PERSON: John Purcell

ohn Purcell graduated from Michigan State University in 1989 with a B.A. degree in Business. He began his career in steel in 1990 in the Bethlehem Steel Sales Training Program and was a Sales Representative for Bethlehem Steel in the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Milwaukee district offices from 1991 to 1994. Since leaving Bethlehem Steel in 1994, John has worked in the metal service center industry, 13 of those years with Leeco Steel. In 2005, John began to head up the wind energy effort for Leeco Steel. Since that time, this industry segment has grown into a major portion of Leeco’s annual business.
John now serves as Vice President for Leeco’s Energy Division and Leeco Steel is now widely recognized as a leading steel supplier to the North American wind tower industry. Leeco has provided steel to most existing wind tower factories in the US, Canada and Mexico and has also been a provider of steel plates for wind tower production in Asia and Europe as well.
Through John’s leadership, Leeco joined the American Wind Energy Association in 2006 and has been an active Business Member of AWEA since joining. For the past 9 years, John has participated in the lobbying efforts in Washington D.C. on behalf of Leeco Steel and AWEA.
John currently chairs the Ethics Committee, is a member of the Policy Committee for AWEA and has been an active participant on several other committees within AWEA. John is currently serving in his 4th year on AWEA’s Board of Directors.