Empowering women in the metal industry

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn how ATAS’ Leanne Slattery is working towards a more inclusive industry. 

Recently, while at the 2024 METALCON show, Karen Edwards of The Coffee Shops™ got to sit down with Leanne Slattery, a sales support manager at ATAS International, to discusst the current state of the metal industry. Leanne has worked at ATAS for over a decade now and with that experience she has gained a great deal of exposure and understanding of the industry. She shared, “ATAS International is a company that's over 60 years old now. We are a manufacturer of metal roofing, metal wall cladding, ceilings, soffits, basically you name it when it comes to metal!” 

 Not only is she an expert in the field, Leanne has also worked to give back to the industry through the Metal Construction Association (MCA). ATAS has a long history with the MCA, just recently it was announced that five projects that used ATAS products were selected as winners of MCA’s 2024 Design Awards. And the year prior to that, Leanne was awarded MCA’s prestigious Patrick R. Bush Service Award for her industry knowledge and work with MCA. She emphasized the value of putting work into associations, saying, “From my perspective the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. So if you can volunteer for a committee um and get involved that way, that's going to pay for itself many times over.”  

In her work with the MCA, Leanne has placed a special emphasis on getting more women involved in the association and the larger industry. Leanne explained some of their initiatives, “One thing that we did recently is forming a program... It's going to be called Women in Metal Construction and operates under the MCA membership.”  

The goal of this program is to design networking, educational and other opportunities that specifically serve the interests of women in the industry. An example of the type of programming they hope to include is the MCA Metal and Mimosas event that happened at this year’s METALCON. Leanne shared a bit about the event, “This was our second year with Metal and Mimosas. Last year we had about 50 women sign up, this year 80 women signed up and we're shooting for over a hundred next year!”  

Watch the full interview to learn more about Leanne and her work with both ATAS and MCA!