The JD Steel Company “Employee Stock Ownership Plan” (ESOP) began as a vision back in the early 1990’s when Ray Zeek, JD Steel’s owner and CEO at the time, came to the realization that if he didn’t establish a good retirement plan for the numerous, long time employees who worked for JD Steel, the chances were high that many of them would end their career without having the satisfactory savings to retire comfortably.
After a considerable amount of research into various retirement plans, Ray decided to go with a program that would ultimately make owners out of his employees. He shared his vision with an old friend and then JD Steel Company’s President, Rich Bennett and together they began to bring his vision to life. In the spring of 1995, Ray’s vision became a reality and the JD Steel Company “Employee Stock Ownership Plan” was up and running.
In the year 2008 and as planned, JD Steel Company became 100% employee owned and has continued to make contributions into the ESOP since its inception. The ESOP stock value has also increased by 188%, which gives each and every JD Steel employee an added incentive to work hard and to make wise owner type decisions. This not only benefits our current JD Steel employees, it also ensures that JD Steel and the ESOP will continue to thrive and grow for all of the future generations of JD Steel employees.