSING IT ON
Regarding the recognition from SMU leadership program, Henry says, “I am excited to have the opportunity to represent the next generation of leaders in the industry as a woman and, generally, to inspire people to speak up, share their opinions, walk into the warehouse with confidence and never feel like you are at a disadvantage.
“Taking away the fear of what might happen opens space for more people to join the industry. And particularly for those who want to teach, who want to mentor,” she advises, “don’t hold on to the knowledge. Instead, invest in people who are eager to learn,” she says. “I have been fortunate to have mentors. If knowledge is shared, opportunities are given and effort is matched, that will help the industry at large.”
HOME LIFE
Henry was born and raised in Texas by her father, “who instilled the value of hard work and doing your best.” Of her daughter Ellie, Henry says the child “is a caring person and unapologetically herself in the best way. She makes sure her classmates are on task and listening. We may have a future teacher on our hands.
“I recently got married to Josh, who is a fireman for East Montgomery County. He was raised in a family of firefighters and is carrying on the tradition. I started working right after high school. I never had a situation where the lack of college has held me back. My life experience adds value.”
