Craig Yarde

Biography

Craig Yarde, founder of Yarde Metals Inc., is the everyman CEO who delights audiences with the story of how he grew his company from the basement of his home into a $350 million dollar a year international corporation. He recalls his early years as a fledging entrepreneur, his open door policy and his search for a way to keep his company competitive in an extremely challenging industry. By placing people before profits in both his personal and professional life, Craig has been an inspiration to people everywhere demonstrating that "customer satisfaction is valuable, but associate loyalty is priceless." Craig stresses the importance of having FUN in the workplace to increase the bottom line and shows hilarious footage collected from the company's monthly communication videos to prove it. Craig's "Management from the Heart" style has won the admiration of his peers and attracted national media attention. Yarde Metals has been featured on Good Morning America, CNN and Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel. In 1999 Yarde Metals was named one of Industry Week's top 25 Growing Companies of the Year and nominated as Family Owned Business of the Year by UCONN School of Business. In 2004, Craig was chosen as Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year in the category of Consumer/Industrial Products & Services. Recently, Reliance Steel and Aluminum acquired Yarde Metals in August of 2006. Craig's daughter, Tracy Yarde Smith, President of Yarde Metals carries on the traditions and the philosophy of the Yarde family. With a desire to "change the world" – or at least the "world of work" – Craig has started a new company, YardeZone Inc. whose vision and purpose is to help companies across the country achieve success beyond their wildest dreams by adopting the Yarde Metals management style and the Yarde Metals open book philosophy.

Titles

Management from the Heart