Meet Javier Hernandez-Gallegos, new GM at Nyrstar Zinc Plant | ClarksvilleNow.com - Clarksville Now

Zinc, chemistry and management are all within the household for Javier Hernandez-Gallegos. His mother and father have been each chemists, and in 1972 his father helped begin a zinc plant in Torreón, Mexico, the place he grew to become the superintendent. And now, 50 years later, Hernandez-Gallegos has been named normal supervisor at Nyrstar Zinc Plant in Clarksville.
Hernandez-Gallegos, who started his new position in October, is a chemical engineer with 33-plus years of expertise in chemical and metallurgical industries. Has served in government administration positions for the final 15 years.
A few of his earliest reminiscences revolve round that zinc plant in Mexico.
“I recall watching my father going out within the morning and returning residence along with his boots and exhausting hat,” Hernandez-Gallegos stated. “Then in highschool he acquired us to work on the smelter lab, as helpers. I realized to make chemical evaluation there by titration first after which different instrumental strategies. So once I acquired to decide on my school research, I actually didn't suppose a lot what I wished.”
He went straight into the sciences and earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico and an MBA in Administration from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México.
He beforehand served as vice chairman of Operations in Metals and Chemical substances at Penoles Industries in Torreón Space, Mexico.
Hernandez-Gallegos is transferring to Clarksville along with his spouse, Lucy. They've three grownup youngsters.
He stated that thus far he’s discovered Clarksville to be a captivating metropolis stuffed with Southern hospitality, and he’s been excited to see nature throughout.
“I come from a desert land, and there we admire very a lot the great thing about the desert. However coming right here has been very nice, seeing all this nature, woods and rivers round which we don’t have the place I lived. I'm additionally very impressed by the respect native folks have for the setting. My workplace right here is surrounded by timber, and I see deer and turkeys and squirrels every single day.”
As soon as he’s settled in, one of many first issues he’ll be on the lookout for in is down time might be a spot to trip his bike and run. He started operating throughout highschool and not too long ago superior from half-marathons to marathons, after which triathlons, doing three of these in 2019, after which a 200-mile trek throughout the western Sierra in Mexico in 2020.
“I'm ready for my bicycle to come back to be taught of some routes round city,” he stated.
Like most industries, Nyrstar faces each native and international challenges, he stated. “Fortuitously, zinc smelting is a enterprise that's intimately tied to the automotive and building industries, and much more luckily, Tennessee has the purest zinc mineral on this planet, that we obtain from our mines situated close to Gordonsville and Strawberry Plains.”
Their greatest present problem is the results of what has been considered one of their best strengths: Their steady, well-trained work pressure that has been with them nearly from the start.
“We face a technology change proper now, and the those that began this plant 43 years in the past are coming to retire. So we have to safe information retention and be very environment friendly in growing the abilities within the new hires so to maintain the enterprise operating and steady,” he stated.
They're responding with ongoing efforts to make sure Nyrstar continues to be an awesome place to work. “We're working exhausting in sustaining a secure office and making Nyrstar the employment of alternative for our younger candidates,” Hernandez-Gallegos stated.
“I not solely hope, however I'm sure that the superb and really proficient staff of staff in Nyrstar will overcome these challenges and preserve ‘The Zinc Plant’ a sustainable supply of employment and a notable participant in Clarksville’s economic system for generations to come back.”
Nyrstar, which has been working in Clarksville for 43 years, is a proud sister group to Puma Vitality, each owned by Trafigura. Nyrstar now employs practically 270 folks and plans so as to add 30 extra positions by the top of September 2022.
The corporate affords many advantages together with paid time without work, alternatives for development, aggressive wages with alternative for a bonus, fast participation and fast 100% vesting in an organization 401(ok) with Secure Harbor and contribution matching, a wonderful security boot program, prescription security eyewear, extraordinarily aggressive employer share towards medical, dental and imaginative and prescient insurance coverage premiums, uniforms offered and laundered and extra.
Medical plan choices for workers price as little as $25 per 30 days, with Nyrstar depositing as much as $1,200 in your Well being Spending Account (HSA).
For extra, go to the Nyrstar website.
Nyrstar is an built-in mining and metals enterprise with market main positions in zinc and lead, and rising positions in different base and treasured metals; Nyrstar has mining, smelting, and different operations situated in Europe, Australia, and North America.

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