Kerstin Maria Rippel could obviously hardly wait for her job. Months before she became the new Managing Director of the German Steel Federation, she got in her car and drove to steel production sites all over Germany. „You can read a lot, talk a lot, but I wanted to experience, see and smell the industry,“ says Rippel. What she noticed early on was that the local people identify strongly with their work and are incredibly proud of the steel they produce there.