Fresh Perspective

Neil Neuberger

Trader at Intrametco

Growing up in Wyoming allowed Neil Neuberger to pursue plenty of job opportunities in the energy and petroleum industries.

“Wyoming, a lot of people don’t know, is an energy state,” says Neuberger, who received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Wyoming in 2012 at the start of an oil boom.

“Pretty much anybody with an energy or engineering-related degree could make a lot more money in the petroleum field,” he says. “I moved into petroleum like all my friends did. I picked up with a company called Baker Hughes and moved to West Texas and worked on their electrical submersible pumping line.”

After a few years of working in the petroleum industry, Neuberger says he tired of moving to various oil-and-gas towns for work and decided to pursue an MBA and a master’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Wyoming and got a job in project management for Chicago-based CME Group.

Around that time, Neuberger and his girlfriend were invited to her neighbor’s house for a board game night. That neighbor happened to own Intrametco, a scrap trading firm based in Noblesville, Indiana.

“I told him my backstory and, at one point in the game toward the end of the night, he said, ‘Neil, we’re looking for a trader, and you’ve got the right vibe,’” Neuberger says. “I thought that was a joke. But a few months later, Intrametco called me and said, ‘Are you ever going to take that interview?’"

Neuberger joined Intrametco in 2018, and in the following interview, he shares more about how he applied lessons from his time in the petroleum industry to his career in the scrap industry.

"It really helps not to burn bridges and not to have too much ego."

Recycling Today (RT): When you joined Intrametco, did you think you'd stay in the scrap industry?

Neil Neuberger (NN): When I took the job, I knew it was a small company. I would say the average tenure of the traders is probably over 15 years here. They don’t hire very often, and [with the owner] having a connection to my girlfriend (now wife), I knew it could cause a strain if I did not seriously consider the job. I told myself regardless of how much I liked or disliked the job going in, I would give it five solid years before I made any decisions. Not knowing an industry, it [can] take two to three years to even catch up to speed. My background is in chemical engineering; it probably took me two years in petroleum before I knew what was going on.

I started my career … at the tail end of a down market. There was an entire year of trade wars, which was very rough on the industry. Then the market built back up, and there was COVID and everything else, so, it was definitely a rocky path to start a career in metals.

RT: What are some lessons you learned in the petroleum industry that applied to the scrap industry?

NN: The first one is the petroleum industry is a straight boom-and-bust industry; times are good or times are bad. Everybody gets hired like crazy ... but the problem is, when things turn, everybody gets laid off.

In the scrap world, it doesn’t seem like that. Not everybody gets laid off in a down cycle, but since it’s commodities … if you’re going to run a successful business, you need to understand it’s not always going to be good times. There will be bad times. You just have to know not to be a pig when times are good and buckle down when they’re bad.

The second thing I would say is very applicable in the scrap industry is … there’s a lot of jumping from competition to other companies. … Somebody who could have been your competition could be your boss or vice versa, they could now be my customer. It really helps not to burn bridges and not to have too much ego.