J&L Specialty Steel Inc. has announced that Philippe Baudon has joined the company as Vice President – Commercial. Mr Baudon, 38, joins J&L after having served as Vice President – Sales for Usinor’s Sollac Mediterranee division in Milan, Italy. He began his career in steel in 1988 as a customer service manager in charge of the sales administration team for Francosteel Corporation in New York. Francosteel is Usinor’s US sales division. In 1990 he was promoted to sales manager, a position he held for four years until returning to France in 1994 to assume the position of technical support manager for Sollac Mardyck, Dunkirk. He was then promoted to sales manager for Sollac Packaging and relocated to Usinor’s Paris office where he was responsible for world-wide sales of beverage can steel. He was named vice president in 1999.