Man of steel (aluminum, brass too).

Steel fabrication. Cutting aluminum sheet to size. Brass pipes to length.

Most of the work that Reliance Steel & Aluminum Inc. performs is "not glamorous," allows David Hannah, 44, president of the $561.3 million (1995 sales) company. "But it is a solid industry, and the people in it are great."

In a nutshell, Reliance buys steel and non-ferrous metals from mills and cuts it to size for customers. Reliance does not cast or roll any metal, nor will it bend it.

It will only cut metal to order, for more than 30,000 accounts nationwide, concentrated in the Rocky Mountain states, California, the Southwest and Texas. There are 1,110 employees at 26 distribution centers, each servicing accounts usually within a 100-mile radius.

"Steel weighs a lot," says Hannah. "You can't ship it far without running into prohibitive costs."

The growth strategy, says Hannah, includes buying other metals distributors and moving into new geographic areas.

Hannah, a CPA by training and profession, has been tapped by the publicly held Reliance to carry the big torch, once Chairman Joe Crider, 77, and Chief Executive, William Gimbel, 66, step aside. An orderly transition - no wheeling and dealing or dramatic power-plays - is planned, and years in advance.

Indeed, at a 1994 meeting with Wall Street types in New York, Crider said Hannah was "extremely qualified to lead Reliance into the next two decades."

The careful Hannah appears perfectly suited for the job and the steady-as-it-goes environment.

"I think I'm viewed as a level-headed person that all people can bounce ideas off of," says Hannah. "I like listening to people. I like to participate in the development of an answer or solution to a problem."

As a crow flies, Hannah's headquarters, on 25th Street in an industrial district, is not far from downtown Los Angeles or even Hollywood. But it might as well be in Cleveland, or on another planet. On all sides are steelyards, paper recycling plants and rag mills. Men with forklifts scurry in all directions, amid shouting and honking. The air is dusty with fibers.

The Reliance Steel building itself is nice enough inside, but a plain brown stucco on the outside, with inexpensive-looking plastic lettering that says "Reliance Steel."

The headquarters operation is small, since the corporate structure is decentralized, with managers of steel and metal distribution centers scattered across the country having much operational autonomy. That suits Hannah fine.

"They know their markets better than we do," he says. "It doesn't make sense for us to promulgate rules or market plans from corporate headquarters."

Besides, in his 15 years of training-in-residence with Reliance, Hannah has run one of the distribution centers, and he says that gave him a valuable perspective.

"It made me realize that we can sit here in corporate and issue orders to increase sales, cut costs and increase margins, but it doesn't happen all that easily," he says.

Besides, the regional managers, as with most of upper management, receive bonuses and stock options tied to corporate or divisional profits, Management already has a financial incentive to perform, relates Hannah.

Reliance is not a company that courts change - for example, its accounting firm for more than 40 years has been Ernst & Young LLP (or the predecessor firms Ernst & Whinney or Ernst & Ernst).

Indeed, it was from Ernst & Whinney that Reliance recruited young Hannah, then 28.

"We had been advising Reliance that they were growing and needed professional financial people aboard," says Hannah, "and finally Bill Gimbel (then chairman) said, 'Why don't we just hire you?' I actually liked public accounting, and was happy at Ernst, but the more we talked, the more I liked the idea of moving to Reliance."

Steadiness is a virtue, at least if Reliance Steel's financials are an indication.

For the last five years in a row (which include a king-sized recession in California, a market which accounts for about one-half of sales), Reliance Steel has been able to report increased net income, sales and earnings per share.

"Our goal is annual return on equity of 15 percent a year," says Hannah. "We achieved that in 1995, and we look like we are on target in 1996."

One of the oddities of Reliance Steel is that it went public, in late 1994 - after 40 years of corporate life.

"The decision was made that we wanted to keep growing, including by acquisition, but we didn't want to build debt up," explains Hannah.

His tone when using the word "debt" speaks volumes. Debt is something that has to be repaid, in Hannah's lexicon, not just junk bonds that can be refinanced or exchanged for stock in a crisis, or offloaded in some other financial fast dance.

Detroit-born Hannah moved with family from Motor City ("where we were up to our armpits in snow") to Indio in the California desert in 1962, when he was 11 years old.

Hannah, gratefully grabbing onto a scholarship, attended USC, where he took a degree in business with an emphasis on accounting. "If I didn't get that scholarship, I think I was headed to College of the Desert," he recalls. To this day, Hannah remains active in USC alumni activities.

He joined the then-named Ernst & Ernst after graduating. That job, and his Reliance positions, are his work history.

For Hannah, a typical workday starts at 7 a.m., after dropping his son off at school and commuting in from La Canada. He reads the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal daily, as well as daily and weekly industry trade publications. He's usually on the trail home around 7 p.m., unless family obligations call for earlier departure.

"I really don't have much time for other activities," says Hannah, when asked about hobbies or pastimes. "I like to be with my family. I read on airplanes, which is about the only chance I get. Mostly, I work."

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David Hannah

Age: 44 Native of: Detroit Resident of: La Canada Education: Bachelor of Science, USC Spouse: Brady