FOUNDATION
Willy Korf’s daughter, Astrid, founded the Willy Korf Foundation in 2000. The Foundation supports young, innovative academics in the steel industry across the world. Astrid and her family present the annual Willy Korf Award for Young Excellence, alongside the prestigious Willy Korf / Ken Iverson Award, at the internationally acclaimed Steel Success Strategies Conference, traditionally held in New York City. Among other priorities, the Foundation is planning to focus increasingly on sustainability.
ASTRID KORF-WOLMAN
BOARD CHAIR
Astrid Korf-Wolman grew up in Baden-Baden, Germany. She studied Architecture at the Technical University of Berlin and graduated with a degree in Engineering. After her father’s death in 1990, she moved to London and took over responsibility for the family business, Korf Steel. At the same time, she also worked for IMG, managing their German golf course projects. She took a degree in Graphology at the British Academy of Graphology in London in 2003, and now works as a consultant, analysing handwriting for recruitment purposes.
After the sale of KORF STEEL in 2000, she set up the Willy Korf Foundation. Astrid is married and has two children, both of whom are currently involved in the work of the Foundation.
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Contact: a.korf@korfsteel.com
MAXIMILIAN WOLMAN
DIRECTOR
Maximilian Wolman sits on the board of the Willy Korf Foundation where he focuses on the exploration of new steelmaking technologies and leads the selection process for the Willy Korf Award for Young Excellence. He currently resides in London where he works as an executive at the Ardagh Group. Previously, Max worked in industrials-focused M&A at Bank of America and in Ardagh's Metal Beverage business. Max graduated from the Huntsman Program of the University of Pennsylvania where he received a BSc in Economics from the Wharton School and a dual-major BA in International Studies and Italian Studies.
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Contact: mw@korfsteel.com
Prof. DIETER SENK
DIRECTOR
Dieter Senk sits on the board of the Willy Korf Foundation. He used his first industrial position at the Thyssen Steel Company to apply for the doctoral degree at TU Clausthal by investigation of cooling effects on the improvement of steel billet centre quality. The solidification of continuously cast steel became his focus of research and technological development. For 15 years he worked on the development of direct strip casting processes like twin roll casters and planar flow methods. The interaction of material properties at high temperatures with continuous casting processes is topic of numerous publications. In 2001, after nearly 2 decades in steel industry, he was appointed as professor for the Chair of Iron and Steel Metallurgy at the Department of Ferrous Metallurgy of RWTH Aachen University where he expanded his research on iron ore reduction processes and the development of shaft furnaces.
Dr MIKE WALSH
DIRECTOR
Dr Mike Walsh has over 25 years’ experience in the steel and special metals industry. He was most recently Director at Hatch Beddows (now Hatch Associates) for 15 years where he worked globally in the steel and special metals sector focused on techno-economic strategy, feasibility studies, technology selection, due diligence and market assignments throughout the value chain and in all sectors. Previous to Hatch he worked seven years with British Steel and UK Steel in a range of technical and commercial positions. He has a DPhil in Physics from Oxford University and a diploma in Corporate Finance from London Business School. He is currently an independent consultant and project developer in the steel and special metals sectors with a focus on the UK.
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Contact: m.walsh@korfsteel.com
