Dr. Gordon H. Geiger
Academic Director, Engineering Managment Program
Professor
Advisor

At 18 years of age Dr. Geiger's first job out of high school was working at an iron foundry in northern Chicago that manufactured various goods such as hardware, toilet seats, bathtubs, aluminum and bronze castings. His job was to set up a sand test laboratory that tested the molding sand, working with the plant metallurgist by helping make various calculations, and filled in for the plant chemist's job while he was on vacation.

During the fall he went to on to college at the University of Wisconsin in Madison then transferred to Yale as a sophomore where he obtained his BE in metallurgy. During his summers while attending Yale, he worked as a technician for the Armor Research Foundation at their metals research laboratory. Upon graduating, he went straight into grad school at Northwestern where he obtained his MS in metallurgy and material science. He was offered a job at Allis Chalmers in Milwaukee where he stayed for a year and a half then decided to return to Northwestern where he obtained his Ph.D. degrees in metallurgy and material science. After doing so he returned to industry and started working for Jones & Laughlin Steel Co. in a steel research laboratory.

A year after working there he was offered a position as assistant professor in metallurgy in the college of engineering at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He accepted the position and worked there for four years where he obtained tenure after only two years and started writing a textbook. He transferred to University of Illinois in Chicago where a new program in metallurgy was being developed. Five years later, he received an offer from the University of Arizona in 1973 as department head of metallurgical engineering and was called to help make their existing program in metallurgy more extractive where he stayed till 1980. That year he returned to industry and started working for Inland Steel Co. as an internal consultant where he helped identify the numerous problems the company had at the time. This trouble shooting experience got him an offer as vice president at Chase Manhattan Bank to help them manage their lending to the steel industry throughout the world.

While working there he was assigned the task traveling to and evaluating steel companies that were seeking loans through Chase Manhattan. In 1983 he left Chase Manhattan and accepted a position at North Star Steel Co. as vice president and helped the company literally double in size, becoming executive vice president. From 1988 through 1993 he served as senior vice president for corperate research, total quality, and technology, of the parent company, Cargill.

In 1993 he left Cargill with a goal of starting his own company, Qualitech Steel. From 93' to 95' he worked with a former student of his on developing a business plan and raising money to build a plant that would manufacture high quality steel bars. At the time it was a market that was being served by high cost companies. Dr. Geiger realized that it could be done at a much lower cost. After two years he found an investment banker and was able have the manufacturing plants built by 98'. During 1999, Qualitech Steel had a lot of trouble with startup due to the Asian financial crisis setting in. As a result, the Asian steel companies were dumping steel products into the US at a price much lower than their manufacturing costs. He was left with no choice but to turn the business over to the banks to run even though they were putting out a much higher quality product.

That year he decided to retire, and returned to Arizona. He wrote to Tom Peterson, the dean of the College of Engineering at The University of Arizona, emphasizing how most engineers don't really spend most of their time doing direct engineering, but end up spending more of it on management type applications. He suggested that the university should offer a program that combines both of those aspects, and was given approval to begin developing the Engineering Management Program. By spring of 2002, the EMG Program was approved as a major in the University of Arizona's General Catalog. Initially, twenty-five students showed interest in the program. It has now grown to over two hundred students and now fully accredited by ABET.

Amongst the many of Dr. Geiger's accomplishments, he has been the only person in history to serve as president of The American Society for Metals (ASM), The Minerals, Metals, & Materials Society (TMS), and the Accreditation Board for Engineering & Technology (ABET), along with receiving numerous awards in the academic community and steel industry.

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